With investing, the most important thing is to start
A common thread among many successful startups is that they are built upon their founders' real-life experience. The same goes for Birdwingo. Founders Andrej and Adam Hano studied and worked abroad for some time, which allowed them to build a few money-saving habits. "We have seen, mostly in the USA, that most people invest in something, be it shares, ETFs or mutual funds. So we have built the same habit of putting the money from every paycheck aside and investing it."
When the brothers returned to Europe, they realized this practice was rare. "We often hear ', I don't know where to start.' Many people believe they need a lot of information to make a decision, but that's a myth."
"We also noticed that in our region, it was quite common for people to choose investment products that didn't perform well, included a lot of hidden fees, or were offered by dubious individuals. So we decided to do something about this."
And so they introduced Birdwingo, an investment app that's easy to use, cost-effective and transparent. However, even though Birdwingo is currently the best investment app in the region in terms of value for money, the founders are aware that they need to do more to change people's mindsets.
"We are teaching people that the most important thing is to start. We are teaching them about compounding, and we are showing them that investing 10€ monthly as a twenty-three-year-old is better than investing 10,000€ when you are forty."
Investing in line with personal values
According to a report by Deloitte, the top concerns of Gen Z and Millennials are the cost of living and climate change. This trend is reflected in their need for socially responsible investing and the recent rise of ESG funds (Environmental, Social, and Governance).
A crucial part of Birdwingo's identity is addressing this need. "We want to be the investment app primarily for young people, where they will be able to invest in things they believe in. For example, if fighting climate change is important to me, I won't buy a company with 98% of its revenue coming from oil sales. We want to show people that making money doesn't have to clash with the idea of investing in businesses offering societal value."
"The investment into trademark registration is small compared to the risk it can prevent"
Many things go into ensuring a startup can thrive and succeed. A strong brand is one of them, which can, however, be exploited by the competition.
"We knew from the beginning that we wanted to cultivate a strong brand. An acquaintance suggested we look into trademark registration. He told me about all the risks we would otherwise be facing and that in the startup world especially, it's not uncommon for the competition to decide, 'ok, if we can't stop them any other way, we will stop them through the brand'. Once I learned what could happen and how easy it is to copy someone, we knew we wanted to have this done."
Experience with Trama
Even though the founders of Birdwingo knew they wanted to protect their brand by registering a trademark, they encountered a problem similar to what their clients go through - they didn't know where to start.
"Truth be told, I was a bit scared since I didn't know how the process worked and what I should do. Trama was recommended to us and covered everything for us, end-to-end. I was glad to be able to leave it to someone else since it allowed me to focus on more important strategic things."
"I filled out the form, and after some time, I got the message that our trademark had been successfully registered. The team at Trama explained the whole process to me, so I knew that some level of legal protection is there right after filing the application, so I felt safe in the meantime."
