The ICONS Show

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Join serial entrepreneur & host Roman Kirsch as he uncovers real founder stories, and growth secrets behind Europe’s fastest-growing serious businesses. No fluff, just actionable insights for entrepreneurs, marketers, and brand builders. The ICONS Show is the podcast diving deep into Europe’s most iconic consumer businesses and entrepreneurs— revealing how they won markets, built legendary brand identities, and made bold strategic moves to rise above the competition. Subscribe for high quality episodes featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders, founders, and innovators shaping the future of European business. Hosted by Roman Kirsch.

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  1. vor 3 Tagen

    The Unicorn Founder Storing Human Embryos for the Apocalypse | Martin Varsavsky

    Martin Varsavsky has never had a job in his life. Not one. He arrived in New York at 26 as an Argentine refugee, convinced a Nobel Prize-winning scientist to build a biotech company with him, and has been founding unicorns ever since — six in total, spanning telecoms, fertility, and now AI medicine. At 66, he has just launched Certuma, the first medical AI company explicitly designed to be FDA-regulated and capable of writing prescriptions. The trigger: an AI correctly diagnosed a condition in his eye, recommended a specific medication, and then said 'I'm not a doctor.' He decided to fix that. In this ICONS episode, Martin covers his entire arc — from the pre-money valuation insight that unlocked entrepreneurship for him, to the meeting with the King of Spain where he said fertility — not nationalism — was the country's greatest threat. He talks about the technology his companies are building to make having children easier, the ethical lines he draws on designer babies, why he believes frozen embryos should be stored as a backup for civilization, and how cycling 14 hours a week at age 66 means he never had to plan for his own decay. Topics Discussed Fleeing Argentina during the military dictatorship, arriving in New York at 26 with nothing Never getting a job offer — and how the same bank that rejected him funded his first company Co-founding biotech with Nobel Prize winner César Milstein: how a random holiday party at Oxford changed everything The Columbia MBA lesson that unlocked entrepreneurship: the magic of pre-money valuations Three consecutive telecom unicorns: Viatel ($1.2B exit), Jaztel (€4B+ exit), and Yardcom His method: solve problems you personally experience — telecoms, fertility, now AI medicine The fertility crisis: every developed country is collapsing toward 1.0 — and the political divide nobody talks about His private meeting with the King of Spain: 'Your heirs will have no inhabitants in this kingdom' Gameto's Fertilo treatment — compressing IVF from 14 days of injections to 3 days Overture: the embryology robot that automates the making of human embryos with ICSI Vitara: the artificial womb saving premature babies, and the FDA battle blocking it Why frozen embryos should never be discarded — as insurance for the species, not for religious reasons Embryo selection: monogenic illness screening yes, designer babies: where he draws the line Germany: the worst country in Europe for IVF regulations, and why Certuma: the AI doctor company born to be regulated — and the story behind the founding moment Starting his most ambitious company at 66, and why age is a bias not a barrier Longevity through sport: 14 hours of cycling a week, blood work every quarter US vs. Europe: healthcare waste, defence spending, and what America gets wrong about learning from Europe

    The Unicorn Founder Storing Human Embryos for the Apocalypse | Martin Varsavsky

  2. 29. Juni

    Oskar Hartmann: The Unicorn Founder Formula, Building 20 Companies, and Why Being Normal Is the Biggest Red Flag

