Munich Startup: Who are you and what does Fible do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
Paul Pizzinini: Hi, we are Andreas Mall, Simon Peter and I, Paul Pizzinini, all 28 years old and founders of Fible.
Fible is a platform for people who don't enjoy the time-consuming planning of their own trips. Unlike traditional travel guides, comprehensive travel routes Created by travel bloggers and shared with the community. With its clear presentation and a wide range of technical and digital options, Fible offers the perfect conditions for experiencing unique trips without a lot of planning effort.
We founded Fible in early 2020 – but our journey together began much earlier. Andi and I know each other from school, and we founded Munich camper rental Camperboys Simon joined some time later and has been indispensable ever since. We all studied economics and specialized in different areas: Andi handles finance, Simon oversees operations, and I'm responsible for marketing and strategy.
Fible aims to simplify complex travel planning
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Paul Pizzinini: Despite, or perhaps because of, new digital opportunities, planning individual trips independently is more complex than ever. Travelers visit an average of 28 websites in 76 sessions to plan a single trip. These visits often involve travel blogs and other forms of user-generated content, as a customized trip should, above all, be unique, authentic, and distinctive. Nevertheless, many of these adventurers ultimately end up back in the same places—keyword: overtourism. Due to the time-consuming and complex processes, more than two-thirds of travelers are stressed by travel planning, and more than one-third of all trips are canceled prematurely or not even started.
Unfortunately, there is still no central platform for travel blogs with all the advantages that we are used to today: detailed search and filter options, rating and recommendation functions, direct exchange with bloggers or direct booking of the entire trip.
With Fible, we're building this central platform for travel blogs by offering travelers authentic content with the aforementioned features. At the same time, we're taking over all the technical work for travel bloggers.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Paul Pizzinini: There are already platforms that aggregate the content of all travel blogs to create more transparency for advertisers. However, the focus on travel planning is neglected. At the same time, there are already companies that have recognized this problem and are taking over the entire planning of individual trips. These online travel agencies differentiate themselves from traditional travel agencies with their sophisticated technology and customized offers, and are thus extremely successful. This is certainly a good offer for a honeymoon, but due to the high price, it's less suitable for people who want to travel several times a year, sometimes spontaneously, and are looking for completely different adventures.
Three very different challenges
Munich Startup: What have been your three biggest challenges so far?
Paul Pizzinini: The three most difficult areas were:
- Relatively early on, our technical co-founder left and moved back to Norway. As a company with a digital product, this was naturally a huge shock. We're currently working with freelance developers and are looking for a CTO—get in touch!
- Of course, we as a platform are also affected by the famous chicken-and-egg problem. However, we have now found good strategies to deal with it productively and overcome it.
- The question remains as to how best to monetize the model. There are some promising approaches, but we currently rely on external funding.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Paul Pizzinini: The first version of the mobile Fible app is already available free of charge for iOS and Android.
In a year, Fible will be the contact point Number 1 for individual travelers in German-speaking countries. Furthermore, publishing content on Fible is supposed to be more lucrative and easier than on one's own travel blog.
The travel assistant could also help against overtourism
In five years, the high user and data volume will create transparency regarding the utilization of tourism capacity. This will relieve pressure on highly frequented regions and strengthen economically weaker regions.
Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?
Paul Pizzinini: Munich is a great location! Here you can find the Plant1 and that Media Lab Bayern – big shoutouts! – who believe in us and support us tremendously. Munich is also the ideal base for short trips – so we can regularly test Fible ourselves!
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Paul Pizzinini: Fible lives off its fame, so it's clearly a shooting star!
