HSG students present their start-up in the “Lion’s Den”

The founders of the start-up Studyflash have already experienced many ups and downs. The story of Nikola Bulatovic and Dominik Gebhard begins in February 2023 with a flight to Lisbon. There, the two met and discovered that they had signed up for the same course at the University of Lisbon for a semester abroad. At the time, Bulatovic was completing his bachelor’s degree at the University of Bern, Gebhard at the University of St.Gallen.

When a course in Lisbon was about finding problems in everyday life, the two students quickly realized how time-consuming and laborious it is to create learning materials. This gave the two 24-year-olds an idea: Artificial intelligence (AI) should create scientific flashcards based on lecture notes. That was the starting signal for Studyflash.

60-hour week was standard

The double burden of studying and building their own start-up is taking its toll on young entrepreneurs. Studyflash was launched in September 2023, which is exactly when Bulatovic started his master’s degree at the University of St.Gallen. Gebhard completed an internship on the side. “I did that mainly to reassure my parents.” There wasn’t much free time left between studying, an internship and starting their company. A 60-hour week was standard.

“When I founded the start-up, I kept having doubts. “I asked myself whether I was up to the task,” says Gebhard. Bulatovic also sees putting together and leading the right team as a major challenge. For example, the technical co-founder, Florin Barbisch, decided to leave the team for personal reasons. According to Gebhard and Bulatovic, such challenges are clearly part of the process, because after every low there is also a high.

Upload Powerpoint slides for five francs a month

Using Studyflash is easy. Students pay five francs a month and can upload their lecture materials – such as PowerPoint slides, scripts or summaries – to the learning platform. Studyflash takes the most important information from the text, processes it and brings a certain structure to it. Scientifically optimized index cards are then produced using AI. This saves students an enormous amount of time, explain the founders. The program is used by apprentices and high school students, among others, but mainly by students, as they have to repeat a large amount of learning material.

The first 100 francs transferred put the young entrepreneurs in high spirits. “It marks a milestone. “That’s when we realized that people are interested and that our idea actually has a chance,” says Gebhard. The positive feedback from users also makes the two “overjoyed.” “One student told us that she had time to celebrate New Year’s Eve thanks to Studyflash,” says Bulatovic. That’s exactly what motivates them: to make the students’ learning process more efficient so that there is time for family and friends. After all, they were and are in the same situation themselves. “We are close to our customers, we feel for them,” says Bulatovic.

“We were nervous before the TV show”

Currently, over 40,000 people are using Studyflash. And the company could soon gain many more customers. Bulatovic and Gebhard took part in the Swiss television show “Die Höhle der Löwen”. There, entrepreneurs present their business ideas and try to convince investors of them. Bulatovic and Gebhard prepared for this for a long time and could hardly sleep at night because of the excitement. They practiced a lot in front of the mirror what they should say.

“We were all nervous before the show, of course, because we’ve never presented Studyflash in front of so many cameras before,” says Bulatovic. But they look back fondly on the eventful day. “Especially the beer and the delicious dinner that we enjoyed on the way home in St. Gallen,” says Gebhard. The two of them won’t reveal whether taking part in the TV show was worth it. The episode will be broadcast on Tuesday, September 24th, at 8:15 p.m. on the TV channel 3+.

You want to conquer the English-speaking market

At the moment, Nikola Bulatovic and Dominik Gebhard are focusing on the German-speaking area. Their customers mostly come from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In the future, however, this is set to change. They would also like to launch Studyflash in English-speaking areas. At the moment, the young company is enjoying a certain hype on social media. They would like to build on this and use the modern tool to their advantage.

They are well on their way there, as their founding team includes five employees, including three part-time workers who also take care of the social channels. The Studyflash team has also set itself the goal of providing students with holistic support in the coming years – from the first phase of study planning to a successful start to their professional life.