On my Way: Recent Episodes
Jürgen (J) Dieber
Welcome to On my Way (OmW)! From artists and entrepreneurs to scientists and everyday people, OmW is a place for authentic, engaging discussions that will leave you feeling inspired and connected. Tune in to hear a diverse range of perspectives and experiences, and join me on my journey to learn from the world around me. If you want to be a part of thought-provoking conversations and get a glimpse into the lives of others, OmW is the podcast for you.
Exiting times at OmW! I am currently changing the format to in person conversations. As this requires a new skill-set to be learned and the guest-list to be changed, it results in fewer episodes at the current moment. I believe it brings quite a change in output quality though and I hope that also comes across. I would appreciate your feedback on this, either per PM or in the Episode Q&A (on Spotify only).
Thank you for listening!
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Eric is a Software Engineer at Meta's Large Language Models (LLM) applications team and a part-time Electrical Engineering student at Stanford.
In our conversation we talk about Eric's experience at Meta, product development and management approaches, startup successes factors, democratizing AI and current LLM based advances in education.
Diyala is the founder and head of Vento, the Venture Building Program/Startup-Accelerator of Exor Ventures in Italy.
Listen to a conversation about founders, entrepreneurship and startups. We discuss Diyala’s learnings from recruiting and mentoring dozens of founders, her take on characteristics of successful venture entrepreneurs, her learnings on early stage entrepreneurship, what to look out for in your co-founders, reaching product-market fit and more.
Are you ready to get your own hands dirty? Vento is currently recruiting their next batch of venture entrepreneurs to boost their success. Apply here until October 8th.
If you want to get in touch with Diyala, to talk about Vento or to pitch your startup, you can reach out to her on LinkedIn.
Katrine is a recent Stanford MBA and MIT Computer Science alumna, and a former strategy consultant and product manager.
We discuss Kat's blog Learn with Kat, the relevance of communication and group dynamics at work and Kat's experience with hiring processes as a product manager. Kat also gives her opinion on the difference in the culture of MIT vs. Stanford and lots of advice on product management. Enjoy!
If you want to get in touch, you can reach out the Katrine here.
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LINKS MENTIONED:
Stanford MBA
Touchy Feely MBA Course
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Othman is a current Ed-Tech Founder and an alumni of Stanford’s MSc. in Education Data Science.
We are talking about his time at Stanford, his data science work with the Moroccan Ministry of Education, as well as educational challenges in Morocco and around the world.
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LINKS MENTIONED
Stanford MSc. in Education Data Science: https://ed.stanford.edu/eds
Othman's work on student dropout prediction: https://ed.stanford.edu/eds/project/rescuing-moroccan-students-it-too-late-drop-out-early-warning-system-dews
Khan Academie's AI Assistant: https://www.khanacademy.org/khan-labs
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Ohad is a successful founder and business angel based in San Diego, California. Since leaving Israel for the US in 2011 he has held roles at Google, Ezoic, Smith.ai and his own company Kahoona.
This episode includes two core elements: Founding and Israel. Ohad starts off with giving insights into his own track record and his approach to entrepreneurship. We then talk about why Israel has more unicorn startups per capita than any other country and Ohad shares his insights into Israels shifting political landscape. We top it off with a discussion about successful company cultures, advice for founders on fundraising, Bootstrapping vs. VC funding, and early founding advice. Enjoy!
Do you have questions about founding and investing? Get in touch with Ohad on LinkedIn.
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LINKS MENTIONED:
Israels Universities are taking the lead on unicorns: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7080185869218840577/
Four Tribes of Israel Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci5zZi5Zpb0
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Lorenz is a journalist at the ORF, Austria’s largest journalistic organization, and a sports commentator. Additionally, he co-hosts the comedy podcast Erlesene Dummheiten which is currently in its third season.
In this episode, we dive into Lorenz's daily routine in radio, his early 3 AM starts, the evolution of his podcast to a YouTube channel, sports commentating and how he gathers the will and energy to juggle all these roles.
If you have questions for Lorenz or want to dive deeper into his insights, connect with him on LinkedIn.
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JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
Originals by Adam Grant: https://www.amazon.com/Originals-How-Non-Conformists-Move-World/dp/014312885X
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl-ebook/dp/B009U9S6FI
A Simpler Life by The School of Life: https://www.amazon.com/Simpler-Life-greater-serenity-clarity/dp/1912891689
Michael is the current CEO of Silana, a robotic startup with the goal to automate the fashion industry.
Listen to the journey of Silana, the state of the art of clothing manufacturing, fast-fashion, the new EU legislation and pollution.
