Making It Real – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Interesting episode guest in the Making It Real Podcast for all the product enthusiastists out there: Malte Scholz, product manager specialized in the SaaS and mobile tech space. He is Co-founder and CEO at airfocus, a prioritization and roadmapping software for product teams and decision makers. Malte shares with us his top techniques to prioritize features, to decide on the first product version and to build the best-possible roadmap for your product. We also cover the tricks of balancing customer needs and the challenges of scaling development teams. https://www.linkedin.com/in/maltescholz
https://airfocus.com
linkedin.com/in/janbrinckmann

00:00 Intro

00:50 How Malte joined the entrepreneurship space

3:50 Building a first version of a product

5:10 Time until launching a first version

6:25 What does airfocus do?

8:10 Feature prioritization as a product manager

11:35 What framework should I use for prioritization

13:10 Staying on track with the product roadmap

14:55 Challenges that founders face in product development

16:40 What should go into a first version?

19:15 Balancing customer needs

21:15 Assessing the impact of the next release

24:20 Hiring and sustaining a great team

27:55 Quick fire round: Person Malte admires the most | What is so broken that entrepreneurs should fix immediately | Technology that will transform the future | Favourite management concept

32:50 Closing

In today's episode we welcome Stephan Schambach, serial entrepreneur building market changing companies in the e-commerce space. Prior to his current software NewStore, providing Ominchannel-as-a-Service, Stephan launched Intershop and Demandware that was acquired for $2.8 billion by Salesforce. They say timining is everything, when launching a business. But what is the secret to get it right? How to narrow down focus and go big, when there are so many exciting opportunities? And once launched, how to find your first customers? He answers all these questions and shares his take on the NFT space as well as on the European investment ecosystem.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanschambach
https://www.newstore.com
linkedin.com/in/janbrinckmann

0:00 Intro

1:00 The energy that powers Stephan

03:03 Stephan's passion for building companies internationally

06:20 The challenges of starting international companies in Europe

09:30 Finding ideas for new ventures and executing them

14:00 How to determine the right time for launching a startup

18:10 The influence of the first customer

21:10 How to find the first customer

22:30 Trends to watch out for in the ecommerce space

25:30 Stephan's take on opportunities with NFTs

27:45 Raising venture capital in Europe and building a European tech stock exchange

32:45 Quick fire round: Middlename | Something broken that entrepreneurs should fix immediately | Technology that will transform the future | Core concept

33:52 Closing

Javier Darriba is the Co-Founder & CEO of Bloobirds. Bloobirds is a sales empowerment platform that guides SDRs and closing reps to convert more prospects into customers. Prior to Bloobirds, Javier also co-founded and led UserZoom as the Co-CEO. Furthermore, he is the Founder & Chairman of The SaaS Institute and an Investment Comittee Member at Encomenda VC. Javier is an enthusiastic entrepreneur, not only in business but in everyday life. He's striving for change, innovation, and creating new things - he raised more than 40 millions funds from Business Angels and VCs and built international operations with offices in Spain, US, UK and Germany. The greatest pleasure for him is going to work every day where he's part of a team of inspiring professionals who are also nice people. He enjoys spending his free time with his family, books and on meditation.

Javier Darriba, Co-Founder & CEO of Bloobirds | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #20  

00:00 Javier's first steps into the entrepreneurship domain 

04:00 Founding companies in economic crises 

06:10 The problem of building service companies 

08:46 Turning consulting into a software business 

13:00 How did you build the software for UserZoom and Bloobirds? 

15:10 Learnings about hiring a great team 

17:25 Thoughts about building product 

19:10 How do you think about building a tech team? 

20:21 How long should a launch take? 

22:15 Co-developing your product with the customer together 

23:23 Sell it before you make it?  

27:21 How did you get the first customers with UserZoom? 

28:18 Building global companies from Barcelona 

31:30 How do you determine which markets to go to? 

35:27 How do get the first customers in new markets? 

39:39 Top mistakes founders do when trying to sell their product 

45:21 What keeps you going?

Pau Rodriguez is the CEO of Methinks AI, a software company to unlock life-saving treatments potential worldwide. He is an industrial engineer and MBA graduate by background. Prior to leading Methinks AI, Pau was also a professional rugby player, was a member of the U17, U18, U19 and U20 Spanish Rugby National Team, participated in the Rugby World Cup 2005 and Rugby European Cups 2004 and 2006. He also was the captain of the Senior Catalan Rugby National Team in 2010. Pau is passionate about how technology can change people’s lives for the better.  

Pau Rodriguez, CEO Methinks AI | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #19

00:00 How did you decide to start a company? 

02:54 Starting a Health Care company, what was your background? 

04:19 You were a professional rugby player - did that help in your entrepreneurial career? 

05:55 How important is it to have an entrepreneurial mindset? 

07:10 How to be successful in Health Care without a background in biology 

08:50 About Methinks AI 

11:26 Collaborating with hospitals 

15:08 What Pau loves most about his work 

16:07 Regulations in Health Care and main things to watch out for 

18:13 How did you reach out to experts in the field? 

