SPEAK LIKE A CEO

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

"You don’t have to be 65 to live your dreams,“ believes our guest. Her business is all about giving people this opportunity much sooner in life, by helping them to build wealth. Christine Kiefer is the co-founder of RIDE Capital. RIDE is a private bank for the digital age that helps customers structure their portfolio in an optimal and tax-efficient way. Customers already trust RIDE with close to a quarter of a billion Euros in assets - a massive amount for a four year old company. This was made possible through great communication and messaging. Christine Kiefer also founded Fintech Ladies, a network for women involved in digitalisation and innovation in finance. This year she also joined Angelinvest as a venture partner. In episode #155, Christine shares: The unusual way she met the perfect co-founder, Felix Schulte How to create a virtuous cycle of communication Why speaking the language of your audience is the key to a successful communications strategy How to be a better founder Her secrets to building an engaged community 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

Say no to borders and bureaucracy and yes to openness and simplicity! Our guest today believes that international mobility is beneficial for all and is doing her part to make the process a positive experience for businesses and employees. Having experienced the expat life herself, polyglot Hanna Marie Asmussen, co-founder and CEO of Localyze, knows exactly how complex and bureaucratic it can be to move abroad for a new job. In the absence of a state-of-the-art digital solution, she developed and founded Localyze in 2018 with co-founders Lisa Dahlke and Franziska Löw. Localyze simplifies the management of international teams by providing a comprehensive platform that automates processes and contains all relevant information and documents in one place. Half a year after founding Localyze, the company was accepted into Y Combinator - the mother of all accelerators. The company has grown ever since and now aims to expand from Europe into North America and to reach a total of 50 markets by 2025. In episode #154, Hannah not only tells us her personal backstory: living, studying and working as an expat and founding with friends but also talks about: What they teach you at Y Combinator to level up your communications How to own your personal communication as a leader How level three conversations change everything The best way to stand out among thousands of startups How a startup's communications system needs to change as the team grows 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

Dare to rethink how money should work. This is what our guest today is passionate about. And that future of finance starts with a new story about money. Katharina Gehra is the co-founder & CEO of Immutable Insight and manages one of the leading crypto hedge funds in Germany. Coming from the traditional world of finance, she is now an integral part of the crypto industry. Katharina has been invited to speak to the German parliament on blockchain technology and has been named Top 40 under 40 three times in a row. She also co-hosts one of the most prestigious blockchain podcasts, Block52. In episode #153, Katharina and Oliver take us on a deep dive into The origin story of money, where it is heading and why so many societal issues are linked to it Why we need a new story of money The reason why Katharina is keen to ask questions How a podcast can create an engaged community 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

Today's guest is one of the key players in the German and European FinTech scene. As co-founder and CEO of company builder finleap, Ramin Niroumand and his team were instrumental in building 15 companies that are now worth €3bn+, including Element, Penta, Clark and Solarisbank. Several of these have already achieved unicorn status. Never one to rest on his laurels, Ramin recently founded his own venture capital fund together with Michael Hock called embedded/capital. Its aim is to become the no. 1 investor for Europe’s freshest, most innovative and trailblazing #FinTechs. The well-capitalised fund has already made 7 investments, and is hungry for more. Ramin’s main success ingredient is to always bring joy to the table. With hundreds of pitch meetings under his belt, his first advice to founders is to smile. To find out why a smile can be worth millions, tune in to episode #152, in which Ramin shares his insights and know-how about: Why their brand is more important than most founders think What’s behind the brand name embedded/capital and why this is exactly the right name for his fund How to build trust with consumers as a fledging FinTech How to communicate well with financial regulators, especially after the Wirecard scandal The difference between a crisis and times of crisis, and what it means for 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

Selling is hard. To make the sales conversation better our guest today has built Demodesk, a revolutionary screen sharing and video conferencing platform. It acts like an AI-driven sales consultant that assists you by analysing data and giving suggestions to improve the conversation with the customer. You can compare this with the real-time assistance in cars today, says Veronika Riederle, the CEO of Demodesk. Veronika founded Demodesk in 2017 with Alex Popp to revolutionise the sales process. They were accepted into Y Combinator and has since raised multiple rounds of funding. In this episode Veronika shares The origin story and vision of Demodesk The experience at Y Combinator - from the pitch to the training they received The (positive) impact of Corona on the business, and how she sees the post-Corona world What works in sales right now and where is it going. 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