Robert Klanten, founder and CEO of gestalten, has been a key figure in the global creative industry for more than a quarter of a century. gestalten collaborates with the biggest names in the creative world and is known and loved by millions around the globe for its iconic illustrated books. In this wide-ranging episode Robert talks about books, the changing nature of creativity and his secrets to building a globally recognised and respected brand. Tune in to find out more about: 📚 What makes bo...
Jun 25, 2021•29 min•Season 3Ep. 112
For top management working with a coach is the norm. The platform Sharpist makes this possible for others in an organisation, so that the entire corporate culture can change for the better. The Berlin-based startup uses artificial intelligence to match managers with coaches. Founder Hendrik Schriefer came up with the idea while working on his master's thesis at Oxford University. The psychology graduate (and later HR manager at Rocket Internet) investigated how personal contact helps with learni...
Jun 18, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 111
Her company is set to become Germany's first female-led unicorn. Eva-Maria Meijnen is the co-CEO of PlusDental. The Berlin-based start-up has digitalised the entire dental correction process: from making the appointment to planning the treatment, from follow-up checks to billing, each step is carried out on their self-developed digital dentistry platform. The goal is to make tooth straightening available to everyone at a reasonable price. PlusDental already has a presence in eight European count...
Jun 11, 2021•28 min•Season 3Ep. 110
How to Become a Thought Leader: The 9 Steps to Level Up Your Communication Game and Become Unignorable. Traditional paths of corporate communications and public relations do not have the same impact as they did yesterday. Oliver prepared an episode for you packed with the information you need to turn yourself into a leading voice in your industry. Why is becoming a thought leader essential for business leaders today? Who can become a thought leader? And what exactly is a thought leader? These ar...
Jun 04, 2021•24 min•Season 3Ep. 109
You can directly improve your brain function with supplements, and Fabian Foelsch is here to tell us all about it. Fabian is the CEO and founder of BRAINEFFECT, which produces science-based natural supplements focused on improving sleep, well-being, concentration and energy. Combining a top product with educational communications, BRAINEFFECT helps costumers navigate the new world of supplements. Their message focuses on the effect rather than on the ingredients, because most costumers don’t hav...
May 21, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 108
Tech is the fashion industry’s new avant-garde, and Anna Franziska Michel is its ambassador. Anna Franziska Michel is the CEO and Founder of Yoona, an AI-based technology that creates “objective fashion design”, or in other words, design that is proved to sell based on data. “This is a total revolution”, she says. “By creating optimal designs, we reduce time, cost, as well as waste – which allows us to use that time to explore our own creativity”. If designers don’t tend to listen to techies, th...
May 14, 2021•25 min•Season 3Ep. 107
How does Bruce Lee inspire a company with over $500M under management? And where does social action find its place in venture capitalism? Rainer Berak, operating partner and managing director of Project A Ventures, has all the answers. Having worked from FIFA to Adidas, and as proud members of Leaders for Climate Action, Rainer is a fount of ideas. His company, Project A Ventures, is an operational VC company which helps companies to fix any possible blind spot they may have. Rainer talks to us ...
May 07, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 106
“Personal branding is what people think or say about you when you’re not in the room. It makes sense to care for our reputation, in order to get the recognition that we deserve”, says Oliver Aust, leading European expert on personal branding. Today, in this special episode of Speak Like A CEO, Oliver goes in depth about his philosophy around personal branding, with marketing expert Dawn Barson. Oliver tells us about the 4Ms of personal branding, taken straight from his Unignorable System – Minds...
Apr 30, 2021•47 min•Season 3Ep. 105
Athletes need sponsors, and sponsors need successful faces to link their names to. To bridge this mutual need, Andreas Kitzing founded Sponsoo – the current n°1 marketplace for sports sponsorships. Sponsoo connects brands with athletes – from Olympic teams to local clubs, and takes care of over 5000 clubs and athletes. From football to e-sports, they have quickly established themselves as leaders in their domain. Today, Andreas tells us about his journey, from doing his MBA at Cambridge to found...
Apr 23, 2021•29 min•Season 3Ep. 104
How do you get CEOs to open up about their emotions in order to thrive? How do you get young students to become successful entrepreneurs? Can you build a lasting legacy for a business? Gerrit McGowan has all the answers when it comes to helping founders become peak performers. Gerrit McGowan has been an entrepreneur for 20 years and has helped countless CEOs with bringing the best out of themselves. From founding the Kula group to building the WHU Entrepreneurship Centre for young entrepreneurs,...