20:15 Trusting your gut feeling 

22:08 Combining a great vision with a top team and doing your best work 

23:15 Monetization in Health Care 

26:32 How to build a business focusing on value delivery 

29:52 What are the next steps for Methinks AI? 

33:10 How do you learn?

Richard Schenke is Co-Founder & MD at Priceloop AI. Prior to Priceloop, Richard also co-founded Contorion, a fast-growing online shop for professional industrial and trade supply. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Richard was a Senior Consultant at McKinsey and with a project focus on non-food retail, sales & pricing strategy and automotive. Richard is an MIT and RWTH Aachen graduate.

Richard Schwenke, Co-Founder & MD Priceloop AI | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #18

00:00 How did you get into the entrepreneurship domain? 

01:52 Did you start your venture in parallel during your consulting job or went all in? 

04:05 How did you find your first investors? 

06:51 The idea behind Contorion 

08:16 Getting both the supply and demand side right on a platform model 

13:05 Evolving your venture one step at a time 

14:59 What to do if you lose money per transaction 

19:00 How merchants can bring value to suppliers 

22:03 How to set your prices right 

27:46 Advice for collecting quality data 

32:20 Filtering data for machine learning 

39:55 Exiting Contorion and starting Priceloop AI  

41:49 Richard's top 3 learnings for aspiring founders 

46:28 What do you enjoy the most about creating startups?

David Casellas is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Pridatect and Co-Founder of Redpoints, both enterprising and successful SAAS LegalTech Companies. Heading up the Business side of the companies, David nurtured their growth and expanded their business from startups to successful Million€ companies and has been prominent and influential in internationalising business worldwide.

David came from a two year spell at FC Barcelona where he was a driving force in the Digital Business team, working on a global scale.

David started his first business at 19 years old whilst still studying Business Management and Marketing in the digital sector, specialising in digital business.

David Casellas, Co-Founder & MD of Pridatect | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #17

00:00 How did you got started in the entrepreneurship space?

05:24 What was the trigger to go for your own entrepreneurial venture?

09:20 How did you start the venture without having clients?

12:49 Closing first customers

16:34 How to deal with rejection

19:20 How did you go about building your product?

23:29 Advice on finding a technical co-founder

26:38 Hiring a professional CEO

33:19 What's next for you?

Robert Wetzker is the Founder & CEO of Aklamio. Founded in 2011, Aklamio has become Europe’s most successful referral marketing solution, trusted by companies such as Virgin Media, Vodafone, PayPal, Endesa, o2, and over 300 international brands. Aklamio believes that a company’s best assets are its customers, their networks, and the power of incentive marketing. Their mission is to empower brands to succeed in a customer-centric world by building the world’s #1 platform for customer incentivization. Their 80+ employees work in our HQ in Berlin and London, with teams in Madrid and Paris. Aklamio was ranked 2nd fastest growing technology startup in Germany (Financial Times, Europe’s 1000 Fastest Growing Companies, 2019) and continues to expand internationally. Robert has a background in engineering. Prior to founding Aklamio, he led the research team at TU Berlin’s Competence Center for Information Retrieval and Machine Learning. 

Robert Wetzker, Founder & CEO of Aklamio | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #16

00:00 What's your personal journey into the entrepreneurship space?

01:32 From a researcher to starting a company - how did it come about?

03:49 How did you take the first steps to build your product?

06:30 How did you get in touch with your first customers?

08:49 Doing sales as a founder

11:12 When is the right time to start contacting your target customers?

12:35 What's the best way to reach out to people when you have nothing to show for yet?

14:52 How many customers do you need to determine a common base for a scalable product?

17:23 How can technically strong people be a sales-driven CEO and find a specialized sales person?

20:01 What are your core lessons learned in the process from doing the first sales to building Aklamio as an impactful company?

24:08 How to approach internationalization

26:14 Should you start with one country manager first or build a small team early on?

30:46 For people looking into referral marketing, what are the core lessons learned that you can share?

33:48 Besides the size of incentives, what are other components of a successful referral campaign?

36:39 What's next for Aklamio?

38:54 What is your core advice for people who want to make it real?

Michael Brehm is the Founder & Managing Director of i2x who helps sales and customer support agents to excel at their job by providing the most intuitive, productive and personally tailored learning to improve each individual’s skill-set. Prior to i2x, Michael has run and founded multiple internationally successful companies in the last 15 years. His last company, Rebate Networks, was an e-commerce and daily deals network. He also was Executive Director & Investor at VZnet Netzwerke Ltd. (schülerVZ, studiVZ, meinVZ). Apart from building companies himself, Michael also enjoys supporting founders as a Partner of Redstone, a Berlin-based VC firm managing multiple corporate venture funds through their unique VC-as-a-Service approach. 

More about i2x: https://i2x.ai

More about Redstone: https://www.redstone.vc

Michael Brehm, Founder & MD of i2x | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #15

00:00 What's your personal story into the entrepreneurship domain?

