noQ was founded in 2017 when Ove Holmberg, a consultant for the City of Stockholm, was tasked with investigating billing procedures for the homeless. During this time, he not only identified areas for improvement in the billing process but also encountered many homeless individuals, shelters, and administrators who were all burdened by manual administrative routines that consumed entire workdays instead of allowing them to help those in need. Ove’s report concluded with:

“You should also review the entire process from booking to statistics and consider how to book places more efficiently. Creating a booking app that provides an overview of available spots and contains all the data needed for billing shouldn’t be too difficult to build.”

At that time, the City of Stockholm had neither the time nor resources to pursue anything beyond improving billing procedures. Three years later, when Ove wanted to volunteer at a shelter, he found that the same manual routines and outdoor queues still persisted. In February 2023, Ove took the initiative to reach out to some friends and see if they were ready to take meaningful action. After rallying support on LinkedIn, around ten individuals stepped up to tackle the challenge. After a year of functioning as a virtual network, they recognized the need to formalize their efforts in order to establish partnerships, which became a key part of noQ’s strategy. On February 13, 2024, the non-profit organization noQ was officially established, with its first board consisting of Martin Jonsing, Johan Lith, and Ove Holmberg. As we enter the autumn of 2024, we are eagerly racing toward our first milestone: the launch of the app.