Interview with Manuel Voigt, owner and founder of Grow-Grow Nut Switzerland
Manuel Voigt founded Grow-Grow Nut Switzerland in 2021, a company that enables its clientele to cultivate delicious and at the same time healthy microgreens at home in a real coconut shell. STARTUPS.CH met him for an interview.
What were your motivations for starting your own company?
The desire to get something of my own off the ground and simply curiosity. Many of my acquaintances were involved with startups and had really cool ideas. At the beginning, it was also relatively easy to reach new customers with online marketing and present good ideas.
Starting your own business is very exciting and often comes with a lot of unanswered questions. How did you experience this phase?
Already in 2019, I founded the company “Keimgrün” with a good friend in Germany, which deals with the topic of microgreens. During this time, I was already able to learn a lot about starting a business and the challenges associated with it. These insights helped me with the start-up in Switzerland and accelerated many processes significantly. Nevertheless, it is always a stressful time because it is impossible to pre-plan everything perfectly – some things just don’t go as desired and then it is important to keep a cool head and make the best of the situation!
How has your life changed since you started your business?
My father-in-law always said self-employed means “doing it myself” and “all the time.” In many industries, I can well imagine that this is still true. In the e-commerce world, we benefit from the fact that almost everything is fully digital. I have relied on automated business processes from the beginning, which saves me an enormous amount of time or frees it up for other (important) activities.
However, working on your own company is fundamentally different than in an employment relationship. Every decision is made even more conscientiously and often follows you late into the night.
What challenges might a start-up in your market face?
Due to the Corona pandemic, many companies have had to reorient themselves and have now also discovered the online market. On the one hand, this is a great development because digitization has been significantly expanded. On the other hand, however, it also leads to rising marketing costs for companies.
Especially for startups with a small product range, this is a big challenge because online marketing is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive.
This is clearly visible in the “offer packages” in e-commerce: In the past, there were often starter packages of products for 20-30 CHF, nowadays it is already 50 CHF and more. This is due to the fact that the marketing costs per user are significantly higher and thus the sales per user must also increase for the business to be profitable. However, this is contrary to the current market development, as potential customers are more inclined to spend less.
What do you particularly like about your life as an entrepreneur/manager of a start-up?
The independence. Thanks to automation and collaboration with our fulfillment partner, I can theoretically service the Grow-Grow groove from anywhere in the world. I also find it great to work with workshops for people with special needs. Inclusion is a very important topic, which means a win-win for business and people.
Future prospects: Where do you see yourself in five years?
My wish is to bring a lot more greenery to people’s windowsills and to draw attention to how easy and fascinating it is to grow micro-vegetables and sprouts – even without a garden of your own! In the next few years, I would also like to build a platform around the topic of microgreens in Switzerland.
What tips would you give to budding startups?
Do you have a good idea? Then buy some time for a prototype, let friends and family try it out and then start your own business! If not now, when? In the end, the only things you regret are the ones you didn’t try. Make sure that you can pursue your project with heart and focus and deal with the framework conditions in time, especially in the financial sense. Connect with networks in your area and learn from the successes and mistakes of other founders!
Final question: For what reasons did you decide to found your company with STARTUPS.CH?
I think it is simply brilliant that startups.ch offers this service. Starting a business is very complex, depending on the activity, and a lot of things can be done wrong that cost a lot of money and/or nerves afterwards. Thanks to startups.ch I had no worries at all. It is a great advantage to be able to fall back on their expertise and to have a knowledgeable contact person at hand at all times. Thanks again for that!
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