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JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
Originals by Adam Grant: https://www.amazon.com/Originals-How-Non-Conformists-Move-World/dp/014312885X
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl-ebook/dp/B009U9S6FI
A Simpler Life by The School of Life: https://www.amazon.com/Simpler-Life-greater-serenity-clarity/dp/1912891689
Alex and I met after she gave a keynote about Quantum Computing, at age 17 at the We Are Developer conference. Besides public speaking, Alex is pursuing her MSc. in Drug Development & Regulatory Affairs, and explores the tiny universe around us.
Listen to an energizing conversation about her fascination with the sciences, a new perspective on mathematics, a definition of "bad science" and science communication. Further, we dive into adventures, anxiety and how to handle mental challenges in life.
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LINKS MENTIONED:
Learn math with 3 Blue 1 Brown: https://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown
The Andrew Huberman Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/79CkJF3UJTHFV8Dse3Oy0P
Originals Nobel laureate Table: https://marcellus.in/blogs/marcellus-non-conformism-underpins-original-thought/
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JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
Originals by Adam Grant: https://www.amazon.com/Originals-How-Non-Conformists-Move-World/dp/014312885X
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl-ebook/dp/B009U9S6FI
A Simpler Life by The School of Life: https://www.amazon.com/Simpler-Life-greater-serenity-clarity/dp/1912891689
Sam is a fundraising manager for Save the Children and an incoming volunteer at the Peace Corps in Lesotho.
We talk about Save the Children and the not-for-profit sector, Lesotho and the Peace Corps and have fun, sharing traveling stories and safety tips.
If you have questions for Sam, get in touch on instagram (sgaspar.jpg)
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JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
<< As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. >>
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity DE/US
Originals by Adam Grant: DE/US
Nico is a Senior Analyst at the Venture Capital firm FoodLabs, an Early Stage VC investor and venture studio for food, sustainability and health.
We kick it off lightly with how Nico got to work at FoodLabs, what the company does and what his typical day looks like. In the second half of the podcast Nico answers all the questions I had about VCs and how they think: What do VCs look for in their founder-teams? Which documents should founders have ready before getting in touch? How do VCs finance themselves and what is the difference between Pre-Seed, Seed and Series A etc.? We close with a discussion about Alternative Financing and Bootstrapping.
Do you have questions about FoodLabs, VCs or early stage financing? Nico is happy to answer any questions you might have on LinkedIn. Just make sure to include a message: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaus-norden/
NOTE: Unfortunately, after minute 38 the podcasting platform stopped recording my audio and video. This resulted in the loss of a segment of mine, talking about the venture builder I participated in (tbc in a different episode). I had to cut a bit of the middle segment, and the audio later on is from a backup and not as crisp. I hope you still enjoy it!
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JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
<< As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. >>
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity DE/US
Originals by Adam Grant: DE/US
Dominik is a successful solo-preneur and indie-hacker. He develops apps like HelpKit and Casetools.app. Check out his company page https://sevendegrees.io/ for more. Dominik's first appearance on OmW can be found here.
Listen to a conversation fully loaded with talk about performance, routines, and Dominik's account on his first three years as a digital nomad. Starting minute 01:18:00 Dominik shares how to get started with bootstrapped (aka self-financed) entrepreneurship and why trying out solo-preneurship is a valuable experience for every founder.
Follow Dominik on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/sobedominik?s=20
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LINKS MENTIONED:
Sleep Cycle App: https://www.sleepcycle.com/
Thomas Van-Schneider: https://vanschneider.com/
Check Zayne as your guide in Ho Chi Minh City: https://rb.gy/ld7p4
The Stair Step Approach of Entrepreneurship: https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stair-step-method-of-bootstrapping/
Y-Combinator Episode "Avoid These Tempting Startup Ideas": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMIawSAygO4
JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
<< As an Amazon Associate I earn money whenever you buy something after clicking the link. >>
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://amzn.to/3MwHGNF
Originals by Adam Grant: https://amzn.to/3pG8qCx
Nick is a global citizen, who loves art and business. He holds a graduate degree from UCL and is an Alumnus of the Vento Venture Originator.
Listen to us having a lot of fun while discussing venture backed entrepreneurship, bias in AI applications, beer and Nicks upcoming art show.
Follow Nick on his artist account for more:
https://www.instagram.com/woolleynickart/
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LINKS MENTIONED:
The Outfit (Movie): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14114802/
School of Greatness (Podcast): https://lewishowes.com/sogpodcast/
teamLab Borderless: https://www.teamlab.art/e/borderless_azabudai/
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JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://amzn.to/3MwHGNF
Originals by Adam Grant: https://amzn.to/3PLfDvN
Ivana is singer, ESCP alumna and current project manager at Forever Day One.
