CannaZen: From idea to start-up

These 2 men are changing the cannabis market in Germany with CannaZen. In the interview, you can find out more about the founding story, the challenges, but also the future of the cannabis market and why Stephan wants to deliver with drones soon.

Editor’s note: Stephan Czaja is also the owner of FIV Magazine.

FIV: David, Stephan, nice of you to take the time. How do you start the day before you get to CannaZen?

David Krems: My mornings usually start with exercise – whether it’s a short run or half an hour at the gym. It gets me going and gives me energy for the day. Then I have a balanced breakfast, often with fruit and yogurt, so that I can start the day well fortified. We had over a thousand orders in the first week alone – you can’t have enough energy!

Stephan Czaja: I like to start the day with a tour of the city center, I like to walk – that’s often where the best ideas come from. Then I sit down with a cappuccino, what projects are on the agenda? Which meetings are particularly important? This gives me an immediate overview and a structured start to the working day. So I can still learn a lot from David’s sporting energy!

Founder story: From BBQ to startup

FIV: Let’s move on to CannaZen. How did the idea of setting up a platform for medical cannabis come about?

Stephan Czaja: We’ve known each other forever, almost ten years. David has had his companies, I mean forever. Then we went out for dinner in early 2024 and ….

David showed me that you can easily order medical cannabis online in 5 minutes. I couldn’t believe it until we actually got a cannabis prescription – without all the stress of buying cannabis.

David Krems: The disadvantage of all the providers is that they are from Malta, London, none of them are from Germany. That’s how CannaZen was born.

Stephan Czaja: Exactly. Excellent customer service, weed with one hundred percent quality from renowned producers and fast home delivery. So you save yourself all the trips, the search for a doctor, the waiting, the waiting room and then the search for a pharmacy and so on. And let’s be honest, many patients have saved themselves the stress and bought their marijuana from dealers.

Getting cannabis, made easy

David Krems: Yes, we have noticed that many patients have to struggle with hurdles, as Stephan already said, finding a doctor, waiting times, finding a pharmacy and very few people have bought from pharmacies so far. Until now, cannabis has mostly been obtained illegally. We wanted to create a solution that simplifies access to medicinal cannabis for everyone while maintaining the highest standards.

FIV: David, what vision are you pursuing with CannaZen?

David Krems: “ Our vision was clear: we wanted to create a platform that offers patients a simple and safe way to obtain medical cannabis. Our aim was to combine modern technology and personal support in order to optimally meet individual needs.

But there’s more to it than that: medical care in rural areas, for example. With online doctors and pharmacies, we are already making life easier for many people, especially working people who can’t just pop to the doctor.

Stephan Czaja: We also want to offer prompt delivery in larger cities, in just a few hours. Thinking further, Amazon is already testing the first drone hubs in the USA for the delivery of products and medicines. This is where the future lies, prompt delivery within an hour, no matter where in Germany, not just in Berlin, Hamburg or other major cities, but also in rural areas, where 29 percent of people live.

How does it work now, buying cannabis online

FIV: How does the platform work in detail?

David Krems: Patients start with a digital questionnaire that collects all the relevant information for our doctors. After the medical examination and approval, the prescription is transmitted digitally to one of our partner pharmacies. Delivery is then made directly to the front door within 48 hours.

Stephan Czaja: What was important to us was that the entire process is not only efficient, but also transparent. Patients know where they stand in the process at all times and can rely on a smooth service.

Why CannaZen? Differences

FIV: What distinguishes CannaZen from other providers?

Stephan Czaja: The payment was central, with us you only have one step and can order your cannabis conveniently to your home in 3-5 minutes. That means it’s simple and straightforward. With others, you almost always only get a cannabis prescription, so you have to go back to a pharmacy, which then doesn’t have strain A, B or C in stock and the search begins all over again.

David Krems: CannaZen solves that, you do everything through our service. We attach great importance to a combination of efficiency and individual support, and I’m also very active in this on a day-to-day basis. We also only work with certified doctors and pharmacies to ensure the highest quality standards.

And as I said at the beginning, we are based in Germany, not in Malta, Cyprus or London, we pay our taxes here and are always available.

