Falko and Bradley are the founders of Schnuffi LLC.

And Schnuffi's story begins with, exactly, Schnuffi! Schnuffi was Falko's cat, a small, fluffy marshmallow. The name Schnuffi is derived from the German word 

“Schnüffeln”, which means something like sticking your nose in everywhere, being very curious, and that's what she was, curious, smart and adventurous.

 So it happened one sunny day in spring, when Falko wanted to mow the yard for the first time in the year, Schnuffi was in the small tool shack to “inspect“ the lawnmower. When Falko came in, she was scraping the old grass off the wheels. Falko saw that it was a negative form of the wheel profile and took a closer look on it. Even though it had been there on the wheel for almost half a year, it still wasn't rotten and you couldn't just tear it apart. These scraps of grass looked like paper when you put it under a microscope, lots of long and short fibers. Schnuffi observed everything very closely and when Falko thought out loud that you only needed some glue to make it into a permanent shape, she meowed, turned around, tail up and left, we guess it was her way of saying "You are welcome".

Falko took the grass scraps at home and they lay there for a while, from time to time he thought about it, about this spontaneous idea. The trigger, however was when another large package came from an online retailer with a lot of styrofoam. So Falko sat down at his desk and started to find out something about adhesives. If you use rapidly renewable raw materials, the adhesive must also be biodegradable. It quickly became apparent that industrial adhesives are not simply biodegradable but rather the opposite. You can't just buy an organic glue so the search continued. After an intensive search, Falko found out that the University of Jena operates a research area for biodegradable polymers. He telephoned various people until he was finally able to speak to Thomas Heinze. Thomas led the research group there and after a short time the two had their first meeting. It quickly became clear that the research at the university was exactly what Falko was looking for. So they both decided to work together. After the polymer had been developed, the question arose where this idea could best be implemented. Thomas, as an experienced professor with a stake in many patents, was less optimistic than Falko when it came to marketing. He had started research in the field early on and repeatedly met resistance.

Therefore, although he was happy about the research results, he was rather pessimistic about the marketing. Both of them kept hearing that it was too innovative and futuristic, the foreboding materials would be enough, one would certainly find another solution to the global problem… It quickly became clear to Falko that he was looking for marketing on the wrong side of the Atlantic. If you have something innovative, if nobody gives your project a chance because it is unconventional, if you have an idea and want to make a dream come true, you have to go where such a thing is possible, to the United States of America! 

The first step was through the Select USA program, from there it went to the US embassy in Berlin, who were really very helpful and friendly and gave Falko the tip to contact the Small Business and Development Center.

The choice of location was quickly clarified, it should be where nature is untouched and the production routes are short. Many locations came into question here. Since this was a long-term project, however, it should also be a place where one could imagine living, so the personal choice fell very quickly on Montana.

Falko contacted the SBDC in Kalispell and through the selfless willingness to help from the office there, Falko was able to establish contact with the Chamber of Commerce. After the positive feedback from the Chamber of Commerce, appointments were made and Falko flew to Kalispell to introduce himself there personally.

There he was lucky enough to meet Margit Baake who introduced him to Bradley Layton shortly after his visit to Kalispell. Bradley, engineer, all-round genius and author of the book "Zero Waste in the last best place" liked Falko's idea from the beginning and he helped him to push the project forward. Bradley lives in Missoula, so Falko's second trip to Montana went there this time. Both of them very quickly so that they can work together very well and think in the same direction. After a successful audition and positive feedback at Montana University & 1 Million Cups, among others, the two founded Schnuffi LLC in May 2020…

… will continued!

Maybe it was a coincidence that Schnuffi scratched the grass that day, but we like the idea that nature always finds ways to talk to us.