This week we are welcoming in HUB a new (and exciting) project called QRStickers, which has developed a new sticker for the oil change that modernizes mechanical workshops.

We had the opportunity to interview the founders of the startup, Antonio J. González and Armando Berros, to talk about who they are, what they do and what they expect from it.

Let’s meet them!

Very briefly, tell the community who you are and what your project consists of:

We are Armando y Antonio, brothers in law, both from Málaga and ready to change the world. Armando has experience in the sector sales and maintenance of vehicles. Antonio is an informatic engineer and makes web projects for different sectors.

QRStickers is the only maintenance label capable of making your customers come back! Its focus for the mechanical workshop, enabling them to carry out advertising, email marketing, loyalty and attracting new customers. All with a simple adhesive.

Patented, it is the only one that also cares about road safety for drivers, offering Rescue Sheets and medical information in case of an accident.

What differential value do you contribute to the sector?

There are a lot of imprints that make labels for the oil change in different formats: cardboard with gum printed and even electrostatic maintenance books to write down pen from behind. Our product is much more than that.

QRStickers, apparently one more label, will make the mechanical workshops modernize and can take a step forward in favor of the digitalization of their businesses. All that without having to have any kind of knowledge and effort.

Know exactly the repairs you have made to a vehicle, drivers receive reminders with each revision, can send offers and discounts personalized by the driver and just for the repair you need to make, plan advertising campaigns … All that and also, bet on the Road Safety, are just some of the possibilities of our product.

Who is your product or service for?

QRStickers is designed for 3 actors within the automotive sector:

1 – Mainly directed to Vehicle repair workshops. Our goal here is for QRSticker to offer a unique and easy-to-use Loyalty mechanism. In addition, without any type of knowledge, they will be able to make email-marketing with personalized offers to drivers.

2 – To the Driver, we want to facilitate and award the one that performs adequate maintenance of your vehicle, with offers and discounts from the workshops. We also give great importance to Road Safety by facilitating the configuration of the Rescue Sheets.

3 – Finally, any company that wants to advertise its brand or products within the automotive sector as it is a good advertising medium.

Tell us about your team, what motivated you to create QRStickers and how is that journey going so far?

I was doing applications for restaurants and real estate using QR codes and Armando spent a stage in Mazda selling vehicles. One summer afternoon came to the idea of mixing both pieces of knowledge to offer enriched information about vehicle maintenance to drivers through the use of QR codes.

It wasn’t the first project that we tried to launch but this one was very attractive and from the first moment, we saw great possibilities.

The route is hard, we have changed our focus several times and we have started again several times. Other partners joined us and finally got tired, frustrated and abandoned. Having few resources does not help. From the beginning, we both have to dedicate ourselves to other jobs in order to finance ‘our little whim’ (our project). Not only the lack of money but the lack of time is also against and is a vicious circle that never ends … and working at night does not help much to sell a product.

We continue forward because we like the project, it is our hobby and we also believe that it has great potential! So … here we continue!

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

We see ourselves as a reference in the automotive sector, both for workshops and drivers and it is in both of them that we are focusing all our efforts. We want our Stickers to be used and, most importantly, to be useful!

How do you see the maintenance and postsale sector in both Spain and Portugal? And internationally?

The Spanish car park is now over 15 years old. That means we have many vehicles (more than 30 million vehicles) that are increasingly unsafe, inefficient and polluting. Many of these vehicles do not even have ITV which pose a great risk in circulation that affects us all, even you with your new vehicle recently acquired !!

At the international level we do not have figures but … we think that it will not be very different from what happens in Spain. We are focused on Spain and then escalate to other countries because, for example, we also have the patent in Germany.

How do you think your project can contribute to changing the way we interact with transportation?

All the vehicles require maintenance that unfortunately and very frequently, we do not give it in the proper way.

Wear parts that are not replaced by lengthening their use in poor condition, maintenance that is delayed to try to save the disbursement (or delay as much as possible that ‘unforeseen’ expense) coupled with our vehicles are getting older … all this makes that the quality and safety of the circulation of these vehicles is doubtful and dangerous. There are more expensive breakages to repair, malfunctioning in vehicles that are still circulating and finally accidents.

We want to change this and encourage preventive maintenance of our vehicles that very much against what you can think, is for the benefit of all pockets.

The sector of the Workshop that is increasingly punished is very involved in this change. It will benefit from the preventive maintenance of the vehicles, more frequent maintenance but at the same time of lower cost for drivers that will positively impact the sector, drivers (who may even acquire better offers and discounts) and of course in a parquet better-maintained automobile, higher quality, and fewer accidents

It’s our goal and that’s what our sticker is after!

Name 1-2 startups or consolidated companies that inspire you and why:

Well, to name one that is currently on everyone’s lips, Uber, Cabify … They are examples of good ideas that try to revolutionize a sector, improve thinking of the end user, in providing a good service and especially in offering an alternative to an obsolete and inefficient sector.

They inspire us because we try to revolutionize a sector that is becoming obsolete, that of the Workshop and in which only the big brands are advancing and positioning themselves. We believe that we can give the same opportunities to the small and medium-sized workshop so that it can also advance and not be left behind, even with fewer resources, knowledge, and possibilities.

There is a market for everyone who prepares!

Why did you decide to be part of the Connected Mobility Hub?

Well, we have met you recently, as a result of the upcoming Motortec19 fair. We have experience with some Accelerators and we have listened to many others who have contacted us, but the experiences we have had have not been of much use to us. There is the talk of investment, full dedication, lean methods, initial valuation … and in the end, nobody helps you if you are not already billing.

We wanted to give the Connected Mobility Hub an opportunity because your philosophy is very different … you do not promise us anything, you simply work to achieve a common good that benefits both of us, so I think it is a much more accurate approach.

In a few days, you have already helped us in something very important for a startup that tries to emerge from nothing: to have visibility. Good ideas are kept in drawers and if they do not see you, you do not exist, so in this aspect, we are very happy and we will move forward.