Summer-Wrap-Up in 5 Minutes
We are back in normal rotation and wanted to give you a wrap-up of what we have published since our last newsletter in June.
Let us give you a few updates about us before we start talking about our content:
We are also happy to announce that we have been recommended by EU-Startups as one of the "10 Podcasts Entrepreneurs Should Listen To:" Article Link
Our internet radio station Startup.Radio has surpassed more than 100.00 listeners in 30 days. Thank you!
We cracked Chartable's Global Podcast Charts again at new heights. We scored in the global Top 300 Business Podcasts (Reach), Top 60 Science (Reach), and Top 75 Technology. Plus our news-only podcast socred as #1275 top news podcast globally (out of more than 4,2 million active RSS feeds).
We have now scored in Apple's Podcast charts in at least 75 countries, with the addition of Guatemala, Uganda, and Jordan. Thank you!
If you are interested in working with us, you can find the media data here.
To get to the episode, just click on the graphic.
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — September 2023
Our Highlights:
Binance has not — yet — gotten permission to operate in Germany from BaFin, Nextwind raises 750 m US$, Bitpanda surpasses 1 M customers in Germany and Germany sets a new record in new founders. We also shared that SAP wants to invest in Aleph Alpha, they confirmed this and two more.
Germany’s law for legalizing cannabis falls short of the expectations of cannabis entrepreneurs. Europe dominates climate fintech funding and the overall fintech funding shows a sign of life. Bafin also stopped mini VC investments — trashing the business model of some fintechs — AND we found newly closed VC funds in excess of 2.8 bn US$ that are open to European founders.
Let’s talk startups:
This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — Summer 2023 (July/ August)
Our Highlights:
Binance has not — yet — gotten permission to operate in Germany from BaFin, Nextwind raises 750 m US$, Bitpanda surpasses 1 M customers in Germany and Germany sets a new record in new founders. We also shared that SAP wants to invest in Aleph Alpha, they confirmed this and two more.
Germany’s law for legalizing cannabis falls short of the expectations of cannabis entrepreneurs. Europe dominates climate fintech funding and the overall fintech funding shows a sign of life. Bafin also stops mini VC investments — trashing the business model of some fintechs — AND we found newly closed VC funds in excess of 2.8 bn US$ that are open to European founders.
Let’s talk startups:
From Jimdo Founder to Green Tech VC — Winner of German Startup Awards 2023: Investor of the Year
In episode 395 of Startuprad.io, host Jörn “Joe” Menninger interviews Fridtjof Detzner, Winner of the German Startup Awards 2023: Investor of the Year. Fridtjof discusses his journey from founding Jimdo, a website builder, to becoming a green tech venture capitalist. He shares his passion for simplifying complex problems and making technology accessible. Fridtjof also talks about his experience filming a documentary series and how it led him to focus on sustainability issues. The episode explores Fridtjof’s entrepreneurial journey and his transition to investing in green tech startups.
From London to Lisbon: Uncovering Europe’s Prominent Startup Scenes
Thank you Thomas Kösters and DEEP Ecosystems for the cooperation, which entered the 2nd year!
Every year, we’re doing a survey, with thousands of entrepreneurs across Europe, to really have a robust sample that represents all of different regions and all of the different types of entrepreneurs…” — Thomas Kösters MD at DEEP Ecosystems
This is the one-year anniversary episode of our cooperation with DEEP Ecosystems in our Sub-Podcast European Startup Pulse. In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn “Joe” Menninger and guest Thomas Kösters discuss recent developments in the European startup scene. They explore the growing preference of founders to stay in Europe and the prominence of certain European cities, such as Malaga and Lisbon, in attracting startups. They delve into the challenges of building a startup hub brand, the underrepresentation of female founders, and the importance of founder mobility in the European ecosystem. The episode also analyzes the impact of startups on regional development and debates whether startups can solve societal challenges like climate change.
“European startups are hypermobile. They are really, really making use of that integrated market and trying to plug into the resources available in various countries.” — Thomas Kösters MD at DEEP Ecosystems
Balancing Freedom and Responsibility: The Story Behind FINN’s Vision for Transforming Car Ownership
In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Jörn “Joe” Menninger interviews Maximilian Wühr, the CEO of FINN Auto. Maximilian shares his motivation for starting Finn, which stemmed from a frustrating car-buying experience in the San Francisco/Bay Area. He discusses the fundraising process and emphasizes the importance of being persistent and solving a problem. Maximilian also highlights the differences between the US and German markets, particularly in terms of product-market fit and logistics. He shares his journey from finance to startups and discusses the advisory board experience. Maximilian concludes by sharing his vision for Finn’s future, including the possibility of going public.
