No matter whether you cannot decide which products to buy at the supermarket or are looking for a great gift for others or for yourself, MyCouchbox will bring happiness to your home. Our surprise box containing sweet and salty snacks is the commercial version of the nice gift box your mother used to send you, and it fits the current trend of ordering food online.

Our surprise box, which was sold out after only 80 minutes when we launched it, is available as a convenient monthly subscription, as a one-time order, or as a gift sent to an address of your choice. Snack enthusiasts may also reorder the products through our store and may submit detailed reviews of all snacks.

In our first fiscal year (2014), we generated profits of over €30,000 even though we started our business with as little as €1,000 in equity. Because we have always placed much emphasis on reasonable prices, we have agreed on ideal terms with our partners (e.g., in the areas of logistics and marketing) so that we are able to exist as a self-financed start-up. 

Using this approach, we have generated more than €250,000 in revenues thus far. Our previous goal was to turn our idea into a successful business while using our own resources. We have now reached the growth stage and want to realize our full potential with the help of your investment. We will use your investment to develop our brand in a sustainable way (primarily by increasing customer awareness and improving our reputation among producers). Moreover, we will invest in human resources and in even more efficient infrastructure. Our highly motivated and interdisciplinary team is as diverse as MyCouchbox itself, and we are constantly focused on our mission of bringing happiness and excitement to our customers' everyday life.

Our concept is already working for more than 3,500 customers, and their number is increasing day by day. MyCouchbox is already profitable today because of our efficient way of working, our company's constant growth, and our 100 % self-financed business model.

Our powerful long-term position as a market leader is due to the fact that we get all products for free and can thus still offer customers the best price. For this very reason, our new customers are already generating profits when they order their first box, and customer acquisition costs are relatively low. 

Philipp Westermeyer  Jury Member on the German TV Show „Kampf der Start-ups“ (ZDF) "The best business model I've seen here since we started doing this show."

MyCouchbox Won a Contest on the German TV Show "Kampf der Start-ups" ("Start-up Battle")

Because of its more than 21,000 Facebook fans, MyCouchbox also owes its success to great presence in social networks. In fact, the MyCouchbox team has recognized the enormous potential of social networks from the beginning and has always used this potential for the company's benefit. By means of targeted campaigns, MyCouchbox has gradually become one of the largest platforms for candy and snacks. 

The market for MyCouchbox is ready for additional growth. Almost everyone consumes candy and snacks (according to the Association of the German Confectionery Industry, German per capita consumption of candy in 2014 was approx. 32.5 kg), and online sales are becoming increasingly important for the entire food industry, which the upcoming IPO of German food box delivery service „HelloFresh“ illustrates.

MyCouchbox is both a new and exciting alternative to grocery shopping in supermarkets and an extraordinary gift. We are the strongest player within the snack box market in terms of both customers and suppliers, and we want to strengthen this position and expand our business. Through MyCouchbox, we want to make people happy and operate a sustainable business that is lucrative both for our team and for you Companists.

MyCouchbox focuses on two customer groups:

• Consumers, which order boxes and/or reorder products
• Producers, which provide us with their products for free and/or purchase additional services

With regard to consumers, we generate revenues by selling boxes and reordered products. In addition, we charge consumers a fee if they choose DHL shipping. 

Consumers may choose between the subscription box for €9.99, the single box (to test our service) for €11.99, our limited-edition boxes for €15.00, and various individual products from our store. Their order is shipped to an address of their choice for free. In all cases, the value of goods (which is between €15.00 and €20.00 for the subscription box and the single box) in the box exceeds the sales price. If customers choose to do so, they may review each of the current products (based, for instance, on the product's taste, its packaging, and their willingness to reorder the product) and, in return, receive a Couch point for each review they submit. Once they have collected 50 Couch points, they receive a free MyCouchbox as a thank-you.

Producers, on the other hand, provide us with free products, which we can then introduce to consumers through our box. These products have a real value that appears on the producer's balance sheet, and we can send the products to consumers using the regular packaging and suggested retail prices developed for grocery retailers. We also generate direct revenues through additional services. Market research analyses are the most important revenue driver in this area, followed by our social media services, e.g., on Facebook.

We enable producers to introduce their products to consumers in these consumers' homes. In other words, producers "invest" in us through their products, thus letting these products speak for themselves. In addition, producers may choose to purchase other services, ranging from social media services to market research analyses based on customer feedback. 