FIV: David, how do you ensure that your offer meets legal requirements?

David Krems: We are in constant contact with lawyers and experts to ensure that all processes are compliant. At the same time, we have developed our systems in such a way that they meet the legal requirements.

The biggest hurdles in development so far

FIV: What challenges have you had to overcome so far?

David Krems: Security of supply, we currently have 40 varieties on offer and all of them should always be available and deliverable. Secondly, there are also payment providers, which was a lot of work. Then there was the logistics, which was one of the biggest challenges. It wasn’t easy to set up a system that could deliver throughout Germany within 48 hours.

Stephan Czaja: There was also the task of gaining the trust of patients, which is why we work a lot with well-known people who are cannabis patients themselves. They show on YouTube and Instagram how an order works and that builds trust. Especially in the sensitive area of medical cannabis, trust in the quality and safety of the product is crucial.

FIV: What do you think of the positive feedback from patients?

David Krems: The response has been overwhelming. Many people report that they have finally found a reliable and legal way to obtain their medication. This shows us that we are on the right track.

Cannabis market in the future

FIV: What’s coming in the future?

David Krems: We are currently working on live communication with your doctor. Without a visit, without a traditional telephone, directly from your cell phone. Some of our patients would like even more support from their doctor and we want to make this possible soon.

FIV: Stephan, are there any plans to expand into other countries?

Stephan Czaja: We’ll see. The demand for medicinal cannabis is also high elsewhere, but the legal framework is complex. We want to ensure that we can also offer the quality and efficiency that sets us apart outside Germany.

Message from CannaZen

FIV: What message do you have for potential partners or patients?

David Krems: We want to show that CannaZen stands for quality and trust. Patients can rely on us to provide them with a safe and uncomplicated solution.

Stephan Czaja: Exactly that! Quality.

FIV: Many thanks to both of you! If you want to know more about the company, click here: CannaZen.de. Here YouTuber Open Mind tests the delivery service and here you can find our CannaZen experience report:

Self-disclosure for banks: Real Estate Financing

Whether Deutsche Bank, Volksbank or Sparkasse, banks need collateral for real estate financing. The more collateral you can offer, the less risk there is for the bank. So that bankers can assess your financial situation, there is the self-disclosure.

A self-disclosure has no fixed form. That means you will find different templates online.

Source: Real Estate Experience.com

What is the self-disclosure?

Self-disclosure lists your personal data, your monthly income and expenses, as well as your assets and debts. Your net worth (income and assets against expenses and liabilities) should be positive. This surplus is your financial leeway for the condominium or your new house.

In our article Buying an apartment, we have already explained the entire process of buying an apartment. Today we want to look again specifically at what must be in a self-disclosure. Because, importantly, once you submit the documents to your bank, everything should be accurate and complete.

Now let’s look at self-disclosure in detail.

What does the self-disclosure say?

• Summary of the financing request in short form
• Personal data of you as applicant, if necessary also of the co-applicant (e.g. your partner)
• Monthly balance sheet: income and expenditure
• Balance sheet: assets and liabilities (liabilities)
• Financing requirements in detail (property, financing structure, loan amount)
• Consent Schufa information
• Consent Data protection

Free Download: PDF and Word Template

Self-disclosure as PDF and Word template:

• Self Disclosure PDF Template
• Self Disclosure Word Template

Self-disclosure: simply explained

How does the self-disclosure, simply explained? Here are the answers!

Summary of the financing request in short form

Step number one is a brief summary of your financing requirements. In the self-disclosure form, you provide the following information:

Personal data of you as applicant, if necessary also with applicant (e.g. your partner)

After the short overview in the first step, the second step is the specification of personal data. Very basic information, name, address, date of birth, marital status, etc. Either by yourself as the applicant or together with a second person, e.g. a partner or a family member, the so-called co-applicant.

Monthly balance sheet: income and expenditure

Step number 3 deals with your monthly income and your monthly expenses. When you compare your monthly income and expenses, there should be a surplus. Or simply put, you earn more than you spend.

This surplus is the margin for your real estate financing, or the later monthly repayment.

