entrepreneurship

EP 68 – Mastering the Art of Founder Communication with Jag Singh & Oliver Aust

May 10, 2023

🎧 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 to have a compelling message market fit.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

Ep 67 – Scaling a fintech startup while navigating regulations with Justus Schmueser

April 26, 2023

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 in Germany.

Tune in to get answers to those burning questions and find out how Justus has grown through his founder career, and how you can implement those life lessons into your own founding journey.

Ep 66 – Inspiration session #8: Does generative AI decrease inequality – the future of VC

April 12, 2023

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 on the question of whether VCs need to change
– Generative Artificial Intelligence and its impact on productivity

Take advantage of this thought-provoking and informative episode!

Looking forward to hearing your opinion in the comments! 🙂

Ep 65 – The art of hypothesis testing in startups with Alex Osterwalder

March 29, 2023

🎙️ 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 they dive into the art of testing and developing hypotheses to give you the most valuable insights, indulging into deep dives in topics such as:
– Why hypotheses should focus on desirability rather than feasibility
– The relevance of leveraging AI in hypothesis testing
– How to test hypotheses without direct contact with the desired data sources
– Testing hypotheses in corporate or B2B environments
Plus, stick around for some great advice Alex would have given his younger self! You don’t want to miss out on this thought-provoking conversation!

P.S. The YouTube video can be very beneficial to see the great visuals Alex creates during the podcast to make the content more digestible.

Thank you for listening to our podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and stay tuned for more exciting episodes 🙂

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

March 15, 2023

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 62 – The Mentor Perspective on Startups with Joerg Hellwig

February 28, 2023

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
– How one of the first B2B marketplaces in the chemical industry was founded
– And what it’s like helping inexperienced founders

We hope you enjoy the episode, and feel free to leave questions in the comments that would interest you in future episodes!

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January 10, 2023

Welcome to our last episode in 2023!
🚀 This episode takes a unique twist as we journey 25 years back in time to dissect a master thesis that was written by two of the German entrepreneurship world’s most influential figures – Oliver Samwer & Max Finger.
📜 Oliver & Max, renowned for their groundbreaking entrepreneurial ventures, penned this remarkable thesis called “America’s Most Succesful Startups” at the dawn of their illustrious career when doing their masters at WHU. Now, Dries and Gerrit dive deep into the pages of history to meticulously examine the propositions made, debating their relevance in today’s fast-paced entrepreneurial landscape and whether the two founders walked the talk on their self-proclaimed recommendations.
💡 Some of the results indeed were visionary for the time, while other principles seem to have been forgotten…It’s not just a look back; it’s a conversation about enduring principles in the ever-changing world of entrepreneurship.
We wish all our listeners delightful holidays and a happy new year!

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

January 4, 2023

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

December 28, 2022

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

December 21, 2022

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 we expect a wave of entrepreneurial burnout next year?
– How Art is evolving in the advanced technological world  
– AI and they’re influence on our world

We hope you enjoy the show!