SPEAK LIKE A CEO

The scarcest resource today is #talent. And finding it is often stressful for both sides. Zenjob co-founder Fritz Trott, our guest today, experienced first hand how difficult it was to find a suitable part-time job as a student. Together with his co-founders Cihan Aksakal and Frederik Fahning, he made it his mission to solve that problem. Today Zenjob offers a state-of-the-art tech solution that finds the best candidates for each job within seconds. After 7 years on the market, Zenjob is a fast-growing company with almost 500 employees, currently matching over 12k jobs with talents every month. The founders recently raised an additional €45 million to boost the expansion across Europe, starting in the Netherlands last year and now in the UK.  The purpose of Zenjob is bigger than providing on-demand staffing on short notice. It is to improve the world of work so that people can decide for themselves when and how often they work. To achieve this vision, the company has its own Zenjob Code. Tune in to this episode to find out what that exactly is, as well as 🪜 The stepping stones to building a thriving platform business 🧩 Why a niche of a niche is the key to success if you want to outperform existing players on the market 👇🏽 Why you need to exactly define the monster you want to kill before getting big investors on board Enjoy the episode and please support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dvyxVVtt 🙌🏼 🎬 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your one-stop video creation studio in Berlin. 🎬

Today’s guest is one of the most influential women in tech. Nicole Büttner is the founder and CEO of Merantix Momentum, a leading AI solutions firm, and a board member of Merantix, one of Germany's top investors and company builders for artificial intelligence applications. A tech-optimist through and through, she is pushing Europe to become a global leader in AI. Her impressive background in business and econometrics, academia and politics (she was even running to become a candidate for the European Parliament) has equipped her well to tackle the dual PhD problem, translating between highly specialised talents to make innovation happen. As in the case of Vara - a business that aims to make data-driven breast cancer screening accessible to everyone. Tune into the episode to find out more about 🎨 What’s behind the recent rebranding from Merantix Labs to Merantix Momentum 🪐 Nicole's journey from academia to politics to deep tech 🎤 Why she values having a political voice and how it has shaped her personal leadership style 🤖 The state and future of AI (we take a closer look at Natural Language Processing) 🏗 What’s needed for highly specialised experts from different fields to build something great together Enjoy the episode! Please support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dvyxVVtt 🙌🏼 🎬 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content creation studio in Berlin. 🎬

Ten years ago, the founders of the London-based fintech unicorn SumUp went from door to door to convince merchants to trust them with their money. It’s been an incredible journey since. We have all used SumUp paying for coffee or shopping at independent retailers and now take convenient payment options for granted. But that wasn’t always the case. The historically slow-moving payment industry has gone through a complete revolution over the past decade, and SumUp has been one of the key players in this. Payment used to be a luxury product, exclusive to big retailers. The long tail of small merchants was left behind. In 2012, Marc-Alexander Christ and his co-founders decided to challenge that. The company started out with one product - the white card reader you probably know from your local coffee shop. Today, SumUp offers a range of payments and solutions that give millions of businesses access to crucial financial services. The company has expanded to 31 countries so far and has 2600+ employees. Their goal: turn transactions into interactions. Tune into the episode, get inspired and find out more about: 📚 Why you need to master storytelling as a founder ❄️ How you find the two sentences that get the snowball rolling 🚀 How to win multiple markets and become a global brand in a decade 🥊 The communication challenges of becoming a multi-product company and how to tackle them successfully Enjoy the episode and please support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dvyxVVtt 🙌🏼 🎬 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content creation studio in Berlin. 🎬

Our guest today is the CEO of Nuri (formerly Bitwala) and a digital thought leader. Nuri enables customers to invest in cryptocurrency directly from their bank account. As Kristina Walcker-Mayer puts it: it is banking without the bankers. Kristina is rapidely becoming the chief storyteller of neobanking, shaping topics around investing, blockchain, cryptocurrency and modern leadership. In this episode she pulls back the curtain on how she leads Germany's third-largest neobank with her honest and transparent communication, and how a trip to Asia influenced her leadership style. Kristina joined Nuri in 2020 as CPO after previous senior roles at N26 and Zalando. Before taking over as CEO, she repositioned and scaled the product and design team, drove Nuri’s successful fundraising efforts together with Ben Jones and defined the future direction of the product. In this episode we take a deep dive into: ☎️ Why CEOS don’t have to have all the answers and what else matters in modern leadership 🧨 The learnings, challenges and benefits of rebranding Bitwala to Nuri 🎇 How to attract employees and retain talent even if a competitor offers twice the salary And: How this year’s summer party will solve Kristina's biggest communication challenge?! Enjoy the episode and please support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dvyxVVtt 🚀 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content creation studio in Berlin. 🎬