Listen to a conversation about purpose and work and how the music industry is silently undergoing a financial revolution.
Follow Ivana on Instagram for more:
https://www.instagram.com/ivanacld/
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LINKS MENTIONED:
Scott Galloway - Do not follow your passion: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2023/06/03/smr-galloway-dont-follow-your-passion.cnn
Ikigai Framework: https://medium.com/ideas-into-action/ikigai-the-perfect-career-diagnostic-3de932834be7
JÜRGEN’S CURRENT BOOK LIST:
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://amzn.to/3MwHGNF
Yes to Life in Spite of Everything: https://amzn.to/3IOMWJU
Peter is the Co-Founder of KÜHBREIN (https://www.kuehbreinmost.at/), a Cider Start-up in Austria, that has won several international awards, including the “World Best Cider 2023” award. Furthermore, Peter is an advocate and supporter of environmental responsibility initiatives.
Listen to Peter’s KÜHBREIN success-story and how they are reviving a forgotten product, his experience on 2 Minuten 2 Millionen, a discussion about trends on the international markets, food-waste and the difficulties of being a responsible consumer.
Read up on food-waste facts here:
https://www.ozharvest.org/food-waste-facts/#:~:text=One%20third%20of%20all%20food,to%20%24940%20billion%20each%20year.&text=Up%20to%2010%25%20of%20global,Food%20Waste%20Index%20Report%202021
Follow Peter on Linkedin for more:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-kargl-b3189316b/
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>> Links mentioned
Kühbrein Instagram: https://instagram.com/kuehbrein__?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Initiatives to reduce food waste: https://www.kitro.ch
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>> Jürgen’s Current Reading List
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://amzn.to/3MwHGNF
Yes to Life in Spite of Everything: https://amzn.to/3IOMWJU
Pietro is the Co-Founder of Plino (plino.it) and a current participant in Vento, a Venture Builder in Italy.
Enjoy a conversation about digital CFOs, the definition of success, billionaires and a conversation about startups more broadly.
Get in touch
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pietro-galimberti/
plino.ai@gmail.com
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Links mentioned
Bad Banks: https://www.netflix.com/at-en/title/80994411?source=35
Y-Combinator free online startup school: https://www.startupschool.org/
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Jürgen’s Current Reading List
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity: https://amzn.to/3MwHGNF
Chiara is the Co-Founder and CTO of Eoliann, a climate-tech startup that helps businesses predict climate risks based on satellite data and machine learning models (https://www.eoliann.com/).
Listen to our conversation about the origin of her company, the need for great climate models and her thoughts and decision making on organizational behavior.
Want to talk to Chiara? Feel free to reach out to her on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiara-cs-mugnai/
Lukas is a former professional musician and a current Strategy Consultant at Google. There he runs the “Peak Performance” workshop-series that helps Googlers to develop better principles for their physical and mental health.
In our conversation Lukas breaks down his peak performance methodology and gives insights into his practices for healthy body, mind and emotions.
Get in touch with him on LinkedIn or follow him for weekly updates on https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukasstangl/
Enjoying OmW? Then don’t forget to follow!
Eric is a Software Engineer at Meta, building large language models (LLMs) and a part-time Electrical Engineering student at Stanford.
If you want to understand what is happening around the ChatGPT hype this episode is for you.
Listen to us discuss the current state of LLMs like GPT and LAMA, AI applications he anticipates, as well as ethical concerns about this new technology.
Shlok is a CS graduate from Georgia Tech and a Software Engineer at Salesforce in San Francisco.
Enjoy a conversation about learning, utilitarianism & personal principles, mindset, cultural differences and dealing with the paradox of choice in your career.
[Recorded on March 5th 2023]
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Content mentioned
“Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning” by Peter C. Brown https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1680898224&sr=8-1
"12 Rules for Life" by Jordan Peterson: https://amzn.to/3kTS2eM
“Principles: Life and Work” by Ray Dalio: https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1680898420&sr=8-4
Anvit is a graduate from Minerva University and currently pursuing his M.S. in Education Data Science at Stanford.
Growing up in the US and India, Anvit has a lot to share about different educational and economic systems. Hear him break down his experience at Minerva, the worlds most innovative university, and our conversation about cultural differences, skill based education and how to escape bubbles and echo chambers.
If you want to chat with Anvit, send him a message on https://www.linkedin.com/in/anvit-garg/
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What’s Our Problem? by Tim Urban: https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Our-Problem-Self-Help-Societies-ebook/dp/B0BTJCTR58?ref_=ast_author_mpb
Alexey Guzey: https://guzey.com/
The Prism: https://gurwinder.substack.com/
Mirko is a personal finance enthusiast and FinTech co-founder from Turin, Italy. His startup 360Track aims to be a one-stop platform to give people a clear overview of their personal finances and investments.
