Company: Everstride

Founder: Paul Flatten

Date Founded: October 1, 2025

Industry and Company: Software/Healthcare

What drives you? What is your motto?

“No human is limited” – Eliud Kipchoge 

What is your startup about, and what makes it special? 

Everstride is software for endurance sports coaches: It consolidates data from all of a team’s sports watches and fitness trackers in one place. What makes it special: For the first time, coaches can compare all athletes side by side, regardless of which device they’re wearing, and identify early on who’s peaking and who needs a break. This also creates a unique dataset for forecasting.

What have been your initial successes? 

Coaches in competitive sports have placed their trust in us, and that makes us proud. Just as valuable was our first customer feedback: enthusiastic about the product and, at the same time, so constructive that it immediately spurred us on. And we’re incredibly grateful for the support from the tech and sports worlds. So many founders and coaches are opening doors for us and sharing their knowledge.

What’s your professional background? 

I grew up in Wiesbaden, and after graduating from high school, I moved to Maastricht, where I studied economics while always exploring my own paths on the side—as a DJ in international clubs and through my own software projects. Along the way, I met Noé, who co-founded the company with me. Endurance sports were our anchor through it all. At some point, it became clear: entrepreneurship and sports go hand in hand. That idea eventually became Everstride.

What was the trigger for you to start your own company? 

The trigger was a coach in our circle of friends: He was complaining about how many hours he spent each week manually compiling his athletes’ training data from various apps. So we started building a tool for him. In conversations with other coaches, it quickly became clear: Almost everyone has this problem, and no one is solving it. What started as a project for a friend turned into the conviction that a real company needed to be built here. That’s how Everstride was born.

Who has advised you, and who are your supporters and mentors? 

Everstride is completely bootstrapped, with no external capital so far. This makes the advice from fellow founders, insights from the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Maastricht and China, and coaches who support us as sparring partners in product development all the more valuable.

What was your experience like during your first days as a founder? 

The best part of those first days: You plan the next steps yourself and see the results of your own work firsthand—unfiltered, with no boss in the way. Every bit of progress is immediately noticeable, as is every mistake. It’s exactly this immediacy that makes starting a business so special.

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

The biggest hurdle: gaining access to data from the major wearable manufacturers. The official processes are tedious and often opaque for startups. We overcame this through personal contact—if you speak directly with the right people within the company instead of sending forms, you reach your goal much faster.

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

Our best marketing: word of mouth. The demand among trainers is so high that satisfied users actively recommend us to others. We also network strategically within the startup ecosystem—for example, at Bits & Pretzels in Munich—to learn from others’ experiences and increase our visibility.

How did you secure funding for the startup?

So far, we’ve financed everything entirely with our own funds, deliberately avoiding loans or investors. The startup grant from Wiesbaden is now giving us a big boost, which we’re very happy about.

What dream do you still want to make come true? 

For Everstride to create real added value in sports, from recreational sports all the way to the elite level. And it would be especially wonderful to leave a visible mark in my hometown of Wiesbaden.

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

train for an Ironman.

What’s your top tip? What would you recommend to founders? 

Talk to real customers early on instead of trying to perfect everything behind closed doors. Honest feedback on the prototype is more valuable than any business plan.