alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

#118 - Radical Engineering Culture and High Bar Hiring feat. Stefan Richter // Founder & CTO @ freiheit.com technologies

Mar 20, 2025

In this episode, Stefan Richter, Founder and CTO of freiheit.com technologies, discusses his journey in building high-performance engineering organizations. He emphasizes the importance of a radical engineering culture and maintaining a high bar for recruitment by focusing on 'tested in life' candidates. Stefan reveals how successful project delivery relies on simplicity, disciplined processes, and full stack engineers. He also shares insights on reducing friction in workflow and creating a collaborative environment that drives innovation and continuous feedback.

01:02:51

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Episode guests

Stefan Richter

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Quick takeaways

Freiheit.com Technologies prioritizes simplicity and robustness in software, successfully maintaining a 'Never Late, Never Failed' mission for 25 years.

The recruitment strategy emphasizes attracting diverse, highly skilled individuals with real-world experiences, particularly those demonstrating problem-solving abilities through life challenges.

An organizational structure promoting engineer independence fosters accountability and collaboration, which enhances motivation and drives continuous improvement within projects.

Deep dives

Radical Engineering Culture at Freiheit

Freiheit.com Technologies emphasizes a radical engineering culture centered around producing great software. The founder, Stefan, identifies that the company was built on the premise of shipping high-quality software with a focus on simplicity and robustness, rather than complexity. This approach stems from historical challenges in the software industry when building systems capable of handling high loads was not common. Today, the mission of the company is to maintain a high bar for both product quality and recruiting processes, ensuring that every team member is aligned with these core principles.

Intro

2min

Nostalgia for the Pioneering Days of Web Development

2min

Building a High-Performing Software Culture

21min

Navigating Engineering Challenges

28min

Transitioning to Private Equity

5min

Imagining Time Travel: Advice for the Past

1min

Embracing Instincts and Learning from Mistakes

2min

Ship Great Software Through Simplicity and Discipline

Discover insights into building a high-performance engineering organization with Stefan Richter, founder of freiheit.com technologies. With 25+ years of experience delivering successful software projects for the Who’s Who of European businesses and industries, Stefan shares his philosophy of radical engineering culture and maintaining an exceptionally high bar in recruiting. This episode dives deep into how freiheit.com has achieved their "Never Late, Never Failed" mission through disciplined processes, carefully selected talent, and a relentless focus on simplicity.

Listen to find out:

🎯 Why shipping great software is their mission
🧑‍💻 How they maintain a high bar in recruiting with "tested in life" candidates
📊 Their approach to engineering career levels and continuous feedback
🏗️ Why they prefer full stack engineers over specialized roles
🧩 How they build complex systems from simple components
⚙️ Their custom-built engineering project management tool
🔄 Their program to continually find and remove friction
📈 How they've delivered every project successfully for 25 years
🔍 Why reducing entropy is critical in large software projects
🌐 Why great software should be simple and maintainable for decades

TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introduction to Alphalist Podcast 00:51 Meet Stefan Richter, Founder of freiheit.com technologies 01:40 Origins of the company and early internet days 03:24 Client portfolio and focus on engineering culture 05:04 Mission: Ship Great Software 07:10 Why freiheit.com focuses on reducing friction 08:57 How they minimize non-engineering roles 09:55 Finding and removing complexity in software 12:07 Hiring strategy and maintaining a high bar 14:22 Looking for candidates that are "tested in life" 16:34 Deal breakers in hiring 18:20 Approach to hiring senior engineers 21:17 Engineering level progression system 23:34 Focus on feedback and continuous improvement 26:07 The problem with specialized roles 28:16 Building custom project management tools 32:28 How they always deliver on time, on budget, on target and on quality 36:52 Reducing entropy in large projects 39:41 Teaching engineers to take responsibility 43:34 Building simple, maintainable software 47:40 Working with corporate clients 51:54 Transition to private equity ownership 56:36 Planning for the next quarter century

QUOTE: "Our mission is to ship great software. Great software is actually simple, has as few dependencies as possible, as few parts as possible, like any good machine." - Stefan Richter, Founder of freiheit.com technologies

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alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

#118 - Radical Engineering Culture and High Bar Hiring feat. Stefan Richter // Founder & CTO @ freiheit.com technologies

Episode guests