Unicorn Bakery - For the World's Most Ambitious Founders & Teams

With over 450 investments in early-stage startups, Marvin Liao is one of the most active investors in the world, In the podcast, we talk about how you recalibrate as a founder to see if you're on track. Marvin often sees with his portfolio companies that founders assume too much that it only affects others and don't want to perceive that the market situation affects them too... What you learn: In...

Mike Janke has built Datatribe, one of the best data science and cyber security venture studios globally.... His experience with Special Forces helped him build the company - but how? We talk about team leadership, growth stage, when your Head of or VPs shouldn't grow with the company and how to teach them to go easy on themselves. What you'll learn: How good team building works and whether you al...

Jon Dishotsky has raised 50 million himself from top investors like Y Combinator or Index Ventures, meanwhile, he is an investor at Giant Ventures and thus works on the other side. In the podcast, we talk about the phase between Seed and Series A, a good pitch deck, how to properly ask for intros, and much more. What you'll learn: Why you should always give context when asking someone for help as...

Sophia Bendz is a general partner at Cherry Ventures. Sophia joined Cherry from Atomico, where she was also a Partner and built the firm's well-known Angel program. Sophia's passion is supporting early-stage companies, an interest she has discovered in over 40 angel investments in Europe and North America.  Sophia was also Global Marketing Director at Spotify for seven years, taking the audio plat...

Cal Henderson and his team wanted to improve ways to connect online. The result was a lot of bad decisions - and finally, Flickr and later Slack. Where did the courage come from to build something from the failed pile to such successful companies? What you learn: When was the right moment for Cal to walk away from Flickr, and how that led to the idea for Slack What strategies have been established...

Ryan Breslow looks back on many successful founding years: Bolt (11 billion dollar valuation), Eco (Unicorn), and now love.com. He gained plenty of experience on the road to success, which he now shares with you. He talks to Fabian about the influence of Silicon Valley, the importance of setbacks, his biggest mistake, and the perfect company culture. What you'll learn: What mindset & skillset do y...

Blinkist is now globally known, has been profitable since last year, and seems at first glance to have been a stroke of genius. Behind it, however, is a process of many years that the founders have thought out and followed. They also built their company based on holacracy. What are the pros and cons of scaling with flat hierarchies? What you learn: Why is it good if "the one idea" needs a little m...

Entrepreneurs and startups make decisions all the time - but what if you realize your decision was wrong? Daniel Weinand (formerly Co-Founder of Shopify) joined me at START Summit to answer questions about making important decisions: - What makes good decisions? - How do I assess risk when making important decisions? - How do I react to changing circumstances after I've already made a decision? -...

Ijad Madisch has turned the world of science upside down: Through his platform ResearchGate, he offers scientists the opportunity to exchange information about things that have not worked. With his concept, he convinced Bill Gates, Peter Thiel and Benchmark Capital, among others, as investors. He tells Fabian live at Stage Two how he doesn't lose focus despite his success and why work-life balance...

How do I create a diverse recruiting process and avoid toxic investors? Monika Liikamaa is the founder of the Finnish fintech startup Enfuce. There are currently more than 100 people working for Enfuce and more than 60 million euros have been invested in the startup. We talk about: - How you promote diversity in your team - why diversity has a positive impact on your startup - what to look for in...

Eugene Danilkis is the founder of the fintech unicorn Mambu. About 10 years ago, there was no interface for cloud and banking. In the last 10 years, Eugene has completely changed that with Mambu. We talked in Fireside Chat at START Summit 21 about how the whole journey started. Where did Eugene actually meet his co-founders and how did Mambu evolve from that? How did Mambu get its first customers...

How the market leader for luxury watches was founded in Karlsruhe This podcast episode is a recording from the START Summit, where Fabian Tausch interviews Tim Stracke, CEO of Chrono24. Tim Stracke and his co-founders took over the Chrono24 brand at an early stage and built it up to become the global market leader. Today, billions of dollars worth of luxury watches are traded through Chrono24, hun...

