Episodes
The Most Awesome Founder Podcast brings you up close and personal with some of Europe’s most successful and recognizable entrepreneurs, innovators, advisors, and educators – sharing the stories that make them who they are today. Choose an episode below. Kick back. And enjoy the show!
EP 76 – The art of balancing startups and life with Björn Maronde
Get ready for an inspiring conversation with successful entrepreneur Björn Maronde in the newest episode of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast! Björn shares his personal background, the pivotal moments that led him to entrepreneurship, and the valuable lessons he learned along the way. 📚💡 You'll discover how an executive MBA played a role in shaping his entrepreneurial career and how he navigated the challenges of starting a business with a close friend. 🤝 Björn also...
EP 75 – From e-commerce wunderkind to successful investor with Roman Kirsch
Our next guest on the Most Awesome Founder podcast: Roman Kirsch! 🎙️ Roman will be sharing his high-paced entrepreneurial journey, characterized by his story of perseverance, hard work, and why sometimes naivety can be beneficial. Discover Roman’s passion for building new ventures that led to various well-known and flourishing startups but also some non-successes and how he dealt with them. Roman also discusses his insights from switching from an entrepreneur to an investor role, the importance...
EP 74 – Inspiration session #9: Golf, Gender and Generative AI
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the 9th edition of the inspiration session with Gerrit and Dries! 🎉 They will once more discuss diverse and thought-provoking topics, combining insights from an academic and a practitioner perspective. What are the legal implications of AI-generated inventions, which entrepreneurs should consider entering a venture studio and why women should be careful if their boss plays golf? These and other questions will be answered, so be...
EP 73 – The impact of AI on Startups, VC and Society with Frank Thelen
🎧 We are thrilled to announce a new episode of The Most Awesome Founder Podcast, featuring one of Germany's most prominent deep tech investors, Frank Thelen. In this wide-ranging discussion, Frank shares his perspective on how AI and generative technologies are beginning to reshape the startup and venture capital landscapes. 🚀 While AI promises to turbocharge innovation and efficiency, Frank cautions that many startups are simply slapping an "AI startup" label on their pitch decks...
EP 72 – Building a startup as a multicultural entrepreneur with Kiran Banakar
🔥🚀 We're thrilled to spotlight the incredible journey of Kiran Banaka, one of our founders from this year's WHU accelerator batch. From grappling with the challenge of finding friends to scaling the heights of entrepreneurship, Kiran's story is nothing short of inspiring. 🌟 Kiran will be peeling back the curtain on his success as an entrepreneur in Germany, sharing the invaluable lessons he's gleaned from his tenure as a patent attorney and revealing how...
EP 71 – Leveraging data to build an augmented venture capital approach with Dr. Andre Retterath
We are thrilled to welcome Andre Retterath to episode #71 of our podcast. Andre is one of the leading figures in disrupting the traditional VC landscape by implementing data-driven approaches to improve decision-making. So tune in to hear interesting use cases, why the days of purely gut-based decisions investing seem to be over and what the future might look like.
EP 70 – Unleashing Pet Health: Crafting a Customer-Focused Growth Journey with Stan Nazarenus & Alex Thelen
🎙️ Join us again for an exciting episode of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast as we dive into the captivating story of Alex and Stan, the founders of high-growth startup Mammaly, which tackles the complex issue of pet health. Alex and Stand share how their shared vision led to a thriving direct-to-consumer business model and how collaborations are essential for their product development. Get ready for insights on customer understanding and hypotheses testing...
EP 69 – Building platforms to disrupt the healthcare industry with Philipp Buhr
🎙️ Get ready to tune into today's new episode of The Most Awesome Founder Podcast with Philipp Buhr, the co-founder of marta! marta is a platform that transparently enables families to match their elderly family members with suitable caregivers. Beginning with stories from Philipps entrepreneurial childhood, enabling him to be the co-founder he is today, the episode advances into deeper topics associated with the healthcare market. Here is a sneak peek of the topics Dries...
EP 68 – Mastering the Art of Founder Communication with Jag Singh & Oliver Aust
🎧 We are thrilled to welcome Jag Singh (Managing Director @ Angel Invest) and Oliver Aust (CEO & Founder @Eo Ipso Communications) for a second time to the show! This time we discuss their newest book MESSAGE MACHINE: How Communications Will Make You An Unstoppable Founder where they share essential aspects for founder communication mastery. Tune in to find out why communication is the biggest challenge for a growing company and why startups need...
Ep 67 – Scaling a fintech startup while navigating regulations with Justus Schmueser
Should you work at a consultancy before founding? How is communication within international founding teams? And what skills and mindset do you really need to become a successful founder? Today's episode features our guest Justus Schmueser! He is a former WHU bachelor student and completed his master of finance at MIT. Here he met his co-founder and today is leading the company Kadmos, which in 2022 was renowned for being one of the fastest-growing startups...
