- Student
- 17/12/2020
Hintle surprises and connects - and rethinks in times of crisis
This past year has made at least one thing clear: just how much we value a sense of connection. That this feeling may be nurtured by the smallest of gestures. And that at times we need to stand still and take stock. The Eindhoven-based startup Hintle can speak from experience on all three of these topics.
A surprise trip or a gift that is a well-kept secret - these alone are a joy to give or receive. But adding a frisson of delicious anticipation makes the experience even more complete. And to do just that Hintle has developed an app which helps gift-givers create this glee for the recipient in various ways, such as by dropping mysterious hints. The app is aimed at both private individuals and the business market.
The idea for Hintle was born some three years ago and came from the mind of (non-TU/e person) Germain Miedema, tells Dennis van Ravenstein, TU/e student of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences. Germain had once surprised his girlfriend with concert tickets and in the run-up to the event had immensely enjoyed sparking her interest with a series of playful teasers.
Miedema, whose strong suit is his creativity, says Van Ravenstein, started looking for someone who could actually build the platform, as well as someone with a good head for business. The Industrial Engineering student was the fourth person to join the team, via TU/e graduate Glenn Bergmans, who he had gotten to know through Dutch Coding Company. “It's always a question of who you know in Eindhoven,” he remarks.
Uncertainty due to corona
In December 2019 the company Hintle was officially launched. In the early months it showed immediate promise, enjoying plenty of interest from corporate event managers who saw in Hintle a good opportunity to create a greater sense of connection between companies and their staff. Then along came corona, and many companies had their hands full simply keeping their head above water “and we lost all our traction,” tells business developer Van Ravenstein, referring to the drop-off in growth after initially strong interest.
Owing to the great uncertainty it faced, the young company was forced to stand still and take stock. “We thought deeply about where we could best invest our energy.” The search for investors, which Hintle had planned to focus on in March, was “certainly not halted, but it did get pushed to the background for a while. First of all we wanted to concentrate on increasing our traction and further developing the company.”
Over the past year, this development has meant Hintle extending its focus to the individual consumer. In this market it is mainly couples who are expressing an interest, sees Van Ravenstein - one half of the couple wishing to surprise the other; the target group among whom the idea was originally born. For eight or twelve euros, customers (the givers) buy a (hard copy) invitation card or a festive box and also gain access to a personal online space from where they (if need be with some creative support from Hintle) can send hints - anonymously - to the recipient.
Makeshift
And this idea is catching on: according to Van Ravenstein, Hintle recently returned to profitability, “but as yet we aren't selling fast enough to the consumer market. We are still doing everything in typical startup fashion, a bit makeshift. It would make a big difference if we could automate some of our processes and if we could boost - and smarten up - our sales and marketing activity. But we are tied by my hours.”
These hours, which Van Ravenstein says average twelve to fifteen a week, are what the student has available to spend on the company alongside his Bachelor's of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, which he hopes to complete this coming year. As for income, he and his four fellow shareholders have nothing to seek at Hintle; at the moment a salary is out of the question. “We have decided to build up some capital first; most of us have other jobs. But if the current trend continues, we'll soon be able to pay ourselves something.”
Through coaching, accessed via various sources including BOM Brabant Ventures, Hintle is keen to continue redeveloping and expanding its concept in the months to come. According to Van Ravenstein, the main line of exploration is whether the company can extend its products to include “a sort of 'surprise date night as a service', whereby a customer buys a surprise outing as a complete package.”
Emotional connection
Even though, due to corona, Hintle has invested less energy in the business market over the past nine months, that door “is still wide open,” stresses Van Ravenstein. “Corona caused a bit of a panic within companies and so there was less leeway for extras. But now that we know we'll all be in this corona boat together for some while yet, we are seeing that a greater need really does exist for emotional connection between the people working within an organization.”
And so this market is slowly reviving, “we are getting good orders again, but now directly from companies and no longer via event managers working as intermediaries, as we did when we started. Particularly within rapidly growing companies, especially in the tech sector, a lot of attention is being paid to employees, and these places find it easier to release money for this purpose. And so we are planning to reintroduce ourselves more actively to the business market.”
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