Inventor with team spirit

As a master's student at the Stuttgart Hochschule der Medien, in 2020 Lisa Scherer developed an organic packaging material from grain husks which could replace expanded polystyrene (EPS). After graduation, she joined forces with three others and founded the start-up PROSERVATION, which until now mostly produces limited series and prototypes, but wants to take things to the next level with a demonstration system.

“I have always enjoyed experimenting and already during my Bachelor studies in ‘Product- and Industrial Design’ I tried out new things and thought outside the box. This curiosity led me to take on a project focused on cellulose foams during my Masters studies,” says Lisa Scherer. “But the experiments with cellulose didn’t really work out. The question was, how to create the necessary hollow spaces without chemical or mechanical procedures, but instead only using natural material which ideally already has these properties. In my family, we had pillows filled with the husks of millet, and that gave me the idea to experiment with husks, which have natural hollow interiors and therefore have good insulating and shock absorbing qualities.”

Husks – the dry sheath that protects the grain of cereals – are usually considered a waste product in cereal production. Lisa Antonie Scherer immediately regarded the material as promising and kept on experimenting with organic binders until a matching recipe had been found. “I then expanded the study project and made it the topic of my Masters thesis.” Right after graduation she then mentored other students working on similar studies.

“While I was working on my final thesis, our team met as well, because my sister and two friends were very excited about this topic and saw the potential for founding a start-up. On my own, I probably wouldn’t have risked starting my own business with the husk material padding.” Other than Lisa Scherer, who has studied Packaging Development Managing, the founding team consists of packaging technician Sophia Scherer, business information scientist Nils Bachmann and Henning Tschunt, who has a degree in sustainable business management. “We fit together really well, each of us brings their own abilities and know-how to the table, so that we can share the work in the company.” For further development of the material, the young team was awarded the Exist founders’ stipend in 2021, the next year they received support from the Baden-Wuerttemberg support programme for young innovators. “At the end of 2022 we founded the GmbH, and we have been independent from financial support for a year now. So it all really came together at the right time in a wonderful way. But without the others I would not have been able to overcome all the challenges.” As the inventor of the material, within the company, Lisa Scherer is responsible for material and innovation development as well as for design. In the last year, she already undertook improvements on the surface structure. “This will be a an ongoing process, as feedback from our customers also helps us to continue the development of our packaging material. I am also responsible for product development. Many customers need custom padded pressed shapes, which sometimes come with very difficult challenges to design or even to functionality.”

Right now, the start-up is undertaking a next big step. There are plans to set up an operating demonstration system in 2025, which is able to also produce bigger lots. The founders are still looking for a suitable location. “Right now our production is still that of a manufactury. We are able to fulfil customers’ orders of up to 5,000 pieces per month, but that is hardly enough.” Among the customers are smaller companies which PROSERVATION already regularly supplies, but also mid-sized companies for which for example prototypes are being produced. The new demonstration system is supposed to attract large customers as well. “This will mean another set of new challenges, because production at an industrial scale means that the production process of the padding material must be specifically adapted.”

For some time now the team surrounding the four founders has won several employees. “That, too, is a new challenge. I had to learn to delegate, to divide tasks, and also to create room for the work and ideas of employees. We now have a good network, always keep on learning and our work is a lot of fun.” At the beginning of the year, PROSERVATION started a crowd investment campaign which is finished now and which was very successful beyond the founding goal.

Lisa Scherer advises other young university graduates to just try out what can become of their own ideas. “That is an excellent professional motivation, but you also have to be ready to take risks. From the experience with our team, I can only ask everyone to look for people from similar fields and with different professional backgrounds and competences. For me this is and was absolutely helpful and a rich experience.”