Michael Schneider is a multiple founder and has already successfully sold two of his companies. Among them Leichtmachen.at, a price comparison portal for moving and living, to Mietguru. Now, together with Dragan Milovanović, he has developed the Break Stuff app, an AI blockchain-based one-stop shop for trading cards. His idea combines a social network, marketplace and AI grading (evaluation of trading cards) in one, as he explains.
“I founded Break Stuff out of my passion for US sports, especially the NBA,” says Schneider. “In the 90s it was a hobby of mine that I lost sight of a bit. But in the last few years I’ve come across the topic of trading cards again and was amazed that it still existed. However, with many problems. It was very ‘niche’ and expensive to have your cards rated. But Corona has brought a breath of fresh air into the scene. It’s gone mainstream and people have started to see trading cards as an alternative investment.”
Break stuff with pre-seed by Fil Rouge Capital
This is how Break Stuff works: The user scans their card with the app and receives a digital rating, which is also available as an NFT. Schneider’s business model is focused on the one hand on b2c – his company is financed by subscription fees – but also on b2b, where partners are offered an API. In July 2021, the startup received EUR 50,000 in pre-seed funding from the investment company Fil Rouge Capital.
The company is based in Zagreb because the basis there was better. “And founding a company there is easier,” explains Schneider. “We also founded Break Stuff Inc. directly in the USA, Delaware, to simplify payment processing via Stripe and because the United States is simply the target market in our profession. European companies are at a disadvantage there, and we want to cushion that.”
Active since the 1990s
As a passionate basketball card collector, Schneider would now like to pass on his insider knowledge and make it easier for people to (re)enter the hobby, like the founder did on his YouTube-Kanal explained.
The app, which will offer a marketplace, social network and real-time AI trading card rating, is scheduled to go online later in April. Before that there will be a short “closed beta phase”. Interested parties can be put on the “Waiting List”.
Anyone who would like to find out more about this will have the opportunity to do so on Tuesday evening at “2 minutes 2 million”. Also included: ambicion, Beyond DNA, New 4 Heroes and club planner.