Customer Benefits & Problem Solved: 

Consumers receive a box whose value by far exceeds its sales price. We introduce consumers to products they either do not know or have not tried yet. Thus, our customers may look forward to a new surprise box every month.

Producers are convinced of our service for several reasons. They appreciate the following advantages of MyCouchbox in particular:

• Product placement in people's homes has a valuable marketing effect.
  (The box is on everyone's lips.)

• MyCouchbox is collaborating with bloggers (especially via Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook), thus ensuring a new and greater reach every month that helps producers introduce and advertise their products.

• By means of our marketing campaigns in social networks, we are offering producers another marketing channel with a high reach. This enables producers to

1. Increase brand awareness
2. Attract new customers and brand ambassadors

• We are also offering relevant statistical analyses of customer feedback in the form of market research reports. Using these reports, producers can precisely adapt their products to demand and make their own marketing campaigns more efficient. Moreover, the reports help producers increase revenues in the long term and optimize expenses. 

deutsche-startups More than 25 Start-ups Who Are Instagram Experts Instagram, the world's largest social network for photos with over 400 million users [editor's note], has become highly popular! German start-ups should also use Instagram and provide their target group with excellent pictures. In this article, deutsche-startups.de shows you a number of new and old start-ups that are Instagram experts."

1. Best price on the market: As our box is worth at least €15.00 and is sold for a cheap price starting at €9.99, our customers get the best price-performance ratio available on the market. 

2. Ideal cost structure: Our sales team currently acquires all products for free from producers.

3. Two-tiered business model: Product reviews submitted by our customers provide us with real, high-quality data that we offer to producers as fee-based marketing reports (diversification).

Launched in January 2014 with four brands ("funny-frisch," "Fritt," "Schogetten," and "Carstens Marzipan"), MyCouchbox has already cooperated with more than 160 brands and is providing its services to both market leaders and small, regional producers. Because of the long-term focus of our sales activities, permanent analysis of our suppliers' needs, and additional services at attractive prices, brands like Loacker have already participated in our box more than four times and purchased additional services. 

The world's most important industry association, Sweets Global Network, has featured our market-leading company in its magazine twice and has invited one of our founders, Clemens Walter, as a speaker for the international candy congress in Berlin on 20 November 2015, where we will meet with decision-makers from all relevant companies (e.g., Edeka, Ferrero, Nestlé, Ritter Sport, etc.).

"MyCouchbox is an exciting way of directly introducing our products to consumers."

Andreas Wilkening, CEO Loacker Germany

"We like using MyCouchbox to find out which products consumers prefer."

Marc Niemeyer, CEO DanCake Germany

"We tested our products on the German market and attracted countless new customers."

Francesca de Caria, Samba Nuts & Mathilde-Vicenzi

"Both product partnerships and social media services are very interesting to us."

Thorsten Peters, Head of Marketing at Kuchenmeister

According to BDSI, per capita consumption of candy in Germany has increased continuously over the last few years and reached 32.5 kg in 2014. This is primarily due to the fact that snacks and candy have a market penetration of over 95 % according to the world's largest industry association Sweets Global Network (in other words, almost everyone buys candy or snacks). If one also considers the per capita spending of €1,211.00 on online shopping projected for 2015 (see eSales-4u), the potential of MyCouchbox for growth within the retail market is readily apparent.

Our customers may be split into three groups:

• Families with children
• Professionals (singles and families)
• Students and trainees

In 2013, the total amount of candy produced by the roughly 220 German producers was approx. 3.96 million tons, generating revenues of €12.5 billion – and these numbers are still on the rise. To many producers, it is important to keep in close contact with customers through innovative marketing strategies. We meet this demand through our high-reach marketing channels. In doing so, we do not focus solely on certain groups of producers (based on certain sizes, revenues, etc.), but we plan to become the most relevant partner in terms of market research and online marketing services for all producers.

We focus on the following B2B customers:

• Producers of candy, snacks, and beverages
• Industry associations
• Market research institutions

7. What Is the Current Status and What Will Come Next?

So far, we have achieved the following things:

• Launch in January 2014 with 50 limited-edition test boxes (sold out after only 80 minutes)

• More than 3,500 boxes shipped; over 50 % of these customers were subscribers in July 2015

• Partnerships with more than 160 producers

• Entirely self-financed growth

• Market leadership in snack boxes

• New online shop launched in June has improved service and product range available to our customers

• High marketing reach through our Facebook page (over 18,000 active fans)

Our next milestones will be:

• 5,000 boxes shipped in December 2015

• Development of market research department into a key area of our business and a key revenue driver

• Expansion of our shop for product reorders (higher sales volumes per customer)

• Strengthening of our position as a market leader in Germany and Austria

8. How Will You Use the Funds Raised on Companisto?

Using the funds raised through Companisto, we plan to expand our core business, the sale of boxes, and to optimize our processes. 

