Constant hassle with logbooks! This should now be over! The Munich-based startup Hipsquare helps you properly record your journeys and supports companies with fleet management. The founders bring a wealth of experience to the table and focus primarily on automation. We wanted to know more, so we asked them our seven questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your product!
We are HipSquareWe offer apps that help companies and individuals understand movement. Sound abstract? We have two concrete examples.
Our SquareTrip logbook automatically maintains a tax office-compliant logbook for you. All you need to do is carry your smartphone with you and categorize your trips once a week. We'll then remember previously categorized trips and automatically assign them the next time. This way, you can save an average of €2,500 in taxes per year.
SquareTrip Fleet builds on this and offers small and medium-sized businesses easy-to-use fleet management: How do I keep my logbooks in compliance with tax authorities? Where are my vehicles currently? Which driver should I send to which customer? What causes my fleet costs? SquareTrip Fleet answers all of these questions – without any additional hardware, just using your smartphone.
We launched the driver's logbook in the summer of 2017. We (Alexander Wöllner, 28; Julian Steinfeld, 34; Felix Christl, 30) met at Allianz, where we worked in product and project management for digitalization and helped to digitalize Allianz. This is how we discovered telematics and decided that this is what we want to focus on from now on.
Focus is on automation
2. But that's been around for a long time!
There are many hardware-based approaches and also a few apps, yes. But we are better because we
a) only need a smartphone, no additional hardware with installation and maintenance costs.
b) Build apps that are really easy to use and
c) rely heavily on automation: With us, for example, you don't need to press a start or stop button to record a trip; it happens fully automatically.
“We really listen to our customers”
3. What are the three main ingredients for your recipe for success?
- We're a well-coordinated team that's worked well together for years, even before we founded the company. This meant we knew the collaboration would run smoothly, and we trust each other completely. We all come from different backgrounds and were able to get everything off the ground without any outside help at the beginning.
- We truly listen to our customers. We respond immediately if there's a problem and, above all, we continuously optimize our product based on customer feedback. We release new releases every two or three weeks that meet even more customer needs.
- Our purely smartphone-based technology: Everyone already has a smartphone in their pocket, providing all the sensors we need for our apps. This allows us to seamlessly integrate into our users' everyday lives: They don't need to order, install, or charge any hardware, and they don't need to press any start or stop buttons.
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We have a few hundred paying users for our logbook and over 10,000 using the free version. SquareTrip Fleet is also doing great. We've been live for a month and already have the first companies on the platform optimizing their fleets.
The pursuit of sustainable growth
5. What does Munich mean to you?
For us, Munich means, above all, our network. We know many people from various industries, which puts us close to our customers and partners. For Alex, Munich has always been home, and Julian and Felix (both native Berliners) now feel right at home there, too.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
We will continue to grow sustainably, so it will take a little while to become a unicorn. We've been self-funded so far and have built a business model that's already profitable. We want to continue this as we continue to grow. Investors may, of course, be interested in the next step.
7. Club or bar?
Bar!