This monthly overview is supplemented by your assets.

Income includes:

• Wage / salary (net)
• Recurring monthly variable income
• Income from self-employment
• Pensions and annuities
• Rental income (cold)
• Child benefit
• Maintenance
• Other income

Your expenses include:

• Housing costs; rent or loan and question: Will be eliminated in the future yes / no?
• Health insurance
• Other insurance (pension, building society, life insurance, etc.)
• Cost of living
• Loans
• Leasing
• Liabilities
• Child support obligations
• Other expenditure

Balance sheet: assets and liabilities (liabilities)

In the fourth step you compare your assets and your debts. Your assets include any simple savings account, but also securities and real estate, if you already own any.

Your credits include:

• Bank and savings accounts
• Securities (market value)
• Insurance policies (surrender value)
• Real estate assets
• Building savings balance
• Other assets

Your liabilities (debts) include:

• Bank, instalment and leasing loans
• Guarantees
• Other liabilities

Financing requirements in detail (property, financing structure, loan amount)

Step number 5 in the self-disclosure is a detailed description of your financing requirements. In detail, it is about the property that is to be financed, the financing structure and the amount of the loan.

Read more about it here (external):

• Self-disclosure: Financing

Consent Schufa information

In step number six, you give your consent for Schufa to obtain information about you. If you haven’t heard of Schufa yet, here’s a brief explanation!

What is Schufa? Schufa is a big card, so to speak, that collects information about consumers. This includes personal data, current loans, leasing contracts, as well as the general payment morale and creditworthiness of individual consumers.

Contractual partners can access the databases at any time and thus carry out rapid creditworthiness checks.

So when banks obtain a Schufa report, this is a completely normal process. That’s why you already give your consent in the self-disclosure.

Tip. Once a year you get this self-disclosure free of charge:

• Schufa (external)

Proof of income

In the last step of the self-disclosure, you collect evidence of your income. If you are an employee, you need to provide proof of income, if you are self-employed, you need to provide your tax returns.

Documents for employees:

• Last 3 pay slips
• Wage statement from December, previous year
• Last tax assessment
• If real estate assets, also income tax return
• Copy of identity card
• Schufa self-disclosure

Documents for the self-employed:

• Last 3 tax assessment notices
• Last 3 tax returns / balance sheets
• Ongoing BWA (business management analysis)
• Copy of identity card
• Schufa self-disclosure

Done! Self-disclosure ready for the bank

That’s it. With that you have your self-disclosure for the bank, with your financing request, complete.

Here again the free download of the templates

• Self Disclosure PDF Template
• Self Disclosure Word Template

Buying your first apartment: Here’s how

Buying your own apartment – As soon as you move into your first own apartment, for most people it’s rent, rent, rent. Every month you go to work many hours to spend the largest part ultimately for the next rent due at the beginning of the month. It’s no wonder that many young people are considering buying a condominium as soon as possible.

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Real Estate Financing Guidelines

Financing real estate made easy! We have compiled tips, tricks and the most important information on the subject of real estate financing for you, so that you too can realize your dream of owning your own home! Do’s and Don’ts and tips and experiences from experts will guide you and answer all your questions about “How do I finance (m)a property”.

Real estate financing and purchase (external & free of charge)

Learn from the experts. You can find many, many more guide articles for free at Lukinski. Learn everything you need to know about buying real estate for free. Start in general with buying real estate, go over your specific type of real estate, from apartment, to house, apartment building to buying land. Also important: everything about the purchase contract (who pays the costs?), incidental purchase costs and saving taxes with real estate. through legal forms such as a real estate GmbH or family foundation. Here you come directly to the topic: Real estate financing in comparison.

Tip! Overview Real Estate XXL

The world of real estate is complex and multifaceted. If you want to keep an overview and avoid making mistakes, you should prepare well and clarify as many open questions as possible in good time. No matter whether you want to build, buy and rent out a property or live in it yourself, or even use a property as an investment to generate passive income: The preparation is the A&O. Here you will find articles, as well as book and video tips with successful and helpful books and videos on the subject of real estate – including tips and tricks from professionals and experts.

