Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem do you solve?
Martin Moravek, Minimalist Phone: We develop an app called Minimalist Phone that helps people spend less time on their phones. It’s designed for anyone who wants to do a digital detox or struggles with phone addiction. How does it work?
Minimalist Phone supports you in several ways:
- No icons on the home screen: Minimalist Phone replaces your home screen and removes all icons. Icons promote mindless app opening because the brain quickly learns that behind a certain symbol, for example a pink icon, there are appealing images and stimulating content. This means you often open apps in autopilot mode without really thinking about it.
- In-app time reminder: Before you open a social media app or game, you choose how much time you want to spend in it. Instead of setting daily limits, you choose the time for each individual session. When your chosen time is up, you get a notification. If you want to stay in the app longer, you can extend the time after a short break.
- Notification filter: Minimalist Phone offers a notification filter that lets you hide notifications from selected apps. Often these notifications only serve to lure you back into the app, causing you to spend more time mindlessly scrolling. For example, a notification like “Hey, your friend XY just liked a photo, check it out” doesn’t provide any real value.
Additionally, with Minimalist Phone you can block apps for several hours or days to do a longer digital detox. Or you can use selected apps in black and white, which makes them look much less interesting.
Changed user interface instead of blockers
Munich Startup: But that already exists, doesn’t it!
Martin Moravek: This combination of features doesn’t actually exist elsewhere. There are blocker apps that can only block other apps, but we tackle the root cause directly and change the user interface that triggers unwanted behavioral patterns. Minimalist Phone has already achieved over four million downloads, which shows that this approach is not only unique but also resonates well with users.
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Martin Moravek: I’m a software developer and previously worked as a freelancer for various startups. In 2020, due to uncertainty caused by Covid, many companies wanted to save money, and I had no projects for a couple of weeks. The problem quickly became apparent: I spent more and more time on my phone. Suddenly I was spending half an hour or even longer on Instagram without really remembering why I opened the app in the first place. That was very frustrating.
Since I’m interested in both user interfaces and psychology, and I enjoy reading studies and articles about it, I looked for the root cause. The first thing I noticed was the icons. They tempted me to open apps mindlessly.
Within four weeks, I had developed an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) of the app – at that time just the icon-free user interface, without the many features that Minimalist Phone offers today.
For the first two years, I worked on the app in my spare time. Today we have a six-person team and the entire project is bootstrapped.
Bureaucratic hurdles when founding
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Martin Moravek: The biggest challenges for us so far have been the bureaucratic hurdles when founding in Germany. I have to say that the founding process here is often very slow and frustrating. You should think twice before founding in Germany, because the time you could save during the founding process is better spent elsewhere – for example in product development.
Additionally, the biggest challenge right now is scaling from a “one-man show” to a larger team. You have to think carefully about how to divide tasks and make sure to maintain the quality of the product.
Munich Startup: Where do you want to stand in one year, where in five years?
Martin Moravek: In one year, we want to offer Minimalist Phone for iOS as well. Currently the app is only available for Android, but we’re working intensively to make it accessible to iPhone users too.
In five years, we see Minimalist Phone as the known and obvious choice for anyone who wants to spend less time on their phone. Our goal is to raise awareness worldwide about mindful smartphone use and help millions of people positively change how they use their smartphones.
Sustainable growth instead of short-term hype
Munich Startup: How have you experienced Munich as a startup location so far?
Martin Moravek: I’ve lived in Munich for twelve years and I think it’s a great city to live in. We work in the Base Coworking Space, which gives us many valuable contacts. However, when we attend startup events, they usually take place outside of Munich. For example, we attended the Slush conference in Helsinki, which was a really great experience.
Munich Startup: Hidden champion or shooting star?
Martin Moravek: We see ourselves more as a hidden champion. Although we’ve already achieved over four million downloads with Minimalist Phone, we’re not yet firmly established in public awareness. Our focus is on continuously developing an excellent product in the background that helps people spend less time on their phones. We believe in sustainable growth and long-term value creation rather than short-term hype.
