Ralph Friedrich was born in Böblingen in 1972. At the age of 7 days, however, he left Swabia in the direction of Ettlingen near Karlsruhe to become a baden era. There he grew up and went to school.

After graduating from university, civil service and two training courses as a draftsman and insurance specialist, he first found his professional home in the insurance industry, where he also met his current business partner and friend Dieter Deninger about 20 years ago. Met. In 2014 – after 20 years of insurance – he decided to break new ground in entrepreneurship together with Dieter and terminated his employment contract with a large insurer.

In order to be prepared for this future, Ralph also worked on a bachelor’s degree in business administration and business psychology at the Euro FH in Hamburg. In 2019, Ralph and Dieter founded the first joint venture with trolleymaker®.

What drives you, Ralph?

I am a person who loves the extreme, beyond the mainstream. Doing what everyone does or does something just because it’s always been done that way is not my world.

Allowing creativity without limits, forming concepts that can be implemented from ideas and then trying them out and implementing them in practice with 100% and more commitment. That’s my daily motivation. Unfortunately, this was exactly what was lost in the course of my work in the insurance industry. Corporate thinking prevailed, personal initiatives were less and less desirable. The consequence was only a logical step.

What is your mission? What do you want?

In 2013/2014, we (Dieter and I) dealt intensively with the situation of the many owner-managed shops in our inner cities. Many cannot withstand the enormous pressure of the online giants and retail chains that weigh son.

Since then, we have been working to find and deliver solutions for these businesses. We are not only concerned with the shops themselves, but also with the people who live there and would like to go for a stroll and linger in the cities.

Even in the Middle Ages, the markets were a centre of social communication. So it is also about preserving traditional values. But if past developments continue, we are facing the desertification and uniformity of our once lively and colourful city centres. Certainly not everywhere, but in many places, some of them are already in full swing.

The fact that the topic is acute shows the many attempts to take countermeasures on land, down the country between Flensburg and Garmisch. My, or our mission is to be able to make a not insignificant contribution to ensuring that the scenario described does not happen in this way. From our point of view, my trolley® Smart City also provides us with a comprehensive solution approach.

What is important to you in life?

To have visions and goals for which it is worthwhile to make an effort. As you know, not everything runs smoothly and steadily upwards in life, whether privately or professionally. Having your own concrete ideas about where you want to develop helps to deal with setbacks or even to step on the euphoria brake. At the same time, it is also my source of motivation.