Mostly Awesome: Recent Episodes
Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM)
Mostly Awesome is a podcast about the personal journeys of innovators. We talk to the doers and thinkers of our time to understand what motivates them and why they do what they do. Together we reflect upon their decisions, wins, and setbacks. Meet our inspiring yet relatable guests from the world of entrepreneurship and technology to find out what may help you to become an innovator of tomorrow!
Get ready for bi-weekly episodes on Wednesdays. We are looking forward to our guests and your feedback to podcast@cdtm.de.
Mostly Awesome is brought to you by the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) in Munich. For more information, check www.cdtm.de/podcast.
And now lean back, listen in, and learn from the thought leaders of our time!
For this week’s episode Passionfroot is on the menu! The co-founders Jennifer Phan and Michelle Tian combine backgrounds in venture capital at Rocket Internet and tech development at AirBnB and Shopify. In 2021 they co-founded Passionfroot with the aim to empower independent businesses of tomorrow. With this passion in mind, they are developing a back-office tool tailored to creator businesses. Tune in to learn more about Passionfroot and the future of the creator economy!
If we hear about living an almost nomadic life, we typically have a picture of a backpacker in mind, traveling the world. Our guest for today's episode, Maya Hari, however, would probably describe this as how she spent her 20s working in India, the U.S., France as well as Singapore. Maya is not your run-of-the-mill backpacker though - she studied engineering and did an MBA at INSEAD before she worked at the likes of Cisco, Google, and Microsoft before becoming the VP of Global Strategy and Operations at Twitter.
In this episode, Maya tells us more about her personal and truly international journey, founding an eCommerce start-up while being a mother, working for Twitter, and sharing her thoughts about the current state of online media.
Joshua and Mehmet both studied Business Administration and Math in Munich. Together they founded Freeletics in 2013, which later rose to become a popular consumer internet company that offers personalized fitness plans and community support via a mobile application. After exiting from Freeletics in 2018 they waited no more than three weeks before they founded yet again! Their current venture is called Zavvy, a company that aspires to invent aspects of the “future of work”.
During this episode, they talk about where the idea for Freeletics came from and the culture and community that Freeletics created for end users. Furthermore, Joshua and Mehmet tell us more about Zavvy, the differences from their previous experiences at Freeletics and how despite that they're both still able to draw on their past experiences to build an employee-enablement platform.
In today’s episode, our guest is Vlad Lata. Vlad is not only a serial entrepreneur with founding experience at KONUX and Avi Medical but also a CDTM alumnus. His first venture, KONUX, is active in the field of IoT/AI providing smart sensor systems and AI-based analytics. With AVI Medical he is now active in the optimization of the patient experience by leveraging technology.
In the course of this episode, we learned why and how he decided to found a venture twice, what institutions impacted his journey most, and also how it is to operate a venture in regulated markets like the railway and healthcare industry.
In today’s episode we were delighted to have Hessam Lavi as our guest. Hessam is the CEO and Co-Founder of Climatiq, a company that engineers and develops a Carbon Footprint Intelligence Platform. During the course of this episode we spoke about several topics that make Hessam’s journey unique. We learnt about his voyage from war-torn Iran, to Sweden, and finally to Berlin. We also took deep dives into the learnings he drew from being a serial entrepreneur, how he built successful startups in the very competitive recruiting industry and what it means to be an entrepreneur in the climate-tech space today.
In this episode, we talk to Thomas Regier and Kivanc Semen - the founders of DataGuard. In 2017 they founded DataGuard together. And since then they help companies to manage their data privacy - an inviolable human right and key to a successful business in an increasingly digital world.
We talk to them about their multi-cultural background and how they first met as teenagers in a workshop for basketball trainers. Covid-19 has been a major topic of discussion everywhere in the last months. However, this time we discuss it from the perspective of data privacy and information security. Moreover, we spoke about the future of data privacy, GDPR, and about annoying cookie banners on every website.
In this episode, we are talking to Sona Chandra, the co-founder of Terra Lumina - an AI-based drug discovery platform. Sona is a qualified Biomedical engineer who speaks passionately about drug discovery and healthcare. One can tell from her responses that she’s determined to make a dent in how we as a civilization discover and engineer medicines. We spoke to Sona about her cross-continental journey and understanding how a person of Indian origin, who is actually a citizen of Australia, gets educated in the US and eventually lands up in Berlin to become a two-time startup founder. Mind you, all of this happened in Sona’s life well before she turned 30, and that perhaps, explains how she ended up receiving the coveted Forbes 30-under-30 award in 2020.
