1355 Issue 2 | Page 6

POW ER ED UP N O U N : " T H E A B I L I T Y O R C A PAC I T Y T O P E R F O R M O R AC T L I K E A RO C K S TA R" Press release for TebiaMED F I R ST H U LT SF ST U DE N T STA RT U P TO L AU NCH I N DI EG OG O CROW DF U N DI NG C A M PA IG N SAN FRANCISCO—TebiaMED, a healthcare startup co-founded by a member of HULT’s current student body, will be the first-ever crowdfunding campaign at HULT’s San Francisco campus. The company will be raising funds for TraqMe, a mobile service that helps people manage their diabetes through simple text messaging. They will be raising funds on the crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo, which helps entrepreneurs find mass funders for their business idea or passion project. Headquarters are located in the Bay Area. Crowdfunding is a rather new concept in business financing methods, but thanks to Generation Y’s entrepreneurial spirit and the massive effect of social media, it is natural fit for today’s consumer that want brands and companies they can personally resonate with. Omar Shaker, co-founder of TebiaMed, speaks about why they chose the crowdfunding route. “There are many ways of gaining funds for your start-up. But we knew there was a huge opportunity to get the people we were helping with TraqMe directly involved. We know that if diabetics and their loved ones see our simple and effective solution, they will want to contribute to the cause. Not only that, we want to create a sustainable solution and empower self-management, which is a win-win for TraqMe and diabetics. And we truly believe that if the public sees how we can help, they will want to be a part of this.” The team consists of co-founder MIB Omar Shaker, MIB Angie Quach, MIB Kateryna Stentsenko, MIB Abubaker Saleh and MIB Lorenz Muck . In the past 7 months the team has developed a minimum viable product and is currently Beta-testing the prototype. The crowdfunding goal of $20,000 will be used to cover further product development, marketing, and research costs. Indiegogo will be visiting HULT on Thursday, April 10 and April 17 to consult with current students who would like to bring an idea to life through crowdfunding. TebiaMed is planning to launch their TraqMe campaign on Monday, April 14, 2014. HAT your MAC! BY L AU R A PE ET E R S Have you seen them? Those creative, sometimes a tiny bit weird, but definitely cool stickers certain Hultians are carrying around on their Apple devices? 1355 talked to MIB student, Jochen Staudter, one of the men behind “The HATs”. Fun. Just for fun. That is how The HATs saw the light. “One evening my friends and I sat together. We had some beers and we thought about starting something. We weren’t really focused on money. We just wanted to do something. We came up with fun ideas and wanted to produce something that enriched a strong brand, then Apple came to mind. That led to the idea to give the Apple product faces, to bring it alive in a certain way.” This all took place between three friends, Robin, Claas and Joe in Germany in December 2010. Robin is a dedicated “schnitzel-eater”, Claas sticks to the good old German beer and Joe is obviously a burger fan. However, there is one thing that connects them: they seek individuality! Therefore, they put the idea into paper, scribbled, drafted, designed, re-designed and ended up creating a whole new way for you to express yourself: the birth of The HATs. Recently, The HATs launched in the US with the help from Christina (MIB) and Ivana (MIM). But before they could even think about conquering the United States, the birthplace of Apple, the HATs turned from fun into a profitable business. How did The Hats get here? “In Germany it went like this: Some people, mostly our friends of course, saw our homepage and thought ‘oh this is cool!’, and people started buying it. And then somehow, don’t ask me how, magazines and blogs saw our page and they started posting about us. Then even the T V came… the most famous channel in Germany . So it worked out pretty well, suddenly we had lots of revenues." The success of The HATs surprised and overwhelmed the founders, since it was supposed to be a fun project and they never aimed to make money out of it. " We wanted to make people happy with our product by doing something that was fun for us and fun for the people buying the product." Jochen thinks their passion for design and quality is the main thing that makes The HATs successful. For this reason all stickers are produced in Germany. W W W.T EB I A M E D.O R G A N D TO D O N AT E TO "But it is hard to pick one thing, because what actually drives The HATs are the people of course. It is about making your Apple device unique. Stand out in a world covered with Apples, that is our slogan. Everyone wants to be a unique individual and have fun. That is what The HATs is about." THE CAMPAIGN GO TO W W W.INDIEGOGO.COM The will of the people to be creative and stand out is a big part of the FOR M ORE IN FORM AT IO N , CHECK OU T 05 1355 ※ I S S U E N O . 2 ※ A P R I L 16 , 2 0 1 4