Nils Feigenwinter has done it again. After a steep rise from childhood to presenter, media entrepreneur and finally start-up founder, the 22-year-old was able to win over several big names for his latest project, Bling, just a few weeks ago. Verena Pausder has joined and Ben Tellings. What are Feigenwinter's plans? A conversation about early beginnings, days off and the urge to make a difference.

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Mr. Feigenwinter, what have you done recently?

The last thing I did was take a weekend off. I went hiking in the rain with my girlfriend on a Sunday and allowed myself the luxury of simply leaving my cell phone in the car, something I never do. In my position, time has long been a greater luxury than money or material things.

Who calls you on a Sunday?

With Bling, we are building the first financial app with a prepaid card for children and have thousands of active families. They count on our service and don't know a Sunday or 9-to-5. This also applies to our operations team.

Delegation is not your strong point, is it?

You would have to ask the people I delegate to. Of course I can rely on my team. But because of my career, I have a strong hands-on mentality. I always ask myself: can't I just do it myself? In this early phase of the company, the answer is still often "yes".

You say this urge comes from your career. When did it start?

I first appeared as a presenter on the radio and also on television when I was ten years old, back then on SRF, the Swiss public broadcaster. I gained a lot of experience there early on and was then also asked to give talks and panels at companies. They wanted to know: What makes your generation tick? I explained that to them.

Advising a company as a ten-year-old sounds crazy. How did it feel?

I grew into it, but I always wanted to have a say and create something. I made my first PowerPoint presentations at the age of six and soon after printed my first magazines on our home computer. At some point, I was banned from printing because every dental practice had one of my self-designed magazines lying around. The proactive Nils has always been there.

Building a PowerPoint presentation at a young age. How do you come up with something like that?

I also edited animated films at the same age. We had an iMac at home that everyone was allowed to use. I was allowed to play Karlsson on the Roof once a week for 30 minutes, a preschool game that I found boring. I tried out the other programs instead and quickly switched to producing instead of consuming.

What do you earn as a consultant after ten years?

As an underage presenter, you weren't allowed to earn anything, that wasn't legally possible. It was also difficult with the consultancy contracts because I wasn't yet of legal age. I had the same problem later on when I started my own business. I constantly had to borrow a credit card from my mom, dad or grandparents if I wanted to get anything for a business. That was crazy.

After all, they have remained loyal to the media and founded Tize at the age of 15. For all those who don't know it: What was that?

Tize was and is the largest school and student newspaper in Switzerland. We understood early on that a newspaper only works hyperlocally and digitally. So students in school A could read different news than students in school B. For some it was about their teachers, for others it might be about rumors from their own school. Understanding this quickly made us an important medium with tens of thousands of clicks and 50 young journalists. The magazine still exists today. We also opened an agency through which we financed ourselves. There, we worked with brands to develop advertising for a young target group, which was also played out on Tize, among others.

And all this just happened alongside school?

It was before, during and after school. Always. While there was a lot of understanding at my school, there was certainly no one who had to make business phone calls on the patio or in the hallway during the five- or ten-minute break that often. I certainly had the most warnings for cell phone use.

How seriously did companies take them between companies and schools?

Very much so. Once we were asked how to position a movie, another time it was about making vocational training attractive again. We have always tried to mirror our media behavior. Of course, that was new for companies. When we came around the corner with Snapchat or Instagram in 2015, they laughed at us. But then they wanted our expertise.

In the meantime, you have concentrated on a new field: Banking. Your start-up Bling offers an account for children with their own payment card and a back door for parents to keep an eye on their finances at all times. What do you want to achieve?

We want to teach children the financial literacy they don't get at school. Everyone knows Pythagoras' theorem, but financial literacy is poor. We want to change that with our Bling app and card. Children can use it to pay in stores and their parents can approve payments, amounts and specific locations, as well as savings pots and tips and tricks for better saving. For children, Bling is a status symbol because the card is so cool; for parents, it's the best way to raise their child to be self-reliant.

You recently received money from investors. How much was that?

Unfortunately, I can't say. But we do have some institutional investors such as La Famiglia and also business angels, including Verena Pausder, Ben Telling and others. I think that speaks for itself. It was important for us to find strategic partners who can grow with us in the long term and who understand our target audience: Families. This target group has been neglected so far, but I believe that it has a high willingness to pay and that a good business model is possible.

Are you earning money with your idea?

Not yet, because we are growing very strongly. However, parents are already paying monthly contributions that help us to monetize. That puts us ahead of other start-ups. And remember: we've only been around since June 2022, so we still have big plans.

Thank you very much for the interview.

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