    Oskar Hartmann has co-founded 20+ companies, invested in 150 as an angel, found 15 unicorns from seed stage, broke two world indoor rowing records, wrote a million-copy best-seller, and co-founded Accumulator — a financial infrastructure supporting private-company ownership for founders. In this episode of ICONS, he gives the most unfiltered account of building at scale we’ve ever heard: the €500K liability that nearly destroyed him, the 2013 hospital breakdown, the frameworks of alternating and mini lives that rebuilt hi Topics Discussed From fitness belts to Pro Fitness Shop: how Oskar built his first internet business at 18 in Germany What AI-powered research reveals about the 10,000 people who've built billion-dollar companies — and why 'you have to be abnormal' How to read a founder in the wild: the warehouse CEO, the nightclub closer, the street fight walker Launching KupiVIP on the day of the Lehman Brothers collapse — and the courier company that stole all the revenue The true story behind building 20 parallel companies: a €500K personal liability and a desperate need for $1M in safety 2013: the year everything collapsed — bankruptcies, hospital, nervous system shutdown The alternating framework: seasonal beast mode, recovery weeks, and what decathlon athletes can teach entrepreneurs about balance Mini lives: how Oskar used 18-month focused sprints to break world rowing records and complete a 17-city stand-up tour The Accumulator Fund: share pooling, adverse selection, and why 75% of founder outcomes are outside their control What founders need differently in the AI era: speed, noise-muting, and trillion-dollar ambition

    Oskar Hartmann: The Unicorn Founder Formula, Building 20 Companies, and Why Being Normal Is the Biggest Red Flag

  3. 1. Juni

    Inside SumUp’s €8 Billion Machine with Marc-Alexander Christ

    Marc-Alexander Christ, co-founder at SumUp, pulls back the curtain on how a five-founder startup launched simultaneously in Dublin, Berlin, and Bulgaria in 2012 and grew into one of Europe's most formidable fintech companies — serving 4 million merchants across 36 countries at an approximately €8 billion valuation. From the early mistake of hiring 100 salespeople before achieving product-market fit, to the iron discipline of a 12-month payback period that governs every growth decision, to a planned proprietary stablecoin - Marc delivers a rare, unfiltered account of what it actually takes to build payments infrastructure at global scale for small merchants who were almost entirely underserved before SumUp existed. Topics Discussed SumUp's unusual origin: 5 co-founders, 3 launch locations simultaneously — Dublin, Berlin, and Bulgaria The original merchant super-app vision and why early investors said it was too big to build Why payment is the single universal common denominator across every small merchant business type The €10/month per merchant revenue problem and why human field sales was a structural impossibility Facebook as the winning early acquisition channel — the discovery of a 9-month payback period that worked The 12-month payback period rule and the math behind why incremental CAC breaks responsible growth SumUp's three business lines: Get Paid (card acceptance), Run My Business (POS/software), SumUp Card Account (banking) Self-setup, zero human labor onboarding — marginal cost of adding a new merchant approaches zero Tap-on-phone: 30% of new merchant acquisition, SumUp as European market leader M&A strategy: 10+ acquisitions, lessons from Tiller (CRM fragmentation failure) vs. Payleven (48-hour integration success) The "run all distances" philosophy — competing horizontally across verticals rather than owning one like Toast SumUp Edge: AI co-pilot for small merchants with competitive pricing intelligence and seasonal recommendations Building a proprietary stablecoin to reduce payment settlement from 24-48 hours to instant Why acquiring AI companies makes no sense right now — but deploying AI everywhere internally does Consumer products: SumUp Pay (neobank card and account) and SumUp loyalty aggregator Marketing evolution: performance-first → retail (14,000 stores) → 3,400 integration partners → direct and field sales