Max’ Tips for Successful Fundraising
“Fundraising in a lot of ways is like sales. So you ultimately want something from somebody and to get there, you need to be very convincing, you need to be a little bit charming, you need to have very good arguments, you need to be able to ultimately just make your case and convince the other person that they are doing something great by giving you money.”
— Maximilian Wühr — CEO FINN Auto
Strategic Pivoting: Insider Tips for Making Business Decisions and Thriving in The Startup World
In this episode of Startuprad.io, host Joe Menninger interviews Max Koziolek, co-founder of Spectrm. They discuss the importance of making strategic decisions and pivoting in business, sharing insights from Spectrm’s journey. They explore the challenges of seed-stage investments, the benefits of messaging apps for brands, and the impact of AI technology in their industry. Max shares his experiences in politics and media, highlighting the need for quality content distribution. The episode also delves into Spectrm’s successful pivot to targeting brands and their impressive growth from pre-seed to series B, acquiring as pivoted startup clients like Zalando, UberEats, Premier Leauge, HelloFresh, Deichman, Breitling or Ford.
Pivoting and Starting from Scratch: “But if you pivot after the pivot, 2 months later, then you very quickly look clueless about what are you doing? And so I think you have to take time, to, to do that. And, basically, I think the best way to think about this is have to forget almost every, almost everything you knew about the business because you have to start from scratch more or less. That’s how we should approach it.” — Max Koziolek — Co-Founder Spectrm
Navigating the Insurtech Landscape: Thinksurance’s Rise in the Digital Insurance Era
In this episode of Startuprad.io, our guest is Florian Brokamp, CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance. Brokamp discusses the positive economic state of the company, the importance of smart investors analyzing macroeconomic trends, and the growing industries of AI and insurtech. He emphasizes the stability of the insurance industry and the need for digitalization. He shares insights on their fundraising journey and the different parts of their company’s offerings. Florian also highlights the importance of proper risk valuation, data transparency, and providing value to distributors, customers, and insurers. Overall, Thinksurance’s vision is to connect insurance carriers, distributors, and customers through its technology platform.
Insurtech Investing: “And so the trend to just update old legacy systems, et cetera, is something that is still something that will drive growth in the next 10, 20, 30 years.” — Florian Brokamp — CEO and Co-Founder of Thinksurance
Exploring Purpose Bound Money: Innovative Use Cases for Central Bank Digital Currencies in Fintech
In this episode, our guest Kimmo discusses the concept and potential of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in part two of our series. We highlight the need for government control of the monetary system and the risks posed by private currencies. We explore various use cases and mechanisms that can encourage the adoption and success of CBDCs, including simplifying cross-border transactions and optimizing liquidity. We also dive into the idea of purpose-bound money and the importance of simplicity and convenience in utilizing CBDCs. As always we emphasize the role of entrepreneurs in developing new use cases and analyzing consumer behavior to drive CBDC adoption. Analytical approaches and network analysis play a crucial role in this process.
The Potential of Programmable Money: “I think these new use cases and thinking about new use cases of programmable money, for example, is definitely something that I think there’ll be loads of different opportunities for companies to start to provide new ideas, new services to people.” — Kimmo Soramäki
Generative AI for Service Organizations: Revolutionizing Processes with Innovative Technology
In this episode, our guest is Fabian Peltzl, co-founder of KNOWRON. He is here to discuss the importance of augmenting blue-collar workers in the software industry, which is primarily focused on white-collar workers. KNOWRON aims to bridge this gap by providing generative AI technology to assist service organizations and technicians. They emphasize the underdeveloped software space for blue-collar workers and highlight the potential market size including large industries like logistics, machine building, engineering, and services. The team shares their experiences working with European languages and their plans for expansion. They also discuss the transformative power of NLP advancements their mission to revolutionize enterprise search and customer support and what the co-founders learned during their studies at Stanford and MIT.
The Importance of Augmenting Blue-Collar Workers: “And really those blue-collar workers, right? Because white collar, when it comes to, I don’t know, HR management, procurement, stuff like that, I think there’s a lot of yeah, that’s normally the first thing people think about kind of from a well-educated background. Exactly. And this is just a huge gap that we saw. And if you think about it like Worldwide, I think 80% of the whole population qualifies as blue-collar. And that’s definitely something that we tend to forget. However, the software space, if you compare to the white color software space, is super underdeveloped.” — Fabian Pelzl — Co-Founder KNOWRON