Bits & Pretzels Podcast

In this episode Bits & Pretzels Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling talks to Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of London headquartered borderless cash company Transferwise, who’s a tech pioneer, an investor and business angel, just days after his company announced a 43 percent valuation jump to a valuation of 5 billion dollars after a secondary share sale. In 2003, Taavet was the first employee at Voice-over-IP platform Skype, before he decided launching Transferwise in 2011 to provide cheap cross-border transfers. In this podcast Taavet explains why he left Skype to become a founder himself and what rules have guided him since – while building Transferwise from a niche into a global platform – now serving 8 million customers, processing around 4 billion in cross-border payments each month across 54 currencies and why today you can build a global player from anywhere in the world. More to explore: Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Host: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Taavet Hinrikus (@taavet), co-founder & chairman of TransferWise (@TransferWise), previously built Skype (@Skype) as 1st employee Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review & tell your friends about us! You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

In this week’s episode Britta Weddeling, Bits & Pretzels’ editor in chief, talks to Hendrik Brandis, co-founder and partner at Earlybird, a venture capital firm focused on European technology companies. Hendrik has been investing in startups for 23 years and recently made his largest exit ever when Turkish game developer Peak Games sold to Zynga for 1.8 billion dollar. The experienced investor explains why the next big wave of startup innovation is happening in the deep tech space, meaning companies funded based on a scientific breakthrough & likely to change the world, such as AI, space, biotech or quantum computing. The aerospace engineer turned VC also talks about why space is becoming the next mega platform for services & new technologies, e.g. with satellites providing 5G internet connection or Voice-over-IP broadband – and why Munich is the place to be for entrepreneurs right now. More to explore: Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Host: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Hendrik Brandis, co-founder and Partner Earlybird Venture Capital (@EarlybirdVC) Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review & tell your friends about us! You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

In this week’s episode, Britta Weddeling, Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels, talks with Aaron Levie, the CEO and co-founder of cloud computer pioneer Box and one of the most successful and outspoken innovators in the enterprise software business who revolutionized the collaborative office environment. Levie is a true cloud pioneer: He has started his company 15 years ago at the age of 19 and famously cold-pitched his idea to Marc Cuban – while still an undergrad in the dorm room – and has matured from those early days into a public company executive, who has guided his employees, customers and investors through various ups and downs – from taking his company to a 1.6 billion dollars IPO to fighting for market share with big incumbents such as Microsoft & Google. This show is all about what Levie has learned on the way – from pivoting his product when the market demands it – to why startup is a state of mind (even though Box is not necessarily a startup any more) to how to stay sane as a founder In difficult situations such as today. More to explore: Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Aaron Levie (@levie), co-founder and CEO Box (@Box) Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review & tell your friends about us! You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

Remember what it feels like to be focused and productive? It has been a while? Well, you're not alone! Many of us feel exhausted and overwhelmed due to the economic situation caused by Covid-19 and the many uncertainties ahead in business and in private life. Today's podcast guest is here to help: Listen to Arianna Huffington, the co-founder of the Huffington Post and founder of behavior change company Thrive Global in conversation with Bits & Pretzels' Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling. In this podcast Arianna shares what has helped her – a serial entrepreneur, bestselling author and fearless business person while building her amazing career – from starting the news aggregator Huffington Post that won her the Pulitzer Prize, fast forward to today – where she’s leading Thrive Global focussing on helping entrepreneurs to deal with workplace stress. The company leader shares her secrets of how we can all manage pressure and anxiety better with what she calls „micro steps“ — small adjustments to our lives to help us to sleep & relax better to end up being more focussed when we are all entering the new normal. More to explore: Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff), Founder of Huffington Post (@HuffPost), Co-Founder & CEO Thrive Global (@thrive) Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold & Sophie Dechansreiter.

