Founder of the month: Amino Horse
18.11.2025
Emma Schmitt
Founder of the month
By horse enthusiasts for horse enthusiasts. Amino Horse relies on bioactive, pure L-amino acids without sugar to optimally support horses in muscle building, regeneration, and health. Born out of a personal story, founder Ralf Stüber and his team now help many horses and horse owners.
Amino Horse is a brand of scientifically based, pure amino acid products made by horse enthusiasts for horse enthusiasts. They focus on bioactive, pure L-amino acids, free from sugar, fillers and unnecessary additives. Their goal is to optimally support your horse’s muscle building, regeneration and health with clearly labelled, high-quality products that are well designed and created out of a genuine love for horses.
In this interview, host Daniela talks to founder Ralf Stüber about how he came up with the idea and how it progressed from concept to successful launch. The full interview is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
How and where did you come up with the idea to start the company?
The trigger was the Knabstrupper mare Selma. After giving birth to her foal, Belto, she lost a lot of muscle mass. She also suffers from PSSM1, a muscle disease that causes horses to be reluctant to move and experience muscle problems and tension. In search of a solution, I — Ralf, a chemist and the founder of Amino Horse — tried out many products and immersed myself in specialist literature on protein and amino acid supply. I noticed that many products contain unnecessary additives and are expensive. So I started developing my own pure amino acid mixtures. Amino Horse was ultimately born out of this personal issue with Selma and my scientific background.
How did the founding team come together?
Amino Horse started as a classic solopreneur project. Initially, I handled the idea, development and brand building on my own. Over time, however, it became clear that the vision had evolved into a real company that needed more people to contribute their skills. Gradually, our current team members joined us: Together with Ann-Kathrin, Philipp, Anke and Tanja, the one-person project evolved into a well-coordinated team, with each individual making a valuable contribution. Today, we are dominating the amino acid business for horses with expertise, passion and horsepower to spare.
What is your grand vision?
Our mission at Amino Horse is to become the leading supplement brand in the equine market. We want anyone looking to provide their horse with targeted, high-quality amino acids to think of Amino Horse first. We want to provide the best possible amino acids for as many horses as possible, from sport horses to senior ponies to leisure partners. Our products are clearly labelled and honest, and they really make a difference, improving rideability, promoting regeneration, encouraging muscle growth and enhancing long-term fitness.
Where do you see significant hurdles in the start-up process?
To be honest, the start-up process is never really “easy.” But we don’t see that as a problem, but rather as a learning journey. We learn from every step, whether it goes perfectly or not. Next time, things usually work out better.
And fortunately, you don’t have to go down this path alone: there are an incredible number of networks, partners, events, and contact points, from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to the KIT-Gründerschmiede to various business networks. If you are willing to approach people openly and formulate your questions clearly, you will often find that you are not alone with your challenges and that the solution is usually within reach. That’s why we talk less about “hurdles” and more about challenges that help you grow as a founder and as a team.
Where did you get support?
On the one hand, I was able to draw on the knowledge I gained from one of my first start-ups. On the other hand, we deliberately relied on our network. We also took advantage of programs in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, such as the “Start in Rhineland-Palatinate” program, as well as offers and events at various start-up fairs in Rhineland-Palatinate, where we are networked as a local company. This combination of our own experience, structured support programs, and a strong network has helped us enormously on our journey with Amino Horse.
What were the biggest challenges during your start-up phase?
One of the biggest challenges was clearly obtaining approval as a company that distributes feed supplements. This involves extensive bureaucracy, registrations, and strict requirements. Fortunately, I was able to draw on my background as a trained and qualified chemist and not only contribute the necessary technical and specialist knowledge, but also prove it. This is the basis for our ability to operate in this market today.
The second major challenge arose during growth: as soon as the first employees join the company, new issues arise, from payroll accounting and contracts to administrative processes that need to be set up properly. These are steps that simply have to be taken, and you learn a lot from your mistakes.
Has anything changed for you since the formal founding?
