Rural Germany instead of Silicon Valley, sustainability instead of profit, Germany’s first Smartphone company is in many ways different.
At first glance, the Shift-phone looks like most of the Smartphones today, a black device with rounded edges and a screen that occupies most of the front. If you look at the Smartphone, but closer, reveal themselves first differences: Discreetly on the back of the phone is: “Warning: Smartphones can be time killers. There is no greater gift for you today than the next 24 hours. Use them wisely, people are more important than machines.” In Smartphones may be wasting your time. There is no greater gift than the gift of the next 24 hours. This should you use it sensibly. People are more important than machines.
Even if that sounds like a Marketing-Gag, it says a lot about the first German Smartphone company. This is because the profit is not top priority, although she is very successful and is growing quickly. This is in large part due to the founders of the company: Two brothers living in a small village in rural Hesse.
The sustainable Shift Smartphone is no different at first glance so very different from its competitors
T-Shirts, Hoodies, sneakers, and thick beards. Carsten and Samuel Waldeck look after the Start-up scene in Berlin or San Francisco. But the two founders of the Smartphone manufacturer’s Shift to come out of Falkenberg, a small village in rural Hesse. Here they grew up and their companies have set up headquarters in a converted barn. And this is probably the least unusual thing in your business.
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Working for sustainability and social commitment
“We are just going to establish a Foundation. As soon as the is will be transferred the shares to this Foundation and then we no longer have access to that and could pay never more profits,” says Carsten Waldeck.
And how much salary the company paid its co-founder? “In my case, a little less than 1500 Euro / month net,” said Carsten Waldeck. This is according to its own assessment in the case of Shift somewhere in the middle of the salaries.
The “fathers” of the German Shift-Smartphones: Carsten Waldeck (right) and Samuel Waldeck
In the case of other salaries, it is more generous. In a phone Shift a lot of manual work. The largest portion, namely about 80 percent, is for the final Assembly of the devices is necessary. Which is currently being made in China. But not, because that is where the labour costs are lower. The employees in China would receive similar wages as those in Germany, Carsten Waldeck. “But it makes no sense to fly all the parts individually to Germany, not to pack expensive, so they go broke and then send it back, if something is broken. That would be an incredible effort, and really bad for the environment.”
After Assembly, the phones are compact, less sensitive and easier to transport. Always must remain so. “One of our medium-term goals is always to shift the final Assembly in the markets in which we sell our phones,” says Carsten Waldeck.
In the case of the first German Smartphone manufacturers Shift is not only to maximize the profit
The sense is not maximized – profit
“For me, this is the difference between profit maximization and the sense of maximizing,” says Samuel Waldeck, “and we can observe very often, that it is good to aspire to a sense of the maximization of a profit-maximizing, even if we want to, of course, that our company is healthy. But I am firmly convinced that the cooperation must go hand in hand.”
Even if you treat yourself to a modest pay and a Foundation will want to – nevertheless, the Waldecks know, of course, that you need money for your business to flourish. Currently, you have an operating capital of around one Million euros. You want to increase to two or three million euros in order to buy components in large quantities and to reduce the chronic shortage of available Shift phones.
Currently, pre-orders for phones which largely Finance the production of the devices. Although this is a very safe way to do business, because if the phones are ready, they are already sold. The customers need to be satisfied to wait but five to eight weeks on their phones, and quite a obstacle in a world that needs most immediately.
Sustainability is a priority
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But the long Wait can be worth it. So Shift-phones, for example, in a modular way. Broken parts can be replaced easily and, if necessary, upgraded.
A part of the price the owner gets back, if he releases the device at the end of its life cycle at the manufacturer. So Shift can recycle the components, and you will not end up somewhere in a landfill.
If it’s just a matter of a newer model to purchase, take back to Shift the mobile phones and gives a discount on the purchase of a new Shift phones. The old phone is then repaired if necessary and resold. So each phone should be used for as long as possible.
Grow Yes, but in a different way
Despite a long wait – the demand to Shift mobile phones is large. Because it would actually be a logical step to bring external investors into the boat, to procure so quickly capital. For the Waldecks this is not an Option.
“With conventional Investments come always dependencies,” says Carsten Waldeck. For him and his brother to the risk that an Investor might not share your Vision is simply too great. “For us, it is really important to go in the direction of sustainability,” says Samuel Waldeck. “This is more important to us than money”. Nevertheless, you want to grow. Just like they do everything else: different.
“So we would not have thought at the beginning that there are people that are so crazy that you actually agree with that, no profits to distribute, and to return virtually everything in sustainable and social projects,” says Carsten Waldeck. “But it worked.”