Aarhus startup Mobilize Me delivers digital structure tools for public institutions

This gives rise to broad smiles, as it has long been a huge desire for Mobilize Me Aps to deliver its tools to Aarhus. "It seems a bit strange that we deliver to many other municipalities in Denmark, but not to the municipality where we actually have an office," says Dorthe Stricker, CEO of Mobilize Me.

Mobilize Me develops digital tools for children and adults with cognitive difficulties such as autism and ADHD. The tools compensate for some of the challenges that users face in everyday life. For example, the ability to plan a day, switch from one activity to another or manage their own time. The tools replace physical pictogram forms, handwritten notes and endless lists, among other things.

The company has been around since 2012, when Mobilize Me developed the tool of the same name, targeting people on the autism spectrum through visual guidance. In 2013, Mobilize Me became a subsidiary of the IT company Arosii, which acquired 51% of the shares. Arosii A/S specializes in health tech and had already developed the tool PlaNet for people with ADHD who need a little extra support to live an independent life. Since then, the two tools have been continuously developed so that they now both help a broader group of people with cognitive challenges. In addition, the goal management tool LiMo has been added.

What do you do when corona hits and the founder disappears?

Like many other small and large companies, Corona has been challenging for Mobilize Me. The situation didn't get any easier when René Brøndbjerg-Bras, founder and CEO of the company, fell ill in October 2020, and overnight, the driving force behind Mobilize Me disappeared.

The four remaining employees of Mobilize Me were suddenly faced with a situation where they had to find a way to keep the company going. Fortunately, they rose to the challenge and with the help of Arosii's management team, the business strategy was redesigned, and new forms of collaboration and educational offerings were developed that could also work in a time of corona restrictions.

The company also hired a new CEO, Dorthe Stricker. Dorthe brings a wide range of skills to the role. She is originally a business lawyer from Aarhus University, but throughout her working life, she has worked with digital communication, health innovation, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. Dorthe was already familiar with Mobilize Me and René from the founding of the company in 2011 and was therefore able to quickly familiarize herself with the company's mission and challenges.

"Mobilize Me is stronger today and our biggest challenge and victory are therefore a direct extension of each other. We have an even closer relationship with Arosii, who is responsible for the technical development of the tools on a daily basis. This is helped by the fact that we have physically moved closer together in a shared office environment in INCUBA," says CEO Dorthe Stricker and elaborates:

"On the staff front, there have been some minor changes, and we now have a small permanent team where we collaborate across the board, but each with their own area of responsibility. René still contributes to the company as a board member, and the company still operates with a fundamental ambition to help people with cognitive challenges to a better life."

A space to grow at INCUBA

In addition to the opportunity to strengthen the collaboration with Arosii in a shared office environment, Mobilize Me finds that INCUBA generally provides facilities that the company needs in everyday life.

"Over the years, INCUBA has helped create a good framework that has been able to continuously adapt to the company. Over the years, we have moved to new offices as the company has grown. In March, we moved for the third time internally at INCUBA, and it's convenient for us that we can scale up our office as the company grows. However, the biggest advantage of living in the INCUBA environment is that we don't have to spend time on a lot of administration and allocate resources to maintenance tasks on a daily basis. We can prioritize our time on what we are good at," says Dorthe Stricker and Katharina Andreasen, Head of Education at Mobilize Me adds:

"We also appreciate the access to meeting rooms. They allow us to organize courses, networking meetings, etc. It's a great help for us in our everyday life that it doesn't have to be a long way from thought to action. We also appreciate the opportunity to participate in the networking groups. When you're a small company like us, it's great to have sparring partners from other companies working in the same areas."

Read more about Mobilize Me here