Ep 66 – Inspiration session #8: Does generative AI decrease inequality – the future of VC
Get ready for today's episode E66 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast! As always, the Inspiration Session will discuss topics that made Dries and Gerrit think, learn, and laugh. Here are some exciting sneak peeks of the topics explored within the episode: - What impact do prominent Venture Capitalists have on replacing startup founders over time? - The four main challenges Venture Capital is facing, calling...
Ep 65 – The art of hypothesis testing in startups with Alex Osterwalder
🎙️ Want to know how to optimize your hypothesis testing and find out how the experts do it? Tune in to today’s engaging podcast, where Alex Osterwalder, the creator of the Business Model Canvas and co-founder of Strategyzer, is interviewed. Ranked no. 4 of the top 50 management thinkers worldwide and visiting professor at IMD, Alex is known for simplifying the strategy development process and turning complex concepts into digestible visual models. Within the episode...
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...
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...
EP 62 – The Mentor Perspective on Startups with Joerg Hellwig
Today our guest Jörg Hellwig, an active angel investor, is here to share his insights with you! Having had experience as a chief digital officer, co-founder and investor, he has valuable insights that you can benefit from! The different perspectives Jörg encountered make this podcast so valuable for aspiring entrepreneurs. Learn about: - the challenges and benefits of change in corporates - ...
EP 61 – Leveraging startup failure learnings with Kilian Karrasch
Do you ever wonder what it's like for your startup to fail? Then you're just right in today's episode #61! In this episode, we're here to listen and learn about Kilian Karrasch's startup failure with Connme. Tune in to Kilian's reflection on what it was like to experience your own startup failure. Within this episode, Kilian shares the deep and valuable learnings he was able to extract. Make sure to listen closely and use...
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...
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 58- The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #7 with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems
Episode 58 features the seventh edition of the Inspiration Session with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems in which they share what makes them think, learn, and laugh. This week they touch on some of these thought-provoking topics: - How to measure personality with your digital footprint - Is fake it till you make it the right strategy to use as an entrepreneur? - How can the chance of burnout be reduced? - Should...
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...
EP 56 – Educating about innovation ecosystems with Axel Deniz
Episode 56 and we are excited to welcome Axel Deniz to the show. Axel has extensive experience building digital products and has led numerous digital innovation projects with large multinationals. Currently, he is Director for Corporate Development & Innovation at PwC, leading open innovation strategy & corporate venturing. Tune in when Axel talks about the resilience of business ecosystems, the role of external infrastructure, and how specific frameworks help to implement ecosystems in the firm...
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...
EP 54- The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #6 with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems
In Episode 54 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we returned with the 6th inspiration session with Gerrit McGowan and Dries Faems. Sticking to the format of sharing something they learned, made them think, and made them laugh, Gerrit and Dries discuss the following captivating topics: - MBA Students and their effect on work in startups - In what sense the “cigar butting investment strategy” can be implemented today - What academic research about entrepreneurship is still missing...
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...
EP 52- The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #5 with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems
Episode 52 features the fifth edition of the Awesome Founder Inspiration Session with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems in which they share what makes them think, learn, and laugh. This week they touch on some of these thought-provoking topics: - Post-money valuations of unicorns - Elon Musk’s opinions about geopolitical problems – is there an economic calculation behind it? - What are two of the most exciting high-tech companies? - Why does Adam Neumann, founder of wework, still...
EP 51 – From entrepreneur to enabler with Sebastian Pollok
In episode 51 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Sebastian Pollok, WHU alum, Co-Founder of Amorelie. He is currently Founding Partner at Visionaries Club, a Berlin-based VC. In this episode, Sebastian shares his journey with us, which was filled with many ups and downs. Sebastian has been through everything from declining a job offer at BCG to interning at Google in the USA to finally living in a dorm to work on his...
EP 50 – Managing corporate innovation with Andy Binns
In episode 50 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we are happy to welcome Andy Binns to the show. Andy co-founded the innovation consultancy change logic and has more than 20 years of extensive experience overcoming innovation barriers in big corporates. Apart from his merits as a practitioner, he also published relevant academic work regarding disruptive innovation and CEO ambidexterity. Andy shares his insights into how corporations can drive disruptive innovation from within. He also...
EP 49 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #6 with Elena Tsemirava
In Episode 49 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we are happy to introduce our sixth talent out of this year’s accelerator cohort. After years in the corporate scenery, Elena Tsemirava recently decided to take the matter into her own hands and build her own start-up Listerly, to fulfill her entrepreneurial potential. Listerly wants to leverage artificial intelligence to automate listing products on multiple online channels, so far a primarily manual and cost-intensive process. Tune...