In addition, we want to keep expanding our second key area, market research, in a dynamic fashion.

Investment level 1: €100,000.00 or more

If we reach this level, we want to invest primarily in expanding our team.

This means that we will hire a new employee for our sales team and a new employee for both the marketing and the customer service department. To keep improving our market research activities, we plan to hire two new employees for this department.

Investment level 2: €200,000.00 or more

If we reach this level, we will also invest in an expansion of our team. In addition to the new employees mentioned above, we will hire a new employee for our logistics department. This person will then be in charge of the entire day-to-day operations in our logistics department (especially if the number of customers increases significantly and reaches the five-digit range).

So far, we have achieved the following things:

• Launch in January 2014 with 50 limited-edition test boxes (sold out after only 80 minutes)
• More than 3,500 boxes shipped; over 50 % of these customers were subscribers in July 2015
• Partnerships with more than 160 producers
• Entirely self-financed growth
• Market leadership in snack boxes
• New online shop launched in June has improved service and product range available to our customers
• High marketing reach through our Facebook page (over 21,000 active fans)

Our next milestones will be:

• 5,000 boxes shipped in December 2015
• Development of market research department into a key area of our business and a key revenue driver
• Expansion of our shop for product reorders (higher sales volumes per customer)
• Strengthening of our position as a market leader in Germany and Austria

Using the funds raised through Companisto, we plan to expand our core business, the sale of boxes, and to optimize our processes. 

In addition, we want to keep expanding our second key area, market research, in a dynamic fashion.

Investment level 1: €100,000.00 or more

If we reach this level, we want to invest primarily in expanding our team.

This means that we will hire a new employee for our sales team and a new employee for both the marketing and the customer service department. To keep improving our market research activities, we plan to hire two new employees for this department.

Investment level 2: €200,000.00 or more

If we reach this level, we will also invest in an expansion of our team. In addition to the new employees mentioned above, we will hire a new employee for our logistics department. This person will then be in charge of the entire day-to-day operations in our logistics department (especially if the number of customers increases significantly and reaches the five-digit range).

Try

We would be particularly glad if you tried our service and tested it very carefully. In other words, please do not just look at our history and our KPIs, but also let your stomach and your passion for snacks decide. We are an investment for all your senses, and we are glad about every new subscriber or tester.

Participate

As we have already mentioned, we will expand our team to boost our company's growth and to meet the challenges related to this growth. Most importantly, we need support in the areas of sales and market research. Consequently, we would be particularly happy if our Companisto campaign also led to a few job applications.

Spread the Word

Like us, share our posts, and tell your friends about us! In order to grow as fast as possible, we need one thing above anything else: increased customer awareness! To reach this goal, we plan to use both a major part of the additional capital we raise and the attention we attract through our Companisto campaign. Apart from capital, we are getting something invaluable: your attention and your support in making our company more popular. You can find us here:

Website:                 www.mycouchbox.de

Facebook:               www.facebook.com/MyCouchbox

Instagram:              www.instagram.com/mycouchbox

YouTube:                http://zumlink.de/MyCouchboxYoutube

Awards:

• MyCouchbox finished in 1st place on the German TV Show "Kampf der Start-ups" ("Start-up Battle")
• MyCouchbox won the Elevator Pitch BW Stuttgart

Corporate Social Responsibility:

• MyCouchbox supported a children's home in Stuttgart by providing gifts for Easter.
• MyCouchbox gave free snacks and candy to a sheltered workshop in Stuttgart-Wangen.
• Moreover, we are making regular contributions to Schwäbische Tafel (a local food bank).
• Finally, we are currently planning to give free candy and snacks to the Stuttgart refugee camp for Syrian children.

GLS Award for Carbon-Neutral Shipping:

• Between April 2014 and April 2015, MyCouchbox cut its CO₂ emissions by 9.4 t. 

MyCouchbox (Couch Media GmbH)                  

Hermannstraße 5a

70178 Stuttgart, Germany

Phone:                    +49-711-95803395

Email:                      info@mycouchbox.de                                                                                           

Website:                  www.mycouchbox.de and www.couchmedia.de