As part of the start-up academy, Tina Grüner received start-up coaching from October 2019 to January 2020 to help her set up her sports studio "Theo turnt".
The website with information about her services can be found at www.theoturnt.de
We conducted the following interview with Tina Grüner in October 2021.
When I was traveling the world in 2018, I kept noticing the unlimited media consumption of children. I worked as an au pair for a family in New Zealand for a few months. The two children were 2 and 5 years old and both had their own tablet and I was shocked by the "drama" that occurred when screen time was over and the lack of interest in any movement. As I continued to travel through many different countries, a similar picture emerged.
Of course, we live in an age of digitalization and it is super important that kids learn digital literacy. But as a children's sports coach, I also know how important movement experiences are for healthy child development.
I couldn't let go of this experience, so I started looking for a solution that would combine these two aspects and wrote the first concept of my idea while still in Japan. Back in Germany, I decided against returning to my secure job in the police force and founded Theo Turnt.
With our Theo Turnt app, we are solving the problem of the lack or scarcity of leisure activities for children aged 1-6 years and offering an alternative with a variety of exercise and play concepts that can be implemented by anyone using everyday household and natural materials. The aim is to strengthen children's movement skills and encourage families to spend time together.
Our interactive app makes it easy to move together in a playful way, and parents also receive helpful knowledge about motor development and individual tips for their own child. Children are at home with digital media these days, but you can also use them to get them excited about analog activities. In this way, we lay the foundation for a healthy upbringing and prevent later illnesses caused by a lack of fitness, obesity and cardiovascular problems.
An important reason why I was able to decide in favor of self-employment and against my secure civil servant job was the support provided by the Innostart bonus from FutureSax. With a monthly payment of 1,000 euros for a year, I had the support I needed to gain my first experience of setting up my own business.
In addition, the HSZG's start-up initiative gave me perfect support for my first steps. When I came to Dave, I had 1000 ideas and thoughts, which we first organized together and turned into steps towards my own company. He probably also saved me from making a lot of mistakes. I also met my current business partner at an event organized by Futuresax and HSZG. Coincidence or not, that took my and our start-up to a whole new level.
I started Theo turnt back then as a sole trader. The basic concept of the app was already there, but I didn't have the expertise of a computer scientist in my team, so I first gave children's gymnastics classes to get to know my target group better. In January 2020, I opened the first children's gymnastics studio in the region in Görlitz and unfortunately had to close again in March due to coronavirus. Fortunately, a digital solution was needed all the more and together with my business partner, we were able to build a small team of computer scientists, sports scientists, educators and graphic designers and publish our first app version in a basic version after just a few months.
We were supported by MBG-Sachsen (Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Sachsen) and the Corona-Startup-Hilfsfonds, because of course we still lacked income due to the lockdown. In retrospect, the coronavirus situation was definitely very challenging for us and for me too. In addition to all the euphoria of having my own company, I was "unemployed" from one day to the next and the app concept was not yet marketable. To cover all the running costs, I worked in a part-time job for 8 months. I think 2020, which was an incredibly quiet year for many, was the most stressful year of my life so far. My new job during the day, followed by the gym classes (when it was possible again) under difficult hygiene regulations and in the evenings we worked on our app until late at night.
We would like to enter the health market and offer our app as a preventive offer for children up to the age of 6 via health insurance companies. Our mission is to get children excited about exercise, regardless of the direction in which our company develops; this will always remain our first and most important principle.
The lack of physical activity among children is a current social problem and will continue to concern us in the future. Nevertheless, it still receives far too little attention. We hope that this will change in the future and that more attention will be paid to the issue of physical activity in other areas, even for the youngest children.
Build up a good network. This is especially important at the beginning!
Say goodbye to the romantic notion of a start-up and quick overnight success. Start-up life has so many ups and downs, sometimes I go through ten different emotional states in one day. But it's worth it to keep going! My team and I surpass ourselves every day and nobody can take these experiences away from us.