In this episode, we spoke to Hung Dang- an inspiring CDTM alumnus and the founder of Y42 - the company that is on the mission to build the most powerful and simple to use data tool that allows everyone to work with their data efficiently and collaboratively. In October 2021, the company raised one of the biggest Series A funding rounds in Europe.
But before founding Y42, Hung had his fair share of hardship and challenges - He was born in Vietnam and grew up with his grandparents while his parents laboured in Germany to make a mark for themselves. Later, when he was 8, he took a flight all alone from Vietnam to Germany to start a new chapter in his life. Imagine being uprooted from a culture so different at such a tender age, battling all the odds that are stacked against you in the next two decades, and then going on to found a company that is on the way to impact the lives of hundreds of employees and thousands, if not millions, of data users.
Arseniy Vershinin is a co-founder and CTO of Personio - Europe's leading one-stop HR platform for small and medium-sized businesses. It helps small businesses across Europe manage common HR tasks like onboarding, payroll, and attendance accounting.
Coming originally from Russia, Arseniy moved to Munich in 2011. Here, at CDTM he met his future co-founders Hanno Renner, Ignaz Forstmeyer, and Roman Schumacher. And this is where the Personio story begins!
Tune in to listen to Arseniy's personal journey and experiences with running Personio, a company that's growing and reaching new heights of success every day.
This time, we had a very exciting talk with Awais Shafique - the co-founder and CPO of a FashionTech startup presize.ai. After finishing his Bachelor's degree in his homeland Pakistan, Awais came to Germany to study Biomedical Computing at Technical University in Munich. As he was already very passionate about entrepreneurship at the time, Awais joined the Center for Digital Technologies and Management. And after just one year he founded presize.ai with two other Centerlings, Leon Szeli and Tomislav Tomov. Curious to hear about what we discussed with Awais? Then tune into our latest episode!
Dr. Sophie Chung is the CEO and Founder of Qunomedical - a digital health platform with a focus on medical travel that helps patients find the right doctor anywhere in the world. On the mission to empower patients worldwide, Qunomedical gives everyone the chance to access great healthcare - no matter who they are and where they are from.
Sophie, who spent five years as a Consultant at McKinsey & Company told us about her career decisions and instances that proved to be inflection points along her journey. As a qualified Doctor of Medicine and a truly global citizen who has studied in 3 different continents, Sophie was able to give her expert opinions on the state of global healthcare. Sophie told us more about her involvement with the 2hearts Community and the problems that she and her team at Qunomedical are attempting to solve.
Welcome to Season 3 of Mostly Awesome with our new hosts Keke and Maria! We are again talking to inspiring innovators from the world of entrepreneurship and technology to give you unique insights into their personal journeys, motivation, and opinions. Listen to our teaser to meet our new hosts and get a sneak peek at our awesome lineup of guests. As usual, we will be launching new episodes bi-weekly, starting on Tuesday 19th of October. We are looking forward to your feedback to podcast@cdtm.de. Follow our channel to never miss an episode!
Caroline Weimann is the founder and co-director of JoinPolitics. JoinPolitics aims to open unusual routes into politics by supporting and giving seed capital to political talent and applying the disruptive and innovative nature of entrepreneurship to politics. Caroline holds a Master’s degree in International Studies from SOAS - University of London and an Executive MPA from the Hertie School of Governance. Previously, she worked on building social ventures at Siemens Stiftung, at the EU Commission, in NGO consulting at actori and in impact investing at Ananda Impact Ventures. 2:27 Caroline's personal journey towards politics Caroline explains the differences between social entrepreneurship and politics and why she chose politics. She also tells us what kind of work JoinPolitics is doing and how they are trying to bring the agile and fast-paced startup mentality to the political landscape.
22:56 Careers in politics Caroline shares the challenges of a career in politics and why it might still be worth it. She also tells us what qualities make you a good fit for a career in politics.
Daniel Metzler is the co-founder and CEO of Isar Aerospace. Daniel studied mechanical engineering at TU Wien and aerospace engineering at TUM. During his studies in Munich, he joined the rocket technology initiative WARR, where he worked on special rocket engines and met his later co-founders - Josef Fleischmann and Markus Brandl. In 2018, they founded Isar Aerospace Technologies GmbH. Isar Aerospace builds satellite launch vehicles that are smaller, cheaper, and more sustainable than existing ones.
