Underdog Founders - Hans builds Flexvelop to bring microloans to business owners.
How do business owners buy the equipment they need when banks won't touch them?
From day one, Hans was set to sail in his Navy officer dad’s wake.
After an internship with the German Navy, he was sold.
“I did what my father expected - but I also wanted it.”
To become a Navy officer you have to study. Hans picked business, but his eyes were set on sailing the world.
A few years in, Hans started looking for a new challenge.
He dusted his business degree and jumped into some internships. One was at an investment firm that funded financial service companies.
The first company he looked into for them rented out business equipment for hospitality SMBs in Australia.
Hans reached out and asked directly if he could help them expand into Germany.
The answer was no - the first of many.
Hans, left, closing a funding round after hundreds of rejections.
Before this, the word “startup” wasn’t in Hans’ vocabulary. He was now selling his car to bootstrap one.
Two friends joined as co-founders, and Flexvelop was born.
The concept is simple:
Help entrepreneurs launch and grow new businesses by allowing them to rent and lease equipment below 20K EUR - think coffee machines, laptops.
This is key for SMBs who need equipment to launch and often get denied financing.
This means their first customers were people nobody wanted.
Most defaulted sooner or later, but Hans wasn’t ready to give up that easily - he already saw the model working abroad.
When you run a startup focused on funding other startups, banks only see a big red flag.
The underdog wanting to help other underdogs is cute, but doesn’t instil much confidence.
With no outside capital, Hans started funding his salary by working as a freelancer and building Flexvelop in his spare time.
From dealing with fraudulent vendors to being laughed out of rooms when pitching, it took him 3 years and 400 rejections to raise capital (!)
Even then, it was cash to buy equipment for clients - not payroll.
One time, a legit vendor made off with thousands of euros in printers that didn’t exist, forcing them to build better fraud detection and risk mitigation.
COVID threw a spanner in the works, too.
With the hospitality industry on pause, it forced Hans and the team to broaden their equipment to include office IT - maybe they could ride the WFH trend.
The bet paid off. IT equipment became a great revenue stream.
Their angel investor raised his 300K investment to 1M EUR for working capital, and the banks finally extended a (small) line of credit.
Since then, Hans and the team at Flexvelop has:
- Become properly bankable.
- Raised 3M EUR at a 11M post money valuation.
- Cleared 270K € MRR in January 2024.
Hans is living proof that you don’t need to do things the way they’ve always been done, career or industry-wise.
Need equipment to open a café in Germany?
Laptops for your new company hires?
Reach out to Flexvelop and avoid full upfront costs.
Underdog Founders 23 - Dr. Hans-Christian Stockfisch, Flexvelop.
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