    Inside SumUp’s €8 Billion Machine with Marc-Alexander Christ

  4. 13.11.2025

    Razor Group: 300 Acquisitions, $700M Revenue, Zero BS

    In this episode of ICONS, host Roman Kirsch sits down with Tushar Ahluwalia, Co-Founder of Razor Group, to unpack one of the most complex entrepreneurial journeys in e-commerce. Tushar's career spans three continents and three ventures: building India's first major D2C fashion brand (SBL) that reached 100 crores in revenue, creating Razor Group into a $700 million revenue aggregator that acquired 300+ Amazon businesses, and now launching ADA AI to solve supply chain complexity with artificial intelligence. This conversation reveals the operational playbooks, capital strategy, and leadership principles behind building at massive scale—plus the hard-earned lessons from navigating board dynamics, capital stack challenges, and market timing. Topics Discussed: Building and scaling D2C brands in emerging markets with limited infrastructure Navigating complex board relationships and investor dynamics as a first-time founder Timing market opportunities and surviving when assumptions change The FBA aggregator model: capital structure, underwriting assumptions, and what actually happened Operationalizing extreme complexity: integrating 300 businesses, 500 suppliers, and 5,000 SKUs Multi-founder team structures and why trust matters more than pure skill Post-COVID market correction and strategic consolidation through M&A Building AI-powered supply chain automation for enterprise The "human glue" problem in global supply chains and how AI can solve it

    Razor Group: 300 Acquisitions, $700M Revenue, Zero BS

  5. 23.09.2025

    From the Tiny Faroe Islands to a Billion-Dollar Wine Empire: Vivino’s Heini Zachariassen

    In this episode of ICONS, host Roman Kirsch interviews Heini Zachariassen, founder of Vivino and current chairman of the board, who is now building Vota (vota.org), a quality rating system for restaurants. Growing up on the remote Faroe Islands (population 50,000) between Norway and Iceland, Heini developed the entrepreneurial belief that you can walk to parliament and knock on the prime minister's door to create change. This island mindset shaped his approach to building global businesses. Despite knowing nothing about wine, Heini transformed his intimidation at wine store "walls of wine" into the world's largest wine database with over 15 million wines and over 70 million users. Starting as a simple wine scanning app competing against 600 other wine apps, Vivino succeeded by focusing relentlessly on match rate over aesthetics, achieving 70-80% word-of-mouth growth with near-zero marketing spend and reaching a billion-dollar valuation during the 2021 boom. Through surviving the COVID boom-bust cycle and transitioning from community to marketplace, Heini shares hard-won lessons about founder-market fit, data moats, and building sustainable consumer businesses in competitive markets. Today, he remains connected to his Faroe Islands roots, regularly visiting home where they now boast a two-star Michelin restaurant while he builds a whiskey distillery to help diversify the local economy beyond fishing. Topics Discussed: Transforming personal pain points into scalable consumer products Building community-driven marketplaces with authentic user engagement Surviving boom-bust cycles and venture capital market volatility Creating defensible data moats in competitive consumer categories Scaling from product-market fit to marketplace monetization Managing founder transitions and maintaining company culture Leveraging AI and emerging technologies in established product categories

    From the Tiny Faroe Islands to a Billion-Dollar Wine Empire: Vivino’s Heini Zachariassen

  6. 30.07.2025

    Google to IKEA: Digital Transformation in 180 Days

    In this episode of ICONS, host Roman Kirsch interviews Barbara Martin Coppola, one of the most accomplished global marketing and digital transformation executives of our time. Barbara shares her playbook for scaling iconic brands globally, having led transformations at Samsung Korea, Google/YouTube, IKEA, and Decathlon. Her unique perspective comes from successfully navigating vastly different corporate cultures while maintaining brand consistency and driving exponential growth. From turning IKEA from a digital skeptic into a €12 billion e-commerce powerhouse to scaling YouTube's global expansion through localized community building, Barbara reveals the tactical frameworks that work across cultures and industries. Topics Discussed: Building consensus-driven execution across different corporate cultures Scaling global brands while maintaining local relevance and authenticity Leading digital transformations in traditional retail environments Creating viral growth through community-driven content strategies Managing stakeholder alignment during major organizational changes Balancing centralized brand control with local market adaptation Converting offline brand experiences into digital touchpoints

