Metennkoste, winners of Test Drive 4 are now in Turbine’s Acceleration Program. We had a talk with the founders who shared with us their journey at Turbine.

Tell us about yourselves and your product

Marie and Hishaam, Founders of Metennkoste

My name is Marie. I am a 29-year-old mother of one and an entrepreneur. After finishing my studies at Loreto College of Rose Hill, I went to the Ecole Hoteliere Sir Gaetan Duval for a two-year course in Tourism Management. I then went to work in the marketing and sales sector for seven years in companies such as Precigraph, IBL Brandactiv and Scott & Co Ltd.

I am Hishaam, I am 26 years old, and I come from a sales and marketing background. I have worked six years in sales for the automobile and distribution industry before launching Metennkoste with Marie.

In 2019 we started to brainstorm about Metennkoste, a website that allows you to collect money easily from your friends and family for any common expenses or common gifts. Marie brought this idea up because we were constantly organising and participating in common gifts for our colleagues, friends or family, and it was always such a pain to get everyone together, collect the money of one and all, chase those who did not contribute etc.

The idea of such a website sounded like evidence! We were able to launch our MVP in October 2020 and are very happy to propose such an innovative service to the Mauritian market.

What are your main achievements so far?

Our main achievements are as follows:

• Winning the Test Drive organised by Turbine in June 2020 and being part of the Incubation Programme. It comforted us in the idea that our concept is interesting and has potential.

• Launching our website in October 2020 was a significant milestone for us as we worked so hard on the whole concept and faced some problems to launch our concept finally.

• Getting paid customers: There is growing interest in what we do, and we have paying customers since January 2021.

What role did Turbine play in your growth?

Graduation of Metennkoste at Turbine

Turbine has played a significant role in the launch of our company. More than just financial support, Turbine has opened an array of opportunities for us by connecting us to their partners and opening up their network for us. They have also provided us with the expertise of prestigious business coaches whom we meet every week. Moreover, they have built a community of entrepreneurs which is very closely knit and very supportive of each other. We could not have asked for a better programme.

What are the challenges you came across?

It was not easy setting up our business as we are an innovative service that did not exist before; all public and private institutions had difficulties classifying us. So, we had to face some challenges there.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?