How Lush is working during this digital era Our guest today is Jack Constantine, the Chief Digital Officer at Lush. Lush is an innovative, ambitious company manufacturing fresh handmade cosmetics. According to its web site, the company's goal is to make Lush (and the wider world) a better, fairer, and more sustainable place. How? By building an ethical, environmentally-friendly, and fair business....

What is a good story and why you need to tell yours Cal Fussman is a New York Times bestselling author, interviewed many of the most famous personalities in the world for Esquire magazine and is the best storyteller I've met so far. In this podcast, Cal shares his knowledge by sharing stories and then explains why this is so powerful and why you need to learn how to tell your story. Moreover, here...

How Salesforce wants to become bigger than SAP Salesforce is one of the largest SaaS (software as a service) companies in the world. Together with Joachim Schreiner, managing director Germany and Austria, we're tapping into the Salesforce ecosystem and discover why Salesforce is different and how they plan to become bigger than SAP. Moreover, here are some useful links: You can get the newest stra...

How one of the biggest companies in the world tries to change Cedrik Neike works in one of the largest companies in the world and together with the rest of the board, he is responsible to drive the company further. In this interview the main case to get an understanding of how companies like Siemens work and make decisions as they drive our countries. Cedrik gives honest insights and opens up abou...

How Dagogo built a YouTube channel with nearly 200.000.000 views I'm following Coldfusion TV for a long time already because I love the documentaries that are created on the channel. To be honest, for the longest time I didn't know that Dagogo is the brain behind. When I heard that he will visit Europe I decided to ask for a podcast interview and got a reply in thirty minutes. Sometimes it is very...

Why professional growth becomes more and more important Constant learning is important to me because at some point in my life I thought that the process of learning will end. I have no clue how this could happen but I am more than happy that I didn't stick to this mindset too long. Clarissa Shen is the former COO of Udacity and we were talking about professional growth for everybody but also how c...

How to not lose your fun and happiness between all the business  Boris is the Founder of TNW and I have to thank them a lot for their event because it is the reason that this podcast exists. I got to know so many great people, that I recorded Digital Leaders in English.  Boris is one of the most relaxed people and still fully committed to his business. Very often it seems like people lose their fu...

How to overtake a company in a crisis At the NOAH conference 2018, we had a great opportunity to talk to Finn Age Hansel, Managing Director of Movinga - a revolutionary startup offering online moving services. He is also a Co-Founder of Berliner Berg, Berlin-based craft beer brewery. Before that, he was a Rocket Internet SE, Managing Director of Epic Companies, and Managing Director of The Iconic...

How the Dutch prince works in the startup ecosystem  I first met Constantijn on an event in Berlin and was confused. The Dutch prince is interviewing a rapper on stage.  I had two questions:  What has the Dutch prince to do with startups?  Why is he interviewing and not being interviewed?  After the fireside chat, I approached Constantijn and asked for a podcast interview. As I hadn't had equipmen...

How to survive in the startup economy Ton is a deep tech investor based in the Netherlands. He is one of the most connected people I know, and every time I visit Amsterdam there is a new surprise waiting for me. He is definitely a hidden champion, and I don't want to give too much insights upfront. Have fun with this episode! See the full article and more episodes here: https://thevalulab.co Moreo...

Is Artificial Intelligence a chance or a risk for humankind and businesses? When we mention artificial intelligence (AI), many people think of gloomy future in which machines are completely replacing human workers making an army of unemployed people that are good to nobody and living on the verge of poverty. The question is, are we looking at things in the right perspective? What if artificial int...

Hands-on strategies to grow your business Tiffani Bova is the Customer Growth and Innovation Specialist at Salesforce, author of "Growth IQ" and host of the "What's next"-Podcast. In this interview, we talk about different strategies to grow your business and give insights into Tiffany's day-to-day life. Make sure to stay until the end to understand, how you can win one of her books. See the whole...

How is it to sell a company for 7.5bn dollars? Imagine you sit down next to somebody who sold his former company five days ago to Microsoft for more than 7bn dollars. That's what it felt like when I interviewed Scott. We sat down in Berlin and talked about GitHub, what he learned for his new company Chatterbug and why customer focus is so important for him. Have a lot of fun while listening, it is...