Interviews
Interviews
Podcast
9.1.2023
Anyone who has been out and about in major cities in recent months will have come across the products of the start-up Vytal. Restaurants, for example, sell takeaway food in their boxes and cups. Customers must then return the boxes within 14 days, otherwise they automatically purchase them. The start-up recently raised ten million euros for this idea and has already acquired major partners such as Rewe in the past. And founder Tim Breker? He had his hands full.
A day off because my son is ill. That may sound strange, but that day is today (laughs). So after our conversation, I'm taking the day off to look after him and deal with the pre-Christmas stress.
I worked almost non-stop for the first two years of Vytal, and I was also busy with the start-up most weekends. Of course, this affected my relationships with my partner and, of course, my friends. But the nice thing is that at least they could see and follow that what I was doing was having a real impact.
I would present it differently. Vytal is a reusable system that I founded with two colleagues I knew from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Back then, we often went out for lunch, got something to eat, went into the team room and we had packaging flying around everywhere. The same thing happened in the evening when we ordered something to eat. No office garbage can was big enough.
Exactly. We also had a Vapiano across the street and they had very good packaging that you could use several times - but at Vapiano you weren't allowed to have it refilled for internal reasons. So the packaging piled up in the office, it was crazy. We then realized: There's no shortage of packaging, everyone has a lot of it lying around - just always in the wrong place, either at home or still in the office, but never where you actually need it. So we founded Vytal.
No, I have to interject here. It works like a reusable system and without a deposit. In Germany, this is often closely linked because we have a bottle deposit, but these are two different things. With us, people can borrow a cup or a box without paying anything for it. They only pay if they don't bring it back for 14 days - that's also where the success of the concept lies.
When people get something for free, they do everything they can to make sure it stays free. Otherwise they create a cognitive dissonance, i.e. an unpleasant feeling, which they want to avoid as much as possible. That's why people return our boxes and cups within 14 days, with a rate of over 99%. You have to imagine that we are more efficient than the German deposit bottle system.
Mixed, some people smiled at us. We first had to make them understand: Our innovation is not in the reusable containers, the idea is ancient. No, our innovation lies in the digital processing and the high efficiency of our system, which works so smoothly. That's how we won them over and ultimately raised around ten million euros.
I spent a year abroad in the USA in the eleventh grade, where I had a host father who inspired me. He was a multi-entrepreneur and ever since then I wanted to study "entrepreneurship". Unfortunately, that's not possible in Germany, but the closest I could get was to study at WHU. I then started and completed this and founded my first company in 2011.
No, really not at all. But it also had a strong purpose Many people looked at me the wrong way for taking that step: After graduating, I went to a secondary school as a teacher or Teach First Germany Fellow and implemented projects there. One of these projects was a school kiosk where ninth and tenth graders learned about entrepreneurship and business. It was so successful that I founded a non-profit company to turn the one school kiosk into a franchise chain with 14 school kiosks in NRW.
The students who took part learned a lot about entrepreneurship, got good internships and other head teachers wanted the same. However, it was never really financially viable and I had to ask foundations for money for the project, for example. It was then that I realized that if you really want to change something, you have to use the economic system to do so, otherwise you can't scale up. That's why we didn't set up Vytal as a non-profit company, but as one that can scale its sales.
No, actually never in our household. I grew up in the Agnesviertel, which is very hip and trendy today. Back then, it was a mixed neighborhood. My entire youth consisted of playing soccer with Turks, Italians and Germans.
With tutoring. I did a lot of tutoring as a teenager, sometimes for money, but often for free for my teammates. Hardly anyone spoke German at home, which is of course difficult for the children who go to school here.
I actually don't know. I always had the feeling that I had to take care of things. Over the past few years, I've also realized that I get the most out of my work when I can really make a difference, which is the case with Vytal. We are already as successful as all other reusable apps worldwide put together, if you look at the download figures, and in 2023, reusable packaging will be mandatory in Germany. This means that companies will have to offer to pack food in reusable packaging, for example. This is an important step and makes Germany the most promising market in which reusable packaging will become the standard as a solution to the global problem of single-use packaging.
Personal details: Tim Breker, 35, is co-founder and Managing Director of Vytal. He studied business administration and public policy and holds a doctorate in social-cognitive psychology. He is passionate about using business and entrepreneurship to tackle social challenges.
Interviews
9.1.2023
Nils Wischmeyer
With Vytal, Tim Breker is building a successful reusable system. In this interview, he talks about his childhood, why he ran school kiosks - and the psychology behind his reusable system.
