Mathyas is the founder of El Origen a German food startup bringing healthy snacks from Latin America to Europe! They produce and distribute tasty organic plantain and manioc chips which are currently available in over 6000 stores in Germany.  Unfortunately, this episode got interrupted by connection issues and I lost the first 20 minutes. But this second half of the podcast is still packed full of value. Mathyas discusses what it's like to start a company in Germany, the importance of...

This week's podcast is a clip from an event I hosted together with Forge Accelerator in 2021. Most first-time entrepreneurs get overwhelmed in the beginning and struggle to know what their next steps should be. In this podcast, I go through 3 simple steps that you can use from TODAY to start building your own business. Each of the steps includes a free tool that you can use to guide you on your way. Enjoy and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you never miss our upcoming podcast...

If you're struggling with how to start building a start then look no further than this podcast! Developing deep relationships with your future customers as early as possible is absolutely critical for business success. And Adam Forbes is an expert in this area helping startups to accelerate their path to product market fit, spend efficiently on marketing and find and nurture real customers.  In this podcast, Adam and I discuss why hard customer facts in the form of data is a solid...

If you're looking for a real-life example of how to build a startup, look no further than Alyona Mysko from Ukraine.  She's the founder and CEO of FuelFinance a FinTech startup making finance cool again for startups and small businesses. Her journey to date has involved persevering through both COVID and the war in Ukraine. Throughout that time she led her team as a solo founder, remained fully bootstrapped and manage over $250m in their client's ARR. There are some amazing stories and...

Olav Carlsen is a Silicon valley CFO veteran having worked with many startups there for over a decade taking two of those companies public. The most recent of those companies was PortalPlayer Inc. known for "delivering technology to Steve Jobs". They worked exclusively with Apple and provided almost everything that went into the first generation of their Ipods.  In this podcast we discuss the two main challenges facing startups as they being to scale their business, we dip into a...

In this episode, Dr. Alex Kern and I go deep into the world of Venture Capital discussing how VCs are a lot of more Startups than you might think in terms of their structure as well as how VCs are financed and the competitive nature of the VC market.    Alex also provides a nice overview of how VC funding is layered from pre-seed to Series A, B, etc, and discusses the process he went through to self publish his very own children's book about Startups and the world f Venture...

Franz is the co-founder and head of business development at Sub Capitals a FinTech startup from XPRENERUS Incubator at UnternehmerTUM in Munich They’re democratizing access to artificial intelligence for everyday investors like me and you. They've just launched their platform neoland.ai where you can test out their amazing tailored AI experience on the real financial market!   Signup to Neoland.ai for free right now  https://tinyurl.com/rc4yun8e   Check out Sub...

We're back after a long break! I'm joined this week by Patrick Remerscheid a scholar at the Manage and More program at UnternehmerTUM.    Patrick gives you the full low down on this amazing program that is helping shape the future leaders and startup founders of Germany!   It's an 18-month program open to bachelor and master's students from either Technical University Munich (TUM) or Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) in Munich, Germany.    They also do a public pitch...

#20 Startups are really good at running with an idea - usually in any and all directions possible - in a way we’re all good at running with things, going with the flow - but taking a step back to slow down and thinking critically about your business can be the difference between a failed first-time entrepreneur and a true innovator.  Critical thinking is the topic of this week's podcast with Karl Thomas, a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin on creativity, innovation & entrepreneurship...

The number 1 question I get asked as a startup coach is "How to find a cofounder" - it's not easy. Building relationships, in general, is hard but there are a few key things you can do along the way to improve your chances of finding the right person for your "startup marriage" because let's face it - it really is a marriage with your cofounder! Damla is a cofounder of Hubviser a platform that connects entrepreneurs with their local startup ecosystem & potential future co-founders. She...

Matt C Smith has been around the block a few times in the startup world. He's an ex-VC whose first investment became a unicorn, he's helped many startups scale in his role as COO & CFO & he exited his own "Innovation Infotainment" media startup after two short years.  I call him a pioneer in this podcast and I think he really is. Making that switch towards mobile-first video-based content during the early days was probably one of the smartest moves Matt made - helping him to...

Simon is the founder of Battery Associates a community of global talents who inspire and lead the future of battery innovation. He's a true visionary committed to improving the sustainability of our world through Battery Associates. They currently run a Battery MBA 3 times per year (something truly unique), they have an active & thriving community of experts and entrepreneurs in the battery space, and on top of all that, they are pushing innovation with both software and hardware...

