At the beginning of 2014, two young people from Wroclaw – Piotr Rek and Mateusz Materna – started wondering how to make life easier for fellow students. ‘A student’s wallet is quite thin and every penny is important. So we started wondering how to create the possibility of free printing for people and how to profit from this. We submitted our preliminary sketch of the business model to Tomasz Popów, the creator of Lift-off Akcelerator, and he acquainted us with Maciej, Artur and Jędrzej. That’s how the first Zeccer team was formed,’ says Piotr Rek.
A time for tests
The young team acquired 25,000 PLN for testing the entire system. Two months of hard work resulted in the creation of a prototype. ‘We tested it at the Wroclaw University of Economics. For two months, we collected opinions, talked to users and invited them to make use of the service. Eventually we gathered a sufficient amount of data to optimise the service for the entire vacation period. Zeccer was received so favourably by students and advertisers that Lift-off decided to invest much more significant money in us. Now we are present at 12 universities in 4 cities, and this number will increase soon,’ adds Piotr Rek.
Simple and available
The functioning of the service is based on three pillars: a website, a mobile application and a printer located on university premises. ‘We log onto zeccer.pl and send the files that we want to get on paper. We install the application on the smartphone and we approach the printer. There we order a printout by clicking ‘Print’ on the application and collect files. Without queues, without additional service and without problems. You can read everything on our website: http://zeccer.pl’, explains the originator of the idea.
Saving thanks to sponsors
Charge-free printing is possible thanks to sponsors who will insert their offers in the headline and the footnote of each printed sheet. Such a solution will help students to save even up to 130 PLN in each semester and will allow advertisers to reach them effectively. ‘Apart from that, we have access to all special campaigns for our users, for which advertisers will pay, too. There are lots of possibilities, and we are open to co-operation with all companies for which students are the target group – both as potential customers and employees,’ stresses Piotr Rek.
Franchise
Zeccer often stands in a place where there is no room for a university photocopying point or it was simply “consumed” by costs of business activity. ‘In addition, we have launched a franchise program in which everyone can become the owner of our printer and join the commercial network. We are the first franchise in Poland that is based only on the machine in 100%. Now, an option of payment for a ad-free printout is also available. Our users are increasingly often willing to pay for such a printout,’ adds Rek.
Conquering the market
Today, Zeccer printers are located in a few Polish cities. However, any location where a demand for such a printer emerges can be reported to the website. In Wroclaw, two new printers will be provided by the end of the year. ‘We are going to revolutionise printing at universities in other cities. We have already succeeded in Łódź, Katowice and Warsaw, and Poznań will start in a while. Soon we will have printers at our disposal in all large academic centres in Poland. At present, we have 14 operating printers, and there will be 60 by the end of the year,’ adds the originator.
Commitment is success
Members of the Zeccer team emphasise that their work is not limited to setting the printer up. ‘Each of us is committed entirely to Zeccer in 100 per cent. When we fall asleep, we think how we can improve the printing process even better, and when we get up, we often find this solution. Apart from that, we simply wouldn’t have time for doing anything else. Every week we travel 1,500 km to conclude agreements, take care of printers or install new ones,’ say the young businessmen.
photo:zeccer.pl