2:24 How it all started Daniel tells us how he got into the aerospace industry and when and how he realized that he wanted to start a company in this field
08:10 Isar Aerospace: Aerospace technology made in Germany Daniel shares what his founding experience was like and what fears and challenges he faced. He also talks about what he learned from other companies and what the rocket prototyping process looks like.
24:08 The importance of space technologies Daniel explains how space technology improves life on Earth and what functions satellites perform. He also tells us what the challenges and opportunities of a hardware start-up are.
Daniel Besendorfer is the CEO of Allianz Technology, the IT service provider of the Allianz Group. He studied economics in Freiburg and Boston and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg. He started his career as an executive assistant in the German life insurance division of Allianz. Daniel quickly took on leadership responsibilities and progressed through many different positions at Allianz for almost 17 years before taking on his role as Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Technology earlier this year.
2:40 Daniel’s role as CEO of Allianz Technology: Daniel tells us how he got into this position and what it means to set the right guardrails as CEO of a large corporate.
24:33 Working at Allianz: Daniel speaks about Allianz’s corporate values and how Allianz understands its social and environmental responsibilities. He also shares what Allianz is doing to bring women into leadership.
35:39 Innovation in the corporate world: Daniel talks about how innovation is driven at Allianz and why an entrepreneurial mindset is necessary also in the corporate context. He also shares how decisions regarding the adaption of new technologies are made at Allianz Technology.
Alev Canoglu is the founder of the Munich-based non-profit organisation Female Tech Leaders, which aims to empower women in STEM and leadership positions and mentor tech-savvy girls. After graduating and working in the documentary film industry, Alev decided to change fields and studied computer science at LMU and TUM. Alev has previously led product initiatives at Siemens, Microsoft and Autoscout.
2:25 Alev's career path: In the beginning, Alev tells us why she moved from the arts to the tech industry. She shares the challenges she faced and talks about the differences between these two fields. Alev also tells us why and how she founded Female Tech Leaders and what projects she is pursuing with it.
22:44 Women in the tech industry: Alev shares her opinion on the status quo and speaks about what she thinks needs to be done next to achieve equal opportunities. Alev also tells us what she would advise every girl who wants to start a career in the tech industry.
Folkert Behrends is a triathlete and professional coach. After an accident in 2008, doctors told him he might never be able to walk again. But 15 months later, Folkert successfully competed in the Iron Man triathlon and became world champion in his age group. Building on this experience, he is now active as a speaker and as a coach for individuals, teams, and companies. In this role, he shares his insights on taking risks, believing in yourself, and striving for more, but also on patience and taking breaks.
2:17 Folkert’s thoughts on ambition: In the beginning, Folkert tells us how he keeps the discipline to do triathlons and why he thinks time off and relaxation are important. He also talks about what ambition can look like for different people and the differences between ambitious or striving and status quo.
32:38 Turning adversity into opportunity: Folkert shares how he turned adversity into opportunity in his personal story and what he learned from this experience.
Saskia Bruysten is co-founder and CEO of Yunus Social Business. After studying economics at EBS and LSE, Saskia started her career at Boston Consulting Group. After a crucial meeting with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, she decided to go into social business, and they eventually co-founded Yunus Social Business. Saskia is also an active member of the UN Commission's Expert Group on Social Business, as well as a lecturer at events including the World Economic Forum and the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2020, she co-initiated the COVID Alliance for Social Entrepreneurs with the World Economic Forum.
3:02 Saskia's career path from consulting to social business: In the beginning, Saskia describes how a typical day looks like for her. She also tells us how she decided what career to pursue after her time in consulting.
13:29 Saskia's experiences in social businesses Saskia explains how to target a client group that doesn't have a lot of money. She also shares how YSB decides which companies to invest in and how they measure the social and environmental impact.
Hana Milanov is a Professor of International Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Munich and an active board member and mentor at CDTM. Hana studied management in Croatia, earned her Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship and Strategy in the U.S. and worked as a professor at IE Business School in Spain for 5 years.
3:07 Hana’s career in academia: In the beginning, Hana explains why she decided to do research and teach instead of being an entrepreneur. She also shares her initial challenges as an academic and how she stays motivated to keep researching.
17:10 Teaching and mentoring: Hana tells us about the first question she always asks her classes, why she doesn't give advice to her mentees and what she has learned from them. She also talks about particular challenges that women entrepreneurs are facing.
35:34 Hana’s international experiences: Hana shares her international experiences from Croatia, Spain, the U.S. and Germany and how the different cultures have shaped her.