Absolutely: Founding a company is always a big part of your own life story. A lot has changed since Amino Horse was founded, both professionally and privately. A start-up is naturally very volatile: there is a lot of movement, new opportunities arise, new challenges emerge, and all of that also affects us as the people behind it. I have taken on many new roles during this time: from self-employed to entrepreneur, from solopreneur to team, from a very small company to something bigger. We are breaking new ground, constantly meeting new people, and developing both personally and professionally. Change has become something of a constant for us, and I believe that is exactly what a company needs if it wants to stay alive and grow.
How did you solve the problem of (follow-up) financing?
We finance Amino Horse entirely from our own cash flow. This means that we develop our products close to our customers, sell them directly on the market, and consistently reinvest the revenues generated in growth. As a result, we are currently not dependent on financing rounds or external investors. In the future, fresh capital may of course be an option to scale even faster. But at the moment, our priority is to get our Amino Horse baby off to a solid start.
Are current global crises affecting your startup?
Yes, global crises are not leaving us unscathed. We are noticing changes in the supply chain in particular: delivery times have become longer and, in some cases, less reliable, especially for goods traded on the global market. In addition, there are indirect effects via energy prices, for example in the case of cardboard packaging, the cost of which has multiplied in some cases in recent years. This forces us to be even more forward-looking in our purchasing, planning, and warehousing so that we can continue to offer our products in a stable manner and in the high quality we are known for.
What are your next big milestones in the coming 12 months?
On the one hand, we are intensively engaged in product development and will be launching further new, innovative products that are even more specifically tailored to the different needs of horses, from sport stars to seniors in open stables. On the other hand, we want to expand internationally and tap into new markets outside Germany. At the same time, one goal remains constant: healthy, sustainable growth so that even more horses can benefit from an optimal supply of amino acids.
In your opinion, what qualities should a founder have?
From our point of view, curiosity is one of the most important qualities. Anyone who starts a business should enjoy learning new things, embracing changing situations, and seeing change not as a disruption but as the norm, because in a start-up, there is always movement.
Equally important is passion for your own subject. I grew up with horses, and a large part of my life takes place in the stable, so starting a business in the equine sector is not just a business for me, but also an expression of my hobby. I am, so to speak, Amino Horse’s first customer. This helps enormously in understanding the needs of the target group and finding the right approach. That’s why we recommend starting a business in a field that really fascinates you and that you are passionate about.
It also takes openness and courage: to simply try things out, break new ground, and be able to live with uncertainty. And especially in a team, it’s important to understand your own strengths, values, and motivations, and what qualities others can bring to complement them. Innovation arises when different perspectives come together. Being aware of this and consciously putting together diverse teams is, in our view, a real skill for founders.
Do you have any practical tips for other young entrepreneurs?
One of our most important tips: Talk about your start-up at every opportunity. Talk about your idea, your product, your challenges. Get feedback. Often, the most exciting contacts, collaborations, or leads come from places you would never have expected. Just as important: stay open. Open to other opinions, open to criticism, open to developing your own idea further. Try not to judge too quickly or get too stuck in your own patterns of thinking.
And then: take it step by step. There’s this image: how do you eat an elephant? Piece by piece. It’s the same with starting a business. No one has to build a business in a day. But if you set out to improve by just half a percent every day, to optimize yourself or your product minimally, then over the course of a year, that adds up to a lot. We want to pass on this mindset of small, continuous improvements instead of the perfect big breakthrough to young founders. That way, you’ll remain capable of action, motivated, and on the right track.
From today’s perspective, what would you do differently?
Of course, hindsight is always 20/20, but many “mistakes” were probably necessary to learn the lessons that have shaped us today. If we had to highlight one thing, it would be this: we would delegate tasks earlier and focus even more consistently on our core tasks in the startup. For a very long time, we did an enormous amount in-house. Today, we are much more conscious of which areas we can outsource or hand over to team members and employees.
Next time, we would consider this process of handover and division of labor from the outset: setting up structures in such a way that things can be handed over, transformed, or transferred to other systems more easily. In short: let go earlier in order to grow faster.