Apr 16, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 103
No-one wanted to invest in Vly. It was called a “mega flop”. Today, it is one of the fastest growing food start-ups in Europe. Nicolas Hartmann is a dreamer. He quit his job at Bain to found his company, Vly, which sold over 1 million litres of their milk alternative in less than a year in supermarkets all over Germany. The secrets to his success? A milk full of protein, that doesn’t taste plant-based. To bring this vision to life, Nicolas has adopted a scientific approach to nutrition. He belie...
Apr 09, 2021•28 min•Season 3Ep. 102
Will humans give up decision-making to machines by 2036? A utopian, or dystopian vision? Daniel Rebhorn, co-founder and Managing Director of Diconium thinks that it might not be the worst idea. As the complexity of the world increases, technology could help humans make better decisions. Perhaps as a supporting function – unless decision-making ends up being fully handed to technology in a far future. Daniel has been enthusiastic about the digital world since childhood, and programmed his first c...
Apr 01, 2021•31 min•Season 3Ep. 101
How do you steer a billion-euro company through the Covid crisis? When Nina Pütz joined the fintech giant Ratepay as the new CEO, she knew that building human connections was going to be a challenge. Germany was going back into lockdown and she had to position herself at the head of one of Europe’s largest payment providers. As the new leader of over 200 employees in Germany and Europe, this wasn’t an easy task. But Nina knew that effective internal and external communications were essential. Lu...
Mar 26, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 100
How can you quickly grow an engaged community for your business? Founder Maximilian Rofagha might just have the answer. He’s the brains behind finimize, a fintech company which quickly grew from a bare-bones newsletter to a 1 million strong community. In 2016 Max was looking to invest a chunk of cash. But he quickly realised that the world of finance was daunting – particularly for young people. So, he set out to build a platform which helps people invest independently and with confidence. At th...
Mar 19, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 99
For most of us, falling sick means a trip to the doctor. Soon though this may no longer be the case. The world of telemedicine is taking off and it’s now possible to get a diagnosis and prescription without getting up from your desk. Digital medicine is well and truly taking off in 2021. And one of the companies working to accelerate this transition is Berlin-based Flying Health. Their team is fostering an ecosystem for next-gen healthcare, bringing together experts from medicine, science, entre...
Mar 12, 2021•28 min•Season 3Ep. 98
Every year we produce almost 400 million tons of plastic. According to some estimates as much as 50% of this is single-use. And once this plastic ends up in the bin only 10% is recycled. Entrepreneur Boris Jebsen realised that something has to change if we are to avoid irreversible damage to our planet. Having founded one of the largest tech conferences in the world, with a presence in 26 locations worldwide, he’s no stranger to single-use plastics. From packaging to disposable forks, he spent y...
Mar 05, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 96
Your message-market fit is determined by how appealing the messaging sounds to your customer. If you are a founder, CEO or business leader you really want to nail this. With the right messaging, everything is made easier. It will attract the right people to your product, who want to be part of your journey and your brand. To be successful in business you need both product-market fit and message-market fit. If your product is not selling, it could be down to two things: #1 Your product or service...
Mar 04, 2021•7 min•Season 3Ep. 96
We are all familiar with the terms IQ and EQ. CQ on the other hand may be a new concept. It refers to cultural intelligence - in other words, the ability to cross bridges and work effectively in culturally diverse situations. In particular for leaders working in international teams, cultural awareness and understanding is a key factor for success. Someone who knows this all too well is polyglot and former investment banker Michael Shangkuan. As the CEO of language learning platform Lingoda, he’s...
Feb 26, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 95
Every year more than 100 billion garments are produced globally. But more than 85% of all material used for clothing ends up in landfills or incinerators. And it’s no secret that producing waste at this rate is damaging the planet beyond repair. So what’s the solution to this pressing issue? Among the ventures tackling this question is Berlin-based startup Kleiderly, launched by chemical engineer turned entrepreneur, Alina Bassi. She’s a Google for Startups Female Founder alumni and in 2020 join...
Feb 19, 2021•25 min•Season 3Ep. 94
In early 2020 Urban Sports Club was on track to reach Unicorn status. They were making new hires every week, smashing sales targets, and gaining great media coverage. Then COVID struck. Suddenly everything the team had worked for was on the line. The Berlin-based company offers Europe’s largest flat-rate sports membership; but with gyms and studios shuttered across the continent and people forced to stay home, their business model simply wasn’t viable. USC needed a rapid change of direction. And...
