Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem does Govshare solve?
Philipp Schwarz, Govshare: Govshare is a Solution platform for municipal climate protection. As such, we compile centrally relevant implementation aids, such as templates and practical examples, to provide decentralized relief to cities and municipalities.
Why? Our one and a half years of research and over 60 discussions with stakeholders from administration and local politics have shown that most municipalities are Climate protection are faced with very similar tasks, but at the same time the wheel is constantly being reinvented in many places.
Approach climate protection measures intuitively and with fun
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Philipp Schwarz: Unfortunately not. While there's no shortage of solutions, advisory services, and knowledge channels for municipal climate protection, this often leads to overwhelm, as climate protection managers, for example, don't even know where to start or with which specific steps. A cross-source, cross-regional platform can ease the burden by relieving administrative staff of some of the research workload.
What also sets us apart from other offerings is our focus on intuitive design. Govshare looks and feels more like an online store than Wikipedia. This leads to the following comments from our early users: “It’s really fun to click through here.” This is what makes our hearts beat faster, because in our eyes, that's what it's all about: implementing concrete measures against climate change locally is fun!
Just before giving up
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Philipp Schwarz: When I met my current co-founder, Franz-Ferdinand (Kress, Editor's note), I was close to giving up on founding Govshare. At that point, I had already invested about a year and a half in market research, network building, prototyping, and business plan development. I needed financing, but it wasn't in sight. Franz-Ferdinand had advised me pro bono as part of an accelerator program and was convinced: Govshare had to be a reality! When he heard that I would soon have to give up, he made a very well-thought-out proposal for a joint venture.
We then underwent an intensive and very structured getting-to-know-you session. We immediately realized: This is a good fit! We were on the same wavelength when it came to the most important issues, and our personalities and working methods complemented each other perfectly. The wild ride through pitching, financing, notarized incorporation, and product development began.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Philipp Schwarz: There were several challenges:
- Finding a self-sustaining and sustainable business model: Govshare was founded with a single goal: to achieve a measurable positive impact on municipal climate protection. Balancing this with a viable income model was and remains one of our biggest challenges.
- To secure the first financing.
- As a platform, we're struggling with the classic chicken-and-egg problem. How do we get the ball rolling so that others dare to join us?
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Philipp Schwarz: Our core product, the web-based solutions platform Govshare.org, launched in early May 2023. The first 20 municipalities, including Saarbrücken, Esslingen, the district of Bad Kissingen, and the city of Bad Sassendorf, are already on board. In one year, Govshare will have established a scalable model that creates concrete added value for local administrative staff by saving time in the implementation of climate protection measures. By then, we hope to have proven repeatedly that our platform can be used to implement more measures per year with the same resources.
The Govshare vision: A systemic change
Where will Govshare be in five years? Hopefully, we'll have succeeded in bringing together the key players in municipal climate protection and further developing our offering in a user-oriented way so that hundreds of cities and municipalities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will be using Govshare every day, enjoying it, adding value, and saving time and money.
Our vision: The systemic change we desire and strive for will have gained momentum by then. Sharing experiences after project completion is becoming mainstream. This also involves more and more discussion about negative experiences and lessons learned: What would we do differently next time and why? Because even at the risk of becoming a cliché, I firmly believe that climate protection is a shared responsibility!
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Philipp Schwarz: Better than its reputation. There's not only a vibrant startup scene here, but also a growing impact scene. The direct support and expertise from the relevant departments at the City of Munich have also been excellent so far.
Munich Startup: Quick exit or long breath?
Philipp Schwarz: Definitely staying power. We began our startup journey directly with a strategic investor. This is unusual, but it demonstrates, alongside our focus on positive impact, that we think long-term and, above all, very collaboratively.
