Company: Goose Games GmbH

Founders: Tobias Stieler, Julian Piroth, Deniz Karaca

Date Founded: October 24, 2025 

Industry and Company: Retail – Trading Cards/Toys

What drives you? What is your motto?

We create places where play turns into real community.

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

Goose Games will be a modern hub for trading cards, board games, and events. 

What makes us special: We combine a specialty store, a gaming area, expert advice, a community, and an online shop into one place where shopping, playing, and sharing go hand in hand. 

Our focus is primarily on the local gaming community. We’re passionate gamers and want to share that passion with everyone.

What have been your initial successes?

That we’ve turned an idea into something tangible: finding a rental space that perfectly matches our vision and being able to design it exactly as we’d imagined.

The great feedback we received when we launched our social media channels.

What are your professional backgrounds?

We come from backgrounds in financial controlling, retail operations, and logistics. This mix led us to start our own business: Tobias manages the numbers and processes, Deniz handles day-to-day store operations, and Julian oversees the warehouse and shipping. 

What was the catalyst for you to start your own business?

The catalyst was our own enthusiasm for trading card games and the realization that the Wiesbaden area lacked a professional space for gaming, advice, and a real community. Our extensive tournament experience sparked the idea to create a store that’s clearly organized yet still feels like a second home.

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

Our most important supporters are our families and our personal circles. They provide backing, honest feedback, and help us turn our passion into a viable business. Many people from the inner circle of our community offered their support without hesitation.

What were your first few days as founders like?

Those first few days were a mix of anticipation, respect, and a sense of new beginnings. Suddenly, an idea had turned into a real project: with numbers, tasks, and a whole lot of energy. It’s still exciting and feels almost unreal.

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

Sourcing merchandise: demand far exceeds supply. 

We have a chicken-and-egg problem: We need inventory for a store, but we need a store to be accepted as a B2B retailer in order to get inventory. We overcame this with lots of friendly emails and persistent follow-ups.

How do you raise awareness for your business? What’s your best marketing idea?

We rely on social media, Discord, local visibility, and events. Our best idea is Goose-Loyalty: a gamified level system where community members earn XP and unlock real benefits (e.g., early access to pre-orders).

How did you secure funding for the startup?

Even after 8 months, we’re still waiting for the KfW startup loan. We were able to bridge the financing gap by bringing in a silent partner. The rest comes from our own funds and the contribution of personal inventory to get us started.

What dream do you still want to make come true?

To turn the first store into a strong Goose Games community with major events and additional locations. When people think of TCG, they should think of Goose Games.

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

do everything exactly the same way. We’re very good at managing our time, since we weren’t under any pressure to launch on a specific date.

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

Don’t try to do everything at once: clear roles, solid numbers, and genuine community feedback are worth their weight in gold.