99startups - provide important insights Florian Schulze

Christoph is a filmmaker at heart, a keynote speaker and has been an entrepreneur since high school. After graduating from St. Gallen University, he co-founded a mobile phone reCommerce company which grew from 1M to 31M revenue in less than 5 years. Christoph understands that scaling a business doesn’t just mean more manpower. Instead, he devotes himself to inspiring individual productivity and self-determined work, with the help of the latest online collaboration tools and ‘new work’ methods. This new digital setup has triggered many requests from fellow entrepreneurs and large corporations to support them in building the same environment in their

Insights:
• The purpose of entrepreneurship and how to handle it.
• Leadership styles used by the founders of companies.
• Scaling and growth of businesses.
• Cloud tools and how to handle them.
• The importance of motivation and innovation in work environments.
• The importance of studies and learning in a career.
• How we can educate and train our children better for their future careers.
• Dealing with the challenges of a work environment.
Key Discussion Points:
[6:01] How Christoph helped Facebook launch in Germany through his Ambassador Marketing company.
[10:22] How to scale an organization in the right manner, and how scaling is related to communication.
[15:50] How a company can deal with failures, criticism, and emergencies.
[20:39] The importance of “search” options and the right keywords on cloud platforms.
[23:44] Importance of cloud tools like G-Suite and Office 365.
[26:01] How studies and learning help in career building and management.
[29:44] What leadership style is used by a good founder.
[38:18] How to work consistently and keep going as an entrepreneur.
[44:00] What is an ideal work environment and set up for entrepreneurship.
[49:07] How to bring about a change in what children are taught and what they believe in promoting better work ethics and purposeful, motivated work.
Interesting Quotes:


“At some point, I stumbled upon the very first – one of the very first inspirational videos on YouTube in 2006 that was the amendment speech by Steve Jobs who said follow your heart and your intuition, and the next day I told my boss I’m gonna quit.”
“The idea of scaling for the sake of scaling, I think, is a very dangerous – what, of course, is the idea that you’re big enough to dominate a market. I don’t see size as the main factor.”
“If you’re a data protection officer in a company, read what it is, see what’s the potential behind it, search.”
“We cannot influence anything in our lives – nothing – we can only influence how we react to it.”
“I learned over the course of the last 10-12 years that doing what I like and doing what I really want are much different things.”
“Work can become something that makes you stronger instead of weaker if you find something that you really, really want to do.”
“You make your mind up about what your really, really want to do. If more people would ask themselves that, more people would leave their current jobs or reduce it to a certain amount.”
“There is no straight line, and everyone has their own story in a very individual way, and accepting a story as your life is also a very important learning – a hard thing to do.”
“Look on your life and accept it as your life with every up and down, seeing the colors and contrasts, the mountains and the valleys, with the same gratitude.”




Web Recommendations:





Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address




Book Recommendations:





Blitzscaling – Reid Hoffman.



The War of Art – Steven Pressfield



Man’s Search for Meaning – Victor E. Frankl



Walden – Henry David Thoreau



The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom – Don Miguel Ruiz

Klara Sucher is Managing Director of the consultancy firm Unlearn (unlearn.eu). She is passionate about understanding the inner dynamics of groups and systems and about shaping change in a way that allows for continuity.
In her consultancy-work, Klara helps to redesign organization who they are: by co-creating, consulting, and facilitating.
In the past Klara co-founded “Quinoa”, a high-school for disadvantaged youngsters in Berlin and worked in organizational development for start-ups and a political think tank for more than 5 years.

Insights:
• Understanding the difference between change and transformation
• Drivers and targets of change in organizations
• Understanding the self-organization
• Why leadership and company ethics and values matters in change implementation
• Cultural differences between profit and non-profit companies and lessons
• Finding your values and purposes
• Improving the working of cross-functional teams
• Resources to help you develop new habits
• Advice to the 18 years old people
Key Discussion Points:
[1:21] What is the difference between change and transformation?
[3:16] The drivers or cause of change and transformation in individuals and companies.
[6:36] Defining the change/transformation process and defining the goals
[11:16] Importance of leadership and company ethics and values in change implementation
[20:50] Cultural differences between profit and non-profit companies and lessons they can learn from each other
[28:38] how can you find your values and purposes
[34:54] Ways that can help cross-functional teams to work better together
[40:28] strategies and approaches to creating new or changing your habits
[44:42] What would you tell yourself if you were 18 years?
Interesting Quotes:

“If I talk about change, it would be something more linear, more coming from the present state.”
“Many organizations these days want to change or transform depending on where they are right now.”
“What I see is that in profit-driven companies, more and more employees will look for the meaning in the work or companies.”
“It’s important to find the balance between what the individuals want and what’s good for the company.”
“For the value to really be strong and alive, I believe it needs to kind of look and feel different every day. It is not something static.”
“We can only have a proper conversation when I keep my perspective.”




