CBS International Business School, 1 May 2020

A portrait of CBS founders: Emre Aydin and René Schröder from Orderfy

cbs-founders-emre-aydin-and-rene-schröder-from-orderfy

Time is and remains our most important resource: With the digital platform "Orderfy" from the founding team Emre Aydin and René Schröder, customers simply order and pay via their smartphones. This enables them to receive offers in real time and save money, time and unnecessary paper receipts. In addition to their master`s studies in “General Management”, both entrepreneurs only founded the start-up last year and have now given us an insight into their founder world.

CBS: How did you come into contact with the subject of "founding" in your studies?

René Schröder: As the teaching at CBS is very practically oriented our study programme included obligatory internships. In these internships and through our previous professional experience we realized that we have an extraordinarily strong “founder gene” in us. As part of our Change Management seminar we had to form small groups and create solutions to current problems regarding technological processes. We started discussing our ideas and identified huge potential in order- and payment processes. We invested more and more time into the solution and the idea turned into a vision.

CBS: Were there lecturers or fellow students at the CBS with whom you were able to exchange information about "company start-ups"?

René Schröder: Most of our lecturers run their own businesses as well or are still active in other companies. Prof. Dr. Uwe Bloss was one of the first supporters of “Orderfy”, and we discussed our vision with him on several occasions. He also made it possible for me to write the business plan for “Orderfy” as part of my master`s thesis. We decided to apply for the EXIST Founder`s Scholarship, in which Prof. Dr. Mike Schallehn is our mentor and has been supporting us with his knowledge about entrepreneurship.

CBS: What is special about your business idea?

Emre Aydin: It is not only the ordering and payment options with smartphones that make Orderfy special. We have developed an algorithm which analyses the demand structure for changing prices.

Our digital menus allow restaurant owners to flexibly update dishes as well as prices according to the recommendations of our automatic pricing engine. This is possible because we can track and analyse the customer reactions to changing prices in real-time.

The combination of offering our customers all possible digital payment methods and our automatic pricing engine makes OrderPay something completely new and unique.

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CBS: What were the biggest challenges on the way to starting your business?

René Schröder: We are facing new challenges every day. However, the biggest challenge so far has been the development of the backend. This is a complex and iterative process, so we work closely with our developers.

One of the most important things when it comes to solving problems and generally, found a business is networking. It is very important to talk about ideas and possible solutions in order to get feedback. I think that there are still some big challenges ahead of us. The most important thing is to be stress resistant, to keep calm and to act rationally even in challenging times.

CBS: How are you currently dealing with the conditions imposed by the corona crisis?

Emre Aydin: We are currently in one of the most difficult situations for us: because of the corona virus have all restaurants been closed and we therefore cannot start our test phase. However, we are using this time to improve our platform and to acquire new restaurants. Digital payment systems have never been as popular and accepted as during this crisis, which makes market acceptance more easily for us.

CBS: What would you advise CBS students who are thinking of founding their own company?

Emre Aydin: I think that the most important thing is that you find something that you are passionate about. I would say that it is important to always question existing methods and processes. Society and technologies are always changing. This is why new opportunities are always emerging.

But to develop a new idea, it is important to understand the market in which you want to operate in. In the best case you create solutions, products or services for people who live, think and act like you. So that you basically know and understand your customer.

CBS: Thank you very much for the interview!

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The association hochschulgründernetz cologne (hgnc) at CBS offers further information on founding as well as free consulting and meeting for students and employees. Learn more here!

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CBS International Business School is a state-recognised private university of applied sciences for business. We offer accredited Bachelor's, Master's and MBA degree programmes in German and English on a full-time or part-time basis. Throughout Germany, the university is represented at three locations in Cologne, Mainz, and Potsdam.

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