The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Wunderlist & Pitch Founder, Christian Reber on His Personal Relationship with Risk, Money, Whether the Sale to Microsoft was a Mistake, What Great Product Designs Means Today & Why Founders Investing External Capital is a Distraction

Feb 15, 2021

Christian Reber, Founder and CEO of Pitch and former founder of Wunderlist, shares his unique journey in the startup world. He discusses the emotional aftermath of selling Wunderlist to Microsoft and whether he regrets that decision. Reber dives into his relationship with risk and money, revealing how his views have evolved. He also highlights the importance of great product design and the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship and personal life, offering insights into the complexities of running a startup.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Accidental Startup Success

Christian Reber's first startup, Mugelli, unexpectedly gained 200,000 users in a month.
Initially fearing lawsuits, he sold it quickly, funding his next venture, an agency.

ANECDOTE

From Agency to App

Reber's agency nearly went bankrupt when clients couldn't pay.
This led him back to software development and the creation of Wunderlist.

ANECDOTE

Wunderlist Sale and Aftermath

After selling Wunderlist, Christian Reber experienced regret and health issues.
He now recognizes the sale's timing was right but believes Microsoft mishandled the product.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Christian Reber is the Founder & CEO of Pitch, the collaborative presentation software for modern teams. To date, Christian has raised over $52M for Pitch from some of the best in the business including Index, Thrive, Blueyard and then some amazing individuals including Instagram's Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Zoom's Eric Yuan, Datadog's Olivier Pomerol and Tiny's Andrew Wilkinson. Prior to Pitch, Christian was the Founder @ Wunderlist, raising $35M from the likes of Sequoia and Atomico before being acquired by Microsoft.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Christian Reber made his way into the world of startups? How that led to his founding te global phenomenon, Wunderlist? How his experience with Wunderlist led him to start Pitch most recently?

2.) Does Christian regret selling Wunderlist to Microsoft? What was the reasoning and logic behind it? What does Christian believe Microsoft did wrong that resulted in Wunderlist no longer being in existence today? How did Christian deal with the personal depression post the sale of Wunderlist?

3.) How does Christian assess and evaluate his personal relationship to risk? What does he do when making risky and large decisions to ensure he is comfortable? How does Christian feel about his relationship to money? How has it changed over time? How does Christian approach personal finance today between startup investing, fund investing, cash and savings?

4.) How does Christian think about what great product design means today? How does he balance gut and instinct with granular data when making product decisions today? How has this changed over time? How has Christian structured his team to make the fastest and most efficient product decisions?

5.) How would Christian reflect on his own style of board management? How has it changed over time? What element does he still to this day find most challenging? What board moment would he say is his most memorable? Who has been his favourite board member to work alongside?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode

Christian’s Favourite Book: The Unbanking Of America: How the New Middle Class Survives

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.