Open your ears and listen to the future with us! This episode of the Bits & Pretzels podcast is about what entrepreneurs can expect as we look towards a post-pandemic world and how founders can prepare. Britta Weddeling, our Editor-in-chief, is talking to Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist and professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and founder of the Future Today Institute where she advises the world’s leading Fortune 100 companies. Her annual Tech Trends Report fills the halls of major tech events such as South by Southwest in Austin. At the moment she is in New York, where she collects data, trends and new technologies that will shape the future. More to explore: Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Amy Webb (@amywebb) Quantitative Futurist. Trends+strategy FTI (@FTI), Author of "The Big Nine" and "Signals Are Talking", Prof NYUStern (@NYUStern) Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Today Bits & Pretzels Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling talks to Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski who has created a revolution in online shopping as well as Europe's most valuable fintech with 85 million customers, 205 000 online merchants in 17 countries and 2700 employees. And now the Klarna co-founder is out to beat Amazon with a new shopping tool that he announces exclusively in our podcast and that aims to offer brands and their customers the same level of convenience and benefits that exist on a platform like Amazon. In our conversation Sebastian talks about why he's not afraid of the big technology giants as well as about how Klarna rose from being a local under-dog to an international scale-up threatening traditional banks with its 'buy now, pay later' promise. And – like always – our guest shares what other entrepreneurs can learn from his way up to the top of the fintech world and his thoughts about his responsibilities as a leader in tech. More to explore: Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Sebastian Siemiatkowski (@klarnaseb), co-founder & CEO Klarna (@Klarna) Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Today Britta Weddeling, Editor-in-chief of Bits & Pretzels, talks with Christoph Hornung, co-founder of legendary German startup accelerator Rocket Internet, who recently joint London-based VC firm Draper Esprit as an investment director. The company is one of the leading VCs in Europe with investments in N26, Revolut & Transferwise among others & a focus on series B, C and later stage companies. In the conversation Christoph shares his view on why although the coronavirus pandemic already has lead to a huge economic slowdown, it is also providing a breeding ground to innovation and disruptive tech – and who could be among the "Covid-19 unicorns" moving forward. Christoph has sat on both sides of the startup table before. Eight years ago, when he co-founded Rocket Internet in Berlin, he helped kick-starting the startup ecosystem in Germany. From his own experience as investor and entrepreneur he shares what founders can do every step of the way – from the early days to the later stage to right before the exit to improve their performance – and why the time for actions is now. More to explore: Stay updated on news & insights from us about founders, startups in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Christoph Hornung (@MrChrisHornung), investment director at Draper Esprit (@DraperEsprit) Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Welcome to the first interstellar episode of the Bits & Pretzels podcast! After with SpaceX for the first time in history a private company successfully sent two US astronauts to the International Space Station, the stars of space-gazing entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and many more have risen: among them Will Marshall, the co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-Berlin based startup Planet, which has built the largest fleet of satellites the world has ever seen. Each of the minisats covers an image of more than 2 million square kilometers per day & has just the seize of a wine bottle (Planet calls them "doves"). So that's more than the area of Germany. Will works closely with Elon Musk, and his satellite images serve governments, researchers and farmers. In conversation with Bits & Pretzels' Editor-in-Chief Britta Weddeling he shares how he has built his space company and about his vision to index the world like Google has indexed the internet to make it searchable. More to explore: Get the latest as well as exclusive news on founders, startups & technologies in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland as well as hands-on advice on how to deal with the Covid-19 crisis as a startup at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Will Marshall (@Will4Planet), co-founder & CEO of Planet Labs (@planetlabs) Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

In conversation with Bits & Pretzels' Britta Weddeling London-based top VC Brent Hoberman, one of the most influential entrepreneurs in European tech, shares his secrets of how founders can grow their startup during the current COVID-19 crisis, where to raise funds now as an early stage startup & what kind of companies & "founder DNA" he's looking for nowadays as an investor. Hoberman, who cofounded travel booking website Lastminute.com in 1998 and sold it seven years later for over $1 billion, also explained how he went from running the first European unicorn in the UK to becoming a mentor to the next generation of founders, as the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Forum, an invite-only networking conference for top global disruptors, with Founders Factory, a global tech startup accelerator & UK-based Firstminute Capital, a unicorn-founder-backed seed fund with a 100 million global reach. More to explore: Get the latest as well as exclusive news on founders, startups & technologies in Bavaria, Austria & Switzerland as well as hands-on advice on how to deal with the Covid-19 crisis as a startup at www.bitsandpretzels.com. Signup for our media newsletter to get the next episode of this podcast delivered right to your inbox: www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Brent Hoberman, co-founder Foundersfactory (@foundersfactory), Founders Forum (@Founders_Forum), LastMinute.com (@lastminute_com), First Minute Cap (@firstminutecap) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

