Company: aima UG (limited liability)

Founders: Sascha Dengler, Niklas Kunz, Maximilian Meyer, André Meyer

Date of foundation: June 22, 2021

Industry and company: Health and sport

What drives you? What is your motto?

We want to make movement analysis as commonplace as going to the dentist.

What is your start-up about and what is special about it?

Our first product establishes findings from AI research to help athletes move efficiently and healthily.

Our current focus is on selecting the right bike for cyclists.

The aim here is that the complex technology must be easy to use and work where the movement takes place.

What are your first successes?

We have already received very positive feedback on our idea at the TU Darmstadt Ideas Competition 2022 and the Startup Booster Program in Wiesbaden. But the best moment was when the first cyclists no longer had any complaints following our suggestions for improvement.

What is your professional background?

We all came to aima through sport. We then combined our hobbies with the idea of engineering: We wanted to understand and improve sporting movements from many different areas.

When we received a lot of positive feedback and requests for a technical solution, the hobby project slowly turned into our start-up.

What prompted you to set up your own company?

After looking into the topic of AI and movement for a while, we realized that a lot of the technology already exists to detect and evaluate movement.

Specifically, for example, there are models that enable early detection of joint diseases such as osteoarthritis. That's why we decided to start with a simple bicycle product, gain experience with it and use it to approach the larger topic of movement health.

Who advised you, who are your helpers and mentors?

The start-up consultancy HIGHEST at TU Darmstadt was our first point of contact for the basics of our start-up.

After that, we repeatedly met supporters at various events who then helped us with specific questions, e.g. about drafting contracts and much more.

How did you experience the first few days as founders?

Very little actually changed for us: We were glad that we had taken this step, but we wanted to retain our creative way of working and therefore also the fun of development. But, of course, we also had a toast with our beta customers and supporters.

What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge was definitely developing a product from a "good idea".

Our collaboration with bike dealers in our region was crucial here, as we were always able to see whether the individual features of the product were actually being used.

How do you draw attention to your company? What is your best marketing idea?

As we initially target bike stores, appearances at trade fairs are the best channel to reach our customers.

However, we also use our product together with clubs, which enables us to build up awareness and contacts in the respective regions.

How did you finance your start-up?

As a software company, we primarily invested time at the beginning. We initially used our own financial resources and supplemented these with funding programs and sales from our beta customers.

What dream would you still like to realize?

We want to develop a product for physiotherapists that helps patients to better understand and treat their complaints.

Please complete the following sentence: If I had more time, I would ...

...carry out more collaborations with universities.

What is your special tip: What would you recommend to founders?

Start with "half" solutions and get honest feedback early on. This is the only way to ensure that something useful develops.