Jerome Lange went from trying and failing to build a babysitting business as a student (no founder-market-fit) to building an operating system for construction sites (founder-market-fit). It’s badly needed: construction is pretty much the only sector that has become less efficient in the last 40 years. This has become untenable, as we need to build faster, better and more sustainably in light of climate change. A team of young entrepreneurs decided to tackle this and founded Koppla as a spin-off of the Hasso Plattner Institute in April 2020. They raised funding, now employ more than 25 people and work with some of the biggest construction companies in the region. But the sector is tough to change as construction companies are conservative and profitable, even if their methods are inefficient. In such a situation, messaging becomes even more important than usual as Jerome and colleagues have to convince a reluctant audience. In this episode we tackle: 🙌🏼 How to get your message across to an unreceptive audience 🔑 Why the brand name is key to sales and how to stress test it  🧨 How a first investor term sheet can trigger an avalanche  And much more!  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 🚀 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content creation studio in Berlin. 🎬

Gerrit McGowan is an investor, entrepreneur and startup mentor who has coached over 1000 founders and entrepreneurs across five continents. He is also the host of ‘The Most Awesome Founder’ podcast and recently launched the Rainmaking Venture Studio in Germany that partners with corporates to invest and build high-growth companies. In this episode, Gerrit and Oliver take a deep dive into the all-important equity story (aka pitch) that all founders need to master in order to raise money, in particular: - Why founders only have two tasks: to build s**t and tell stories. - How to craft an equity story that generates generosity in investors - How founders can use the neuroscience behind stories to their advantage - What boxing and pitching have in common - Why FOMO and 'Fake it 'til you make it‘ are really bad ideas while humour can work a treat For more of Gerrit’s insights into the neuroscience of business and building companies, check out Episode 103 - The art of peak performance. Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts.  🚀 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content production studio in Berlin. 🎬

"What is leadership but language? Changing the way we communicate changes the culture. Changing the culture transforms our results.“ (L. David Marquet) What’s the role of a leader? Certainly to set the strategy, focus everyone on what matters, bring in top talent, and ensure there is enough money in the bank. All of these require a high proficiency in communication. And have a huge impact on how their company performs. With the experience of over 1000 media interviews and having coached professionals from over 100 countries between them, top international executive coach Bettina Hausmann and CEO communications thought leader Oliver Aust talk about how to approach #leadership and #communication. Specifically: 🎤 How to develop an important #speech or presentation in under 5 minutes ☑ The right (and wrong) way to share a personal story 💬 How to gain clarity and structure to become a master communicator And there is much more to talk about, so that further episodes on leadership and communication are planned. If you have specific topics you want Bettina and Oliver to address, connect with Oliver on LinkedIn. linkedin.com/in/oliver-aust 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 🚀 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content production studio in Berlin. 🎬

Our guest today turned the Why? question into a thriving business. A clinical psychologist by training, Sarah Reitz worked in consulting until her work had lost its purpose. Pondering her personal dilemma, she emerged with two co-founders and a novel business idea that addresses a growing need. The result: whylab - a digital fitness studio for mental wellbeing Tune into an episode in which Sarah and Oliver analyse  🗝 Why the framing of your offer and messaging is key to differentiate yourself  🙊 How to create an effective word of mouth strategy  💸 The difference between promise and purpose brands and what is important when talking to investors.  And much more!  Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by sharing it and posting your review on Apple Podcasts:   🚀 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content production studio in Berlin. 🎬 Connect with Oliver on LinkedIn. 

Your organisation's culture is the key to its success. Its not just a nice to have and the mission statement you put on your website. It’s the path to happy and high performing employees, to securing profitability and retaining talent, to building a strong and resilient company. Our guest today is a company culture builder par excellence. Kristen Mashburn coaches leaders how to get more out of their teams by installing systems to build high-performing cultures. With KPMashburn - a company culture consulting group - she on a mission to change the future of work. Tune into an episode full of valuable hands-on actionable tools to level up your culture in which Kristen shares: 🚀 How to start and who to involve to build a process that creates previously unattainable levels of productivity 📙 The 4 systems behind high performing teams and where productivity comes from ‼️ How to approach hiring and retain talent to foster a great company culture And much more! 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 🚀 This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content production studio in Berlin. 🎬 Connect with Oliver on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oliver-aust

Millennials want convenience, like being able to open a bank account in 10 minutes. The GenZ cohort expect convenience and also want a purpose they can relate to. So how well you communicate your purpose is becoming a main differentiator for companies targeting this group. Still, so far very few fintechs have created financial products for the next generation of customers. Bastian Krautwald's company is one of the few exceptions. While still a student, he founded "deineStudienfinanzierung", a platform for student loans with David Meyer. It even got them into "Die Höhle der Löwen“ (Germany’s „Shark Tank“). With their new product Wajve, the two founders raised 5 million in seed capital last year. The funding is intended to accelerate the roll-out of the platform for the first customers in Germany before it expands into other European markets. Tune into an episode in which Oliver and Bastian discuss and analyse 😇 How to create the perfect message-market-fit for a specific audience 😎 How PR gets easier with a simple mindset shift 😅 What competitive sports have in common with entrepreneurship And much more! Enjoy the episode and support the podcast by posting your review on Apple Podcasts. Connect with Oliver on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oliver-aust This episode is brought to you by HeyViz, your rapid content production studio in Berlin.