Startuprad.io | Top Insights into German, Swiss & Austrian Startups and Venture Capital

How to lure corporate talent in a Startup?

I think most entrepreneurs will know that it never goes right ... you see stories in the media of overnight successes ... but most founders will know this is not the case.

William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige

The FounderWe talk to William Laitinen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-laitinen-93282/, https://twitter.com/WilliamLaitinen), co-founder of Exige International an executive search agency (https://www.exigeinternational.com/).

During this interview, we are talking to him not only as a founder, who bootstrapped his company, sleeping on his cousins’ couch, but also who survived the global financial crisis starting in 2008.

A lesson to learn - from early on as possible - is: You are going to be facing problems in your team and your organization.

William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige

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Read-worthy book to familiarize yourself with economic theory, or learn more about how to apply it.Need a bank account? Try our partner Pentahttp://bit.ly/3bdHX3dNeed space to work? Try our partner WeWorkhttps://we.co/2GYbxvSLooking for someone to design a logo, do a transcript or a voice-over? Find all of it and more at our partner Fiverrhttp://bit.ly/2S0f2YFYou can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscription – you get the first month for free

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The Startup William started headhunting in financial services (Mergers and Acquisitions) and strategy consultancies during the early 2000s, with a laptop and a phone. He classically bootstrapped his company, starting crashing on the couch of his cousin and working his way up from there. He called it “the golden age of headhunting,” and like many others he thought it would always go on like this. So, he was in a great spot, just before the bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers which almost froze hiring in Investment Banking and strategy consulting.

I was in the worst place you could be in the financial crisis ... I didn’t do a deal for 18 months.

William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige

William used the global financial crisis to change his focus and now is working primarily with insurance companies in Western Europe, specifically in Switzerland, as well as with insurtechs.

You will face a whole heap of problems and challenges starting a company ... Who you want to hire is really really important in overcoming the problems you will be facing.

William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige

Advice in Hiring

People leave their job for just two reasons: Logic and emotions.

William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige

William talks about hiring for startups, especially about the importance of the first hires. He is recommending looking for four core values in the new hires:

IntegrityHumilityAssertiveResilienceYou could add curiosity

I love hiring people smarter than me! You turbo charge your environment.

William Laitinen, CEO and Founder Exige

William also encourages founders to look for cognitive differences, especially in the first employees. Ideally, you hire someone smarter than you with different thinking, so he/she will be able to attack problems in another way. He is recommending a different gender, ethnicity or different demographics.

Lay down your val...

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Executive Summary

French neobank unicorn Qonto announced their 486 m Euros in Series D funding at 4.4 bn Euro valuation in January 2022, with a global Who-is-Who of investors. 100 m Euros of this record funding will go into their expansion in the German market, competing with Penta, N26, Holvi, or Deutsche Bank’s Fyrst. So we talked to Torben Rabe Qonto’s Country Director for Germany about how they want to compete and reach their goal of 1 million customers by 2025.

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Learn more and find all links and show notes here: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/learn-how-french-fintech-unicorn-qonto-wants-to-conquer-the-german-market-fdab1f1d3aa4

Welcome to This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups in June 2022 by Startuprad.io. My co-host is again Chris from New York. This recording is sponsored by Invest-in-Hessen and Startupraven.com. It is in radio syndication with our very own station www.startup.radio, and our partner station IBGR.Network.

We recorded this new episode on Monday, June 27th, 2022. Keep in mind, that we will have a summer break and be back for you with another news episode on Labor Day, which is September 5th, 2022. In this episode, we will wrap up July, and August.

As always: All news not yet included here will be published in our next news episode in September.

We will also slightly change our publication schedule for this July and August, mostly going to one publication every two weeks. You can keep up to date with our Google Calendar for all publications.

Startups in GSA also shedding headcount, including unicorns that recently raised money. All signs point towards them extending their runway, expecting a recession. Some startups face a challenging fundraising environment, but others like WeFox want to almost double their valuations. Also, Personio and Trade Republic raise additional funds.

In our “stay ahead of the curve” section, we have a lot of articles an entrepreneur should read to prepare for the potential downturn.

German economic minister Habeck is unveiling his new startup strategy, considering even a minimum investment in VC Funds for German insurers and pension funds.

The fast delivery startups seem to hit a wall and even formerly mighty Gorillas now explores strategic options.

Let’s talk startups: https://medium.com/@startuprad_io/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2022-2651b2b64fe

We called our initial offering “Sales as a Service.”

Swen Wegner, CEO and Founder Mainstage Incubator

Mainstage Incubator helps startups to conquer EuropeWhether your startup is from India, Bangladesh, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Korea, South Africa, or even New Zealand, you can start exploring the German and European Market with the digital program of Mainstage Incubator.