"We’re going to have to redesign everything” – says Amol Sarva, the Knotel workspace CEO and serial entrepreneur from New York in conversation with Bit & Pretzels' Britta Weddeling. Last year Amol raised $400 million for his company, but today business as usual is over due to coronavirus. Knotel struggles to pay rent at several of its New York City locations. The firm had to lay off nearly half of its staff, and nearly one-third of its tenants have requested some form of rent relief. In this episode Amol talks about the principles of leading a company through a business shutdown and shares rare & personal insights into what he has learned in his 20 years as serial entrepreneur who started Virgin Mobile, the Peek smartphone & Halo Neuroscience about survival & resilience. To get new podcast episodes delivered right into your inbox describe to our media newsletter here www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Amol Sarva (@amol), founder Knotel (@Knotel), Halo Neuroscience (@HaloNeuro) Peek and Virgin Mobile More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Dan Ram is an entrepreneur as well as a master of adaptation and reinvention which are skills every entrepreneur needs today to manage the many uncertainties and headwinds towards the future. As the son of an Indian diplomat Dan had to learn quickly how to transition from one country to another, one culture to another every 2-3 years growing up in 10 countries on 4 continents. On a professional level, he has started multiple companies and more recently has found his calling as an MC at more than 100 tech conferences around the world, including Bits & Pretzels. In this episode of our podcast, Dan Ram will share 5 practical hacks for navigating change and how to not just survive but thrive during this transition season. To get new podcast episodes delivered right into your inbox describe to our media newsletter here www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Dan Ram, Bits & Pretzels host & Global MC (@iamdanram) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Before the age of 28, Michele Romanow already started 3 companies. She's on TV regularly as one of the Dragon's on CBC's Dragon's Den, the Canadian equivalent to ABC's Shark Tank. And she was named as Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women. And in this episode Michele talks with Britta about why she co-founded Clearbanc that is completely revamping the VC game. The rising star in venture capital in Silicon Valley funds startups through equity-free investments with the promise of being specifically founder friendly. Clearbanc made big noise with 1 billion dollars in investments only last year into almost 2200 startups so far. In the episode Michele talks about why we need more female VCs to get more female founders and how she leads her company with her co-founder who is also her partner in the couples' private life. To get new podcast episodes delivered right into your inbox describe to our media newsletter here www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Michele Romanow (@MicheleRomanow), co-founder Clearbanc (@clearbanc), cast member of CBC´s dragons´ den (@cbcdragon) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

In this podcast episode, you’ll hear from one of the leading female executives in the business world: Angela Ahrendts, the longtime Head of Retail at Apple where she became the highest-paid executive and made double of what CEO Tim Cook made. Before that, she was CEO at British luxury fashion label Burberry. In conversation with Bits & Pretzels' Britta Weddeling Angela spoke about the leading principles that have shaped her career and how she rose from a small town in Indiana to the top of Silicon Valley and what advice she has for entrepreneurs in the current crisis.During Corona, which forces all founders to adapt quickly, Angela’s ideas around leadership and intuition could give guidance of how to deal with the current uncertainties and specifically about what role your gut feeling can play in moving forward.  We've met Angela just days before the lockdown in Silicon Valley, in the Cordevalle Golf Club, a private golf course and spa resort, located southeast of where you drive through a huge iron gate all along well trimmed green grass before you enter an impressive wooden lobby and are greeted by a hostess. Even in this luxury environment Angela stands out. The room for the podcast conversation that overlooked the whole golf course was booked under her maiden name for privacy reasons  … To get new podcast episodes delivered right into your inbox describe to our media newsletter here www.bitsandpretzels.com/media-signup Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Angela Ahrendts (@AngelaAhrendts), former SVP Apple Retail (@Apple), CEO Burberry (@Burberry) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

It started as a truly European effort to create tracking apps to help break Covid-19 infection chains and to ease lockdown restrictions: the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) consortium, an alliance once of around 130 European computer scientists that launched last month with the aim of developing apps that would follow strict privacy rules. However, instead of being launched any day now, a number of prestigious supporters have withdrawn from the PEPP-PT project over the last few days after criticism about a lack of transparency and data protection. In this episode the frontman of the initiative, Chris Boos, the founder of Arago and something like the godfather of AI in Germany, answers his critics  & talks about how he aims to restore confidence in the technology and how he plans to proceed now.   Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Chris Boos (@boosc), founder arago (@aragoGmbH) and PEPP-PT member (@PeppPt) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback directly at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Ijad Madisch, founder and CEO of ResearchGates, is the latest guest in the Bits & Pretzels podcast. The 39 years-old entrepreneur built ResearchGate, a network that allows its 16 million members to exchange medical research data. In today's show the medical doctor and virologist talks about how he created a new COVID-19 community on his platform and where he thinks the current research about medications, treatments or a vaccine for the coronavirus stands right now. ResearchGate is backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, investment bank Goldman Sachs and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund among others and made its name by making it easier to share scientific findings that haven't gone through peer review yet. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Ijad Madisch (@IjadMadisch), co-founder ResearchGate (@ResearchGate) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback directly at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

