Founder of the Week: Interview with Timly

First of all, let’s ask about the current situation: how have you fared so far in the Corona crisis?

Philipp: We founded Timly Software AG at the end of April 2020, in the middle of the pandemic in Western Europe. The lockdown undoubtedly cost us a few weeks. Many companies are or were confronted with great uncertainties and had other topics on their agenda than dealing with the introduction of a new stocktaking software. Despite this extremely difficult situation, we were able to hold very interesting discussions and convince one or the other company of Timly. Furthermore, we were able to use the time for many internal topics, such as product development, marketing preparations or other organisational topics.

Were you also able to take away positive lessons from this time?

Philipp: Strong professional as well as private restrictions can occur unexpectedly and cause massive changes. You have to be aware of this. From the company’s point of view, such a crisis can at best be used to further optimise processes, possibly even restructure the organisation and become fundamentally more efficient. We are convinced that such goals can be achieved with a software solution like the one we offer.

Now let’s talk about the foundation: When and how did you come up with the idea for Timly?

Philipp: The idea for Timly arose from a cooperation with the construction company LANG from Bodenheim. It was clear to us from the beginning that we would only found a start-up if we also had an industry partner for our solution with whom we could validate our ideas and solutions. Together with the construction company LANG, we started to address an unsolved industry problem in the area of workforce qualifications & certifications.

Specifically, companies in the construction and utilities sector are required to certify the technical and safety qualifications of skilled workers.

This is necessary to comply with legal requirements and to obtain important industry certifications and quality certificates – e.g. from the DVGW (German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water). The qualifications have to be regularly renewed, so monitoring them has been a challenge.

Fitim: Many companies still use classic tools like Excel for such monitoring. This may still work for smaller companies. But for larger companies, Excel eventually reaches its limits. In addition, our application also solves a seamless documentation of all training in the personnel file.

If a workplace accident occurs despite all safety measures and qualifications, employers must be able to prove that they have fulfilled their training obligations and that the employee concerned was sufficiently qualified for the job.

From this original problem, an HR, training and talent management solution tailored to the industry was born. Timly was born…

Read the original article (in German)…