Amerigo Velletti wants to enter the app store with “Remtio”: During a spontaneous trip to Lithuania and almost 100,000 lines of code, the super-founder fellow prepares the launch of his AI app for second-hand technology.
The second week of the super founder summer camp in Lithuania ended for Amerigo Velletti. “I’m a bit frustrated with my progress at the moment. That’s why I thought, maybe location change isn’t such a bad idea.” During the offsite, as he calls the spontaneous trip, he – like fellows Garry and Vu – continued to build his app “Remtio”. “I love spontaneous trips like this. I think that’s actually the beauty of a startup, the spontaneity.”
“Startup scene is looking for super founders” is a ten-week startup fellowship from Gründerszene. Eight selected fellows develop consumer startups in Berlin using artificial intelligence – from the idea to the first product. During the program, the fellows work together in the Axel Springer high-rise and are accompanied by experienced entrepreneurs, investors and experts. Partners like OpenAI, Vercel, Dash0 and DHL support them with technology, know-how and mentoring. Gründerszene documents the entire journey with articles, videos and social media content – and shows up close how the next generation of startups is being created today. All resulting products belong to Axel Springer.
For Amerigo, it is precisely this freedom that is part of being a founder. He can decide for himself where he works from. Especially with a solo project, he appreciates not being dependent on anyone and being able to do his own thing. “I am responsible if the product flies or doesn’t fly.”
His idea: an AI-supported, cross-platform search engine for second-hand products. “Remtio” is intended to bundle offers from platforms such as Kleinanzeigen, Vinted, Back Market or Refurbed. Users specify what they are looking for, the AI searches different marketplaces and delivers the most suitable hits.
His learning: sometimes finish work
In the second week of the summer camp, Amerigo Velletti discovered a new learning for himself: Even a founder doesn’t have to work around the clock.
He has even gotten to know his roommates now, he reports with a laugh. “And on Wednesday I finished work at 5 p.m.” Before, Amerigo was more of a night owl type. He sat at his laptop and programmed until the early hours of the morning. But then he realized that he needed to clear his head. “I realized that I now need sports compensation. I’m really going crazy because at the moment I’m just waiting for a lot of things that I have no influence on.”
This includes waiting for feedback from Rebuy and Refurbed. But he can still claim success: Through LinkedIn, Amerigo came into contact with someone responsible for growth and strategy for classified ads. Above all, he hopes to gain valuable insights into the market and the business model.
Amerigo also made technical progress in week two. Among other things, he developed an MCP server. MCP stands for “Model Context Protocol” and serves as an interface between AI models and external data sources and tools. “I would ideally like to build this for my product as well – both for my internal product, i.e. for search, and externally, so that I can iterate through my data.”
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However, he also reached his limits. Several requests failed because small errors crept into the code – such as an extra space or a synchronization error. “Sometimes it was just careless mistakes that can happen at 2 a.m..”
Meanwhile, his code continues to grow. It now contains almost 100,000 lines. Amerigo consciously tries out new technologies and sees itself in a kind of “scientist role”. What does he mean by that? Experimenting with new tools that have only recently become available, he explains. His belief: “It no longer counts who builds something. It only counts who builds it faster and better. He will be the next winner on the market.”
Launch in the App Store is being prepared
The launch of “Remtio” is also getting closer. The app is in the mobile testing phase for both Apple and Google. “The app version is fully developed,” says Amerigo.
So far, “Remtio” has focused on second-hand technology, such as MacBooks. Additional product categories will be added in the future.
This is how the app works: First, an AI chat advises the users. What is the product used for? How much is the budget? And what goal should be achieved with the purchase? The application then searches through various offers and transparently explains why certain products and models are suggested.
There is also a classic search field with which users can search specifically for products and filter the results. If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, you can swipe through the offers.
“Remtio” already has a small user base: 16 people have registered. However, Amerigo doesn’t know exactly how they became aware of the app. According to him, eleven of the users come from Africa. He therefore suspects that a single person may have created several accounts – and is considering deleting them again. “That’s not a useful customer.” After all, no deliveries are made to Africa.
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New territory: Building in Public
In the second week, Amerigo also committed to increasing publicity, creating visibility and promoting its app to attract its first customers. He created a new Instagram account for this purpose. However, the step isn’t easy for him: “I’m not the biggest poster, so I haven’t actually done anything on Instagram yet.”
In the third week, Amerigo wants to enter the market with “Remtio”.. “I think it is simply important for my product that I am on the market quickly.“ His motto: It’s better to launch early and then develop the product further than to wait too long and find out in the end that there is no need for the idea at all. On top of that, his to-do list includes finding a new name for the app.
Do you have questions or want to talk to the fellows about their product? Write to them here.
“Start-up scene is looking for super founders” powered by Dash0, DHL, OpenAI & Vercel.
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