Jakob is the founder of Greengas Concepts and Polarstern Energie, which are pioneers in developing sustainable energy and heating solutions. He is also the co-owner and managing director of Impact Hub Munich, which supports sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation. Before entering entrepreneurship, Jakob studied business administration and earned his Ph.D. at LMU Munich.
2:19 Jakob's career path:
Jakob tells us about his journey to earn a Ph.D. and how this gave him time to reflect and figure out what he really wanted in life. He also shares his experience as a founder of two sustainable startups and explains his perspective on measuring impact.
26:52 Jakob's opinions about the future and entrepreneurship:
Jakob shares his rather critical thoughts about the future and the climate crises and tells us why he thinks you should become an entrepreneur.
Veronika Riederle is the Founder and CEO of Demodesk, an intelligent meeting platform for remote sales that was supported by Y-Combinator. Veronika studied in Munich and New York and is an alumna of the CDTM. After graduating, she spent five years in consulting at Bain & Company before starting her own company.
2:31 Veronika's career choices: In the beginning, Veronika talks about why she initially decided to go into consulting and what she learned from that experience. She also shares her thoughts on the impact you can have in consulting vs. entrepreneurship.
15:07 Veronika's founding experience: Veronika explains how she started with the right person at the right time and tells us how she assembled a great team that shares their company values.
24:09 Women in Leadership: Veronika shares why she thinks we need more successful role models for young women and how she manages to be a founder and have a family at the same time.
Dan Ram is a speaker, motivational coach and event host. He has hosted some of the biggest innovation and tech events, such as Bits & Pretzels, and has delivered 5 Ted Talks on a variety of topics, from motivational tips to the power of diversity. Before finding his passion as a host, Dan worked in many different jobs, including for the UN, as an entrepreneur, consultant, and voice-over artist. Dan grew up traveling the world as the son of an Indian diplomat, who made his way out of India’s lowest caste.
2:10 Dan’s winded career path: To get started, Dan talks about how he became a fulfilled host, after pursuing, in his words "nine or ten wildly different careers”. He shares his parents’ incredible journey of working themselves out of poverty despite India’s strict caste system and how it motivated him to go into personal development. Dan also explains how he learned to embrace the idea of being a generalist rather than the expert he wanted to be.
31:06 Dan’s motivational tips and views Dan talks about the power of routines and how he structures his day. He also shares the concept of his 4G-Mondays (goals, gym, god, gratitude).
40:15 Dan’s toolbox Last but not least, Dan shares his toolbox, including his favorite book and app and explains why he believes that the most inspiring innovator is yourself.
Anna Alex is the co-founder and COO of Planetly, a tech startup on a mission to help build a carbon neutral economy. Previously, she co-founded Outfittery, Europe's leading online personal shopping service for men. For her achievements, she was named one of the young elite top 40 under 40.
2:43 Anna's journey into entrepreneurship: In the beginning, Anna talks about how she got interested in the startup scene, what she learned during her time at Rocket Internet, and why she would not recommend going into consulting or VC as a graduate if you want to become a founder. She also tells us why she moved on from Outfittery and what "mistake" she made, that helped her in her next endeavor.
17:46 Anna's second startup Planetly: Anna shares why she founded a startup focused on tackling the climate crisis and how it unites purpose and profit. She also tells us what purpose means for her and how she thinks people can make a positive impact in many fields including the food industry, agriculture, and politics.
29:53 Anna's opinion on female entrepreneurship: Anna talks about her involvement in promoting female entrepreneurship and how being a female founder can be an advantage in this male-dominated space. She also explains why she believes it is important for female founders to be bolder when raising money from investors.
Nino Ulsamer is a serial entrepreneur and currently CTO of StashAway in Singapore, a digital wealth management platform that personalizes financial planning and portfolio management. He has founded seven times on three different continents, out of which two companies have already become a great success.
03:52 Nino's early career and his decision to become a founder: In the beginning, Nino talks about his personal journey of becoming a founder, how CDTM impacted his decision, and why he chose entrepreneurship over consulting. We also learn from Nino what he enjoys most about being an entrepreneur and why he thinks every founder needs grit and curiosity to succeed.
14:43 Nino's international experience: Having spent four years in Russia building the e-commerce platform Westwing for the German investor Rocket Internet, Nino shares what cultural difficulties he encountered while living there and leading a 150-employee company, with most of the business conducted in Russian.
