SPEAK LIKE A CEO

Every company faces an existential #crisis as it grows. "As an entrepreneur, you need to speak about the difficulties you are having“, says our guest today. His unconventional view: Start your conversations, your investor pitches and company presentations with the bad news. Klaus Wegener, co-founder und Managing Director of 35up, knows what he is talking about. He has seen companies rise and fall, founded several himself and led his first company Caseable through a severe crisis in 2019. Thousands of customers were waiting for their phone and laptop cases to arrive - thanks to trade barriers erected by the Trump Administration. Caseable's online rankings dropped like a stone to 1 star, usually the end of any e-commerce startup. How Klaus and the team turned it around thanks to excellent crisis communications, holds many lessons for any #entrepreneur. Klaus’s focus is now on his latest venture 35up, together with his co-founders Fabian Louis and Viktor Schröder. 35up recently raised a seven-figure round and aims for category leadership in "embedded cross-selling". Tune in and find out: 🔥 What communications can turn around an existential crisis 📣 How talking about the negatives can strengthen your reputation 📌 How to become a category leader Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535 Here’s the link to the Robert Ermich episode, Klaus mentions in the episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535?i=1000532566862 #pitchdeck #startup #funding #communications #crisiscommunication #podcast #speaklikeaceo #ceoinsights

There are many football apps for professionals. And now there is one for the "real football“ - the amateur game played and loved by 190 million Europeans. Lukas Röhle co-founded Prematch App with Fiete Grünter und Niklas Brackmann. This year, the three amateur footballer players stormed the app charts. Shortly after its rollout across Germany last summer, the football community app climbed to the No 1 spot in the Apple app charts, ahead of YouTube, TikTok and WhatsApp. The app offers players and fans everything they need to know about amateur football, even allowing them to check their own market value and performance data. Tune in and find out: 🎻 How to orchestrate a launch that makes you the #1 app ⚽️ Why founding a football team was key to achieving message-market fit 💸 What innovative ways the team used to communicate with their angel investors If you want to dive deeper into Message-Market Fit check out this episode with Oliver Aust: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/96-what-is-message-market-fit-and-why-is-it-so/id1441419535?i=1000511572989

A growth-driven entrepreneur who built ventures in six countries, speaks four languages who is also a comedian in his free time best known for his standup and improv performances? There is only one person who fits this description: Daniel Hanemann, the CEO of wundertax, the startup he co-founded in 2016 and returned to as CEO in 2022. His mission is to make tax returns easier. "It’s all about connection. We don’t pretend it’s a fun thing to do, but we can make it simpler and quicker.“ The key is in the language, according to Daniel. Trash the lawyer speak. Never make your product cool and funky, if it just isn’t. Simply ask, listen and talk to your users - from human to human. In today’s episode we talk about: 🎭 What comedy and business have in common 🌳 What is means to become a "re-founder“ and return to your own creation 🔠 How a tiny copy change led to a 20% increase in conversion 🙊 Why fluency in a language is not always enough to bridge cultural misunderstandings Here’s the link to the episode with Jannes Fisher (vermietet.de) that Daniel mentions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/150-create-a-market-and-own-it-jannes-fischer-vermietet-de/id1441419535?i=1000562791413  Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535

We all want more sustainable fashion and ethically produced goods. But greenwashing and wishy-washy information make us unsure which products are really sustainable. Enter Impactbytes (https://www.impactbytes.io), the growth engine for sustainable e-commerce. It’s the brainchild of the impressive Amsterdam-based founding trio Noor Veenhoven and sisters Marcella and Melissa Wijngaarden. The @TechstarsBerlin alumni are building the machine that powers the web with sustainable product data so that ethical businesses thrive. They already partner with the likes of Ecosia and (investor friends, take note) are currently fundraising to bring sustainable goods to bigger and bigger audiences. Tune into this episode to get your weekly dose of CEO insights into: 🚀 How to successfully transition from a customer-facing brand to a new behind-the-scenes product 📸 How to get into the media as an early-stage startup 📣 Whether purpose really helps to get your message out 👭🏻 And what it’s really like to start a business with your sibling! If you want to dive deeper into new ideas and tech around product sustainability, check out: Episode 107: Becoming the Tesla of the fashion industry. Anna Franziska Michel, Yoona. Episode 132: Storytelling Secrets for Start-Ups. Iris Skrami, Renoon  Episode 159: Your Purpose is your Story. Gemma Comabella, COCOLI And here’s the link to the episode with Ecosia’s founder Christian Kroll: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0UoA4bvJLM3c3iDcL4729r?si=Ce4tnGzBQ3im3-rTIE3T1A Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535

How can you build an emotional connection with your customers? Especially if you have tens of thousands? Certainly not by sending them the same old email, maybe adding their first name from the database 🙄 But by speaking to them as individuals. "Customers want to feel special, like we’ve made the effort to get to know them“, says our guest. What used to be impossible or at best a tedious and time-consuming process is now possible with technology. Pranav Ahuja, CEO of xeno and his growing team have truly simplified end-to-end personalised communication. Pranav co-founded xeno in 2015 to make an impact on the marketing industry by enabling brands to build personalised experiences and marketing for customers. The idea took off after joining Techstars Berlin in 2018. Back in New Delhi, the pandemic hit the company. With no money in the accounts, the team moved closer together. They redefined the Northstar metric to involve every single person in the company, making the goal specific and attainable. Since then xeno is going from strength to strength, with a second funding round in early 2022. Tune in and find out: 🤩 How to elicit emotions through marketing in a way that it induces connection instead of cynicism 🪐 Whether marketing messages are universal or dependent on culture 📚 What happens when you double your team fast 🤝 What makes trust the number one communications goal to achieve Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535 Company Website: https://www.getxeno.com 