Book Recommendations:





Das Denken zum Tanzen bringen: Philosophie des Wandels und der Bewegung(German only) – Rudolf zur Lippe



Atomic Habits: An Easy Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones – James Clear



The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles – Steven Pressfield



His Dark Materials: Gift Edition including all three novels: Northern Light, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass: Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman

Johann-David Starck and Sebastian Dimler are part of an internal unit to accelerate the digital
transformation of Commerzbank AG. The team, consisting of creative and communicative characters, focuses on the people & cultural side of the transformation by developing new initiatives in the areas of digital culture, digital ecosystem, digital know-how and hence the overall agile approach within the Commerzbank AG.
The Team has a focus on the people side of digitization, accelerating our cultural transformation with developing new initiatives concentrating on the fields digital culture, digital Ecosystem and digital Know-how as well as the overall agile approach within the Commerzbank AG.

Insights:
• Why banks are starting to focus on culture, not just numbers
• The challenges of innovating within a bank
• Creating change in a big organization
• Leveraging feedback: What kind of feedback do you need and what do you do with it?
• Making sure people understand the big WHY
• How do you change a person’s mindset?
• Using events to drive change
• The future of banking
Key Discussion Points:
[1:01] Starting with the culture in culture
[2:55] How do you even start changing the culture in an industry like the bank?
[6:55] How do you create change in a big organization with thousands of employees?
[14:08] Getting feedback and ideas from employees
[16:26] What else did you learn about change management from your experience so far?
[21:54] How do you know your change is working?
[25:46] Using events to create change
[30:16] How to drive innovation
[33:39] Where do you see the banking industry going in the next few years?
[40:42] How do you experiment for a constantly changing and unknown future?
[46:09] Books and resources you read to stay informed
Interesting Quotes:


“Everything starts with the culture.”
“…when you say ‘change management’ in the bank, the door slams…”
“Some banks, have not been customer-centric industries…since the last 150 years.”
“You have to tell the same story at least seven times until people understand.”
“Feedback is one of the strongest values in the Agile world.”
“The change process is ongoing.”
“When people see the necessity of change, then you are successful.”
“Change is never easy and we don’t want to say digitization is perfect.”
“You have to understand where the customer is going.”
“We have to offer customers solutions before he even asks it.”
“I would be happy in the future, if people came to the branch with a smile…”
“Banking will be a form of Lifestyle”




Media Recommendations:





Wired Magazine



Digitally Kompact Podcast

Magdalena Zadara is currently the product manager of Fernarzt, a telemedicine start-up based in Berlin. Trained originally in (physical) product design, she combines human-centered design with her experience working in agile software teams to build a platform that solves for actual user needs, all the while navigating the complex world of German healthcare regulation.
Before joining Fernarzt, Magdalena helped incubate four ventures at BCG Digital Ventures, most notably the voice-powered lab assistant for life scientists, LabTwin. Outside of the “product” part of her job, Magdalena enjoys experimenting with and refining best practices for team building, communication and general team well-being.

Insights:
• What are product managers and what impact do they have to a business?
• What does a product manager do?
• What challenges do product managers go through?
• Resources to help you get started in a career in product management
• How can you become a product manager?
Key Discussion Points:
[00:05]: Magdalena’s introduction
[06:33]: The pros and cons of working in a cross-functional culture
[09:33]: Does a product manager get involved in user testing?
[12:00]: What is product management like in the telemedicine industry?
[16:58]: Challenges that startups in the medical sector go through
[23:04]: Words of wisdom for aspiring product managers
[24:50]: Why a female product manager has advantages to lead a team
[28:16]: What does Magdalena read?
Interesting Quotes:


“Give yourself time to figure out what you’re good at.”
“Prototyping and testing beforehand is part of the job and, it’s inevitable.”
“Success of a project was oftentimes is dependent on the quality of the counterparts on the client-side.”
“The tech industry uniquely shares knowledge for free”
“Take time to decide what you want to do, it’s never too late for a change”




Book Recommendations:





