Foundation of the month: Refolution

What does your company stand for?

We are the engineering company for sustainable industrial refrigeration and heat pump technology. Our goal is to solve the challenges of climate change for our field by developing new processes with our expertise. By sustainability we mean long-lasting, efficient systems that are safe for people and the environment and use only environmentally friendly refrigerants such as air and water. For example, we use the waste heat from refrigeration machines for heating and develop award-winning processes that use 70% less energy for steel hardening at -80°C with air as a refrigerant.

Where and how did you get the bright idea to found the company?

Environmental protection with high-tech has always excited me. After more than a decade in special plant construction for industrial refrigeration at two large corporations, I saw the potential in our industry and the responsibility we have. 14 to 19% of German electricity goes to refrigeration, and many plants are inefficient and rarely use the available waste heat. Now, many more chillers are being added due to the heat turnaround in the form of heat pumps. The degradation products of chemical or halogenated refrigerants, which are widely used, lead to dramatic environmental impacts such as the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming and the contamination of our drinking water with persistent chemicals that are hazardous to health. We want to change that with our expertise!

How did the founding team come together?

I am a single founder, but I received a lot of support from my family and especially my wife. We offered internships right at the beginning and with the good cooperation with the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and the KIT, we gained many young, motivated people as supporters, some of whom have remained employees even today. Today we are a dynamic team of which I am very proud.

Where do you see the hurdles in the founding process? Where did you get support?

After 10 years in industry, also with management experience, I had a lot of knowledge and some money in my bank account, as I never bought a house or a car. However, I already had a family to support and since I wanted to be free, no investor or bank loan was an option for me. So we kept our costs to a minimum, renovated my in-laws’ basement ourselves and then moved in there with our children in our mid-30s. You have to want to start a business with a lot of passion. I think the biggest hurdle is accepting that you have to downsize other aspects of your life for your company.

What was one of your biggest challenges during the start-up phase?

We are mainly active in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. These industries are very conservative, as failures in the production process are associated with high costs and therefore only proven technologies are used. Due to the good reputation and our strong partners, it was then possible to nevertheless realise early references in the form of test plants with only air as refrigerant for pharmaceutical freeze-drying and a cold sauna at -115°C and show that it is possible.

Has Corona had an impact on your start-up/industry so far and if so, what?

Yes, massively. We were suddenly no longer allowed into the factories of many customers. That set us back enormously at the beginning. However, we then focused intensively on online sales via Linkedin, teams and phone and had a special boom for vaccine stocks at -80°C. In this respect, we came out of the crisis stronger and are glad that initial meetings can now all take place online.

What qualities do you think a founder should have?

Personally, I think that intrinsic motivation for one’s own topic is the most important thing. If you work on your topic with passion and fun, you can also deal with setbacks. I am happy about every start-up, because from my point of view it is the counter-model to the corporations, which unfortunately are not as flexible in many aspects as we need for the change into a “better” future. On the other hand, I am shocked to see how many start-ups have the exit as their primary goal, in order to get rich as quickly as possible. Even with the most financially successful founders of our time, that was not the only motivation. A strong network is also important. The Cube’s founder barbecue is recommended here, for example.

From your point of view, what qualities should a founder have?

Personally, I think that intrinsic motivation for one’s own topic is the most important thing. If you work on your topic with passion and fun, you can also deal with setbacks. I am happy about every start-up, because from my point of view it is the counter-model to the corporations, which unfortunately are not as flexible in many aspects as we need for the change into a “better” future. On the other hand, I am shocked to see how many start-ups have the exit as their primary goal, in order to get rich as quickly as possible. Even with the most financially successful founders of our time, that was not the only motivation. A strong network is also important. The Cube’s founder barbecue is recommended here, for example.

Do you have any practical tips for other young entrepreneurs?

In Germany, unfortunately, you need a good tax advisor. Not for tax avoidance, but to be able to set up the company in a legally secure way. We were very lucky in that respect. Otherwise, I’m the type who rather tackles things myself and prefers to do things with an 80 / 20 approach. That means I finished the first website in two weekends with a simple configurator. This helped me to structure my ideas again and to be visible for the smallest amount of money. The company name and logo my wife and I came up with in a 30-minute brainstorming session and 5-minute visio-drawing. All not perfect, but good enough to start and as an engineer, everything then gets better iteratively, making adjustments as needed. I then put the time and money I saved into customer contact and the first projects to build them up as lighthouse projects or references. Just do it, step on the gas and keep at it.

From today’s perspective, what would you perhaps do/approach differently?

Early reasons.

What are your plans for the future? What are your next big milestones?

We will continue to push forward our vision of sustainable refrigeration and heat pump technology. Currently, there are countless processes that use refrigeration but blow their waste heat into the environment all year round via recoolers. Examples include computer centres, supermarkets, breweries, plastics production, etc. This heat is available free of charge and can be used for heating purposes. This heat is available free of charge and we want to use it. We are already doing this in many industrial projects. There, we analyse entire plants and develop cooling and heat coupling, among other things, for electronic steam generation. In the urban sector, we would also like to apply our concepts to show that the energy transition works.

Thank you very much for answering the questions!

Here is the corresponding podcast episode for our REFOLUTION foundation of the month on Spotify.

Have fun listening!