Trade fair debut at the Gründermesse Mönchengladbach

Two by two metres, a freshly printed one-pager and an idea: on 6 November 2025, CABITREE stood at a trade fair for the first time — the Gründermesse in Mönchengladbach.

The stand was deliberately simple. We were not there to look finished; we were there to listen: how do craftspeople, founders and visitors react to the idea of documenting the history of wood without gaps? Which questions come first — about the material, the technology or the proof?

What we took away

The conversations were more open and more concrete than expected. Many visitors knew the problem from their own experience: declarations of origin that nobody can verify, and paperwork that eats more time than the actual work. Some conversations turned into follow-up meetings and invitations to further events in the region — the beginning of a network that carries us to this day.

The one-pager from back then is long outdated, and so is the name we traded under. That is part of founding a company. What remains is the experience that the idea answers questions people out there are actually asking.

The months that followed belonged to work behind the scenes — on the material, on the concept and on the first funding application.