Linda Büscher is one of the youngest founders in Germany. In an interview with Gründerszene, she explains how she built her business between graduating from high school and working two mini-jobs.
Linda Büscher is one of the youngest founders in Germany. Linda Büscher
Distributed worksheets, pen in hand, mark, later write everything down separately to record the information in an orderly manner. A tedious task at school, thought Linda Büscher from Hanover. The 19-year-old worked with programmers to develop an app that does this work for you. With Bulletpoint GmbH, she is one of the youngest founders in Germany. And that in an industry in which there are noticeably fewer women than men, as she tells us.
At 16, Büscher was the only girl in the advanced computer science course at the Käthe Kollwitz School in Hanover. She was already interested in software development back then. When she was 17, she had the idea for her own software – and started programming herself. “I found out everything I needed for this. There were no comparable programs. At some point I had all the building blocks together,” she tells us.
She then worked on the prototype with freelancers. To this end, she has been working with an agency from Ukraine from 2022. The Russian war of aggression is raging in Ukraine. At that time, many companies terminated contracts with Ukrainian developers due to the uncertain situation and work situation, said Büscher. She speaks with Tetalab, a software company from Lviv, western Ukraine. “One time I couldn’t reach her for two weeks and I was worried. “The power went out for them in Ukraine,” she tells us. She worked with the team for nine months and is still in contact.
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App development alongside high school diploma
A first prototype of the Bulletpoint app is being created. A program in which documents can be uploaded and which takes text markings directly as bullet points. Büscher is working on the project next to school. 35 hours of teaching, eight hours of app development, four hours of tutoring for students, ten hours of emergency service at a dental clinic, as she tells us. Almost a 60-hour week – a workload that would push many people to their limits. Once she went to the trade fair in Hanover after school – the next day she wrote her pre-abi. Büscher passed the Abitur with 1.0.
It was a very stressful time, but she loved working on the project. She financed herself through her extra jobs. She later changes agencies. At this point, the app already had 5,000 users. With the software experts from Bitpioneers from Hanover, she expanded the app, introduced a subscription model and won prizes at the Hannoverimpuls competition and at Startup Teens.
With the Bulletpoint app, markings can be transferred directly into bullet points. Linda Büscher
Büscher has been managing director of Bulletpoint GmbH since January 2024. She runs her business full-time and currently has two part-time employees. In total, she received 44,000 euros in funding. Around 17,000 people have used your app so far. If you want to try it out, you can use it free of charge for seven days. After that, a subscription costs 1.99 euros per month or 19.99 euros per year. Companies or schools can conclude their own contracts with the startup.
“It also happens that I am underestimated because of my age and gender.â€
Büscher himself slipped into the startup scene. She actually wanted to become a dentist, as she tells us. She clearly notices that there are still fewer women than men in the tech scene: “As a young female founder, I naturally stand out at business events that focus a lot on tech. It also happens that I am underestimated because of my age and gender. It’s a shame when you always have to prove your competence in order to be taken seriously.“
Your next goal is profitability. She could also imagine starting a first round of financing this year. She and her small team are currently developing new features.
Other tools and programs already offer a summary of texts based on AI – the technology is not yet used at Bulletpoint. Büscher emphasizes: “When students summarize texts using an AI, cognitive work is lost. At Bulletpoint, our goal is to support cognitive work and enhance our users’ comprehension while saving them time.â€
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