Security
Lukas Hohl and Jorge Alvarado founded TrustRelay together. In this interview, the two founders share interesting details from the process with Swisscom Kickbox. After successfully completing the RedBox and BlueBox, they received the GoldBox at the beginning of this year. The spin-off from Swisscom offers them new opportunities and opens further doors in the start-up world.
The TrustRelay website goes online with an innovative design. It is now possible to test the service free of charge. TrustRelay is intended to simplify the secure exchange of data between various organisations without restricting the privacy of those involved. Thanks to TrustRelay, companies that work with external partners can take a further step towards a digital future.
Jorge: It all started with the Security Campaign. I worked in the role of Head of Blockchain Technology and connected various technologies with blockchain. One of these technologies was IoT. With this, it was possible to create secure wallets. At this point, I asked myself whether we needed a similar product to connect different IoT devices. In the meantime, Lukas sought internal and external contacts to get feedback on the idea. Through this feedback, we realised that our main problem is not the IoT device, but the data that the IoT device generates. The next question we had to answer was how we could exchange data between different companies. For this reason, we specialised in the exchange of structured data.
Lukas: The foundation of our idea has remained the same, but we have gone through various iterations to find the product-market fit.
Lukas: Swisscom made it possible for us to be part of Innosuisse. That generated a lot of attention. We aroused the interest of the city of Lucerne and other data experts. This step was very important for the development of TrustRelay.
Lukas: The first moment when we saw that other companies had similar ideas was very frustrating. However, it showed us that our product has a certain relevance. We had confirmation that we were working on a pioneering tool. However, lowlights in general are part of start-up life - they happen every few days.
Jorge: It was also difficult to find people at Swisscom who had the technical expertise in the area of confidential computing. That's why we often had to liaise with many different people.
Lukas: The simple question of exactly what problem our product would solve left us somewhat overwhelmed for the first time during a presentation. We were so convinced of our own product that we neglected the essential questions. [Laughs.]
Jorge: We are currently working on the communication for the release of TrustRelay. We are constantly looking for new and useful applications..
Lukas: I'm looking forward to more POCs and customers. Not because of the financial return, but to see that our product works on the market. As an entrepreneur, you dream of this moment from day one.
Jorge: I like the visualisation of a bamboo. It takes 2 years for the first roots to grow, then the plant grows several metres in half a year. You hope that your idea will grow as quickly as possible, which is why you need strong roots. They are the basis for every start-up.
Lukas: Normally, I always have a picture in my head that visualises complex topics in a simple way. But right now I'm a bit overwhelmed with this question. [laughs]
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Mediamatiker 3. Lehrjahr
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