03:46 The studiVZ success story: Why did you decide to take on the challenge to battle Facebook?

07:59 How did you meet your co-founders?

10:01 What was the game plan of studiVZ having huge competition like Facebook?

13:36 Do you have to put in an incredible amount of hours to get your venture going in the beginning?

18:15 Painting schools pink as a marketing hack for schülerVZ

19:29 Getting users for a consumer app

23:01 Core mistakes you see in other ventures

28:33 After having launched Rebate Networks and a VC, how did you determine the opportunity for i2x?

31:59 Development of i2x

34:25 How can you finance a technology venture before revenues?

38:39 Convincing potential customers to sign a letter of intent

41:13 Passion, resilience and timing

43:44 How can you judge if it's the right timing for your product?

46:17 What do you personally enjoy the most in entrepreneurship?

Colin McElwee is the Co-Founder of Worldreader. He has a degree in Economics from the University of Manchester and a MBA from ESADE Business School, where he also was the Executive Director of Marketing and Communication from 2001-2010. From 2012-2014, Colin was an invited member of the Global Agenda Council for Africa of the World Economic Forum. Colin has extensive for-profit and not-for-profit experience around the globe. He was an economist for several Brussels-based lobbies to the European Commission. Colin was also the Global Marketing Controller for Scottish & Newcastle where he oversaw Formula 1 sponsorship and product distribution to over 150 countries. He co-founded Worldreader in 2010 with the vision of creating 100's of millions of readers in sub Saharan Africa. 

More about Worldreader: https://www.worldreader.org

Follow Worldreader on Twitter: https://twitter.com/worldreaders

Contact Colin: Colin@worldreader.org

Colin McElwee, Co-Founder of Worldreader | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #14

00:00 What is Worldreader about?

01:28 Is Worldreader an NGO?

02:44 How did Worldreader get started and what did you do before it?

06:58 Going from a vision to making it real

09:27 How did you get started with Worldreader?

14:52 Advice on how to form first relationships when you're starting out

16:47 Networking in times of Covid

19:33 Approaching developing markets

22:28 How did you get Worldreader to where it is now?

25:17 Taking Worldreader to the next level

28:23 From the first few hundred readers to 300,000 users

32:55 Making high-quality content accessible in Africa

37:21 About content contribution

40:38 Do you have a guiding concept to make things real?

44:29 What is for you personally most rewarding about entrepreneurship?

Spain is a serial entrepreneur who has founded or co-founded four Web-enabled companies that transformed their industries. Presently he is the CEO of First Stop Health an online and on-call telemedicine and advocacy service used by employers and their employees.

Co-founder and long-time chairman and CEO of Hoover’s, Inc., Spain led the company from a small book publisher in 1992 to a profitable, publicly traded online business information services company with $31 million in revenue in 2001 with a sale to D&B in 2003 for $119 million.

Spain was also the founder, chairman and CEO of HighBeam Research, which he started in 2002 and sold to Cengage Learning in December, 2008. He also co-founded and is CEO of Newser, a news curation and summarization service with an audience of seven million readers each month.

Spain serves as a board member of Owler a Silicon Valley-based company information service that is using crowd sourcing to revolutionize data collection, quality and delivery. He is also on the Board of a Chicago-based Occasion, an event scheduling platform for smaller merchants. Spain also serves on the Board of Community Health, the largest free clinic in the U.S. Chicago. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of Opportunity International, the largest and best capitalized micro-lender in the world. Spain serves on the advisory boards of several technology startup companies.

Past board positions include service at Televerde a rapidly growing, socially responsible marketing services company, SmartAnalyst, a research company that serves the pharma industry and GuideStar, the largest and most trusted database of information on the not-for-profit sector.

Spain has worked in the technology industry since 1979 and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and a law degree from Boston University. He splits his time between the Chicago and Austin, TX areas. 

Patrick Spain, Serial Entrepreneur | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #13

00:00 When did you decide to co-found a company?

02:04 How did you approach starting your first business?

02:58 Leaving behind a nice salary for your startup

05:14 Democratizing information as a business model

07:40 How could you get into volume distribution?

09:34 How important was market timing for Hoovers.com?

10:38 What would have been your plan B if Hoovers.com didn't work out?

12:25 Is there a common scheme you're looking for when founding a company?

15:19 Intuition vs validation before making large purchases for your business

16:22 After selling two companies, how did you decide on your new venture?

19:10 Core lessons learned in a declining market

21:02 Would you advise founders to only go into high-growth markets?

24:04 How do get started when trying to fix fundamental market issues

26:58 How important is it to have at least one co-founder with deep domain knowledge?

28:28 Starting First Stop Health

30:18 Putting components together instead of building everything from scratch

32:18 Building a sales team as a company who made it to the INC 500 list twice in a row

36:10 Is there a guiding concept to decide things as an entrepreneur?

38:51 Being a very active business angel, what are the common mistakes you're seeing?

42:40 First Stop Health is your fourth venture - what keeps you going?