EP 48 – Unpacking Innovation Ecosystems with Ron Adner
In episode 48 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Ron Adner, Professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is one of world’s leading thinkers and an award-winning researcher. he is also an advisor to companies around the world and the founder of the Strategy Insight Group. In this episode, Ron shares his research and experience with us on innovation ecosystems and throws light on how today’s...
EP 47 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #5 with Sufyan Osamah
In Episode 47 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, Dries talks to Sufyan Osamah, who just finished the latest WHU accelerator program. With his co-founder Nikolaus Ridder, he developed HonestDog, a platform to connect reputable breeders and shelters with people who want to buy their dogs more responsibly. Man's best friend is far from a mere platitude when Sufyan speaks about how the presence of dogs, even in adverse circumstances, impacted him as a child....
EP 46 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #4 with Raphael Derstappen
Episode 46 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast and we are thrilled to introduce Raphael Derstappen, co-founder of the live-learning platform Kursinsel. Today’s parents can keep their children busy with a bunch of electronic devices, games, or apps. However, Kursinsel wants to offer more than temporary entertainment for kids. The platform assists parents in letting their kids explore their passions and interest independent of location or time via live & guided online courses. How...
EP 45 – The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #4 with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems
In episode 45 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we are back with the fourth episode of the Awesome Founder Inspiration Sessions with Gerrit McGowan and Dries Faems. Continuing the format from the previous episode, they discuss a few thought-provoking topics: - How does virtual work affect creativity? - Do flexible work opportunities have inherent biases? - Can the introduction of a middle management layer actually drive innovation in startups? - How can startups become more competitive when...
EP 44 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #3 with Ege Gündüz
In episode 44 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we interview Ege Gündüz, another young and driven entrepreneur from our WHU accelerator. Ege is co-founder of liftOS (formerly 10lift), a startup that wants to foster collaborative and more engaging HR processes. Join to hear how Dries and Ege discuss work experiences during Covid-19, issues with B2B business models, and the challenges driving digitization in HR. We hope you enjoy this episode!
EP 43 – Exploring Organisational Ambidexterity with Julian Birkinshaw
In episode 43 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Julian Birkinshaw, a leading researcher in the field of entrepreneurship and a Professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School. In this episode, Julian will discuss his research on how companies need to balance alignment and adaptability to keep up with a rapidly changing world. He will also walk us through his findings on what made big successful companies like Oracle adapt...
EP 42 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #2 with Chenchen Cao
In episode 42 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we interview another exciting entrepreneurial talent from the WHU accelerator. Chenchen Cao is co-founder of Power Mind Club, a startup that wants to improve couple relationships through counseling offers and a caring community. Chenchen and Dries discuss mental health as a vital part of Power Mind Club and the day-to-day entrepreneurial business. Tune in when Chenchen tells how her startup is trying to overcome the...
EP41 – From Toddlers to Tonies with Marcus Stahl
In episode 41 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Marcus Stahl, WHU alum and Co–Founder of Tonies. Marcus had a long stint in the telecommunication and automotive industry before becoming a founder and co-founding Tonies. In this episode, Marcus goes through his journey from taking 3 years to perfect the Tonies box to eventually taking the company public via SPAC. He emphasizes how being naive helped him and his co-founder in building the...
EP 40 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #1 with Anand Raj
In episode 40 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we proudly introduce our first entrepreneurial talent of this year’s WHU Accelerator cohort. Anand Raj, co-founder of Joyon, wants to do his part to democratize education by building a platform for small content creators of live online courses. In this episode, Anand talks about the long journey that led him from being a software engineer in India to being a first-time founder in Germany. Find out...
EP 39 – Curating Emotional Experiences with Christian Gaiser
In episode 39 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Christian Gaiser, WHU alum and Co – Founder at Numa. Christian is a serial founder and an angel investor and is currently changing the way people travel by curating emotional experiences. In this episode, Christian goes through his journey as a founder and an investor and talks about his itch to build things. He also talks about the founder – market fit, how...
EP 38 – Learning From Your Customers with Jochen Ziervogel
In episode 38 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Jochen Ziervogel, WHU alum and Co – Founder at Enpal GmbH. Jochen had a short stint in investment banking before entering the startup ecosystem and eventually founding Enpal – a unicorn disrupting the renewable energy industry in Germany. In this episode, Jochen goes through his founder journey and shares key learnings with the listeners. He throws some light on how the founders came up...
