Munich Startup: When we last spokeYou said that you plan to have 39 Sira childcare locations by the end of 2020. Were you able to achieve this goal?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: We last spoke in 2019. Back then, neither we nor the rest of the world knew the major challenges the coronavirus pandemic would bring. The coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the current shortage of skilled workers, which is becoming increasingly acute, has somewhat slowed us down in achieving our goals. We have grown more slowly than originally planned. Our goal back then was to have 39 locations by the end of 2020; now, by the end of this year, we will have a total of 41 Sira locations.
Munich Startup: What challenges did you encounter along the way?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: Covid-19 was clearly a major challenge. Instead of new projects and growth plans, we suddenly had to deal with temporary site closures, emergency care, and short-time work benefits. The uncertainty was immense – and this was particularly noticeable among all stakeholders at the beginning. But we handled the crisis quite well. The greatest challenge in our industry remains the ongoing shortage of skilled workers, which is perhaps even more acute in Munich than in some other cities and regions.
Second target group for Sira childcare
Munich Startup: How has your business model evolved?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: In addition to the general pandemic-related restrictions of recent years, it was also noticeable that the topic of on-site childcare had fallen somewhat off the agenda for many medium-sized and larger employers. This was our core target group back then. Now a second core target group has established itself as direct cooperation partners: municipalities, cities, and communities. For example, the City of Cologne commissioned us by council resolution as the sponsor, combined with a model financing program, to establish a total of 17 locations in Cologne by 2026. We are now negotiating similar programs in other cities. Corporate business has also picked up significantly since last year. This is because companies understand how important it is to position themselves as family-friendly employers. We are now also geographically broader – we are no longer "just" represented in Bavaria, but also in North Rhine-Westphalia with locations in Cologne and Aachen, and in Baden-Württemberg with locations in Stuttgart and Mannheim.
Munich Startup: And how are things looking financially for you?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: In 2021, we completed a growth financing round with impact investor Bonventurein order to be able to grow more quickly again after the pandemic. Accordingly, we also increased our administrative staff last year and hired two business development managers and a project manager. We currently have no new capital requirements and are financed entirely from current revenues. Important for us: We do not establish locations where we ourselves have to make significant upfront financing. The investment costs for renovation and equipment are covered either by cooperation partners, landlords, or public investment programs for daycare expansion. We may be growing somewhat more slowly, but more financially sustainable and more risk-conscious.
Overcoming micro-management and perfectionism
Munich Startup: What learnings have you as a founding team learned so far?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: You definitely become aware of your own strengths and weaknesses and can distribute tasks accordingly within the founding team. And we've grown to currently 130 employees. Once the company reached a certain size, it became a challenge for us as founders to no longer be able to decide everything ourselves, but to delegate tasks and distribute them across multiple shoulders. Micromanagement and excessive perfectionism eventually become ineffective if you want to grow. What we've also learned: it's tedious and a lot of work. But if you stick with it after the proof of concept, do a good job, and don't give up at the first sign of opposition, things will eventually get easier!
Munich Startup: Christina, you consider yourself a social entrepreneur. What exactly does that mean?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: When we launched in 2012, almost no one knew the term "social startup." Unlike technology startups, we had to constantly explain what actually makes us a company. That's different now – founders are encouraged to pursue social and ecological goals through various funding programs. This strengthens existing social enterprises and inspires other companies to increase their social and ecological impact. I interpret this to mean that we are economically successful with our business model, but at the same time we want to create added value for society. In our case, this means newly created childcare spaces, which ensure more equal opportunities, educational equity, better career opportunities for women, and a better work-life balance for working parents.
High demand at the company's Munich location
Munich Startup: What role has the Munich ecosystem played in your journey so far?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: At the beginning, as "rookies," we naturally benefited greatly from the support opportunities and contact with other startups. We participated in funding programs in the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) at Munich University of Applied Sciences and in the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie, where we also took advantage of continuing education opportunities for founders. Our business model also greatly benefits from Munich's economic dynamism and diverse business landscape. Many of our corporate clients here in Munich are successful scaleups that have emerged and grown significantly over the past ten years. Of course, our clients also include established, long-standing, successful companies. For example, in June of this year, we opened the "Bremsklötzchen" mini-daycare center at Oberwiesenfeld for Knorr-Bremse. Our "Westwing-Wichtel" mini-daycare center, which we operate in cooperation with Westwing, has been located right next door since 2020.
Munich Startup: What milestones are you working towards next?
Christina Ramgraber, Sira: We aim to exceed the 60 locations and 600 childcare places mark next year. Since mid-2022, we have also been driving forward the digitalization of internal processes through the use of customized software products in daycare administration, financial accounting, and controlling in order to be able to handle this growth on the process side. We aim to complete this by the end of this year.
