The founders of Uniki have developed a plug-and-play cloud that is both secure and easy to use for users. We wanted to learn more about what's behind it and asked Matthias Bollwein and Roman Leuprecht our 7 questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourself and your product/service!
We are Matthias Bollwein (28) and Roman Leuprecht (23), the founders of Uniki GmbH – perhaps known to some of you Munich residents as Evo-Connect. I have a master's degree in financial and insurance mathematics and subsequently worked as a management consultant in the IT sector. Roman is a computer science graduate and worked for a medium-sized IT company before we founded Uniki.
Uniki is a private server for everyone. The cloud box operates on a plug-and-play basis. This means it configures itself completely automatically, right there and then, as soon as you plug it in! This allows us to easily combine security and privacy. In no time at all, users have their own cloud under their desired domain.
2. But that's been around for a long time!
Indeed, some have already attempted to develop a plug-and-play cloud. But Uniki differs from the competition in two key ways: First, our system doesn't compromise between simplicity, security, and privacy. To achieve the highest level of user experience, we don't take shortcuts on security or privacy like others do; instead, we develop solutions. Second, our system comes with its own app store. This offers greater functionality by making it easy to install popular applications like Magento, Jira, ERP, and CRM systems. We are currently expanding our offering.
Uniki: No compromises
3. What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Our biggest challenge was the technical requirements. From the very beginning, we ruled out any compromises—our system had to be highly secure, completely private, and yet super easy to use. No one had ever managed to combine both before. Now we can say: It's possible!
4. Let’s get down to business: How is business going?
We can't say much about that yet, as we've only been on the market for a month. Our goal is to sell an average of 10 boxes per month this year. Currently, we expect to achieve that.
“Never stop!”
5. What does Munich mean to you?
Munich is great for founders. We've benefited from a variety of programs. We received support at TUM through the Exist scholarship, were accepted into the Techfounders Accelerator, and received valuable help at the LMU Lab. Our cozy office is right next to the English Garden. This creates a startup feel rather than a dreary corporate atmosphere. All of us studied in Munich and have come to appreciate the city, both its many cozy spots and its local IT scene. Our business angel, Matthias Jungmann, is also from Munich and is an active member of our team.
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we see you soon at Epic Fail Night?
We believe in ourselves and our idea. Nevertheless, we must never stand still. Decentralization is becoming increasingly important for the IT industry. Blockchain technology plays a major role in this area. We are currently working on making our box, the uSpace, even more independent based on this technology. The goal is to create a decentralized network of private servers. This will allow us to combine the reliability and scalability of large data centers with the utmost privacy of our boxes. With smart homes and other technologies, privacy is becoming increasingly important for home users, too; at the same time, secure servers as central servers are a prerequisite. This will be our next big step toward securing unicorn status.
7. Hiking or beer garden?
Mostly the Aumeister beer garden behind our office.