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Common mistakes: tips for doing better

Many people who want to finance their property make the same mistakes over and over again. What these are and how you can avoid them is explained to you in the following videos by experts. In these videos, you will learn how to strategically approach your real estate financing in the best possible way and how to optimally save money! In addition, you will learn what you should definitely consider when financing your property.

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Here you will learn what you should pay attention to when financing a property. Equity, repayment and interest: Here you will find an explanation of how these parameters are put together for optimal real estate financing.

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Financing real estate with little or no equity

How do you finance a property with little equity? Is that possible at all? What is legal, what is not? What does the bank say if I have little equity? What are the misconceptions about particularly cheap properties? This and more on the subject of equity you will learn in this video.

Financing real estate without equity

In this video, we talk about construction financing issues, such as real estate financing without equity. Especially the real estate financing is one of the most important building blocks in the long-term real estate economic success, here insider knowledge is very valuable.

Equity finance

Financing a property with equity is probably the most common way of financing a property. How this works, how much money you should actually take in hand and what you should absolutely consider, you will learn here. In addition, different options are presented to you in order to find and develop the financing strategy that is perfectly suited to you.

Equity share in real estate financing

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Equity: How much do you need to have and how much should you put in?

Every one of us wonders: How much equity should I use for my property? In this video you will learn the basics of real estate financing. To be able to calculate equity, it is important to know what all equity is. This and other explanations you will find in this video.

Private real estate financing

Financing a property as a private person is possible, but not a simple matter. In this video you will learn how private financing of real estate works and what you should pay attention to. The whole thing is explained with everyday examples to make the information as accessible as possible.

How does private real estate financing work?

This video explains how traditional private real estate financing works. Based on simple everyday examples, the most important basic elements of financing are clearly conveyed.

Optimal redemption

Taking out a loan or credit to finance a property is a common method. In these videos you will learn more about real estate financing, interest rates, loan rates and the optimal repayment, With these tips you will also find the perfect loan to buy your next property without a guilty conscience.

Financing real estate: How much you should repay?

The real estate loan or real estate financing has a huge impact on whether a property works as an investment or a home works as an investment. Financing a property is therefore something you should definitely understand before buying. One important question to ask is how much to amortize or what is the optimal amount of amortization. This video explains whether you should pay off a lot / pay off quickly or pay off a little / pay off slowly and what role your personal situation plays in this. You will also learn how you can make clever use of unscheduled repayments and what repayments we have agreed on for our own apartments.

Construction financing: Purchase price, rate, interest & Co.: How much house can I afford?

In this video, you’ll learn what your own property may cost, how to determine the right loan rate, and how to get the best interest rate on your financing.

Bank interview – What documents do I need?

To finance your property, you may need a loan or credit. You can usually only get this through a personal interview at a bank branch. In this video you will learn which documents you need for your bank interview and how you can appear most serious and well prepared to emerge from the interview as successful as possible.

What documents you need for a bank interview

This video explains which documents you should bring with you for your bank interview for real estate financing in order to be optimally prepared. You will also learn what is really important for the perfect appearance.

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Build property

To build or to buy a house? This question is on the minds of many prospective buyers. In this article, we show you the advantages and disadvantages of both options and offer interesting tips on financing. Both options have their advantages. A new building has the great advantage that you can determine the layout of the rooms according to your wishes. In an existing property, you no longer have to deal with the complicated construction phases and you can live in your own home much faster. Here you will find videos that will help you finance your dream home and explain to you what you should pay attention to.

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Buy and rent real estate

Buying and renting real estate – It’s hard to get started, but with the right recommendations and tips, it’s easy. So that you too can make a smooth start in the world of real estate, we provide you with tips and tricks. Everything from how to prepare to buy your first home, to finding the right rent, to solving problems like rent default and vacancy. This guide provides you with the best videos from the field of buying and renting real estate.

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Overview Real Estate XXL: Investment & Co.

Here you get back to the overview of book and video recommendations on the subject of real estate in Germany. Investment cases, capital investment, passive income, house or apartment buy and rent and much more is explained to you here by experts and understandable. In this XXL guide you will find information and articles on the most diverse questions on the subject of real estate.

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