startup

EP 57 – Building diverse success stories with Daniel Hanemann

December 14, 2022

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 56 – Educating about innovation ecosystems with Axel Deniz

December 7, 2022

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 daily.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

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

November 23, 2022

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 54- The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #6 with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems

November 16, 2022

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
– The new OECD innovation policy for Germany
– The issues of digitalization in Germany
– How to boost the productivity of a PhD Student

We hope you enjoy listening to this podcast episode, filled with thought-provoking takeaways, just as much as we did producing it!

EP 53 – Shaping company culture with Moritz Weisbrodt

November 2, 2022

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 52- The Awesome Founder Inspiration Session #5 with Gerrit McGowan & Dries Faems

October 19, 2022

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 get money?
– The possible explanations ad implications of “quiet quitting”
– Body odor & chocolate bunnies

We hope you enjoy the show!

EP 51 – From entrepreneur to enabler with Sebastian Pollok

September 28, 2022

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 startup. He will share how he disrupted a complex and fragmented market through Amorelie and eventually made a big exit. He will also walk us through his VC firm – Visionaries Club and give us a sneak peek of how they are supporting startups who are trying to make a huge dent in the world.

We hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as we had while producing it.

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!