Listen to the first 12 month of his startup journey, living in the Italian version of a startup-garage, how he got his first 50 users and his advice for anyone who is getting started ([1] build as you go right from the start & [2] never hesitate to ask for feedback).
Become a beta-tester of 360Track on https://360track.me/en/ and get in touch with Mirko on https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirko-vaccarello/.
Elise is a customer engineer at Google Cloud, who writes about her data science projects on Medium & Towards Data Science (https://eliselandman.medium.com/).
In our conversation we discuss her five year long career in tech, as well as how she got into coding and data science (& how you can get started too!). We also delve into topics like learning styles, research opportunities, cloud services and data centers.
Get in touch with her on LinkedIn https://at.linkedin.com/in/eliselandman
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Megan is a computational neuroscience graduate from Brown University and a current project manager at Confiant.
Join our conversation about podcasting, creating on TikTok for fun, company scams and Megan's experience at CES, the worlds biggest tech conference.
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Megan Ly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-ly-4a64ba77/
Bad Bets Podcast: https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/bad-bets
CES: https://www.ces.tech/
Patrick is the current founder associate at Sprad.io, an Austrian startup that helps companies drive employee referrals.
Enjoy hearing about the early office culture at Sprad, a discussion about values and principles, how to create happiness for others, and our experiences interacting with people on social media.
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Content mentioned:
“Everything You Need” by Dr. David Jeremiah: https://amzn.to/3jqFLOY
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[Recorded on January 25th 2023]
Daniel Santos is a Portuguese digital designer, focusing on graphic designs, video creation and 3D animations (www.danielsantos.co).
He recently returned back home after a year in Medellin, Columbia, where he worked as a freelancer.
Listen to his stories about getting mugged and how he utilizes curiosity to become a better designer, as well as broad discussions about personal social networks, life paths and the rewards of publishing content.
[Recorded January 16th 2023]
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Georg Weber is an ex-Venture Capitalist focused on early stage startups.
Enjoy our conversation about social contracts, life-changing books, stoicism overcoming resistance and more.
[Recorded on January 11th 2023]
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Content mentioned:
“Happiness” by Naval: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1shh8qUjlDWEKOoNzzBBms?si=26d616b0606a4f13
“How to Get Rich: Every Episode” by Naval: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1DW2fkyEkgZaEP40Mj6H9m?si=c6138f58b7914183
“Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson: https://www.navalmanack.com/
“The War on Art” by Steven Pressfield: https://amzn.to/3ZYui9E
"12 Rules for Life" by Jordan Peterson: https://amzn.to/3kTS2eM
Chris Ostertag is an Austrian entrepreneur with a background in business and Artificial Intelligence.
Join our conversation about OpenAI, the noise around ChatGPT and a broad discussion about education and our personal stories around it.
[Recorded on December 28th 2022]
[Recorded on December 21st 2022]
Francesco Cia is a game developer and Italian entrepreneur who is currently creating an esports-school to improve gamer's skills in an effective, affordable and scalable way.
Listen to Francesco explain the different cultures in northern Italy and our discussion about teaching esports, progress in Augmented and Virtual Reality, game development and gaming in general.
[Legacy Episode: Recorded on July 28th 2022]
Anton Wohlgemuth is a co-founder of Silana (https://wearesilana.com), a deeptech-startup that aims to bring fashion production to Europe thanks to automation.
After a short time in the finance industry he decided to follow his entrepreneurial passions and found Silana while pursuing his graduate studies at TU Vienna.
Join our talk about the finance industry, building a startup and what it takes to bring the fashion production back to Europe.
[Legacy Episode: Recorded on July 20th 2022]
Seif Chourbagi is a serial entrepreneur with a professional background in the fashion industry.
He is currently building the clean-tech startup Dedalo AI (https://dedalo.ai/), measuring and reducing the CO2 emission of software. He is also an alumni of the Vento Venture Builder in Turin.
Enjoy our conversation about the ups and downs of life, his entrepreneurial endeavors, Venture Builders/Startup Accelerators and the role the apps on your phone are playing in emitting CO2.
[Legacy Episode: Recorded on November 19th 2021]
Dominik Sobe is a self taught indie-hacker, Web3 enthusiast and product designer. He solo developed successful apps like Getnutri.app, Casetools.app and Storepreviewer.com.
Originally from Austria, he now enjoys the global-nomad life (currently in Indonesia) and grows his company Seven Degrees Labs.
Tune in to listen to our conversation about Indie Hacking, Token-Economies, Grad-School and Entrepreneurship.
Note: Being the first one, the audio has its shortcomings and improves gradually over the next episodes.