The idea
The idea was born in the hotel: As a former competitive athlete, Stefan was looking for a balance after long working days and a lot of travelling. Countless fitness apps could not motivate him extensively. After some time, the Theraband was his constant companion. Then he had an idea: the elastic band has to become smart!
Foundation
Stefan was quickly able to inspire Torben, a handball player and electrical engineer, and Hanno, a runner and industrial engineer, with the idea. After many long nights, we were able to complete the first working prototype. After that, we quit our jobs to found STRAFFR.
Development
It was still a long way to market: we produced more than 100 prototypes ourselves to test them. The concept worked and our testers were enthusiastic about the concept and were able to give us good feedback on how to improve STRAFFR.
Production
To raise capital for the first 1,000 ribbons, we planned a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. After an intensive preparation period and with great supporters, we reached our funding goal and were able to start serial production and further develop our app.
On TV
At the same time, we presented our tape in the start-up show "Die Höhle der Löwen" (DHDL). At that time, we "only" had our working prototype available. But even this was able to inspire the lions - without resulting in an investment.
Challenges
The time after that was turbulent. Due to the broadcast on DHDL, we had many pre-orders. Production initially went according to plan until a supplier had problems at short notice. We talked a lot with our customers to communicate the delays and worked intensively in parallel to find a solution to the problem. In part, we produced ourselves so that we would be able to deliver.
Train at last
In the end, we managed to mass produce STRAFFR. Our fitness band and app are now used by several thousand people in more than 30 countries. We have received many positive reports from our users and are constantly working on improving STRAFFR.
