Replug, Lorenzo and Luca's profitable start-up in Berlin | EUROtoday

Monte San Savino, with its 8,000 inhabitants, started to really feel cramped at that time. «One day, out of the blue, I resigned, left my girlfriend and left: vacation spot Berlin. I didn't know a phrase of German and even English. It was 2012. My father didn't instantly like the concept… for just a few days he didn't converse to me, however then he understood.” Lorenzo manages to make himself understood well by his first Berlin employer: «Job? Want? Yes? No? »… His future boss asked, pronouncing the four words. “Yes!” was Lorenzo's response to start putting down roots in Berlin.

Luca, now 42 years old, married, with a Spanish wife and a few-month-old son, has taken a completely different path. He leaves Taranto and his family at the age of 18. He enrolled in the faculty of engineering in Pisa and attended university for three years. Then he leaves his studies and arrives in Tokyo, where his father works for the Italian Navy. He works as a translator for a while, knowing English very well, and quickly learns Japanese. But he was still missing something: testing the world for himself. For this reason he leaves again, this time for Australia, where he remains for four years working in marketing. Then in 2011 the turning point: he bought a one-way ticket to Berlin and launched his first start-up in the German capital, a booking platform for artists in the music sector. The project doesn't take off but it allows him to gain in-depth knowledge of the functioning of the market and the world of start-ups. Like Lorenzo, Luca also falls but gets up again.

Lorenzo and Luca met in Berlin six years ago. They get along immediately because they both love “start-up culture”. What does “Berlin start-up culture” mean? I ask him. «My first day of work here in Berlin was in a start-up. I show up at 9 in the morning. And I stand outside the front door for an hour, until 10. There was no one there, until 10. I remember that we started working in the late morning, for two hours, then at 12 it was already time for lunch break . After lunch we played a bit of FIFA before getting back to work: the team was very young, there were around thirty of us in our twenties, a few Germans, a very international environment. And at 6pm, everyone goes home: the employer in Berlin does everything to train and keep you. The important thing is how you work, what you produce, the important thing is competence and diligence in the work: the timetable, that is, clocking in, in itself matters little in a start-up”, explains Lorenzo. His eyes shine. This is how, since he placed on the function of the employer, he needs to make his staff (who come from throughout Europe, Italy, Serbia, Turkey, and do sensible working) really feel: «You must thank those that be just right for you, not the in any other case”, he is keen to underline. This was his impact in Germany.

«And then, it must be said that here from day one they give you something to manage – insists Luca -. I was an intern in Berlin and on my first day of work I was told: you will be responsible for our opening on the Italian market.” They put you to the take a look at immediately, present how a lot you're price on the pitch. Luca and Lorenzo did it, and instantly earned fairly good cash in Berlin: however they resigned from their respective jobs to start out their very own enterprise.

Replug was based exactly in the midst of the pandemic, in February 2020: the notary Lorenzo and Luca signed it two days earlier than the lock-down in Germany was triggered. «From that second we remained closed within the workplace for months. We acted as if we had been in Italy, we didn't transfer. We have minimize prices to a minimal – they are saying -. But in actuality we by no means stopped. Little by little our identify began to get round, and step by step we had been cellular app consultants for Bild, the Axel Springer group, for Intesa San Paolo and lots of others who we can not identify for confidentiality. With our contribution, our clients have saved on the one hand and elevated their turnover on the opposite.” Replug has also won several awards. The first was in 2021, awarded by CLUTCH, the agency aggregator on apps. Winning this recognition came so unexpectedly “towards 4 giants of the sector” that through the celebrations till late at evening Luca and Lorenzo misplaced the backpack with the cup inside, solely to get well it after a thousand vicissitudes the next day. “The first prize is never forgotten”, they remark proudly.