The Counder Podcast

Counder • The Network for Collective Understanding
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  • Business
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Collective Understanding, One Perspective at a Time. Everybody wants to understand what is going on in the world. We sit down with leading voices from across geographies, industries, and generations to unpack their perspectives — and bring their insights to everyone.

  1. Sep 22

    School Dropout at 16, Two Nine-Figure Exits, and Revenge for a Bankrupt Bakery | Josef Brunner

    He was a teenager when his family lost their home and the bakery it sat above. He calls what came next revenge. Josef Brunner joins Tobi to trace that path: dropping out of school as a teenager to teach himself cybersecurity, building jouleX into a $100M exit to Cisco, then relayr into a $300M sale to Munich Re, and discovering along the way that neither number changed how he felt. He shares why he now calls his childhood the source of the resilience that keeps him working, why he found retirement unbearable, and how that same restlessness led him to NutriUnited: buying up family-owned German food producers as a deliberate alternative to private equity, and to the kind of market consolidation that once cost his own family their business. A candid conversation about money, meaning, and why the hardest chapter of Josef's life became the engine for everything he built after it. Guest: Josef Brunner, Founder & CEO, NutriUnited Connect with Josef Brunner • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn • Instagram Learn more about Counder

    School Dropout at 16, Two Nine-Figure Exits, and Revenge for a Bankrupt Bakery | Josef Brunner

  2. Sep 15

    He Ran One of London's Most Storied Design Studios. Then He Went Home to Build a School Instead I Justin van Breda

    He was 25 when a legendary British designer made him creative director. Twenty-five years later, he closed that world down to open a free school in Cape Town. Justin Van Breda joins Tobi to trace the arc from arriving in London on a two-year working holiday visa to running the creative studio of Nicky Haslam, one of Britain's most storied interior designers, and opening his own shop on Pimlico Road, London's design and antiques street, at 26 with no money and a business plan he taught himself from a book. He explains how that career, and a furniture business selling to designers across the UK and US, eventually led him back to Cape Town to found Craft School South Africa: a free, year-long training programme for young people that opened in February with 47 students, most already through matric, but reading at a grade 3 level. Within six months of remedial literacy work, that average reading age rose to grade 10. A candid conversation about the moment his partner told him "you want to go home," what it cost him to leave a life in London behind, and why he believes design is a form of impact, not just taste. Guest: Justin Van Breda, Founder & Creative Director, Justin Van Breda London; Founder, Craft School South Africa Connect with Justin Van Breda • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn • Instagram Learn more about Counder

    He Ran One of London's Most Storied Design Studios. Then He Went Home to Build a School Instead I Justin van Breda

  3. Sep 8

    Pioneering African Venture Capital From the Ground Up | Brian Waswani Odhiambo

    When he joined, his fund's first $80 million was nearly half of all the venture capital that existed on the entire African continent. Eleven years later, Novastar manages close to $350 million and Brian Waswani Odhiambo has spent his career building the asset class from the ground up. Brian Waswani Odhiambo joins Tobi to trace Novastar Ventures' journey from a handful of people with almost no ecosystem around them to one of Africa's largest venture funds — backing Moniepoint's rise from 3,000 customers to roughly 20 million, and building an electric-mobility portfolio spanning battery-swap networks, ride-hailing fleets, and East Africa's largest electric bus operator. They talk through Novastar's thesis of investing where commercial return and social impact intersect, why he thinks the American venture model built for five-year exits doesn't fit a continent where funds typically take 16 to 20 years to mature, and the $150 million fund he just closed to prove it can still work. Brian's conviction: the biggest misconception about venture investing in Africa isn't that the opportunity is small — it's that people assume there's no money to be made at all, when the data proving otherwise simply hasn't caught up yet. Guest: Brian Waswani Odhiambo, Partner, Novastar Ventures Connect with Brian Waswani Odhiambo • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn • Instagram Learn more about Counder

    Pioneering African Venture Capital From the Ground Up | Brian Waswani Odhiambo

  4. Sep 1

    From Advising Governments on Climate to Investing in the Companies Fixing It I Lena Thiede

    She spent years shaping climate policy from inside government. Today she invests in the founders trying to fix what policy alone couldn't. Lena Thiede joins Tobi to trace her path from climate research and government work on sustainable finance to co-founding Planet A Ventures, an early-stage European fund built around an in-house science team that can veto any investment. They talk about how many of the planetary boundaries scientists track have already been breached, why a slowing ocean current is one of the tipping points that worries climate scientists most, and how Planet A publishes every impact assessment behind its investments so the numbers can be checked by anyone. A candid conversation about leaving an influential government career for the uncertainty of venture capital, why biodiversity gets left out of most climate conversations, and what makes her optimistic about the frontier technologies coming through her portfolio. Guest: Lena Thiede, Co-Founder & GP, Planet A Ventures Connect with Lena Thiede • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn • Instagram Learn more about Counder

    From Advising Governments on Climate to Investing in the Companies Fixing It I Lena Thiede

  5. Aug 27

    €800M in Revenue, a $4.5B Valuation — the Round He Now Calls a Blessing in Disguise | Julian Teicke

