Company: The Little Big Ganesha GmbH
Founder: Holger Kobler
Founding date: February 14, 2025
Industry and company: Health, mental health, fitness

What drives you? What is your guiding principle?
My goal is to help people to cope better with themselves in an ever faster changing world. That's what I like to get up for every morning!

What is your foundation about and what is special about it?
It's about creating a place that provides the basis for a safe space and then bringing the tradition and essence of yoga to life there. It's a modern experience, because yoga has evolved as an experiential science. Here we want to live and develop this science in an innovative way. In short: a magical place, experts in the field, a community that supports you. Not for Insta, but for you!

What are your initial successes?
During the start-up phase, there was a dynamic around the branding of the studio that I didn't think was possible. We were able to get a large number of people interested in us before we opened, and they have been practicing yoga with us from day one. The biggest success is that people love the place. Downstream, it's also interesting that the business plan fits.

What is your professional background?
After a career of almost 20 years in sales at American start-ups, at some point you realized that there are other interesting fields. Other working models. On closer inspection, it was clear that what I wanted would only work if I was self-employed. Then I had to summon up all my courage!

What was the trigger for you to start your own business?
When it became clear that yoga was the way to go, you quickly realized that it was difficult to make a living teaching three classes a week as an employed teacher. Unfortunately, this type of work is not really considered a profession and is not well paid. I also wanted to do more than I could without my own place. I wanted to reach more people, help teachers to realize themselves and be able to pay well. An analysis of the market and other factors, such as location and opportunities to develop the studio in the future, then led to the decision to start up.

Who advised you, who are your helpers and mentors?
There are many people who have helped here. First of all, it helps if you have worked for start-ups for a long time. Then it was a matter of finding people from the field, from the family and so on, who would support you with opinions, advice and action. I am grateful for my wife's endless support! We had to realize what this 180 degree turn in my career meant. It wouldn't have been possible without her acceptance. My own yoga teacher is still my mentor for the start-up today. She has been running a very large yoga school for 20 years. Then there was the bank, the tax consultant and many other experts who had to be consulted beforehand. What form of business, what funding is available, how do you actually do it?

What were your first days as a founder like?
Absolutely crazy! We opened with an open day and the studio was full of wonderful people who celebrated with us what we had been preparing for months. The day itself felt remote-controlled. It was overwhelming how many people liked what we had put together. Even today, three months later, I still find it hard to understand what was actually going on in the first few days.

What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
We had a lot of pressure before the opening, as we had to go through several months of renovation, which took longer and was more expensive than planned. In general, for all problems, as there are many, get advice and help, break the problem down into small parts and solve it step by step. If it becomes too much, take a step back and give the issue more space. Creative solutions need space!

How do you draw attention to your company? What is your best marketing idea?
First understand who your target groups are, then find out where you can best reach them. Blend your go-to-market with budget/time along that line, which then evolves. Plan a strategy around it. It's also important to form partnerships that help both of you get more customers. For us, in the beginning it was 50/50 between online and offline advertising. Today it's 70/30.

How did you finance your start-up?
Whether it was your own funds or bank loans - the range here can be very wide. A brief insight should also give others food for thought. After a short period of research, it was clear that we wanted to work with a subsidized KFW loan. This offers a mixture of investment funds and working capital.

What dream would you still like to realize?
The studio should be a place for people who are looking for a better life and show them possible ways to achieve it. If this vision comes true for many people, that would be a great dream. If the studio is also self-sustaining and gives us room to innovate in yoga. Something like that would be sensational!

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

What is your special tip: What would you recommend to founders?
Get help wherever you can. Test your ideas with lots of people. Talk to people who have already done it this way or differently. Form opinions 360 degrees around your idea. Don't fall into the mode of looking for data to back up your idea, but challenge it honestly! Then ensure technical automation and use AI wherever possible! Failure is ok! Just understand the consequences as best you can.