Gesa Bierman is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pina Earth, a climate tech startup from Munich. Pina protects our forests by quantifying and rewarding sustainable forestry (more on this in the episode).
Gesa and I were colleagues at the Center of Digital Technology and Management (CDTM), where we ran the program together with the rest of the management team. Gesa finished her doctorate a few years ahead of me and went on to found Pina. I was always impressed by her drive to make the world a better place and her pragmatism in doing so. She is someone who walks the talk, which is why I was excited to learn about her experiences as CEO of Pina Earth.
In this episode of the Entrepreneurship & Leadership podcast, we talk about
transitioning from research and university to being a startup founder
"minigames" or what the workday of a startup CEO is really like
how to balance operational focus and getting stuff done with the need to look ahead and learnHer message to all aspiring entrepreneurs: "Pick a problem to work on that you really care about. The entrepreneurship journey will be tough. Working on something you care about will help your resilience."
I hope you enjoy the episode!
Learn more about Pina Earth at https://www.pina.earth/
Connect with Gesa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gesabiermann/
Connect with me on https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-froehlich/
We mentioned quite a few additional resources in our conversation. Here are some resources to learn more about them.
Gesa's interview in the Mostly Awesome podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3qfmfObORT8EtmNmdXQOX0?si=4b0f3e6968a54b6e
OJR (Objective Job Result) by Nikolai Ladanyi https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:7029819076524797952/
YC Startup School: https://www.startupschool.org/Gesa's book recommendations: (affiliate links)
Work Rules (Laszlo Bock) https://amzn.to/3xStrdJ
Working Backwards (Colin Bryar) https://amzn.to/3m5PLxS
Getting Things Done (David Allen) https://amzn.to/41Fq33N
Make Time (Jake Knapp) https://amzn.to/3kuyw8Z
High Output Management (Andrew S. Grove) https://amzn.to/3EFTB7o
Radical Candor (Kim Scott) https://amzn.to/3kuRj44