Feb 12, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 93
Women make up 50% of the global population. Yet they don’t own half the wealth. Of course, there’s no such thing as ‘male money’ and ‘female money’. So why is this inequality present? It’s this question that fintech entrepreneur Andrea Fernandez is concerned with. She’s the founder of Alice, an app at the ‘intersection of consumer fintech and femtech’. In this episode of Speak Like a CEO, Oliver and Lena talk to Andrea about changing women’s lives by inspiring financial confidence and awareness....
Feb 05, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 92
Without a strong personal brand you simply won’t stand out online. Quality content is what will get you noticed and elevate you above the noise. From CEOs to students, a personal brand is the key to gaining visibility and in turn attracting the opportunities you deserve. There’s just one problem. To build your brand you need to invest time and effort. So, what’s the best way to tackle this challenge efficiently and get the best results? In this special episode recorded for the International Asso...
Feb 04, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 91
Passion is not enough to do well in business. To be truly successful, you have to be obsessed with what you’re doing. It’s this mentality which helped co-founder and CEO of Nutrafol, Giorgos Tsetis, grow his hair-wellness company into a worldwide success. With a difficult marketplace to contend with, he realised early on that building brand credibility was essential for survival. Tackling customer scepticism was the key to catapulting the brand to success. In this episode of Speak Like a CEO, Gi...
Jan 29, 2021•32 min•Season 3Ep. 90
Personal branding for CEOs: fad or must-have? This is a question which CEOs and their communications teams are increasingly looking to address. Perception now matters more than performance for CEOs, according to a 2014 study by management consultancy Roland Berger. So the debate is no longer whether CEOs need to invest in their reputation, but what the best way is to achieve this moving forwards. Why does personal branding work for CEOs? Personal branding for CEOs is no longer a vanity project. ...
Jan 28, 2021•8 min•Season 3Ep. 89
Only 2% of us reach our full potential at work and in our private lives. That’s according to Eric Partaker, CEO of the Year winner who helped to build Skype and co-founded the award-winning Mexican restaurant chain Chilango. Suffering from a heart attack at 30,000 feet, Eric learnt the hard way how to balance work, family and health while pursuing his dreams and building successful businesses. On this week’s episode, Eric, who was a guest judge on The Apprentice and has appeared on numerous othe...
Jan 08, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 88
Today Oliver and Lena chat with Aimie-Sarah Carstensen, Founder of Art-Night, that provides offline events bringing people together to paint, craft or bake. This years shift to digital online connection has been a stretch. Aimie talks about the clear and caring communication needed, as well as how she spread the word going from zero to 30.000 participants in 5 countries. Get insights into unusual PR tactics, like Dating shows and the different drinking cultures across Europe.
Dec 17, 2020•30 min•Season 3Ep. 6
What is the one thing that every CEO should be doing? According to Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, every CEO should aim to maximise the positive impact they have on the world. Ecosia is the popular search engine that plants trees. The company makes money but doesn’t maximise profit to the detriment of the environment, the climate or the planet. Tune in for an insightful episode about how to get the word out about your business, why Christian doesn’t fill the role of a typical CEO and what purpos...
Dec 11, 2020•28 min•Season 3Ep. 5
From Silicon Valley darling to Silicon Allee investor, Neeraj Berry knows a thing about business. He previously cofounded Sprig, one of the first food delivery startups to exist. However, despite the company’s early success, raising $60 million dollars and having over 1200 employees, Neeraj tells Oliver and Lena why he made the difficult decision to let go of the business. Now he’s based in Berlin, continuing his work as an entrepreneur and investor.
Dec 04, 2020•27 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Is the competition for attention harder these days, or is easier to have a voice and make yourself heard? Oliver Aust and Lena Carlson speak to Trinh Le-Fiedler in this episode to find out. From BCG consultant to AI startup founder, Trinh’s career has taken her from New York to Hong Kong to London to Berlin. She is currently the CEO of Nomitiri, a deep-learning visual perception startup. Tune in to hear how Trinh connects with her audience in the age of short attention spans. P.S Oliver's book i...
Nov 27, 2020•27 min
You've probably heard of WeTransfer, but if not you're in for a treat with this week's episode when we speak to Dutch serial entrepreneur and now angel investor - Nalden. Nalden certainly knows a thing or two about building a company from the ground up. A digital native, he began building websites at 13, became a blogger at 16, and six months later was turning a profit. He's perhaps best known for confounding WeTransfer, the easy way to send large files via the internet. These days, he is focusi...
Nov 19, 2020•25 min•Season 3Ep. 2
