Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Martin Moravek, Minimalist Phone: We're developing an app called Minimalist Phone that helps people spend less time on their phones. It's aimed at anyone who wants to do a digital detox or suffers from phone addiction. How does it work?
Minimalist Phone supports in several ways:
- No icons on the home screen: Minimalist Phone replaces the home screen and removes all icons. Icons encourage mindless app opening because the brain quickly learns that a certain symbol, such as a pink icon, conceals appealing images and stimulating content. As a result, we often open apps on autopilot, without really thinking about it.
- In-app time reminder: Before opening a social media app or game, you have to choose how much time you want to spend in it. Instead of setting daily limits, you choose the time for each individual session. You'll be notified when the selected time has elapsed. If you want to stay in the app longer, you can extend the time after taking a short break.
- Notification filter: Minimalist Phone offers a notification filter that lets you hide notifications from selected apps. Often, these notifications only serve to lure you back into the app, causing you to spend more time aimlessly scrolling. For example, a notification like "Hey, your friend XY just liked a picture, check it out" doesn't provide any real value.
Additionally, with Minimalist Phone, you can block apps for several hours or days for a longer digital detox. Or you can use selected apps in black and white, which makes them appear significantly less interesting.
Changed user interface instead of blocker
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Martin Moravek: With this combination of features, that's actually not possible. While there are blocker apps that simply block other apps, we address the root cause directly and change the user interface that triggers unwanted behavior. Minimalist Phone has achieved over four million downloads to date, demonstrating that this approach is not only unique but also well-received.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Martin Moravek: I'm a software developer and used to work as a freelancer for various startups. In 2020, many companies wanted to save money due to the uncertainty caused by COVID, and I had no work for a few weeks. The problem quickly became apparent: I was spending more and more time on my phone. Suddenly, I was on Instagram for half an hour or even longer without really remembering why I had opened the app in the first place. It was very frustrating.
Since I'm interested in psychology in addition to user interfaces and enjoy reading studies and articles on the subject, I looked for the cause. The first thing I noticed were the icons. They tempted me to open apps mindlessly.
Within four weeks, I had developed an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) of the app – at that time just the iconless user interface, without the many features that Minimalist Phone offers today.
For the first two years, I worked on the app in my free time. Today, there's a team of six, and the entire project is bootstrapped.
Bureaucratic hurdles when setting up a company
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Martin Moravek: The biggest challenges for us so far have been the bureaucratic hurdles involved in founding a company in Germany. I have to say that the founding process here is often very slow and frustrating. You should think twice before founding a company in Germany, as the time you could save during the founding process could be better spent elsewhere—for example, in product development.
Additionally, the biggest challenge currently is scaling from a one-man show to a larger team. You have to think carefully about how to divide tasks and maintain product quality.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Martin Moravek: In a year we would like to offer Minimalist Phone for iOS as well. Currently the app is only available for Android, but we are working hard to make it available to iPhone users as well.
In five years, we envision Minimalist Phone as the familiar and clear choice for anyone who wants to spend less time on their phone. Our goal is to raise awareness of mindful smartphone use worldwide and help millions of people make positive changes to their smartphone usage.
Sustainable growth instead of short-term hype
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Martin Moravek: I've lived in Munich for twelve years and find it a great city to live in. We work at the Base coworking space, which provides us with many valuable contacts. When we attend startup events, however, they usually take place outside of Munich. For example, we were at the Slushconference in Helsinki, which was a really great experience.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Martin Moravek: We see ourselves more as a hidden champion. Although we've already achieved over four million downloads with Minimalist Phone, we're not yet firmly established in the broader public consciousness. Our focus is on continuously developing an excellent product behind the scenes that helps people spend less time on their phones. We believe in sustainable growth and long-term value creation rather than short-term hype.
