June 29, 2023

Clemens Behrend: Web3, Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

39 minutes

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Clemens Behrend, an entrepreneur with a rich background in building customer-facing support solutions in Web3. Clemens spent over 5 years building Bitpanda's customer community department from scratch and scaling it from pre-seed to unicorn status. And it is important to understand that the power of Web3 is in building unique communities.

During their deep dive, Clemens and Sabine talk about his interest in Web3, Bitcoin, and Crypto, why he believes those 3 components are key to building unique communities, and Clemens shares a few tips for those of us interested in learning and trialling such technologies.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

From 2017 to 2022, I led and set up customer support at Bitpanda, the first Unicorn in Austria and a neo-broker that offers all asset classes from cryptocurrencies, stocks, and commodities to almost four million customers 24/7, 365.

In my youth, I played a lot of computer games and realised you could earn money by selling items. So I launched my first business, an online shop for virtual items. Though this I discovered my passion for customer support and keeping my 1,000-2,000 clients happy. The biggest mistake I made was relying on 1 payment method. Then a friend of mine showed me BitCoin and that was the solution to my problem. After that, I focused solely on cryptocurrency.

The most important thing that people need to realise when building a unicorn, especially in the crypto industry: Crypto is 24/7, it’s not like the stock market that closes on a Friday afternoon, it’s also on the weekends. Our key success factor was being based in Austria, and we had an impressum, which is not that typical in the crypto industry; people never knew where their funds were, but this gave us transparency and also trust from our clients. It meant we were always reachable with 24/7 support.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and I would say the only really decent one; all the others are copies because Bitcoin's source code is open, and anyone can publish and own their own cryptocurrency. They symbolise companies, so investing in Bitcoin and in cryptocurrencies are two very different things and have different risks. People need to do research before investing.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Last century private currencies had been predicted, so the concept behind Bitcoin is not that new, it’s just beautiful to see how it’s now come into practice.’

‘In Web2, you log in to a page, and there’s a Google SSO with just a username and an email; in Web3, you connect with your wallet, and you can transfer financial data on the blockchain.’

‘Bitcoin’s uptime is still amazing: Over 99.9% with only a few outages of a few hours or so, the last of which was 10 years ago. Compared to traditional payment methods like Visa, Mastercard, or SWIFT, Bitcoin is doing well. ’

‘Make it as easy as possible for your customers to complain, because the biggest issue for any business in Web3 is when you have people who silently quit and don’t tell you why. When you receive a complaint, see it as a last chance to convince the person to stay.’

ABOUT THE GUEST

Clemens holds a BSc degree in Economics and has a rich background in building customer-facing support solutions in Web 3. He spent over five years building Bitpanda's customer support/community department from scratch and scaling it from pre-seed to unicorn. His knowledge in the field is extensive, and he is known for his strong analytical and managerial skills.

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

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