What does your company stand for?

Climate-neutral mobility on the water. With the help of hydrogen, we want to decarbonise the boat sector, which has received little attention to date. Modern hydrogen engines (Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine – H2ICE) are a cost-effective and robust alternative to conventional CO2-free drives such as batteries or fuel cells. That’s why we are working day in, day out to develop our own engines for boats and small ships up to 35 metres in length.

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

We saw the huge potential that hydrogen engines have to decarbonise the mobility sector quickly and cost-effectively. Furthermore, there are significantly more areas of application than those currently being served. While working in research and development at the Institute for Piston Engines (IFKM) under the direction of Professor Koch and later at a company that develops hydrogen engines for buses and lorries, we learned to master the specific properties of hydrogen and use them to our advantage.

How did the founding team come together?

We got to know each other back in 2018 as part of Formula Student. During this intensive phase, we were able to develop a high-performance prototype as a team in a very short time, from conception to realisation on the road. Even when nerves were frayed at times, we always pulled together constructively. This experience is now helping us immensely with our goal of building a successful start-up in the green tech sector. As many start-ups fail because the founders get into each other’s hair under enormous stress, we are convinced that we are somewhat hardened in this respect. Hopefully 🙂

Has the energy crisis and/or the war in Ukraine had an impact on your start-up (production, materials, supply chains)?

The resulting supply bottlenecks and price increases for fossil fuels have brought awareness of decentralised supply back to the fore. At the same time, we are noticing that future technologies are now being scrutinised more critically in terms of costs and feasibility. This is of course a great advantage for us, as we use a basic technology that has been mature for over 100 years for our hydrogen engines. These are fuelled with hydrogen, which can be produced practically anywhere, i.e. in a decentralised manner, where the sun shines or the wind blows.

What qualities do you think a founder should have?

The ability to collaborate, self-reflection and a healthy degree of stubbornness to drive your own idea forward. Especially at the beginning, the start-up project is talked about from many different sides. It is important to identify and accept constructive feedback for yourself. Everything else can be safely ignored.

Do you have any practical tips for other young company founders?

Create platforms (e.g. Notion) for a regular exchange (weekly, monthly, semi-annually, annually) between the founders. We start each week with a sprint in which we list all current tasks per person. On Thursday, the sprint is repeated and we check which tasks have not yet been completed. In the middle of the week, we have a team meeting where we discuss what has been going on and what everyone has been doing. It is also very important to talk about the current stress level, emotions and fuck-ups at fixed times. Emotional knots that arise in everyday life need to be resolved regularly so that no ballast builds up and it doesn’t come to a big argument at some point. The latter is a frequent reason for the failure of start-ups.

Listen to the customer: Don’t actively impose your ideas or solutions on the customer, but respond to the problem and offer solutions. The customer is king. At the end of the day, they pay for your company.