2022
When we think of 2022, we think of many events, trips, developments and changes — and all in all, growth. The year brought an incredible amount of opportunities for SQIN, which makes it really easy for us to start 2023 motivated and full of energy.
The start of a new year is of course always the perfect opportunity to reflect on the old one. That’s what we want to do together with you — in this post! The year 2022 was incredibly eventful (besides all the daily business), so let’s not waste any time and jump right in:
January
We smoothly started into the new year by graduating two accelerator programs and starting two other ones. At the beginning of the year, the Bridge2Korea program and the German Accelerator: India Market Discovery ended.
With the Master Accelerator and the ScaleUp4Europe programme, there was a change of perspective for us from Asia to Europe.
February
Time for a change of scenery: In February, we moved into our new Berlin office. A fantastic new space for our team to meet up! We inaugurated the space with a three day marketing workshop.
Not only in terms of location there was a big highlight for SQIN — an important part was also integrated in the app: In addition to skin problem recognition, our AI skin type detection went live in February.
With our Love Days, we took our users into the world of self-love and romance around Valentine’s Day.
Our founders, on the other hand, visited a completely different world: they attended EXPO 2020 in Dubai. There, Maria had the opportunity to present SQIN on the big stage at the Startup Night. And there, SQIN actually won the Startup Audience Prize – what an experience!
March
In March, we went off to the Arabian Peninsula again: we were part of the Smart City Expo in Doha. A very special fair with booths spread through the entire city. Here we got to know many other great companies that are developing innovative solutions for the cities of tomorrow.
April
Whoever thought that now was the time for a break from travelling is wrong: April took us to various events all over Europe.
The SQIN team spread out to the AIM North Symposium in Oslo, the Women’s Health Innovation Summit Europe in Basel, the DMEA in Berlin, the FOR BEAUTY Expo in Prague, the “Clean Beauty” in London and the “Beauty Business Day” in Hamburg.
In our app, it was time to give our users a present for Easter: the SQIN Easter Countdown.
May
As a partly remote team, it is not usual for us to work together live or to spend time with each other outside of meetings. This made May all the more exciting for us, as a large part of the SQIN team met for a team workshop (+ after work events) in Germany. Not only did we continue to bond, but we were also able to productively plan and work together on the future of SQIN.
Of course, events did not stop in May. You could find us at the Bionnale in Berlin, the EU Startups Summit in Barcelona, the OMR Festival in Hamburg and the Saxon Innovation Exchange “Innovations for Health”.
As a startup, we reached a very special milestone and closed our pre-seed funding.
At the end of the month, our founders then embarked on an exciting and formative journey: they went on a roadshow in the USA.
June
Happy Birthday to us! In June 2021, the SQIN app was officially launched.
Also besides this special date, June was probably the most eventful month this year:
At first, the journey through the US continued for Maria and Martin.
Back in Germany, there was no time to recover from jet lag: We attended the futureSax Saxon Innovation & Investors Conference, the Plug & Play Germany Summit in Munich, the 15 years anniversary of German Entrepreneurship — where we also graduated the 6 month Master Accelerator program — and the Bits & Pretzels Health Tech fair.
Our users also had a big journey ahead of them: In our Around the World campaign, we took them to great cosmetic brands from different countries around the globe.
There was other great news for them, too: Since June, the SQIN Aid Box has made it possible to get an individual routine that suits your specific skin characteristics sent directly to your home.
July
Another milestone of our AI was added to our app in July: skin age detection. Our digital skin analysis offers users more and more options for prevention and early detection!
Event-wise, the SYCK event in Essen was one of our agenda items. There, Maria had the opportunity to meet many health care experts and also to present SQIN in a short pitch. These new encounters were to open many more exciting doors for us in the future …
August
Germany’s biggest beauty fair opened its doors in August and we attended it: the GLOW by dm. Three years ago, our journey to founding SQIN started right at this convention. And now it was time to go back with our final product. As part of the event, we took part in the “GLITCH” stream by Miss Germany on Twitch. This 11 hour live stream reached over 250,000 viewers — and we were part of the opening.
In the run-up to the Berlin AI Summit, which also took place in August, RE•WORK nominated the Top 20 Women in AI Germany – and Maria had the honor of being one of them. What a compliment, also to the whole SQIN team!
A lot of sunny times for us, but also for our users: In the app, we presented the best summer products during our Sunshine Week Campaign.
An exciting project started in August: our podcast SQINx Talks was launched. By the end of the year it was already one of the most shared podcasts worldwide!
The month ended with a big bang – literally: the Big Bang Health Festival in Essen. Two days packed with an incredible amount of exciting conversations with experts from the healthcare industry. Martin also had the honour to give a talk on stage at the Deep Dive “Zukunftsmedizin” (Future Medicine).
September
In September, too, the focus was fully on health. We attended the Douglas Beauty + Health Summit, the Health Insurance Hack & Con and the GWK Hamburg.
Female Empowerment in action happened at the HENKEL Xathon in Berlin, where Maria was able to participate as a mentor.
Later that month, the SUN X in Berlin gave us a throwback to the beginning of the year (to the Startupnight in Dubai).
Maria went back to the roots with STARTPARADE 2022 by Startup Revier EAST in Cottbus, where she held a keynote about entrepreneurship. That’s because she studied in Cottbus herself!
October
Another big step for our app was taken in October when the skin check tab was redesigned: you now have everything available at a glance, like skin condition, type & age.
Maria and Martin went to the USA again in October — but this time for a different reason: We took part in the German Accelerator again, more precisely in the US class. Here we were able to learn so much about the market. We are glad that this time the programme also took place on site — this way we could get a deeper and above all more personal insight into the market.
In this context, they were also able to attend another great event: the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference. Definitely one of the places to be for founders!
November
One of the highlights in every start-up’s calendar happened in November: The SLUSH. At Google’s invitation, we were not only able to take part, but also to get active: Maria gave a lightning talk on the Google Booth Stage. That’s something to be proud of, isn’t it?
But that is not the only thing we could be proud of in November: As one of 15 out of 1500 startups, we were selected to present our vision to thousands of the most esteemed VC funds and angels — at The Stage’s “Demo Day without the accelerator”.
The stage was also the place to be at Cologne Carnival — but not in the way you think. Martin pitched for us at the finale of Jeck’n’Tech.
For our marketing team, the end of the month ushered in the Christmas season at the Xmas event of our brand partner waschies. We are so happy to have such a fantastic SQINfamily and to finally get to know our long-term partners in person!
December
In keeping with the Christmas season, things also got a little more contemplative on the events side. Nevertheless, our app was full of action: not only did our Advent calendar and our Glam & Glitter Week take place — with 26 participating brands. Also, wrinkles and skin sensitivity detection were integrated into our app. The crowning finale for the year!
Of course, these were just a few of the many experiences that 2022 brought us. Not to forget, of course, the many successes that each individual in the team achieved on a daily basis. We are incredibly grateful for this exciting year and look forward to everything new that 2023 will bring. And this much we can already reveal: it’s a lot, once more!
If you still haven’t had enough of our recaps, you can listen to a personal review of the year by our founders Maria and Martin in the latest episode of our podcast SQINx Talks.
