A 3D printer and many fans at Tiktok: The founders of Lockcard are turning over a six-digit sum. Now it should work with a deal in the TV show “The Lion’s Den”.
Anyone who calls up the website of the company owned by Jonas Weber (20) and Aaron Rau (21) will be disappointed at first: “Sold out” is currently the name of almost all the items that the young founding duo from Gerstetten are selling in their shop. Their actual product appears banal: it is a purse.
But behind Lockcard, as Weber and Rau call their invention, there is more. On the one hand, a slim wallet that not only offers space for cards and coins thanks to flexible slots, but also for keys and a tracking chip. On the other hand, the two entrepreneurs seem to have struck a chord, especially among young people: Jonas Weber and Aaron Rau reach 267,000 followers on Tiktok alone. There they document, among other things, how they gradually built their startup from a basement to a company with six-figure sales.
Lockcard comes from the 3D printer
And that’s how they tell investors on the TV show “The Lion’s Den,” which airs Monday night’s season 13. Weber and Rau therefore rely on 3D printers to produce their lock cards. One copy costs 2.40 euros to produce. The purses are sold in the company’s own shop at EUR 29.99 each – which corresponds to a profit margin of around 1,000 percent. The price doesn’t seem to deter customers. Probably also because of the strong social media presence, as the two founders assure the lions: they have sold 15,000 lock cards so far.
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The project was initially preceded by another idea. In order not to have to carry around a thick bunch of keys with their purse, Jonas Weber and Aaron Rau first developed a key plate with which house and mailbox keys, for example, could be stowed away in the purse to save space. The high school graduates financed their first 3D printer with a holiday job.
Then they set up an online shop. But the hoped-for flood of orders didn’t materialize: “We haven’t sold a single product in a year,” says Weber. Then it became clear to them that it probably wouldn’t work without social media. Especially not in the young target group that they actually wanted to reach with their minimalistic key plate.
200,000 euros wanted
Weber and Rau then opened channels on Instagram and Tiktok, explaining, among other things, how their invention and 3D printer work. In addition, they recognized that not a key plate alone, but a wallet based on the plug-in system is the much more interesting product – the breakthrough for their lock card. The young founders used the income to buy more 3D printers. There are now twelve. Jonas Weber and Aaron Rau even gave up their studies in favor of their company. “We’re both doing it full-time now, we have big goals,” says Rau.
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“With an investment, we not only want to scale up, but also switch to 100 percent renewable and recycled raw materials,” explains his co-founder Jonas Weber. Your offer to the lions: 200,000 euros for 15 percent of the company shares. Will they convince or go away empty-handed? One thing already seems clear: the lock card will probably not be sold out on Monday evening. The founders are probably just preparing for a flood of orders.
“The Lion’s Den”, Monday, April 3 at 8:15 p.m. on Vox/RTL+