A brand is a statement. But you have to mean it. 🍋 Our guest today was analysing the markets during his studies and had an idea. He dropped out of university and jumped right into it. In 2020, Max Linden co-founded the fintech start-up lemon.markets — a stock trading API that enables developers to program their own trading algorithms, bots or applications. Despite his young age, business angels and fintech investors have been keen to get on board. lemon.markets has already raised 15m Euros from high-profile backers such as Creandum, Lakestar and Lightspeed. The company has big plans, and communications is central to their plans. Find out: 🤝 How to build trust so people trust you with their money 🛗 Why leadership is work in progress and CEO means Chief Enablement Officer 🏔 Why your vision is important when fundraising 🍋 Where the brand lemon.markets came from, and what Limoncello has to do with it Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535

Why is there no Vestiaire Collective for furniture? Why isn’t there a platform that gives designer furniture the second life it deserves? This was the question Gemma Comabella posed herself while she was Managing Director DACH for MADE.com. And she hit a nerve. Pre-loved furniture is more than just a gap in the market. It is also a solution to reduce the environmental impact of our love for all things interior, which produces million of tonnes of waste every year. Gemma Comabella decided to do her part and founded COCOLI, together with a dream team of five co-founders to tackle a tough problem no one has solved before. Together they have created a platform that reinvents the way we find, buy and reuse furniture. Launched this January, COCOLI already has 4 warehouses in Germany, lots of media interest and 40% month-on-month growth. "It’s not about what you sell,“ says Gemma. "What is your purpose?“ She found hers after a career building global fashion and consumer brands like Zalando, L’Oréal, Vestiaire Collective and Showroom, and then joining the furniture platform Made.com as Managing Director for the DACH region in 2019. This episode is packed with insights including: 🤝 How to convince 5 co-founders to form an all star team 🗞 Why purpose creates PR 💸 What works in fundraising in the current environment Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535

„You can’t make change happen alone!“ says Mali M. Baum. Together with her team, she is shining a light on others. As CEO and founder of WLOUNGE and the MAGDA GROUP fund, Mali has created an ecosystem that supports female founders and promotes diversity in business and technology. Mali has over 20 years of experience as a founder and is active internationally as an investor, speaker, mentor and ecosystem builder. WLOUNGE brings together C-level executives, political leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs to make an impact and tackle the business world's biggest challenges. Last year, WLOUNGE HOUSE opened in Berlin, providing a flagship location and a gathering place for the community. Mali believes in the power of curated events. Next up on 10 September 2022: the Tech Awards Gala, one of the largest and most prestigious award ceremonies of the German tech industry. Under the motto "Women drive innovation", the Tech Awards 2022 will focus on the strength of women and diverse teams in the tech ecosystem. The patron of this year’s event is the entrepreneur and investor Brigitte Mohn. Mali was a guest on our show 3 years ago (check out episode #34). This time we wanted to find out what has changed in terms of communication since then including: 🕸 What the secret of building a thriving network is today ☄️ How to ensure that every event creates impact afterwards 🗞 When the right time has come to focus on PR 🤘🏽 How GenZ is changing communications Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535

"Our best marketing employee is Elon Musk!“, says Caro Gabor with a twinkle in her eyes. Musk’s goal of fixing the „incredibly inefficient“ car insurance market while making a lot of money from it has gotten the attention of the car industry. For car buyers, getting insurance is the least favourite part of the purchase. This is about to change. Caro’s aim is to make the insurance experience delightful, especially for that moment when you need it. To do that requires solving some really hard problems, something she relishes. Since April 2021 Caro has been CEO of Movinx GmbH, a joint venture of Mercedes-Benz and Swiss Re. The global startup has a unique positioning, delivering mobility insurance through a digital business model that takes full advantage of tech and data to deliver a great customer experience. The aim is for it to become invisible. As a communicator, Caro is not holding back. As an experienced entrepreneur, she believes that CEOs need to trust their teams with the difficult stories for them to perform at their best. Before joining Movinx, she was CEO and co-founder of Joonko, Managing Director at finleap and the CEO of autohaus24 and TopTarif Internet. This episode is packed with insights into including: 🦖 How to bridge the dinosaur and the green field mindsets when working with large companies 🗣 What truthful feedback can do for you and why Caro enjoys disagreement 📈 Why performance marketing is dead and what the next new big thing is Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535

Speak Like A CEO is back after the summer break. Today's guest is the CEO and co-founder of a trailblazing company that digitalizes the conservative insurance industry and has raised $115m+ in the process: Getsafe. The InsurTech scale-up is based in Heidelberg. „Not being in Germany's start-up tech capital Berlin gives us the freedom to build a company culture that is independent of startup trends“, says Christian Wiens. This has given the company the „Day 1 feeling" since 2018. Christian develops his communication skills consciously and continuously. The same applies to the company itself. A rare beast among tech companies, Getsafe is in it for the long run, thinking decades into the future. Tune into this episode to hear from an inspirational CEO who is hardly your typical insurance industry guy: • How to position yourself as a challenger brand in a traditional industry and win 300.000+ customers • Why the CEO is chief communicator • How storytelling and messaging empowered Getsafe to raise $115m+ We also dive into Christians personal backstory (it all started with broken glass) and his best piece of comms advice. Please enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/speak-like-a-ceo/id1441419535