Liquid Modernity – Zygmunt Bauman




Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies – Nick Bostrom



Future Ethics – Cennydd Bowles




Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms – Hannah Fry




Product Management in Practice: A Real-World Guide to the Key Connective Role of the 21st Century – Matt LeMay

Javier is an entrepreneur and lean product innovation expert. After a stay at Wunderlist, he founded Proudsugar and helped high growth businesses increase conversion rates and retention for 7 years. Projects include Pluto.tv (acq. Viacom), Moviepilot (acq. Webedia), Plug.dj, Open.me (acq. Threadless). He now runs LEANcrush, helping startups and corporate ventures to launch, test and discover scalable business models with lean innovation and discovery-driven growth.

Insights:
• Javier’s journey into entrepreneurship and product management
• Transitioning from corporate world to entrepreneurship
• Business marketing
• Challenges faced by start-ups
• Challenges in product management
• Books for product managers to read
Key Discussion Points:
[00:00]: Javier’s introduction
[02:14]: Working at Oracle
[02:36]: Beginning of Javier’s entrepreneurship journey
[04:23]: Working for Wunderlist
[05:05]: Freelancing for other start-ups
[09:48]: The most common mistake start-ups make
[12:59]: Core product-market fit
[19:03]: Identifying a customer profile and the pain points
[22:49]: Customer segmentation
[26:04]: The three horizons
[36:16]: Exactly how does Javier work with companies?
[40:05]: The AB tests
[46:51]: Books to read
[53:07]: Message to 18 years old Javier
Interesting Quotes:


“Do not get discouraged by other people around you that really don’t believe or understand what you’re doing.”
“Give yourself time to make great connections.”
“Try to think about life with a system’s perspective.”
“Entrepreneurship is finding a value inside uncertainty in uncertain conditions.”
“Risk is the highest form of waste that you could have in a system.”
“It’s the market risk that takes most companies down.”
“When you identify value, sometimes if the value is strong enough and your competitive standing isn’t, the only metric that matters is really gaining a competitive advantage.”
“The mind-set around discovery should be not about meeting a product and road map feature with deadlines and dates.”
“If you’re only working on horizon one, then you will never stop working on it.”
“Entrepreneurship is filled with high uncertainty, and discovery is basically the best way to tackle that.”
“Traction for me is the amount of value we’re able to capture right from the value we create, and obviously, a minimum set of that attraction should be defined in a core product-market fit.”
“It’s not just about the product, it’s about making a whole business model work.”




Book Recommendations:





Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers – Alexander Osterwalder



Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works – Ash Maurya



User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product – Peter Economy



Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster – Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz

Jana Schellong is a Senior Product Manager at heycar. As one of its first employees, she has been promoting the product culture at heycar ever since the used car marketplace was launched. Before making the move into Product Management, Jana was leading several startup scouting and corporate innovation projects at Startupbootcamp’s mother company Rainmaking. She previously founded her own startup during her Master studies and initiated the Women in Tech community in Copenhagen.
Being a product manager at heart, it is Jana’s aspiration to create products that solve every day problems and bring real value to users – and to do so in teams where everyone is motivated not only to build something great but also to help each other grow and celebrate successes together.

Insights:
• Jana’s journey to product management
• Working with a start-up as a product manager
• Jana’s words of wisdom to aspiring product managers
• Challenges faced by product managers
Key Discussion Points:
[00:07]: Jana’s introduction
[00:36]: Jana’s product management journey
[02:58]: About heycar
[07:00]: How heycar and Volkswagen work with each other
[14:19]: Major challenges experienced by Jana
[16:32]: Product management from an startup vs big company perspective
[23:35]: The future of the transport sector
[27:00]: What does a person need to do to become a product manager
[36:42]: What does Jana read
Interesting Quotes:


“Try things out, take risks and don’t be too afraid.”
“Product managers are the rather entrepreneurial type of people.”
“Whoever considers this to be a career choice for them, it’s essential to make it clear that you really want this and why.”
“Not everyone wants to own a car, actually less and fewer people want to own a car.”
“I realized things are repeating themselves. So at some point, it’s also about learning by doing, learning by talking to other PMs and just trying it out.”
“Sometimes, you need to prove yourself for them to, to realize the value.”
“The more mature we get, the more independent we become.”
“When they see there’s a big brand behind us, it provides more trust than a completely new and unknown internet brand.”




Book Recommendations:





The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers – Ben Horowitz