24:19 Nino's current startup StashAway: Nino tells us why he moved on to found StashAway in Singapore and how he met his co-founders abroad. He also touches on how he overcame doubts after his first startups failed.
34:31 Nino's toolbox: In the end, we get insights into Nino's toolbox, including his favorite podcast and morning routine, and he reveals why he believes everyone has an innovator inside of him or her.
Welcome to Season 2 of Mostly Awesome with our new hosts Lisa and Tim! We are again talking to inspiring innovators from the world of entrepreneurship and technology to give you unique insights into their personal journeys, motivation, and opinions. Listen to our teaser to meet our new hosts and get a sneak peek at our awesome lineup of guests. As usual, we will be launching new episodes bi-weekly, starting on Wednesday 24th of March. We are looking forward to your feedback to podcast@cdtm.de. Follow our channel to never miss an episode!
Carsten Maschmeyer ist erfolgreicher Gründer, Investor, Bestsellerautor und Juror in der TV-Show "Die Höhle der Löwen". Als Jäger nach den besten unternehmerischen Ideen auf dem Markt hat Carsten Maschmeyer mit seiner gleichnamigen Maschmeyer Group – einem Kollektiv von mehreren Investmentfonds – bis dato in über 85 Unternehmen investiert. Carsten spricht darüber, was ihn in den Anfängen seiner von Armut geprägten Kindheit angetrieben hat, wie sich seine Wahrnehmung von Reichtum im Laufe der Jahre verändert hat und warum er damals sein Medizinstudium abgebrochen hat. Wir sprechen auch über seine aktuellen Wünsche und Visionen, die Bedeutung seiner Medienpräsenz, seine Investor-Philosophie und was wir in Deutschland von unseren transatlantischen Nachbarn in Puncto Gründen lernen können. Zu guter Letzt erhalten wir Einblicke in seine Toolbox.
Laura Lewandowski is a Top 30 under 30 journalist, columnist (Business Insider), podcast host (Innovator Sessions by Red Bull), and co-founder of the "The Meet Your Mentor” YouTube series, featuring leaders such as Jay Shetty, Nico Rosberg, Toni Garrn or Sophia Amoruso. On top, she consults companies on storytelling such as Facebook, Uber, or Google. In this episode, Laura talks about how she initiates, develops, and starts successful formats, and projects with top companies such as an “African experience dinner” for Google. She tells us about how to combat creative blocks and what makes great stories. Diving into the topic of productivity, we learn about her take on the law of attraction, essentialism, the zero inbox principles, and weekly reflection check-ins. Last but not least, we get insights into her favorite tools: books, podcasts, apps, and newsletters!
Klaus Diepold is a professor for data processing at the department for electrical and computer engineering at TUM, Former TUM’s Senior Vice President for Diversity and Talent Management, focusing on machine learning and moral machines, and a member of the board of directors at CDTM. In this episode, Prof. Diepold talks about how he ended up in academia after several positions as CTO in various tech-companies and what biases and problems he sees in the peer-review process and competition among professors. He tells us about his initiated web series “Technically Single,” aired nationwide on Sixx.de and Maxdome, to rewire the societal perception of STEM fields. Diving into the topic of diversity, Prof. Diepold shares his opinion on the underlying mechanisms of the gender gap and his opinion on a female quota within corporate and academic institutions.
Katharina Mayer is the Founder and CEO of the social start-up Kuchentratsch. Translated the company name means „Cake Tittle-Tattle“ and this gives a hint what the mission behind the social start-up is all about: preventing the feeling of social isolation and poverty of the elderly by providing grandmas and grandpas with a place in Munich to get together, pursue their passion for baking, and top up their pension. In 2018 Katharina made a successful deal in the German version of shark tank called “Die Höhle der Löwen” where she convinced two lions aka investors of her social startup.
In this episode, Katharina talks about how she initially came up with the idea for Kuchentratsch and why she discontinued her career in developmental work. We learn about her efficient leadership style managing three generations of employees under one roof (spanning from young students to grandmas and grandpas in their 80’s). She tells us about how she dealt with the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and how she went from product idea to ready-to-buy baking mixes within only a few months! Also, Katharina shares what life lessons her elderly bakers taught her. As every guest, Katharina reveals her toolbox, namely her favorite books, podcasts, inspiring thought leaders, and must-read newsletters.
