Startup Notes

Philipp Pausder is the co-founder of Thermondo, an energy company that provides smart and clean heating systems. By now, the company has raised more than €35M from respected investors such as Rocket Internet, Holtzbrinck Ventures and the energy corporation E.ON. Thermondo is definitely one of the most disruptive startups in Berlin. Employing themselves more than 300 tradesman in 50 different locations in Germany, the company internally manages the whole process of the HVAC exchange – from lead generation, sales, leasing or financing, installation to after-sales. Besides its complex business model, Thermondo has become the largest installer of heating solutions in Germany, saving more than 6000 tons of CO2 emissions and growing by average yearly rate of 638%. In this episode, Philipp shares how being a professional basketball player for 15 years has shaped his management style, why vertical integration is the key to an outstanding customer experience and why the complexity of today’s business models requires teams to stay self-critical and to pivot quickly. (Photo Credits: http://bit.ly/2EU0nbX)

Julian Riedlbauer has 20+ years experience in entrepreneurship. After building up extensive M&A experience on the sell- and buy-side as an entrepreneur, Julian founded the M&A boutique “Pure Equity Advisors”, which was acquired by GP Bullhound. Today, Julian Riedlbauer is Partner and Head of German Office at GP Bullhound, which is an investment bank focused on providing advice on M&A and institutional capital raising in the technology sector. GP Bullhound has completed over 210 transactions for many category leaders such as Signavio or Delivery Hero and has offices in San Francisco, London, Stockholm and Berlin. In this episode, Julian shares the traits of the high-level entrepreneurs he encounters every day, one key learning he achieved after gaining 20+ years experience in the entrepreneurship world as well his best advices to first-time founders on how to start a company with high exit potential.

Christian Miele is one of the most respected startup experts in Germany. From sketching out a business plan on a napkin to preparing a startup for an IPO, Christian is experienced in all stages of a company. While building a VC fund for Bertelsmann in India, he met Oliver Samwer, who convinced him to join Rocket Internet’s Global Venture Development elite team to roll out Westwing and Payleven. In 2012 he founded Todaytickets (sold to competitor Ticketea) and in 2014 he led the international expansion of Kreditech. Currently, Christian is a Principal at e.ventures, one of the leading VCs globally. E.ventures invests in early stage companies across the USA, South America, Europe and Asia. In this episode, Christian shares his secrets on how to “wow” a VC during an investment pitch, his opinion on the status of digitalization in Germany and why he thinks humbleness is one of most important traits in a founder.

Hans Stier is the founder of one of Germany’s biggest crowdfunding successes, Bonaverde. With their revolutionary concept of the world’s first roast-grind-brew coffee machine, Hans and his team raised over $2M from crowdfunding investors on Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Seedmatch. After shipping the first 300 machines to beta-testers last month, Bonaverde managed to secure another $2M from such prominent investors like former StudiVZ CEO Michael Brehm. In this interview Hans Stier shares how Bonaverde wants to decommoditize coffee and empower coffee farmers all around the world

Alexander Graubner-Müller is the co-founder of Kreditech. Kreditech gives out loans to consumers that are underserved by traditional banks. The startup uses alternative data sources (e.g. social media data) and machine learning technology to score the credit-worthiness of a potential customer. With this concept Graubner-Müller already convinced many world-renowned investors, like Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel to invest over 300 million USD into the company. In this interview Alexander shares how he and his co-founder Sebastian Diemer developed the idea for Kreditech while working for Rocket Internet and his plans for the future of Kreditech. We also touch important topics such as the future of FinTech and why right after university is the best time to start a business.

Yassin Hankir is one of Germany’s leading fintech entrepreneurs and co-founder of the automatic savings app savedroid and the robo-advisor startup Vaamo. Savedroid is an automatic savings app based on user-controlled rules, e.g. “Transfer 5% of the purchase value to my savings account every time I buy something on Amazon”. Vaamo is a robo-advisor that provides automated investment solutions to its clients. Before venturing out into the world of entrepreneurship Yassin worked as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company for 4 years. In this episode Yassin shares his learnings from working as a consultant and from co-founding two FinTech startups.