Niklas is the co-founder of NUL a monthly carbon offset subscription helping companies to become climate neutral one team at a time. He's currently completing a unique bachelor's specifically designed for student entrepreneurs at CODE University in Berlin, Germany. In Niklas' own words CODE is "like an accelerator for students with a bachelor's degree". We dive into details  In this episode of the podcast, we dive into the details of how NUL utilized rapid prototyping and automation to...

Barbara is a managing partner of Xpreneurs Incubator part of Europe's largest entrepreneurship center UnternehmerTUM.   In this episode of the podcast, Barbara provides a behind-the-scenes look at a DeepTech Incubator & shares the exciting journey of one of our hugely successful alumni teams: Isar Aerospace.    Xpreneurs offers promising Deeptech startups a 3-month equity-free program helping teams to get their first customers and investment. Apart from the Xpreneurs program...

Adrian Kilian is the co-founder and CEO of Mango Medical, a MedTech startup from Germany bringing Patient-specific implants to the operating room for surgeons.  In this podcast, Adrian talks about Mango Medicals' journey so far in the MedTech world diving into the different programs they joined, difficulties they've faced along the way.  Most importantly, Adrian addresses the age-old question of "when should you go all-in with your startup?" by sharing his own experience with making this...

Vish Sahasranamam is the co-founder and CEO of FORGE Accelerator, one of the leading corporate & government-focused accelerators in India.  In this podcast, Vish explains the many ways startups and aspiring entrepreneurs can engage with Forge Accelerator and shares his own personal story as an entrepreneur leading up to the founding of Forge.  We also take a deep dive into a new free startup diagnostic tool they developed called the “Forge Venture Rubric” designed as a self-assessment...

Annika Panoff is passionate about digitization in healthcare - something that can be tricky to do in a conservative market with patients’ lives on the line. Despite the well-known difficulties with digitization in this space, Annika helped take a bootstrapped digital health startup, Exonor, to a successful EXIT while serving as COO / CFO.    In this insightful podcast, Annika discusses the journey of Exonor to their impressive exit sharing along the way the lessons she’s learned while...

Zee Floris, a serial founder from The Netherlands, shares his lessons from working on several of his own startups from baby gear and photo editing to his recent company focusing on food allergies.    In this extremely open podcast Zee shares some of the reasons why his previous startup ideas failed and how the lessons from these failures have helped him to become a better entrepreneur today.   Pivots are a natural part of any startup journey and Zee also shares his experience with...

Max Rupp goes in-depth on the most common mistakes made by startups when it comes to human resources and talent acquisition. He discusses why not having an HR process is a huge mistake for startups and he shares some fantastic tips for how to avoid these mistakes and grow a successful business and team. He also shares some great HR resources for further reading for founders.   ✌️____ ABOUT MAX RUPP ____✌️ Max Rupp has extensive experience with Human Resources (HR) and Talent...

Pearse Coyle, a founder, and investor from Ireland goes in-depth about the state of startup funding in Europe, the barriers that deep tech startups face when transferring from academia to the market, and his secret sauce for helping tech founders validate their ideas early on.  We also touch on the important but often overlooked source of funding for startups, Revenue through avenues like Paid Pilots. Pearse explains why you should always try to aim for a paid pilot as well as some tips for...

Sam is a Medical Engineer with a passion for machine learning. He's the founder and CEO of Third Eye Intelligence, a startup leveraging the complex data in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for their self-designing AI-driven early warning system. Their AI solution helps patients by predicting the risk of organ failure, mortality, and length of stay, in view of guiding doctors in evidence-based decision making. We deep dive into Sam's entire entrepreneurial journey to date touching the personal...

We all know that the weakness of some big companies is their lack of speed in adapting to changes and that for startups being agile is a major strength. But for both big companies and startups change management as part of the process of innovation is still something of a challenge. In this episode of the podcast, Falko Döring from Puzzle Innovation discusses how to actually manage change in a large or small organization. He also provides some excellent insights into how you can improve...

Technical University of Munich consistently ranks as the top university in Germany for entrepreneurship through their own unique programs and their relationship with UnternehmerTUM, Europe’s largest entrepreneurship center. In this podcast, Niclas-Alexander Mauss and I discuss TUM’s latest push to support student entrepreneurs even more with their brand new "Entrepreneurial Masterclass". UnternehmerTUM and TUM are collaborating on this new Entrepreneurial Masterclass for master students....

In this episode of the podcast, Simin k. Fard from UnternehmerTUM International goes in-depth about the African European Digital Venture Program (AEDV). After over 150 applications the AEDV program has selected 6 startups from Ghana and Tunisia to join this 3-month virtual pre-accelerator program. The aim is to give these 6 startups access to know-how about the European market and to strengthen partnerships between African startups and established European companies and startups. They...