Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem does Govshare solve?
Philipp Schwarz, Govshare: Govshare is a solution platform for municipal climate protection. As such, we bring together centrally relevant implementation aids such as templates and practical examples to ease the burden on cities and municipalities locally.
Why? Our eighteen-month research and over 60 conversations with actors from administration and local politics revealed that while most municipalities face very similar tasks when it comes to climate protection, at the same time the wheel is being reinvented in many places over and over again.
Approaching climate protection measures intuitively and with fun
Munich Startup: But that’s already existed for a long time!
Philipp Schwarz: Unfortunately not. While municipal climate protection certainly doesn’t lack solutions, consulting offers, and knowledge channels, these often result in overwhelm because, for example, climate protection managers don’t know where to start or which concrete steps to take. A platform that transcends sources and regions can ease this burden by relieving administrative staff of some of the research workload.
What also sets us apart from other offerings is our focus on intuitive design. In terms of look and feel, Govshare is more like an online shop than a Wikipedia. This leads to statements from our first users like: “It’s really fun clicking through here.” That makes our hearts sing, because that’s what it’s all about for us: implementing concrete measures against climate change locally is fun!
Close to giving up
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Philipp Schwarz: When I met my current co-founder Franz-Ferdinand (Kress, ed. note) at the end of 2021, I was on the verge of giving up on founding Govshare. At that point, I had already invested approximately 1.5 years in market research, network building, prototyping, and business plan development. We needed funding, but it wasn’t in sight. Franz-Ferdinand had advised me pro bono as part of an accelerator program and was convinced: Govshare must be realized! When he heard that I would soon have to give up, he made a very thoughtful proposal for a joint founding.
After that, we underwent an intensive and very structured getting-to-know-each-other process. We immediately felt: this works! On the most important questions, we’re on the same wavelength, and our characters and working styles complement each other perfectly. Then came the wild ride through pitching, financing, notarization of the founding, and product development.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Philipp Schwarz: There have been various challenges:
- Finding a self-sustaining and sustainable business model: Govshare was founded with only one goal: to achieve a measurably positive impact on municipal climate protection. Reconciling this with a viable income model was and remains one of our biggest challenges.
- Securing the first round of funding.
- As a platform, we struggle with the classic chicken-and-egg problem. How do you get the ball rolling so that others dare to join us?
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in a year, and where in five years?
Philipp Schwarz: Our core product, the web-based solution platform Govshare.org, only launched in early May 2023. The first 20 municipalities, including Saarbrücken, Esslingen, Bad Kissingen district, and the city of Bad Sassendorf, are already on board. In a year, Govshare will have established a scalable model that creates very concrete added value for administrative staff on the ground by saving time in the implementation of climate protection measures. By then, we will hopefully have demonstrated multiple times that with our platform, the same resources can implement more measures per year.
The Govshare vision: systemic change
Where will Govshare be in five years? Hopefully we will have succeeded in bringing together the key players in municipal climate protection and developing our offering in a user-oriented way so that hundreds of cities and municipalities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland work daily, gladly, and beneficially with Govshare, saving time and money in the process.
Our vision: The systemic change that we wish for and strive for will have gained momentum by then. Sharing experiences after the completion of projects will become mainstream. And increasingly, there will be talk of negative experiences or learnings: What would we do differently next time and why? Because, at the risk of having to make a contribution to the phrase jar, I firmly believe: climate protection is a collective task!
Munich Startup: How have you experienced the Munich startup location so far?
Philipp Schwarz: Better than its reputation. There is not only a vibrant startup scene here, but also a growing impact scene. The direct support and expertise of the responsible departments at the City of Munich have also been outstanding so far.
Munich Startup: Quick exit or long game?
Philipp Schwarz: Definitely the long game. We started our founding journey directly with a strategic investor. While unconventional, this shows alongside our focus on positive impact that we think long-term and especially very cooperatively.