The FounderIn this interview, we are talking to Swen Wegner (https://www.linkedin.com/in/swenwegner/), Founder and CEO of Mainstage Incubator (https://www.mainstage-incubator.com/), which is a relatively new incubator headquartered in Frankfurt, in the heart of Europe. Swen is half Indian, half German, and spent parts of his life in both countries. He spent his time in India for example in Kerala (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala).

The interview was remotely recorded during a time of partial lockdown in Germany, due to Covid19.

In the past, he has worked for large multinational corporations, as well as small startups. He refers to a “founder you may know” to Emboled.io (we interviewed the founder Vishal Ray, at this time they were still called Acellere). You find both interviews, dating back to March 2019 below:

Affiliate LinksIs your startup in need of a bank account in Germany? Try our partner affiliate Penta http://bit.ly/3bdHX3d

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The Incubator As a pilot we positioned some Indian startups to German corporates.

Swen Wegner, CEO and Founder Mainstage Incubator

Mainstage Incubator is a distributed company. They have offices in Frankfurt, Germany, and India. They stared out, presenting Indian startups to German corporate customers. Now they help startups from all over the world to present themselves to German customers, to bridge the cultural gap.

Their goals are

To find clients in Germany, and from here in EuropeThe ultimate goal is to bring international startups physically to Germany, so they can expand all over Europe.Bring startup from Germany to IndiaThe Mainstage Incubator already signed partnership agreements with Argentina, Columbia, Japan Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and now the United States.

Apply here for the Mainstage IncubatorYou can apply to the Mainstage Incubator right here https://bit.ly/ApplyMainstage

The Video Interview is set to go live on May 5th, 19.00 Frankfurt Local time (18.00 London, 1 pm New York, 10 am San Francisco)

We are still experimenting with time zones. Let us know which publication time you like best in the feedback link at the bottom end of this post.

https://youtu.be/Djd8wp8gC10

We give the Indian startups hints on how to wrap up a meeting with a German corporate in 30 minutes with a sale.

Swen Wegner, CEO and Founder Mainstage Incubator

Here you find the audio-only podcast of our interview - Subscribe so you won't miss another episodeThe interview will be published across our podcasts during the early morning of May 7th, so you have your episode on your device for your commute or morning coffee the next morning.

You can subscribe to Startuprad.io here:

YouTube http://bit.ly/2LK14oWiTunes http://apple.co/2xsHdaESpotify http://spoti.fi/2DfIt1OThe interview ill be published in our Sub-Podcasts below:

💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.ioiTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpGSpotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3SlSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8Further ListeningInterviews with Swen's former boss, he refers to Vishal during the interview. At the time of posting this interview, the startup has still been called Acellere, now it is known as embold.io

Part 1

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1zRYH6BiIpt11q1VMmZijc

Part 2https://open.spotify.com/epis...

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You are listening to the audio track of a YouTube interview. Find all the interviews at YouTube.com/Startupradio

Find all the links we are talking about, as well as the show notes on our website https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2019/

If you are new to our podcast(s), we are wrapping up the startup news of the German-speaking area in a monthly recording from Frankfurt and New York. Have a look at our website www.startuprad.io or www.startup.radio and you will find all the links to our recording and the articles we are quoting from there. Some of the source articles are in English, some are in German.

EnablerThis recording was made possible by Invest in Hessen. Learn more about our enabler here: https://www.invest-in-hessen.com/home

Affiliated Links

Our Affiliate PartnerCo-WorkingWeWorkMarketing / SEO / Graphics / Sounds and moreFiverrEmail service?G-SuiteLooking for a bank account for your startup? Have a look at our partner PentaPenta Bank AccountAudible subscription: You can listen to Venture Capital books or entertainment on your way to work with an audible subscriptionhttps://amzn.to/2pGzsehLearn more about our Affiliated Marketing here: https://www.startuprad.io/blog/affiliate-marketing-at-startuprad-io/

Housekeeping - Time to brag We set up sub-podcast for special interest and our Fintech Germany made it up to No 72 in the iTunes Business Charts of Qatar. Thank you!

Now there is

💢 Fintech Germany by Startuprad.io iTunes: http://apple.co/2lLRlpG Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2m8HWsb💢 Security Sutra by Startuprad.ioiTunes: https://apple.co/2K0qLlHSpotify: https://spoti.fi/33rrlAD💢 Deeptech GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2oWO3Sl Spotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8💢 Blockchain GermanyiTunes: https://apple.co/2O2jwLxSpotify https://spoti.fi/2qucve8Find all the links we are talking about, as well as the show notes on our website https://www.startuprad.io/blog/this-month-in-german-startups-november-2019/

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