September 23, 2020

#182: Holger Seim, Co-Founder & CEO of Blinkist, a Company Helping People Fit More Learning Into Their Lives, on the Journey to 15 Million Users, Raising $30M+, Navigating a Global Pandemic, and the Importance of Testing for Startups

58 minutes

Holger Seim is the Co-Founder and CEO of Blinkist. Founded in 2012 by four friends, Blinkist now connects 15 million readers worldwide to the biggest ideas from bestselling nonfiction via 15-minute audio and text.

About Our Partners

This episode is brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models.

Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor's "Best Places to Work", 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI.

Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba.

Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast.

This episode is also brought to you by Toptal. Toptal is an exclusive network of the top freelance software developers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers in the world. Top companies hire Toptal freelancers for their most important projects.

Connect with Holger Seim

Blinkist
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Some of the Topics Covered by Holger Seim in this Episode

What Blinkist is and how they're helping people fit more learning into their lives
How Holger and his co-founders chose Blinkist over other ideas
What Holger did first to get Blinkist off the ground
How Blinkist raised money in 2012 without a product
How Holger chooses which books to "blink" and what the blinks would include
How Blinkist works with freelancers to breakdown books and why they look for subject matter experts
How Holger and his team make each blink more engaging
The legalities of the Blinkist business model
Why Blinkist partners with authors and publishers and isn't cannibalizing book sales
The challenges of book discovery
The evolution of the Blinkist business model and how they look at pricing
Early customer acquisition for Blinkist
How Holger looks at allocation between different acquisition channels
Deciding which influencers to work with
Why testing is so important when creating a startup
How Holger uses the Blinkist web app as a customer acquisition tool for the Blinkist app
How the main call-to-action on the Blinkist homepage has evolved and why they offer a free trial now
Holger seeing someone use Blinkist in real life for the first time
Understanding how businesses actually impact people
Company culture and how Holger's upbringing has impacted it
Raising funds initially for Blinkist (150,000 Euros)
The difference between raising your initial round of funding and subsequent rounds
Some of the questions investors ask when you're raising a later round of funding
How Holger and his co-founders looked at splitting equity and the roles between the founders
Holger's approach to hiring and why he recommends hiring an HR generalist early on for a startup
"Rich vs. King," and why Holger and his Co-Founders veer towards keeping control
Holger's goal of reading 24 books in the year
How COVID-19 has impacted Blinkist

Links from the Episode

Goodreads
The New York Times Best Sellers
Outbrain
Taboola
Hubble Contacts
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
What You Do Is Who You Are

...more

View all episodes

By Justin Gordon

4.9

165165 ratings