Munich Startup: Who are you and what does Rentflix do? Please introduce yourselves!
Rentflix: We are Kilian and Jigar, the founders of Rentflix. Kilian is 18 years old and is studying electrical engineering at the Technical University of Munich. He’s also the CEO of Rentflix. He came up with the idea for the Rentflix sharing platform in April 2020. He started fleshing out the idea while working on his school leaving examination.
Kilian already built the startup community Munich Valley two years ago, which is a place to connect the startup community in Munich. The Facebook group now has more than 2500 members.
Jigar joined in August last year. He is the CTO of Rentflix and has more than 16 years of experience in software development. We took our time in the beginning to figure out which market niche we actually wanted to start with.
We are a sharing platform for the items you love! Do you need a Nintendo Switch, GoPro or drone for your long-awaited vacation? No problem, you can simply rent the item you need by the day. You can also rent things out on our platform!
Renters on our sharing platform can be companies or private individuals. That means you can rent out items on Rentflix that you just have lying around and earn money with them. We would like to invite everyone to give Rentflix a try and to upload their own items.
Be flexible and live sustainably
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Rentflix: We close the gap between use and ownership. With the flood of items on the market, it’s not even possible to buy all of them. Not to mention having to find a place to store them. Rentflix keeps you flexible and you can live more sustainably!
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Rentflix: It actually is! In the field of the sharing economy, there were just a few small projects in recent years. But we have big plans for Rentflix. And that’s why we don’t just want to limit ourselves to big cities. It will be possible to use Rentflix across Germany from the very beginning! But our focus is definitely on the German metropolitan areas like Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, etc.
Munich Startup: Was there a point when you nearly failed?
Rentflix: Kilian has already started other projects. But Rentflix is the first platform he’s building. The challenge is getting large numbers of both owners and renters on our platform. That caused the most difficulties, especially in the beginning. But new experience has improved our success rate. Now it’s a matter of finding as many renters as possible while also maintaining the range of items that are offered.
Rentflix is focused on expansion
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, and where in five years?
Rentflix: Our focus is on expansion and being the best product in the world. At the moment, we’re working on the Rentflix app for Android and iOS. It will probably go live around September. With the app, we’re going to make the entire rental experience much easier, faster and more secure. In one year, we’re planning to have a high concentration of listed items on offer. In short, Rentflix will be available across Germany in one year!
The plan for the next five years is to not only be active in Germany, but also worldwide. Our goal is to expand the sharing approach to different areas: “Rentflix accelerates the transition to a circular economy!”
Munich Startup: What do you think about Munich as a startup location?
Rentflix: Kilian already established a startup community more than a year ago with Munich Valley. We’ve now grown to more than 2500 members. We’re convinced that Munich is growing in popularity right now. Some are already calling it Germany’s Silicon Valley. Startups and disruptive companies in the fields of aerospace, AI and robotics are what you find in particular in Munich. Munich is strong when it comes to tech. Especially in association with universities. I’m excited to see how we’ll look back on our forecast in five years.
Munich Startup: Coworking or your own office?
Rentflix: Definitely coworking spaces! We’re currently located at the Wework on Oskar-von-Miller-Ring in Munich. The advantage of coworking is networking and connecting. It’s so easy to meet new people from different fields. It’s also more affordable than having your own office and more services are offered. At Wework, for example, free coffee and snacks are included!
We would highly recommend for everyone to take a look at coworking spaces. We think it’s worth it!