Update from EHL Incubator

My name is Friederike Schnitger. I am an EHL graduate of 2011 and as of January my Start-up - MyHands UG is part of the EHL Incubator. After finishing my masters at ESCP Europe in Paris and London I started running my own country guesthouse. The facility included 10 hotel rooms, a cosy bar as well as a restaurant serving upscale German cuisine.

However, as life brings you challenges along the way and as a single mother, I decided to sell my business after 6 years in 2019 to return to a more child friendly life hood.

What has stayed were experiences between heaven and hell that will last for a lifetime as well as one product idea that came into my mind already in 2016. As a kid I dreamt of becoming an inventor and this product idea was somehow stuck in my head, that shall now become reality in 2022, finally.

The idea was born during wedding season in 2016. At peak times I relied on students working as well as staffing agencies. That evening we had a wedding serving a 4-course menu to 120 people. All external staff members were at the early training stage and as such could not carry 3 plates straight away (2 plates in one hand and one in the other). I could not order trained staff as there was not available on the market as competition was fierce.

During service the mood became more and more tense ending up with a yelling kitchen chef and nearly crying young people. That moment I spoke out loud: ,,Why does no one on this earth invents a serving aid?! This would enable us to do our job without endless discussions!’’ I instantly googled if there was a solution for my problem. Surprisingly there was none, yet to be found on the market.

Back then, the most logical consequence to me was inventing one by myself. A tool that enables inexperienced employees to carry three plates instant moment without any training, straight away from the very beginning. Thus, I started MyHands UG, came up with many prototypes of my future service waiter helper (SWELPER ) and filed my first patent.