Startup of the month: Rototip

Today, we have the opportunity to interview Galip Okan Ozturk, CEO and co-founder of Rototip.

Great to have you, Galip. To kick things off: please give us a short description of what Rototip is.

Rototip is a full-service manufacturing hub that connects businesses and factories while digitalising supply chain operations, generating intelligent machinery allocation systems, and developing computer vision applications for automated quality control.

Businesses can source mechanical parts made out of metal or thermoplastics using CNC machining, laser-cutting, injection moulding, die casting, welding, as well as assembly services from Rototip. What sets us apart is the unique way we work with a central quality control process at Rototip premisses while manufacturing is decentralised, made at partners’ factories.

Especially since 2001, China has become the ultimate destination of manufacturing for European and North American companies looking for opportunities in offshoring. Following the events of the past 3 years, companies are now looking for ways to diversify their supply chains and mitigate the risks involved in offshoring. As onshoring is not an option due to labour shortages, Rototip is offering the widely sought-after near-shoring solutions for European and North American companies.

Tell us a little bit about the founding story: when and how was Rototip born?

A lot of startups were building marketplaces to cut transaction costs across borders, but mainly between Chinese manufacturers and European & American companies. We wanted to cut the dependency on Chinese manufacturing, simply because we thought it was simply too risky for companies to depend on manufacturing 9.000km away. What if something happens, we thought. Then happened the covid outbreak, the war, and the supply chain crisis.

Rototip is founded in 2021 to offer an alternative to ‘decentralised manufacturing’ ecosystem others were busy creating. What was called ‘decentralised’ was actually ‘random, unmanaged, unsupervised’. We not only offered a way more sustainable near-shoring option to purchasing decisions, but also created the long-awaited solution for centralised operations to combat difficulties of decentralised manufacturing

Tell us about the people, founders and initiators of Rototip and their personal backgrounds and motivations?

There has always been a great potential for the business, yet no one dared to claim the space until Onur asked me what if there comes a customer who needed mechanical parts today: where would we get them manufactured? The next morning he was out hunting manufacturing workshops. He is a true entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in working with small-and-medium business owners. He runs our Supply Chain Operations. Previously worked at Coca-Cola, and Lactalis.

Utku safeguards our cash-machine. He is unrivalled in budgeting, having led budgets for one of the largest manufacturing companies in the defence industry. He is also very strong in strategy. Previously worked at PM Group, and Roketsan.

Samet leads our design & product, giving Rototip the shape, ensuring agility for scalable business operations. Although he is a designer, he probably knows more about manufacturing than most of the mechanical & manufacturing engineers I have met in my entire life. Previously worked at Ikea.

Bart builds our technology. He is the one offering the most convenient solutions using the most reliable technology out there while getting it done with the startup budget we have. He’s helped companies like JP Morgan and Nike run software reliably, serving tens of millions of users.

I have a background in contracting and manufacturing. Worked in several large companies and startups. When I was in my teens and twenties, I read about trade, transaction costs, and co-operatives. Doing what we do at Rototip, and doing it together with the people in the founding team and with other associates who joined us is what drives me everyday.

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What would you say is your secret sauce to differentiate your solution?

We are uniquely positioned with offices in the Netherlands, a jurisdiction customers like to do business with, and in Turkey, a low-cost country with one of the largest manufacturing ecosystems in the world. Both countries are rich sources of talent in all aspects of work we do. Our focus is on delivering quality products, affordably priced, sustainably sourced & delivered.

What is an ideal customer for you?

Our ideal customer is one that employs less than 1.000 people, and that carries multiple hardware products in its portfolio. Although it doesn’t perfectly fit into our ideal customer profile, Össur is one of our customers.

And when it comes to cusomer interaction then, how do your customers work with Rototip: are you more a solution to source contract manufacturers for short term demand peaks or are you regularly integrated as a standard outsourcing partner?

Both. We have customers who have many manufacturing machines themselves. They work with us when they need assistance as they cannot keep up with the demand at the same level throughout the year. We also have customers to whom we deliver thousands of parts at regular intervals. The quantities we provide changes from one to thousands. The number of repeat customers is pretty high.

With the pandemic and the supply chain disruptions linked to it, nearshoring becomes a topic of high priority for many enterprises. Is that trend something you will eventually benefit from or are there challenges coming your way with that development?

Certainly, yes. The shipping container price spike helped us win orders we otherwise would have lost. China’s zero-covid policy and the lockdowns in manufacturing zones around Shenzhen also helped us realise much lower customer acquisition costs as customers were becoming more prone to risks involved in purchasing from overseas. One of the reasons why we grew beyond our expectations over the past 1,5 years has much to do with these supply chain disruptions across the world as near-shoring is now a trending topic among purchasers across the globe.

On your website it reads that you’ve already served customers from all around the world. What can we expect from you in the future? Will you further expand your services internationally or further expand your services with regard to materials and machinery?

Our aim for serving customers in North America, Asia, or Australia was to understand the markets and prove that internationalisation would be possible, and profitable. Even in Europe, we served customers outside our target market. All these helped us understand that (1) we can sell at a margin in all countries, (2) trade regulations are extremely beneficial to us as a Dutch-Turkish startup, (3) the market is much much larger than what we initially expected when we decided to found Rototip. Our goal is to remain focused on what we do the best; we are not planning to expand into other countries or regions any time soon. However, companies are finding us and we then don’t refuse to serve. On the other hand, we are constantly looking to expand the selection of materials we work with and the manufacturing methods we use, albeit not aggressively at the moment.

Thank you, Galip, for the insightful answers and perspectives! Anything else you want to share?

We have crossed €1M annual run rate and we are still entirely bootstrapped. This does not mean that we will remain bootstrapped. We will look into different financing options that are available although we are in no rush; we are a startup with only €1k cash-burn. At our current stage and growth rate, we are hiring every other month. Therefore, whether you are an investor or a person who is looking for a new challenge, do reach out to us if a manufacturing startup mitigating supply chain problems for companies across the globe is something of interest to you.

You cannot wait to learn more about the future of Supply Chain? Check out our SCM Startups Handbook 2022 where you will discover hundreds of innovative supply chain solutions.

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