Mostly Awesome

Sven Schmidt is Managing Director and CMO at Machineseeker Group and a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded venture-backed Verwandt, which was sold to Accel portfolio company MyHeritage. Sven also was the co-founder of Getgo, a venture-backed e-commerce ticketing company that was sold to CTS Eventim, where he was head of the New Media division. On top, he was Venture Partner at Accel and Earlybird in total for 6.5 years. He is most prominently known for being a regular podcast guest at OMR podcast and co-host of the ds-insider-Podcast. In this episode, Sven talks about his previous role as a venture partner and what triggered his investment decision in Fiverr, Vinted (formerly Kleiderkreisel), Prezi, and Mitfahrgelegenheit.de (now BlaBlaCar) back then. He also tells us why he chose to not be active as a business angel nor would consider a political career. Shifting topics to his day-to-day business, we also learn more about his vision for the Machineseeker Group and why he decided against Home Office, although everything is transitioning from offline to online due to Covid-19. Talking to Sven, we learn about the power of education, networking, and signaling as well as his favorite tools, and thought-leaders on Twitter, Newsletters, and Blogs to follow.

Judith Dada is a partner and managing director of La Famiglia, a women-led Berlin-based VC firm that invests in seed-stage B2B tech startups. In this episode, Judith talks about how she ended up in VC and what biases she encounters as a female VC partner. She tells us about the process of launching a second fund and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected La Famiglia. From a macro perspective, Judith shares her opinion on the regulation of tech companies as an ex-Facebook manager and why we urgently need to update our educational system and mindset in Europe to make sure the next tech or industry giant is "made in Germany." Talking to Judith, we also learned why networks are a double-edged sword and not the solution but the root of the problem for a diverse founder scene. Lastly, we get insights into how Judith, a passionate writer, stimulates her mind with her favorite books, podcasts, apps, and newsletters and what kind of fantasy novel we can expect from her very soon!

Hanno Renner is the founder and CEO of Personio, an HR SaaS company on its way to becoming Germany's next unicorn. As a passionate skipper, Hanno tells us how he navigates his 500-employee ship and what he learned about sailing his team as servant leader through rough seas aka the Covid-19 crisis. We also learn from Hanno how Personio is set-up for rapid growth, the benefits of Metrics Monday, and how the M&A integration of the Spanish startup 'Rollbox' underwent. Additionally, Hanno shares how he balances his schedule being a CEO, triathlete, and business angel all at once. We also touch upon the early days: Hanno’s way to founding Personio, his prior startup idea “Feedbackme”, why he discontinued it, and how this entrepreneurial experience enabled him to realize the strong tailwind behind Personio in the first place. In the end, Hanno shares his productivity hacks with us, recommending his favorite books and tools!

Welcome to Mostly Awesome, a podcast by CDTM in Munich, launching new episodes bi-weekly on Wednesdays on all platforms where you can listen to a podcast! What awaits you here, why you should listen in, and who are we? In this teaser, you will find all the answers! We are looking forward to our guests and your feedback to podcast@cdtm.de. Follow our channel to never miss an episode!