Inspiring Alumni

EP 64 – How to screw up your startup: 5 financial mistakes with Dr. Sven Greulich

Do you know about all the different ways to screw up your startup’s financials?

Managing investments for your startup is bound to come with difficulties and requires a lot of learning by doing. However, you can learn how to avoid these mistakes beforehand!

Tune in to todays episode and listen to Sven, Gerrit and Dries discuss about:
Both sides of the financing table
What type of red flags to identify in investors
Do you get in bed with the devil?
Equity shares in university spin outs
And many other interesting topics!

We hope you enjoy!

EP 63 – How to screw up your startup: 5 human mistakes with Dr. Sven Greulich

Learn from legal expert Dr. Sven Greulich how to avoid typical founder pitfalls!

In episode 63, we are excited to introduce Dr. Sven Greulich to you, who elaborates on the main pitfalls the Orrick Legal Ninja Series identified. To give you a little insight, here are the first two problems discussed:

1. Not thinking about founder team dynamics and founder departures
2. Creating an unreflect equity split

There will always be conflicts which arise throughout the founding process. Whether those occur because you believe in deserving more equity, since you had the founding idea, or you are struggling to retain good talent, informing yourself will give you a kick start!

Listen to the episode to avoid falling into these common pitfalls.

EP 60 – Building two mergers in fourteen years with Jan Reichelt

Kick off the year right with startup guidance from the successful WHU founder Jan Reichelt. His successful entrepreneurial journey began with Mendeley and has led him to reach two consecutive acquisitions. After his own founding, he began investing as an angel and has now moved towards venture capital.

Listen and learn more about Jan’s journey, what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in diverse countries, how to live the entrepreneur lifestyle successfully, and tips for investor relationships.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

EP 61 – Leveraging startup failure learnings with Kilian Karrasch

Kick off the year right with startup guidance from the successful WHU founder Jan Reichelt. His successful entrepreneurial journey began with Mendeley and has led him to reach two consecutive acquisitions. After his own founding, he began investing as an angel and has now moved towards venture capital.

Listen and learn more about Jan’s journey, what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in diverse countries, how to live the entrepreneur lifestyle successfully, and tips for investor relationships.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

EP 59 – Building an app that hooks with Niklas Brackmann

The last episode of 2022 and we are very excited to share our first recording in front of a live audience. Dries interviews Niklas Brackmann, co-founder of the amateur football app Prematch.
Niklas talks about how hooks help create social platforms, how implementing a shared culture in a young venture looks and about WHU supports activities for entrepreneurs.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

EP 57 – Building diverse success stories with Daniel Hanemann

Welcome back to episode 57 with serial entrepreneur Daniel Hanemann!
The WHU Alumnus Daniel is a successful entrepreneur, as seen in his current role as founder/CEO of Wundertax. You’ll, however, also find him as an investor, comedian, and polyglot.

Listen and learn more about Daniel’s founder journey, what it’s like to be an international entrepreneur founding in diverse countries, how to leave startups, what WHU Alumni get wrong while founding, and further tips and tricks in founding your own startup.

We hope you enjoy the episode! Feel free to leave your thoughts and future ideas in the comments!

EP 55 – Leveraging TikTok to build a customer-centric platforms with Annika von Mutius

Episode 55 presents Annika von Mutius, a driven and motivated entrepreneur with an affinity towards technology. We were delighted to hear about her journey, building the first fully automated headhunter, Empion. Annika and her co-founder Larissa recently raised €2.4 Mil pre-seed funding with WHU alumnus Michael Stephan as a board member and angel investor.

Annika and her co-founder Larissa quickly understood the importance of matching culture, skills and values between applicants and companies, which led them to build Empion. By quantifying the tasks of a headhunter and both automating and personalizing the process for applicants, they connect the right individuals efficiently.

Tune in to find out more about their journey, in what sense their Ph.D. was of value, practicing a customer-centered approach and how they aspire to grow Empion via TikTok.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

EP 53 – Shaping company culture with Moritz Weisbrodt

In Episode 53 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we are happy to interview Moritz Weisbrodt, a serial entrepreneur with experience in various industries like food, health, and logistics. His latest company Alaiko, a fulfillment-as-a-service company, just announced a 30 million series A funding round this year.

Talking as a generalist, Moritz knows the importance of corporate culture in different market environments and along different lifecycle stages. How can culture be actively shaped, and what are ways to implement it? Tune in when Moritz shares his key learnings about the essential value basis of Alaiko and gives advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.

We hope to fulfill your expectations with this episode!

EP 62 – The Mentor Perspective on Startups with Joerg Hellwig

Kick off the year right with startup guidance from the successful WHU founder Jan Reichelt. His successful entrepreneurial journey began with Mendeley and has led him to reach two consecutive acquisitions. After his own founding, he began investing as an angel and has now moved towards venture capital.

Listen and learn more about Jan’s journey, what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in diverse countries, how to live the entrepreneur lifestyle successfully, and tips for investor relationships.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

EP 23 – Building meaningful company cultures with Freya Oehle

In episode 23 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Freya Oehle, WHU alumn, co-founder of the online shopping tool startup Spottster, and current co-founder of digital transformation consultancy 3tausendsassa.

We are discussing Freya’s founder journey, from WHU to building Spottster with a school classmate, to a unique exit and to building a new startup with the same team she build her previous one. Freya is a high-energy entrepreneur, with the passion and charisma of a great leader. So it is no wonder, her Spottster team continue their entrepreneurial journeys together.

Get valuable insights into building teams, establishing company cultures that are both meaningful and fun, and what leadership looks like across product and service-oriented startups. Hope you enjoy it!