In this episode, Bits & Pretzels’ Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling talks to one of the most successful cloud communication entrepreneurs in the tech world, Jeff Lawson, the co-founder & CEO of $8.5 billion firm Twilio. Get insights into 1) how he has launch a million dollar company within just six weeks, 2) how your customers lead you the way to build better products and 3) why you have to push ownership & responsibility in your startup to get better results. Because Jeff himself successfully did all of the above to climb the ladder in Silicon Valley. Today, his company Twilio is used by millions of developers around the world and big tech companies including Airbnb and Uber. Twilio allows software engineers to programmatically make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication functions using its web service APIs. The company is getting a boost from the pandemic as its customers both old and new scramble to update their operations for a new digital age. Shares of Twilio are up over 160% so far in 2020. 

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Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Jeff Lawson (@jeffiel), founder of Twilio (@twilio). Former Amazon (@amazon) executive

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Sophie Dechansreiter

In this episode Bits & Pretzels Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling talks to Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of London headquartered borderless cash company Transferwise, who’s a tech pioneer, an investor and business angel, just days after his company announced a 43 percent valuation jump to a valuation of 5 billion dollars after a secondary share sale. In 2003, Taavet was the first employee at Voice-over-IP platform Skype, before he decided launching Transferwise in 2011 to provide cheap cross-border transfers. In this podcast Taavet explains why he left Skype to become a founder himself and what rules have guided him since – while building Transferwise from a niche into a global platform – now serving 8 million customers, processing around 4 billion in cross-border payments each month across 54 currencies and why today you can build a global player from anywhere in the world.

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Host:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Taavet Hinrikus (@taavet), co-founder & chairman of TransferWise (@TransferWise), previously built Skype (@Skype) as 1st employee

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review & tell your friends about us! You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

In this week’s episode Britta Weddeling, Bits & Pretzels’ editor in chief, talks to Hendrik Brandis, co-founder and partner at Earlybird, a venture capital firm focused on European technology companies. Hendrik has been investing in startups for 23 years and recently made his largest exit ever when Turkish game developer Peak Games sold to Zynga for 1.8 billion dollar. The experienced investor explains why the next big wave of startup innovation is happening in the deep tech space, meaning companies funded based on a scientific breakthrough & likely to change the world, such as AI, space, biotech or quantum computing. The aerospace engineer turned VC also talks about why space is becoming the next mega platform for services & new technologies, e.g. with satellites providing 5G internet connection or Voice-over-IP broadband – and why Munich is the place to be for entrepreneurs right now.

More to explore:

Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

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Host:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Hendrik Brandis, co-founder and Partner Earlybird Venture Capital (@EarlybirdVC)

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review & tell your friends about us! You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

In this week’s episode, Britta Weddeling, Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels, talks with Aaron Levie, the CEO and co-founder of cloud computer pioneer Box and one of the most successful and outspoken innovators in the enterprise software business who revolutionized the collaborative office environment. Levie is a true cloud pioneer: He has started his company 15 years ago at the age of 19 and famously cold-pitched his idea to Marc Cuban – while still an undergrad in the dorm room – and has matured from those early days into a public company executive, who has guided his employees, customers and investors through various ups and downs – from taking his company to a 1.6 billion dollars IPO to fighting for market share with big incumbents such as Microsoft & Google. This show is all about what Levie has learned on the way – from pivoting his product when the market demands it – to why startup is a state of mind (even though Box is not necessarily a startup any more) to how to stay sane as a founder In difficult situations such as today.

More to explore:

Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup.

Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Aaron Levie (@levie), co-founder and CEO Box (@Box)

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review & tell your friends about us! You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

Remember what it feels like to be focused and productive? It has been a while? Well, you're not alone! Many of us feel exhausted and overwhelmed due to the economic situation caused by Covid-19 and the many uncertainties ahead in business and in private life. Today's podcast guest is here to help: Listen to Arianna Huffington, the co-founder of the Huffington Post and founder of behavior change company Thrive Global in conversation with Bits & Pretzels' Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling.

In this podcast Arianna shares what has helped her – a serial entrepreneur, bestselling author and fearless business person while building her amazing career – from starting the news aggregator Huffington Post that won her the Pulitzer Prize, fast forward to today – where she’s leading Thrive Global focussing on helping entrepreneurs to deal with workplace stress. The company leader shares her secrets of how we can all manage pressure and anxiety better with what she calls „micro steps“ — small adjustments to our lives to help us to sleep & relax better to end up being more focussed when we are all entering the new normal.

More to explore:

Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup.

Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff), Founder of Huffington Post (@HuffPost), Co-Founder & CEO Thrive Global (@thrive)

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

Open your ears and listen to the future with us! This episode of the Bits & Pretzels podcast is about what entrepreneurs can expect as we look towards a post-pandemic world and how founders can prepare. Britta Weddeling, our Editor-in-chief, is talking to Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist and professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and founder of the Future Today Institute where she advises the world’s leading Fortune 100 companies. Her annual Tech Trends Report fills the halls of major tech events such as South by Southwest in Austin. At the moment she is in New York, where she collects data, trends and new technologies that will shape the future.

More to explore:

Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

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Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Amy Webb (@amywebb) Quantitative Futurist. Trends+strategy FTI (@FTI), Author of "The Big Nine" and "Signals Are Talking", Prof NYUStern (@NYUStern)

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Today Bits & Pretzels Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling talks to Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski who has created a revolution in online shopping as well as Europe's most valuable fintech

with 85 million customers, 205 000 online merchants in 17 countries and 2700 employees. And now the Klarna co-founder is out to beat Amazon with a new shopping tool that he announces exclusively in our podcast and that aims to offer brands and their customers the same level of convenience and benefits that exist on a platform like Amazon.

In our conversation Sebastian talks about why he's not afraid of the big technology giants as well as about how Klarna rose from being a local under-dog to an international scale-up threatening traditional banks with its 'buy now, pay later' promise. And – like always – our guest shares what other entrepreneurs can learn from his way up to the top of the fintech world and his thoughts about his responsibilities as a leader in tech.

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Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

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Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Sebastian Siemiatkowski (@klarnaseb), co-founder & CEO Klarna (@Klarna)

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Today Britta Weddeling, Editor-in-chief of Bits & Pretzels, talks with Christoph Hornung, co-founder of legendary German startup accelerator Rocket Internet, who recently joint London-based VC firm Draper Esprit as an investment director. The company is one of the leading VCs in Europe with investments in N26, Revolut & Transferwise among others & a focus on series B, C and later stage companies. In the conversation Christoph shares his view on why although the coronavirus pandemic already has lead to a huge economic slowdown, it is also providing a breeding ground to innovation and disruptive tech – and who could be among the "Covid-19 unicorns" moving forward.

Christoph has sat on both sides of the startup table before. Eight years ago, when he co-founded Rocket Internet in Berlin, he helped kick-starting the startup ecosystem in Germany. From his own experience as investor and entrepreneur he shares what founders can do every step of the way – from the early days to the later stage to right before the exit to improve their performance – and why the time for actions is now.

More to explore:

Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup.

Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Christoph Hornung (@MrChrisHornung), investment director at Draper Esprit (@DraperEsprit)

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Welcome to the first interstellar episode of the Bits & Pretzels podcast! After with SpaceX for the first time in history a private company successfully sent two US astronauts to the International Space Station, the stars of space-gazing entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and many more have risen: among them Will Marshall, the co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-Berlin based startup Planet, which has built the largest fleet of satellites the world has ever seen. Each of the minisats covers an image of more than 2 million square kilometers per day & has just the seize of a wine bottle (Planet calls them "doves"). So that's more than the area of Germany. Will works closely with Elon Musk, and his satellite images serve governments, researchers and farmers. In conversation with Bits & Pretzels' Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling he shares how he has built his space company and about his vision to index the world like Google has indexed the internet to make it searchable.

More to explore:

Get the latest as well as exclusive news on founders, startups & technologies in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland as well as hands-on advice on how to deal with the Covid-19 crisis as a startup at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup.

Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Will Marshall (@Will4Planet), co-founder & CEO of Planet Labs (@planetlabs)

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

In conversation with Bits & Pretzels' Britta Weddeling London-based top VC Brent Hoberman, one of the most influential entrepreneurs in European tech, shares his secrets of how founders can grow their startup during the current COVID-19 crisis, where to raise funds now as an early stage startup & what kind of companies & "founder DNA" he's looking for nowadays as an investor.

Hoberman, who cofounded travel booking website Lastminute.com in 1998 and sold it seven years later for over $1 billion, also explained how he went from running the first European unicorn in the UK to becoming a mentor to the next generation of founders, as the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Forum, an invite-only networking conference for top global disruptors, with Founders Factory, a global tech startup accelerator & UK-based Firstminute Capital, a unicorn-founder-backed seed fund with a 100 million global reach.

More to explore:

Get the latest as well as exclusive news on founders, startups & technologies in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland as well as hands-on advice on how to deal with the Covid-19 crisis as a startup at www.bitsandpretzels.com.

Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup.

Hosts:

Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels)

Featuring:

Brent Hoberman, co-founder Foundersfactory (@foundersfactory), Founders Forum (@Founders_Forum), LastMinute.com (@lastminute_com), First Minute Cap (@firstminutecap)

More to explore:

Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast

Follow us:

Twitter: @bitsandpretzels

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels

If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at [email protected].

Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.