New Entrepreneur (NE):
Name & surname: Alexandru Hortolomei
Country: Moldovia / Germany
Age: 24
Sector of activity: Graphic Design / Visual Communication
Did you already start your business? No
Name of business/website: Hort Design
What is your future business? A graphic design and visual communication company focussing on corporate identity for established companies.
Host Entrepreneur (HE):
Name & surname: Tobias Schaller
Country: Austria
Sector of activity: Consulting
Experience in running a business (in years): 5
Name of business/website: mosaik Projects e.U., www.mosaik.pro
What is your business? mosaik focuses on strategy, corporate development, transformation and product development.
Period of exchange: 04/08/2021 – 30/09/2021
Duration of exchange: 2 months
Sasha’s graphic design skills and Tobias’ Viennese startup savee
Tobias Schaller has a rich experience in management and business consulting in the field of financial services. He started his own consultancy mosaik Projects in 2017 which focuses on strategy, corporate development, transformation and product development. As a core, large organisations are supported to design concrete implementation steps and the necessary set-up for a successful realisation of strategic decisions, by delivering the basis for complex initiatives like projects & programs, products & services and strategic corporate development.
Being a father of two, Tobias was concerned with the financial education of his children and came up with an innovative idea on how to help other parents to transfer financial literacy to their children at an early stage in their lives.
This idea was the beginning of the start-up savee which Tobias runs alongside mosaik Projects. savee is a digital finance buddy which shall help children with monetary education from the age of three to ten. savee brings the topic of finances into the living rooms and children’s rooms of this world. Parents are involved in their children’s financial education at eye level right from the start – playfull, age orientated and multisensory.
Recently the new savee brand including a product teaser video has been launched. The fully functional prototype is currently developed as a preparation for the first series production and the go-to-market strategy.
Sasha’s passion is graphic design and painting. His artistic side complements his business oriented thinking making entrepreneurship the next logical step after finishing studies at a school of graphic design in Mannheim.
Hort Design is the name for Sasha’s company which will focus on creating and updating corporate identity for small and medium-sized enterprises. Sasha wants to bring added value to his customers by combining his creative skills with his practical attitude.
One of his main goals for the exchange was to learn new skills and to gain customer experience.
Sasha’s expertise in graphic design meant he was able to help Tobias enhance both savee’s corporate identity as well as its customer journey. Sasha could profit from the experience of other UX/UI experts on savee’s team while contributing substantially to the project by bringing in fresh perspectives.
By using agile product development, Tobias and Sasha established short feedback loops and regular stand-ups. This enhanced the possibility for Sasha to learn from Tobias and master the agile method.
Product development was one of the main collaboration areas of this exchange, another important area was community strategy where Sasha could continue the work started by the previous young entrepreneur Alexandru Plecan and help Tobias engage with and enlarge the savee community. Both Sasha and Tobias are very content with the outcome of this exchange and plan to stay in touch in their professional future.