Apilio

Apilio – tell our community about why you became an SSA member.

As a startup ourselves, we see organisations such as the SSA that support our rich Swiss startup ecosystem, as a key player to advocate for our very specific needs as small companies. Becoming a member was our way of showing our support for such activities and the ecosystem. Also, the SSA is based in Winterthur like ourselves, so joining was a no-brainer!

Of course – hey, neighbours! Do you hope to achieve anything specific with our support?

As startups, our strength can come from our numbers, making our voices heard and being able to reach any specific support we might need. We hope to contribute to amplifying the SSA’s voice in the Swiss innovation landscape, as this will certainly benefit all Swiss startups in the long run!

We are of course here to help you along the ride. Start by telling our readers about Apilio.

We help consumers build useful automation with their existing smart home devices of almost any brand. Apilio is a virtual hub that integrates with almost any smart gadget out there and has the flexibility to create highly customised logic for your home or your business.

Smart homes is an industry forecasted to grow considerably! What motivates the team at Apilio to stand out in the market and make your story successful?

We see that the early enthusiasm for Smart Home has cooled down. That is because, after the initial excitement about the new products, owners discover that their technology is severely limited by software constraints. More hardware is not the solution, but smarter software is! We want to offer a solution for smart home enthusiasts worldwide who are frustrated because their devices’ software prevents them from creating the smart home automations of their dreams.

Less is indeed sometimes more. Would you be open to sharing what your burdens were while starting up Apilio?

One of the scariest moments was when we transitioned from a free service to a paid subscription model. This is especially tricky in B2C cases. Of course, you will always encounter some users who are not ready to pay for your service, but we were heartened to receive fantastic support from our existing user base. Even better, our community continues to grow every day.

Well, congratulations for already achieving customer loyalty even through such a transition. Speaking of transition – how do you think the startup scene will develop in the near future?

Making predictions today is very difficult, especially in the midst of a pandemic. It’s hard to predict whether people will become more risk-averse and look for a more “stable” job or if they are more in the “now or never” mood and the current situation will only accelerate their plans to become entrepreneurs themselves. I certainly hope to see more startups with global ambition and impact.

So does the SSA! Anna and Philipp, thank you for your words. We look forward to this journey together.

Visit Apilio on their website: www.apilio.com

Are you a startup and want to join the SSA? Register now!

AUTHOR

Adele Bottoni

CONTRIBUTOR

Aline Geissmann