Nectar & Pulse – urban nomads with a flair for business

Freshly washed strawberries, lovingly cut cake and a small bouquet of tulips placed in a converted cookie jar decorate the kitchen table in the pre-war apartment in the Giesing quarter of Munich. Lifestyle magazines are stacked in a tower in a corner, nearly obscuring Hellmann’s magnus opus on the sociology of brands that forms the base of the creative construction. The apartment is both office and home in one. Wearing colorful stockings, fingernails brightly painted, and wrists displaying recent tattoos, designers Carina and Tanja are making yet another pot of coffee in order to prepare themselves for the next round. After quickly sending off the latest urgent text message and choosing a new playlist, they are ready to carry on with their most recent travel guide for Vienna. Day and night, the two travel aficionados are busy packaging, sending and marketing their product. And, despite heavily indulging in caffeine abuse, they have found it necessary to hire temporary help for additional support during this hectic phase.

The treasure collector

The young entrepreneurs’ product is based on a simple yet elegant premise: To find the nectar in every city, thereby uncovering the metropole’s vibrant pulse with all its subcultures, its secret delights, and hidden treasures. Because insider knowledge is necessary for this, both women gather information during numerous conversations with locals and then convert the gradually gleaned knowledge into an aesthetic package.

Traveling is at its best when you meet people who, quite unexpectedly, turn out to be soulmates. Nectar & Pulse claim to be able to supply your local soulmates on demand, thus literally allowing you to feel oddly at home despite never having set foot in a city before. The coffee tastes the way it should, the boutiques offer what you’ve always been looking for, and the clubs play your favorite music. In short, you feel you belong, even though this is your first visit. And this is their concept: Visitors to Nectar & Pulse’s website do not look for recommendations for restaurants or accommodations; instead they look for soulmates. A gallery of – very attractive – candidates, the locals, are presented for every city. In personal interviews, they talk about their passions, favorite labels, and other interests in life. You choose the candidates whose tastes and views you feel are most similar to yours, and their 20 to 30 insider tips are added to your own loose-leaf binder, or collector, as Tanja and Carina call their personalized travel guides.

A random number of locals can be selected for the chosen destination and, when you feel you your shopping cart contains enough soulmates, you click on enter. Then, from Munich – or wherever they happen to be at that moment – Carina and Tanja create a personalized binder for you and send it to you.

Two rule as one

Being good friends does not necessarily translate into the ability to work well and productively together. Despite unsolicited, yet well-meant, warnings, Tanja and Carina have chosen to follow this path together. They radiate the unwavering conviction that this is the right decision, not least because they believe they have an identical understanding of their brand: they want it to be honest and authentic, and embody what they themselves stand for.

It is easy for Carina and Tanja to live the philosophy of the brand Nectar & Pulse; it is, after all, indistinguishable from the two entrepreneurs’ key characteristics: curiosity, ambition, and a zest for life.