    He scaled WeFox to €800 million in revenue and the fastest unicorn valuation in insurtech history. Then, as a $6.5 billion term sheet fell through, he raised again anyway at $4.5 billion — a decision he now calls a blessing in disguise, one that changed how he thinks about building companies entirely. Julian Teicke joins Tobi to trace the WeFox story from founding to the fastest insurtech ever to reach a billion-dollar valuation — an €800 million revenue run, a 1,500-person team across Europe, and valuations that peaked near $6.5 billion — through the 2022 down round at $4.5 billion that came bundled with liquidation preferences and set investors against each other. Julian reflects on that raise today, and how the experience reshaped how he builds: it's now the foundation of The Delta, the 15,000-square-meter campus in Berlin he's built to co-found and support up to 1,700 early-stage founders a year. A candid conversation about the discomfort every founder has to sit with to grow, why Julian trains entrepreneurs like athletes, and his campaign to make Berlin — via the BAD1 conference he pulled together in 60 days — the center of a distinctly European tech narrative. Guest: Julian Teicke, Founder, The Delta (Co-Founder & Former CEO, WeFox) Connect with Julian Teicke • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn • Instagram Learn more about Counder

    €800M in Revenue, a $4.5B Valuation — the Round He Now Calls a Blessing in Disguise | Julian Teicke

  6. Aug 25

    From Building Billion-Dollar Companies to Backing South Africa's Youngest Founders I Henrik Persson Ekdahl

    He's built billion-dollar companies across Europe. Now he's living on a farm outside Cape Town — and funding the continent's early-stage founders. Henrik Persson Ekdahl joins Tobi to walk through that arc: a sports-betting company he built with a Norwegian co-founder and sold in 2010 for close to €100 million — the biggest deal he'd done at the time — followed by Catena Media, which he took public in 2016 and which became the world's first billion-dollar iGaming affiliate company the year after. He's also backed other ventures that have gone on to reach unicorn status, including an early bet on a Spanish challenger to Klarna. In 2022 he relocated his family to South Africa, and this year launched what he believes is the country's first fund built purely to write the hardest cheque of all: the first one, for founders nobody else will bet on yet. A candid conversation about the failed startup that cost him everything at 20, why financial success was never the point of moving to South Africa, and what it takes to back a founder before anyone else will. Guest: Henrik Persson Ekdahl, Serial Entrepreneur & Investor, Founder of Oakvale Invest Connect with Henrik Persson Ekdahl • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn • Instagram Learn more about Counder

    From Building Billion-Dollar Companies to Backing South Africa's Youngest Founders I Henrik Persson Ekdahl

  7. Aug 20

    Africa's Most Active Seed Fund and the Exit Problem Nobody Talks About | Margaret O'Connor

    She chairs the most active seed investor on the African continent. Her discipline: never deploy a dollar until you can already see the exit. Margaret O'Connor joins Tobi to trace the route from a desk at the Korean Ministry of Finance and MasterCard's Asia-Pacific build-out to chairing Launch Africa Ventures, a fund launched over Zoom in July 2020 that raised $36.3 million against a $15 million target and now holds more than 180 investments across 25 African markets and 15 tech verticals, backed by 400 LPs from 45 countries. She explains why Launch Africa became the first fund in Africa to hire a head of exits, how secondaries and trade sales rather than IPOs create liquidity on the continent, and where capital is moving next: climate tech, agri tech, data centres and Francophone West Africa. Her conviction is that Africa needs to come out of the impact bucket. Fund One sits at 1.51x with 7% DPI in year six of a 2020 vintage, on par with top-quintile US funds, and Margaret makes the case that the continent offers profit and purpose rather than a trade-off between them. Guest: Margaret O'Connor, Chairperson, Launch Africa Ventures Connect with Margaret O'Connor • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn: • Instagram: Learn more about Counder

    Africa's Most Active Seed Fund and the Exit Problem Nobody Talks About | Margaret O'Connor

  8. Aug 18

    Building an Airline in the Middle of COVID and Why It Was the Perfect Time | Gidon Novick

    Nobody starts an airline in the middle of a pandemic. That, he says, is exactly why it worked: aircraft were cheap, good people were suddenly available, and the competition was struggling. Gidon Novick joins Tobi to explain how LIFT got off the ground, and why an industry that has collectively lost money since the Wright brothers first flew still pulls him back. He traces it to a childhood spent sitting in cockpits at the airport where his father worked, through kulula.com, to the four years at LIFT where the hardest days are the ones he now remembers most fondly, including the week the bank had not cleared the payment gateway while flights were already on sale. He and Tobi get into what actually makes airlines so hard: brutal fixed costs, volatile fuel, and the pricing discipline the industry keeps giving away. Most of his energy now goes to SA Harvest, a food rescue operation moving 30 million meals a year in a country where roughly a third of the food produced is thrown out while around 10 million people do not have enough to eat. Asked for the target, Gidon does not offer a number he is confident of hitting. He names the problem instead: billions of meals, in South Africa alone. A candid conversation about restlessness, why business is really just problem solving, and what a genuinely optimistic leader does to the people around them. Guest: Gidon Novick, Entrepreneur & Investor, Co-Founder of LIFT Airline Connect with Gidon Novick • LinkedIn Connect with Tobi • LinkedIn • Email: tobias@counder.com Follow Counder on: • LinkedIn • Instagram Learn more about Counder

    Building an Airline in the Middle of COVID and Why It Was the Perfect Time | Gidon Novick
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About

Collective Understanding, One Perspective at a Time. Everybody wants to understand what is going on in the world. We sit down with leading voices from across geographies, industries, and generations to unpack their perspectives — and bring their insights to everyone.

Information

  • Creator
    Counder • The Network for Collective Understanding
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Counder • The Network for Collective Understanding
  • Show Website
    The Counder Podcast

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