Anyone who has been out and about in major cities in recent months will have come across the products of the start-up Vytal. Restaurants, for example, sell takeaway food in their boxes and cups. Customers must then return the boxes within 14 days, otherwise they automatically purchase them. The start-up recently raised ten million euros for this idea and has already acquired major partners such as Rewe in the past. And founder Tim Breker? He had his hands full.
A day off because my son is ill. That may sound strange, but that day is today (laughs). So after our conversation, I'm taking the day off to look after him and deal with the pre-Christmas stress.
I worked almost non-stop for the first two years of Vytal, and I was also busy with the start-up most weekends. Of course, this affected my relationships with my partner and, of course, my friends. But the nice thing is that at least they could see and follow that what I was doing was having a real impact.
I would present it differently. Vytal is a reusable system that I founded with two colleagues I knew from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Back then, we often went out for lunch, got something to eat, went into the team room and we had packaging flying around everywhere. The same thing happened in the evening when we ordered something to eat. No office garbage can was big enough.
Exactly. We also had a Vapiano across the street and they had very good packaging that you could use several times - but at Vapiano you weren't allowed to have it refilled for internal reasons. So the packaging piled up in the office, it was crazy. We then realized: There's no shortage of packaging, everyone has a lot of it lying around - just always in the wrong place, either at home or still in the office, but never where you actually need it. So we founded Vytal.
No, I have to interject here. It works like a reusable system and without a deposit. In Germany, this is often closely linked because we have a bottle deposit, but these are two different things. With us, people can borrow a cup or a box without paying anything for it. They only pay if they don't bring it back for 14 days - that's also where the success of the concept lies.
When people get something for free, they do everything they can to make sure it stays free. Otherwise they create a cognitive dissonance, i.e. an unpleasant feeling, which they want to avoid as much as possible. That's why people return our boxes and cups within 14 days, with a rate of over 99%. You have to imagine that we are more efficient than the German deposit bottle system.
Mixed, some people smiled at us. We first had to make them understand: Our innovation is not in the reusable containers, the idea is ancient. No, our innovation lies in the digital processing and the high efficiency of our system, which works so smoothly. That's how we won them over and ultimately raised around ten million euros.
I spent a year abroad in the USA in the eleventh grade, where I had a host father who inspired me. He was a multi-entrepreneur and ever since then I wanted to study "entrepreneurship". Unfortunately, that's not possible in Germany, but the closest I could get was to study at WHU. I then started and completed this and founded my first company in 2011.
No, really not at all. But it also had a strong purpose Many people looked at me the wrong way for taking that step: After graduating, I went to a secondary school as a teacher or Teach First Germany Fellow and implemented projects there. One of these projects was a school kiosk where ninth and tenth graders learned about entrepreneurship and business. It was so successful that I founded a non-profit company to turn the one school kiosk into a franchise chain with 14 school kiosks in NRW.
The students who took part learned a lot about entrepreneurship, got good internships and other head teachers wanted the same. However, it was never really financially viable and I had to ask foundations for money for the project, for example. It was then that I realized that if you really want to change something, you have to use the economic system to do so, otherwise you can't scale up. That's why we didn't set up Vytal as a non-profit company, but as one that can scale its sales.
No, actually never in our household. I grew up in the Agnesviertel, which is very hip and trendy today. Back then, it was a mixed neighborhood. My entire youth consisted of playing soccer with Turks, Italians and Germans.
With tutoring. I did a lot of tutoring as a teenager, sometimes for money, but often for free for my teammates. Hardly anyone spoke German at home, which is of course difficult for the children who go to school here.
I actually don't know. I always had the feeling that I had to take care of things. Over the past few years, I've also realized that I get the most out of my work when I can really make a difference, which is the case with Vytal. We are already as successful as all other reusable apps worldwide put together, if you look at the download figures, and in 2023, reusable packaging will be mandatory in Germany. This means that companies will have to offer to pack food in reusable packaging, for example. This is an important step and makes Germany the most promising market in which reusable packaging will become the standard as a solution to the global problem of single-use packaging.
Personal details: Tim Breker, 35, is co-founder and Managing Director of Vytal. He studied business administration and public policy and holds a doctorate in social-cognitive psychology. He is passionate about using business and entrepreneurship to tackle social challenges.
About the author
Nils Wischmeyer
Nils Wischmeyer writes about financial markets, investments, banks, banking regulation and white-collar crime.