    Google to IKEA: Digital Transformation in 180 Days

  7. 17.07.2025

    From $10K to $500M Deals: Bending Spoons' Acquisition Playbook

    In this episode of ICONS, host Roman Kirsch interviews Luca Ferrari and Matteo Danieli, founders of Bending Spoons. Operating from Milan, Bending Spoons has evolved from a failed startup into Europe's most sophisticated digital acquisition platform, acquiring and improving dozens of businesses worth over $1.2 billion in revenue. From their first $10,000 acquisition to writing $500 million checks, the founders share how they built a unique culture-driven approach to scaling tech businesses through strategic acquisitions, proprietary technology platforms, and an unconventional talent strategy focused entirely on developing young graduates into business leaders. Topics Discussed: Building a serial acquisition platform from startup failure to billion-dollar scale Creating a culture where talent allocation drives competitive advantage Developing proprietary technology platforms that enable massive operational leverage Strategic decision-making around geographic expansion and market positioning Managing risk and capital allocation across dozens of acquired businesses Scaling from consumer mobile apps to enterprise software worth hundreds of millions

    From $10K to $500M Deals: Bending Spoons' Acquisition Playbook

  8. 27.05.2025

    The Inside Story How SoundCloud Hit 100M Users With Zero Marketing Spend

    In this episode of ICONS, host Roman Kirsch interviews Eric Wahlforss, founder of SoundCloud and Dance. From building one of the world's most influential music platforms to revolutionizing urban mobility through e-bike subscriptions, Eric shares how he's created two category-defining brands across completely different industries. His journey reveals the power of product-first thinking, authentic community building, and leveraging network effects to scale from zero to millions of users. Through SoundCloud's transformation from a simple sharing tool to a cultural phenomenon that launched entire music genres, and Dance's approach to turning mobility hardware into a beloved subscription service, Eric demonstrates how great brands emerge from solving real user pain points with obsessive attention to product quality and customer feedback. Topics Discussed: Building viral growth loops through product utility rather than marketing spend Creating authentic communities around creator expression and lifestyle products Scaling network effects from single-player utility to multi-sided platforms Leveraging early adopters and influencers as authentic brand ambassadors Transforming traditional product categories into subscription services Managing complex supply chains and city-by-city expansion challenges Converting user pain points into moments of delight through service excellence

    The Inside Story How SoundCloud Hit 100M Users With Zero Marketing Spend

  9. 13.05.2025

    How Wild Built a £230M Deodorant Brand—and Got Acquired by Unilever

    In this episode of ICONS, Roman Kirsch interviews Charlie Bowes-Lyon, Co-founder and CMO of Wild, the refillable deodorant brand recently acquired by Unilever. Starting with a mission to remove single-use plastic from the bathroom, Wild transformed a £5 million UK natural deodorant market into a global sustainable brand worth hundreds of millions. By rejecting the traditional "eco-aesthetic" and instead creating colorful, lifestyle-focused products, Wild made sustainability approachable for mainstream consumers. Their journey from launch during COVID lockdowns to a major Unilever acquisition demonstrates how purpose-driven products can achieve commercial success when product quality and brand experience take priority over sustainability messaging. Topics Discussed: Creating a sustainable brand that appeals to mainstream consumers beyond eco-conscious audiences Developing a refillable deodorant product that's environmentally-friendly without compromising on quality Executing a multi-channel, multi-geography marketing strategy to reduce dependency risks Using limited edition scents and case designs to drive both acquisition and retention Building a community-driven product development process Navigating retail expansion both domestically and internationally Managing the acquisition process with Unilever while maintaining brand integrity

    How Wild Built a £230M Deodorant Brand—and Got Acquired by Unilever
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Join serial entrepreneur & host Roman Kirsch as he uncovers real founder stories, and growth secrets behind Europe’s fastest-growing serious businesses. No fluff, just actionable insights for entrepreneurs, marketers, and brand builders. The ICONS Show is the podcast diving deep into Europe’s most iconic consumer businesses and entrepreneurs— revealing how they won markets, built legendary brand identities, and made bold strategic moves to rise above the competition. Subscribe for high quality episodes featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders, founders, and innovators shaping the future of European business. Hosted by Roman Kirsch.

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