Berlin startup – UPcload Dec13

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Berlin startup – UPcload

Just a simple idea for helping the clothing industry break through on the Internet. Their UPcload service measures people with a webcam more accurately than any person could.
The way to the UPcload headquarters goes through a dreary courtyard at the Humboldt University in Berlin, up on a rickety elevator to the sixth floor, down a yellow-painted hallway to a staircase up to the seventh floor, through a glass door and down a deserted corridor, at one end of which is a small ladder leading to the flat roof of the university building.
In the hall, high school and university students are jostling. They are waiting to take part in a study that is expected to show just how little they know about their own body size. If all goes well, the startup could help the fashion industry achieve a breakthrough on the Internet.
UPcload’s trick is surprisingly simple. The user places a compact disc in front of his or her stomach while standing in front of the webcam. The fact that the CD has a standard size allows the photo-recognition software, with the help of some statistical magic, to calculate the exact body size, and check it for plausibility.
The UPcload idea has been very well received among programs to support entrepreneurs. The young businessmen have been showered with awards from, among others, the German Economics Ministry and the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association.
Although the path to the UPcload idea and development may seem straight, in reality, it was as convoluted as the way to Moses and Schulzes’ office in Berlin.

The bureaucratic hurdles, the juggling of investors and ideas, and the constant poking around in the dark pushed the young founders to their limits. “We had a lot of money from our customers, but we did not really know if our idea worked,” says Moses. “That was a terrible situation.” It was especially true because Moses and Schulze themselves are not product designers but, rather, economists. The actual know-how was provided by a programming team in Israel, which was responsible for the technical implementation of the idea.
Start-up support was given primarily by Humboldt Innovation, a private subsidiary of Berlin’s Humboldt University that aims to support spin-off companies. They provided the founders with money, rent-free office space and, above all, guidance navigating the bureaucratic maze. “We felt driven: We needed to do something, but we didn’t know what,” Schulze says, describing the situation a year ago. “In Germany, no one tells you how you start a company.”

The city and country could greatly benefit from more innovators. “Berlin gains so much know-how in a short time from people like us,” Moses says. “I am convinced that the money Germany has invested in us will be paid back by us many times.”
It could revolutionize shopping for clothes online — if the fashion industry cooperates.

Stay tuned – berlinstartup. (Source Spiegel Online)