What advice would you share with other founders?
I have two mottos that I find very helpful. One is "done is better than perfect" - so take the courage to start and implement things. Involve the team, customers and partners early on and make things easier. Everyone knows that, but you have to put it into practice. There are always setbacks and here comes my second motto: "enthusiasm is the principle of all possibilities". You have to burn for the cause and pass on the enthusiasm to your team and customers. This simplifies a lot of things.
What surprised you the most when you started out?
Patience is important when acquiring potential partners in the B2B business. It still makes a big difference whether you work with a startup mentality and a strong implementation orientation and think in months rather than quarters and years, or whether you deal with companies that have been in business for decades and now want to change something. Sometimes worlds clash and you need to connect these if you want to do business together.
What do you want from politics and from Germany as a business location?
We need stronger cultural change. People who have an idea or a talent should consider it a desirable goal to start a business and not hold back from doing so. We need more entrepreneurs and for this we need a good breeding ground that is culturally anchored in our society. Founders need money, low administrative hurdles or better, support, access to other talents and social acceptance even if they fail. Politics can strengthen all of this through communication, improvement of the education system in schools and universities, and increases in subsidies. In turn this will increase the attractiveness of Germany as a location for international investors and talents.
Why doesn’t Germany have a leading startup ecosystem?
Germany lacks a well-formed founder culture as well as sufficient venture capital. Berlin has developed really well in recent years, but in comparison to the USA we need decades to catch up. Opportunities for scaling are much bigger and faster in our model country of the USA - scaling in Europe is much more complex.