EP 37 – The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #3 With Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems
In episode 37 of the WHU's Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we present the third episode of the Awesome Founder Inspiration Sessions with Gerrit McGowan and Dries Faems. Continuing the format from the previous episode, they discuss few thought-provoking topics: - Generalists or specialists – what type of founders have an edge in fundraising? - The science of selling – how to leverage psychological principles to level up your sales process! - Do socialwelfare schemes encourage or discourage entrepreneurship? -...
EP 36 – The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #2 With Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems
In episode 36 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we present the second episode of the Awesome Founder Inspiration Sessions with Gerrit McGowan and Dries Faems. Continuing the format from previous episode, they discuss few hidden gems of thought-provoking information where each speaker would identify three items to discuss, one item that made them learn something, one item that made them think and one item that made them laugh. The episode is full of interesting ideas,...
EP 35 – Unpacking Venture Capital with Christian Meermann
In this episode of WHU's Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Christian Meermann, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures. In this episode, Christian goes through his journey from being a WHU student to CMO at Zalando and eventually founding Cherry Ventures. He shares a few learnings from his journey and throws light on the German venture capital ecosystem. He also discusses what VCs are looking for in a founder and what founders should look for in...
EP 34 – The Awesome Founder Inspiration Sessions With Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems
In episode 34 of the WHU's Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce a new format of the podcast with Gerrit McGowan and Dries Faems. Being well connected in the academia and startup ecosystem of Germany, they often receive requests from their network to share suggestions about interesting research, books, and podcasts on entrepreneurship that are current and relevant. In this episode, they discuss few hidden gems of thought-provoking information where each speaker would identify three...
EP 33 – Fostering Corporate Innovation with Christoph Krois
In this last episode of Season three of The Most Awesomefounder podcast, we introduce Christoph Krois, mission driven corporate entrepreneur and founder and co-head of the Siemens innovation ecosystem. Christoph’s mission is both an ambitious and a challenging one, driving innovation projects at one of the world's largest companies. We'll be talking open innovation, leveraging the unfair advantages of scale, driving rapid change in naturally slow moving organizations and building innovation teams that can...
EP 32 – The Love of the Game with Nathan Evans
In episode 32 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Nathan Evans, Kellogg-WHU eMBA alum, Director of the Founder Institute Munich, and cofounder of eCommerce financing startup, fulfin. We’re discussing Nathan’s journey from studying physics to the trading floors of London, from FinTech product management to building his own high-growth venture. This conversation with Nathan was absolutely awesome - full of rich stories, metaphors, and wisdom. We even discussed the similarities between poker and entrepreneurship!...
EP 31 – Peak Performance for Entrepreneurs with Eric Partaker
In this episode of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast we introduce Oliver Aust, one of Europe’s leading communications and personal branding experts, and former Head of Communications at Easyjet. He is the founder and CEO of Eo Ipso Communications and co-host of Speak Like a CEO, the category-defining podcast on CEO communications. Oliver helps CEOs and leaders build unignorable personal brands and businesses, drawing from his experience advising a wide range of organizations from...
EP 30 – WHU Accelerator Team Introduction (2/2)
As in our last episode, we’re doing things a little bit different in this week’s Most Awesome Founder Podcast. Today, we introducing not one founder, but many. If you tuned in for episode 29, you know that on May 17 we launched the first cohort of the inaugural WHU Startup Accelerator. This intensive 7-week, mentor-driven, and equity-free program provides the best and brightest startups from the WHU community with rocket fuel for their new ventures,...
EP 29 – WHU Accelerator Team Introduction (1/2)
We’re doing things a little bit different in this week’s episode of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast. Today we are introducing not one founder, but many. As you may have heard, on May 17 we are launching the first cohort of the inaugural WHU Startup Accelerator. This intensive 7-week, mentor-driven, and equity-free program provides the best and brightest startups from the WHU community with rocket fuel for their new ventures, culminating in a July 2...
EP 28 – Design Thinking with Alex Grots
In episode 28 of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast, we introduce Alex Grots – entrepreneur, innovator, creator, and expert in the art and craft of Design Thinking. We discuss Alex’s fascinating career from being a paramedic to working in the music industry; from building his first startup during the dot-com bubble to leading world-famous design agency IDEO in Germany; and from co-founding the high-growth IoT-venture ProGlove to advising innovation projects across the globe. Alex is...
EP 77 – From founder to unicorn angel investor with Oskar Hartmann
We're kicking off our new season with a bang! A dive deep into the world of angel investing with none other than Oskar Hartmann.🌍✨ His outstanding track record: 14 (!) of his startup investments have reached unicorn status, he's one of the 1000 wealthiest Germans, and in his spare time? He cracks world records in indoor rowing 🥴🏆 Alongside our brilliant hosts Dries Faems & Gerrit McGowan, Oskar unveils the intricacies of spotting unicorns, what...