ideas

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 43 – Exploring Organisational Ambidexterity with Julian Birkinshaw

June 29, 2022

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 to changing market conditions and the concept of contextual ambidexterity – behaviors and practices in a business that enable organizations to adapt to changing markets but still remain aligned to their existing activities.
Hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as we did producing it.

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!

EP41 – From Toddlers to Tonies with Marcus Stahl

June 15, 2022

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 business and how it is extremely important to have the heart and conviction in your product in a product led business. He also shares the mistakes Tonies made during their global expansion and his key learnings from that experience.
Hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as we did producing it.

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 39 – Curating Emotional Experiences with Christian Gaiser

June 1, 2022

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 he draws inspiration from sports for his business and the delicate balance of expectation management in the tourism industry.
Hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as we did producing it.

EP 38 – Learning From Your Customers with Jochen Ziervogel

May 18, 2022

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 with the idea behind Enpal, the importance of founders spending time on building great products and why it is essential to listen to your customers.
Hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as we did producing it.

EP 37 – The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #3 With Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems

May 3, 2022

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?
– Is ElonMusk’s definition of free speech crossing the line?
– Not – so – tasty green drinks, celery juices and weird trends among siliconvalley founders
– Liquid death: a mineral water company’s skyrocketing valuations and how brands of the future might look like!

The episode is full of interesting insights and takeaways. So hopefully, you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we did producing.

EP 36 – The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #2 With Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems

April 12, 2022

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, current entrepreneurship trends and humour. So hopefully, you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we did producing.

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.