Founder of the month: ONINO
23.04.2024
Daniela Musial-Lemberg
Founder of the month
The KIT spin-off ONINO focuses on blockchains, which are seen as a particularly secure way of transferring and storing data while protecting it from manipulation.
What does your company stand for?
ONINO does blockchain. But simple.
To this end, ONINO:
1) a proprietary blockchain protocol that enables companies to create their own customised blockchains in minutes.
2) A low-code blockchain development platform with AI smart contract development and templates that enables any developer to build on blockchain.
3) An incubator that helps companies launch and fund their blockchain journey through tokenisation.
Where and how did you come up with the brilliant idea to start the company?
Due to a chain of favourable circumstances – on the one hand, we all had points of contact with blockchain independently of each other. We quickly realised the potential and the lack of implementation. Then we saw the opportunity to use a token to pre-finance the project with our idea and successfully implemented it.
How did the founding team come together?
We met while studying industrial engineering at KIT.
Where do you see the hurdles in the start-up process? Where did you get support?
The German bureaucracy, paperwork and tax burden is an extreme international disadvantage. We have had to hire expensive lawyers and tax advisors just to keep up. Germany is also very cautious when it comes to new technology and, if in doubt, will initially reject it.
What was one of your biggest challenges during the start-up phase?
A legally secure representation of the chosen pre-financing construct via a utility token on the blockchain. However, this knowledge has now given us an extremely unique selling point.
Has anything changed for you since the official launch of the company? And if so, what?
We have now grown from a UG to a GmbH, developed an ecosystem of products and are currently in our seed funding phase.
What qualities do you think a founder should have?
Persistence, passion, structure
Do you have any practical advice for other young entrepreneurs?
Exchange ideas with other founders – most founders are happy to pass on their knowledge and help the new generation in the process.
Looking back, what would you have done differently?
Form a GmbH directly instead of a UG, “test” lawyers and tax consultants much more rigorously so that you don’t have to change 3 times.
What are your plans for the future? What are your next major milestones?
Further product development, increased sales, successful completion of funding round, increased headcount.
Thank you very much for answering the questions! ☺
PODCAST
We spoke to Alexandre from the founding team. You will soon be able to listen to the podcast episode Start-up of the month with ONINO here.
Subscribe to our Start-up podcast on Spotify and never miss an episode.
