Whoever is part of an abundant circle of friends may consider their selves lucky. With a large network of social contacts, it's a challenge to be bored. However you could possibly think so. But no matter how many friends you can count, as soon as you want to organize something which is not part of the usual recreational activities with your circle of friends, you see yourself facing a Herculean task. Even when an event is planned way ahead a half a year in advance, when it comes time for the event, all of a sudden your friends reveal their lazy bones and discover creative "emergencies" as excuses why they have to skip out.  It's never easy to get the desired number of trusted companions together.

Andi* was once again reminded of this misery as he was pondering on a snowy Thursday evening where to spend the coming weekend in a ski resort of his choice. With full freeride equipment and 2-3 of his most talented friends, he looked forward to whizzing down the most notorious slopes of the Swiss Alps on a pleasantly sunny 5 ° C. After going through his mental checklist, he had packed all the gear and accessories and stowed in the car, and he called in turn his best friends. After forty minutes, a calming tea and about twelve phone calls later, Andi sighed and buried his forehead in the palms of his hands. It was clear. One half of his friends simply did not feel like snow sports, and the other, much sportier half had already planned their weekend completely.  Where had the spirit of spontaneity gone?!

Distraught, he plopped onto his couch, put his legs up and swiped dreamily pictures of various mountain landscapes in Switzerland on his smartphone back and forth. Incredible, he thought, that many of these charming and attractive regions are barely known beyond the boundaries of their community. Something must be done urgently to put them back on the map for the tourist crowds. That was when he got the idea that led to the founding of The Buddies AG.  Others would have just shelved the matter and organized a freeride tour for the following weekend. This did not work with Andi.  He insisted on ensuring that this possibility would be ruled out in the future.  This situation should not be experienced by anyone in Switzerland, regardless if you are a tourist or live here.

In cooperation with his longtime companion Silv**, the two of them founded a project at the end of 2016 that would keep them in suspense throughout the following year and beyond. As the basis of the project, the two young entrepreneurs created two different platforms to make the buddy offer to the sports enthusiastic crowd accessible both in the winter and in the summer season. Tourists as well as locals should be given the opportunity to get together in groups in snow and biking sports in order to enjoy outdoor activities in the Alps that are complimenting each other.

The project kicked off with the launch of the SnowBuddies platform in November 2017. Following a successful first winter season with an active Buddies service offering, The Buddies AG is starting to include mountain biking in May 2018. Although the workload for two platforms could easily make up two full-time jobs, it is not yet possible for the two entrepreneur buddies to live purely from the Buddies business. This goal is currently still in the distance, but The Buddies AG counts on the dedicated sports community of Switzerland and is sure that with the time everyone will pull together and form an active buddy community.  Once all bikers in Switzerland are united under one flag, upgrading the BikeBuddy offer will be child's play and BikeBuddies will be the place to go for low-cost and exciting biking for all Swiss bicyclists. We count on your participation!

Andreas Müller* and Silvan Poltera**, co- founders of Snow- and BikeBuddies.