Andreas "Andi" Stryz is 39 years old and the co-founder and CTO of FINN, a leading auto subscription company. Passionate about automation and the no-code movement, he oversees the development and implementation of FINN's technology roadmap and brings exceptional leadership skills and a focus on delivering results. Outside of work, he enjoys running and is known for balancing work and play with ease.Shownotes00:00 - intro & context06:28 - Starting from scratch with a team and the first product18:35 - When to replace a CTO as a founderLinksAndreas - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasstryz/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Anais Neumann, Global Head of Executive Talent Acquisition at HelloFresh, shares insights on executive recruitment, market mapping, bar raising in hiring, reliable decision-makers, challenges of executive hiring and diversity, and future guest interviews focused on diversity and inclusion.

Nichelle Appleby is a Total Rewards Leader with nearly 15 years of experience helping organizations build fair pay programs. She founded Work Imagined, a compensation consultancy, and created The Dignity Standard, a culture and DEI concept that helps companies create a healthy culture to support the development of collaborative and high-performing teams. Nichelle is from the US, born and raised in a small town in Georgia, and now lives in Berlin, Germany.Shownotes00:00 - intro & context07:50 - DEI & Compensation, equity10:32 - The dignity standard18:30 - Wealth building25:30 - Pay gaps for similar rolesLinksNichelle Appleby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nichelleappleby/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/

With over 12 years of recruitment expertise, Alexandra's journey includes significant contributions to N26, particularly in building out the Brazilian market. Her role in orchestrating a pivotal turnaround in the US showcased her prowess in assembling talented teams. This commitment extended to leading recruitment efforts in the UK and Netherlands at Moss. Now, as the Head of Talent Acquisition at Enpal, Alexandra leverages her extensive experience to drive recruitment strategies in the sustainable energy sector.Shownotes00:00 - intro & context06:15 - Expansion from a Talent Acquisition perspective into Brasil15:45 - Expansion from a Talent Acquisition perspective into the US23:45 - Chaos vs structure in scalingLinksAlexandra Meyer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-meyer/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Sebastian has built the Finance & Internal Operations Team at Taxfix from Series B beyond Series D. He has played a vital role in financial planning, implementing scalable accounting and people systems, fundraising and internal communications at Taxfix. Sebastian holds an honours degree from the University of Oxford and is a graduate of Bucerius Law School, Hamburg.Shownotes00:00 - intro & context05:41 - Finance stages from series A to series D16:41 - Growing a finance team from series A to series D24:41 - Headcount planning from series A to series DLinksSebastian - https://www.linkedin.com/in/flysebsch/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Annika is an HR executive who went trough roles in HR and consulting, most notably her current position as the Director of People & Organization at ABOUT YOU, where she leads the People & culture function while going public. Before this, she was a consultant focusing on M&A, Digital Transformation, and Organizational Design.Shownotes00:00 - intro & context 05:22 - HR from a Private Equity & Strategy perspective 14:52 - Pre-IPO in a people function 22:00 - IPO processLinksAnnika Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annika-in-der-beek/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/ Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.com pplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Jochem van der Veer is the co-founder & CEO of TheyDo - a journey management platform. Before starting his latest venture, he has been working as a design leader helping to transform companies in the Fortune 500 to work more customer-centric. With a background in UX and Service Design, he’s currently helping to solve one of the biggest problems at the Enterprise-scale: systemically aligning customer needs to business impact.Shownotes00:00 - intro & context07:47 - Journey mapping14:17 - Funding and from agency to SaaS28:17 - Remote work: Superpower vs RiskLinksJochem van der Veer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Rudi Bauer was Managing Director of StepStone Austria from 2014 to the end of 2019 and also Chief Evangelist of StepStone Group from 2018 to 2020. He now has 29 years of management and leadership experience in the telecom, IT and advertising industries. In addition to his current role as CCO and Managing Director at WeAreDevelopers.com, he is also co-founder of the Vienna-based agency active concepts, focusing on corporate culture, coaching, strategy consulting and team development.Shownotes00:00 - intro & context05:54 - Hiring engineers in 2023 and beyond08:39 - Job fairness report13:54 - WeAreDevelopers & Developer communities19:24 - Social demographics and engineers, female engineers26:54 - Management & LeadershipLinksRudi Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudi-bauer-1b325813/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/

00:00 - intro & context05:29 - CTO Coaching & the role of a CTO15:29 - Goal setting, OKRs in Tech orgs, Vision vs Opportunity driven24:09 - Scrum & delivery methodologies28:14 - AI impacting software developmentLinksStephan Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanjschmidt/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/

Jamie is an HR executive with a track record of building up core pillars of HR with the aim to carry a company onward through maturity and growth journeys. Her last 20 years’ experience leading EU-based, international HR teams in Germany and Austria, coupled with her American upbringing, she applies a unique perspective and balance of HR practices.Her strengths cover diverse areas such as global applications of HR practices on local levels, implementing effective core processes of People Operations, integrating competency management into the daily business of managers and long-lasting leadership development approaches. Jamie is Berlin-based, with her husband and children. They enjoy exploring new cultures and rarely miss a Dodger baseball game!Shownotes00:00 - Intro07:36 - Change fatigue17:21 - Partnership, transactional workLinksJamie Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-t-2baaa47/Thomas Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kohler-pplwise/Thomas e-mail: thomas@pplwise.compplwise: https://pplwise.com/