accelerator

EP 49 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #6 with Elena Tsemirava

August 17, 2022

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 in to hear how Listerly intends to change that to contribute to a more automated and scalable e-commerce business with a special eye on the fashion industry.

We hope to enjoy you enjoy this episode!

EP 47 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #5 with Sufyan Osamah

August 3, 2022

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. Unfortunately, this also brought some tragic experiences as a dog owner for the first time.

Luckily, he could keep his remarkable compassion and interest for dogs and turn it into a business with the overarching goal of improving the lives of dogs by changing the intransparent way they are sold in Germany.

We hope you enjoy this pawsome podcast!

EP 46 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #4 with Raphael Derstappen

July 20, 2022

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 to understand parent’s problems without being a parent yourself, how to build two-sided platforms, and how to reject academic job offers; tune in to find out what our next entrepreneurial talent has to say about it.
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We hope you enjoy the show!

EP 44 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #3 with Ege Gündüz

July 6, 2022

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 42 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #2 with Chenchen Cao

June 22, 2022

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 stigma many still have against couples counseling because long-lasting, happy relationships should be worth working on!

We hope you enjoy this lovely talk!

EP 40 – The Most Awesome Founder Talent Recordings #1 with Anand Raj

June 8, 2022

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 what role Covid-19 and the Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA Program played in turning his desire to start a business into reality.

Hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as we did producing it.

EP 34 – The Awesome Founder Inspiration Sessions With Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems

March 8, 2022

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 items to discuss, one item that made them learn something, one item that made them think and one item that made them laugh.

This format was absolutely awesome – full of interesting ideas, current entrepreneurship trends and humour. So hopefully, you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we did producing.

EP 30 – WHU Accelerator Team Introduction (2/2)

May 18, 2021

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, all culminating in a July 2 Demo Day event where the teams pitch their ventures to investors.

So today, we introduce the 4 remaining startup teams selected to participate in this year’s accelerator, the founders behind them, the problems they are tackling, and the paths they have chosen to get to market as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This week, you will meet the founders of…

PreMatch – a data-driven content aggregator for non-professional football

CIMK – a deep-tech data platform for investors interested in the Chinese market

About My Horse – a social commerce platform and online community for equestrian-focused fashion

And Happy Burning – a functional beverage company producing a one-of-a-kind brain boosting focus drink.

Each of these teams are led by incredible founders with unique backgrounds – all driven by a profound desire to improve peoples lives. And as you know, there are few things more inspiring than the stories of mission-driven entrepreneurs!

Hope you enjoy this unique episode of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast!

Team Introduction (1/2)

EP 29 – WHU Accelerator Team Introduction (1/2)

May 4, 2021

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 Demo Day event where they will pitch their ventures to investors.

So for the next two episodes of our podcast, we’ll be introducing you to the 8 inspiring teams selected to participate in this year’s accelerator, the founders behind the ventures, the problem they are solving, their purpose for being, and the paths they have chosen to get to market as effectively and efficiently as possible.

This week, you will meet the founders of…

Lidrotec – a laser cutting technology that enables semi-conductor producers to reduce material waste by 90-100%

Specter Automation – an artificial intelligence software that helps construction companies integrate digital planning data on the construction site

KitchX – a digital kitchen configuration studio that supports customers from design to installation

Bringwing… a shipping subscription services that is changing the way consumers order from retailers online

Each of these teams are led by incredible founders with unique backgrounds, all driven by profound desires to improve peoples lives. And for those of you that are regular listeners of our podcast, you know that there are few things more inspiring than the stories of mission-driven entrepreneurs.

Hope you enjoy this unique episode of the Most Awesome Founder Podcast!

EP 1 – Early Stage Startups with Joerg Rheinboldt

August 16, 2019

Joerg Rheinboldt is Managing Director of APX, the Axel Springer/Porsche Plug and Play Accelerator. Joerg’s entrepreneurial journey began in 1994 when he founded his first company, Denkwerk. He later went on to cofound Alando AG (with Oliver Samwer), which was acquired by eBay barely six months after launching. He then spent the next five 5 years as the Managing Director of eBay Germany before cofounding the nonprofit, Betterplace in 2007.