Sven Schmidt ist Geschäftsführer und CMO bei der Machineseeker Group und Serial Entrepreneur. Er war Mitgründer des Wagniskapital-finanzierten Unternehmens Verwandt .de, das an das Accel-Portfoliounternehmen MyHeritage verkauft wurde. Sven war auch Mitbegründer von Getgo, einem VC-finanziert E-Commerce-Ticketing-Unternehmen, das an CTS Eventim verkauft wurde, wo er den Bereich Neue Medien leitete. Darüber hinaus war er insgesamt 6,5 Jahre lang Venture Partner bei Accel und Earlybird. Bekannt ist er vor allem als regelmäßiger Podcast-Gast beim OMR-Podcast und als Co-Host des ds-insider-Podcast. In dieser Folge spricht Sven über seine frühere Rolle als Venture Partner und was damals der Auslöser für seine Investitionsentscheidung in Fiverr, Vinted (ehemals Kleiderkreisel), Prezi und Mitfahrgelegenheit.de (jetzt BlaBlaCar) war. Er erzählt uns auch, warum er weder als Business Angel aktiv ist noch eine politische Karriere in Betracht zieht. Beim Themenwechsel zu seinem Tagesgeschäft erfahren wir auch mehr über seine Vision für die Machineseeker Group und warum er sich gegen Home Office entschieden hat, obwohl durch Covid-19 alles von offline auf online umgestellt wird. Im Gespräch mit Sven erfahren wir mehr über die Macht der Bildung, des Netzwerkens und des Signalings sowie über seine Lieblingstools und wem er am liebsten auf Twitter & Co.
Sven Schmidt is Managing Director and CMO at Machineseeker Group and a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded venture-backed Verwandt, which was sold to Accel portfolio company MyHeritage. Sven also was the co-founder of Getgo, a venture-backed e-commerce ticketing company that was sold to CTS Eventim, where he was head of the New Media division. On top, he was Venture Partner at Accel and Earlybird in total for 6.5 years. He is most prominently known for being a regular podcast guest at OMR podcast and co-host of the ds-insider-Podcast. In this episode, Sven talks about his previous role as a venture partner and what triggered his investment decision in Fiverr, Vinted (formerly Kleiderkreisel), Prezi, and Mitfahrgelegenheit.de (now BlaBlaCar) back then. He also tells us why he chose to not be active as a business angel nor would consider a political career. Shifting topics to his day-to-day business, we also learn more about his vision for the Machineseeker Group and why he decided against Home Office, although everything is transitioning from offline to online due to Covid-19. Talking to Sven, we learn about the power of education, networking, and signaling as well as his favorite tools, and thought-leaders on Twitter, Newsletters, and Blogs to follow.
Judith Dada is a partner and managing director of La Famiglia, a women-led Berlin-based VC firm that invests in seed-stage B2B tech startups. In this episode, Judith talks about how she ended up in VC and what biases she encounters as a female VC partner. She tells us about the process of launching a second fund and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected La Famiglia. From a macro perspective, Judith shares her opinion on the regulation of tech companies as an ex-Facebook manager and why we urgently need to update our educational system and mindset in Europe to make sure the next tech or industry giant is "made in Germany." Talking to Judith, we also learned why networks are a double-edged sword and not the solution but the root of the problem for a diverse founder scene. Lastly, we get insights into how Judith, a passionate writer, stimulates her mind with her favorite books, podcasts, apps, and newsletters and what kind of fantasy novel we can expect from her very soon!
Hanno Renner is the founder and CEO of Personio, an HR SaaS company on its way to becoming Germany's next unicorn. As a passionate skipper, Hanno tells us how he navigates his 500-employee ship and what he learned about sailing his team as servant leader through rough seas aka the Covid-19 crisis. We also learn from Hanno how Personio is set-up for rapid growth, the benefits of Metrics Monday, and how the M&A integration of the Spanish startup 'Rollbox' underwent. Additionally, Hanno shares how he balances his schedule being a CEO, triathlete, and business angel all at once. We also touch upon the early days: Hanno’s way to founding Personio, his prior startup idea “Feedbackme”, why he discontinued it, and how this entrepreneurial experience enabled him to realize the strong tailwind behind Personio in the first place. In the end, Hanno shares his productivity hacks with us, recommending his favorite books and tools!
Welcome to Mostly Awesome, a podcast by CDTM in Munich, launching new episodes bi-weekly on Wednesdays on all platforms where you can listen to a podcast! What awaits you here, why you should listen in, and who are we? In this teaser, you will find all the answers! We are looking forward to our guests and your feedback to podcast@cdtm.de. Follow our channel to never miss an episode!