Company: namowo – sustainable mobility in residential construction
Founders: Jonathan Braunschneider, Johann Grobe, Sophia Rother
Date of foundation: Founded in
2024 Industry and company: Mobility consulting and real estate

What drives you? What is your motto? "
Just get started – it could turn out well."
Climate change won't wait for the perfect solution. That's why we put our passion and energy into these projects. We want to help shape climate protection and the mobility transition and make cities more livable. 

What is your start-up about and what makes it special?
Science, real estate industry, and mobility
We combine the real estate industry with sustainable mobility based on scientific findings. We use freely available data, analyze it in a highly automated process, and present the results in an attractive format. Builders receive a mobility concept for parking space-optimized construction. For more affordable living space in cities and greater mobility for everyone.

What are your first successes?
Last year, we were nominated for the Hessen Ideas Competition and made it to the finals. We also successfully passed the selection process for the Hessen Ideas Scholarship and have been scholarship holders since January of this year. We were particularly pleased with the first positive customer contacts we received without any active marketing.

What is your professional background?
In our M.Eng. program in "Environmental Management and Urban Planning in Conurbations" at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, we were taught an interdisciplinary, practical approach. We quickly realized that we wanted to tackle the problems of urban planning and venture from theory into practice.

What prompted you to start your own business?
The idea of starting a business came up repeatedly during our master's studies. At the same time, we discussed the topic of starting a business with friends and colleagues. Ultimately, the call for applications for the City of Wiesbaden's start-up scholarship gave us the final incentive to actually tackle the founding of namowo and draft an initial concept paper.

Who advised you, who are your helpers and mentors?
On the one hand, the StartUpLab at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences offers us workshops and a workplace at Heimathafen. Heimathafen, in turn, is a good networking hotspot for all founders. In addition, the university's mobility management department supports us. On the other hand, we are scholarship holders of Hessen Ideen, which supports us both financially and strategically.

How did you experience your first days as founders?
After deciding to start the company, our initial discussions were marked by strong support and encouragement. Everyone knew someone who could help with this or that aspect, and we were put in direct contact with those people. The rapid support from StartUpLab opened many doors for us.

What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenges are still ahead of us at this point in time. We need to establish ourselves, make contacts in the real estate industry, and build up a network of partners. Together with them, we then need to refine our business model and implement new business ideas.

How do you draw attention to your company? What is your best marketing idea?
We actively approach local authorities and property developers to present our company. Trade fairs and conferences in particular are good opportunities for us to talk to customers. We also benefit from the excellent network of the Mobility Management specialist group at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences.

How did you finance your start-up?
Our main focus is on covering personnel costs and financing software. To bridge the first few months, we successfully applied for a grant from Hessen Ideen.

What dream would you still like to realize?
At some point, we would like to be able to look back and say that we have done our part for climate protection, especially the mobility transition.

Please complete the following sentence: If I had more time, I would... found several
more companies in the field of climate protection and adaptation.

What is your special tip: What would you recommend to founders?
Have a dream, an idea, something you are passionate about. It's not the perfect business plan that's important. It's the energy and motivation that you and your team bring to the table.