You're listening to part two of our Bits & Pretzels Podcast Special regarding how to tackle the Corona crisis. Today, former Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg shares his insights into how meditation helped him during his career – and could help dealing with the economic uncertainties right now. Hannes Ametsreiter, the CEO of Vodafone Germany shares his insights into the effects the Corona crisis has on the internet economy which he calls "the single biggest digital boost in Germany since ever". And since we got so many questions about the technical set up for our first virtual event, the third part of this podcast will come from us – the Bits & Pretzels team behind the scenes with a conversation about – how we did it. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Nico Rosberg (@nico_rosberg), former Formula One World Champion Hannes Ametsreiter (@H_Ametsreiter), CEO Vodafone Germany (@vodafone_de) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback directly at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Todays special episode of the Bits & Pretzels Podcast presents highlights from our first Bits & Pretzels Virtual Founders Breakfast. Actor Kevin Spacey shares his first-hand experience in dealing with uncertainties when your life as you know it comes to a halt. Albert Wenger, managing director at VC firm Union Square Ventures, shares his view on how to use the time of lockdown to rebuild your business. And Lea-Sophie Cramer, the co-founder of Amorelie, the hugely successful erotic lifestyle articles online store, gives her advice on how to overcome the difficult situation caused by Covid-19. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Albert Wenger (@albertwenger), managing director of Union Square Ventures (@usv), Lea-Sophie Cramer (@meleayou), co-founder Amorelie (@AmorelieDE), Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback directly at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Here's how to emerge even stronger from the actual crisis around Covid-19: Call you investor. Call your clients. And get yourself a better deal. Sounds counterintuitive to you? Listen to the new Bits & Pretzels Podcast feat. Matthias Schranner, an FBI-trained negotiator who started his own firm, the Schranner Negotiation Institute, in Zurich with offices in New York and Hong Kong. Matthias actually thinks that now’s the best time to negotiate for founders – if you act quickly: “You need to be the first one to call your investors, telling them, I want to negotiate because I want to find a solution for the future.” Matthias consults global organizations like the UN, governments, and political parties. And he has coached hundreds of people - from ambitious juniors to top-level managers - via his books and seminars. So, if you’re eager to tune your negotiating skills in order to close the best deal possible - Matthias is the man to listen to. Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Matthias Schranner (@schrannerms), founder and CEO of Schranner Negotiation Institute (https://www.schranner.com) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback directly at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Hubert Honold.

Saeed Amidi, CEO and founder of Plug & Play, a leading international accelerator, shares a surprising positive perspective on the ongoing economic downturn caused by the Corona crisis. Amidi, who heads work with 400 companies and more than 10 000 startups worldwide out of Sunnyvale, explains why now's the time to develop better products and better companies and how founders should push through the crisis, specifically because everybody does work from home (WFH) now: "I believe in hard work and I think right now because of that many people are not traveling and working from home, quite frankly, everybody has more time.” Amidi certainly worries about the negative effects of Corona for founders, specifically for closing deals and raising funds. But he also sees opportunities along the way: "There will be economic crunch, but Google was born during the down cycle, and in these times you have more time to develop a good product, you can hire better people, so I hope there is a positive sign in the future.” Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Saeed Amidi (@SaeedAmidi), founder and CEO of Plug & Play (@PlugandPlayTC) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback directly at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com. Production: Regina Körner, Migo Fecke, Hubert Honold.

Judith Gerlach, Bavaria's first State Minister for Digital Affairs, talks about what needs to be done politically to push for more entrepreneurship and innovation in Germany, including whether we need to establish a Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs. Gerlach also shares her experience of building a ministry from the ground up and the pains and pleasures of life in politics, including her fight against digital dead zones in rural Bavaria. Because of these special circumstances, we’re having our conversation in German. Our non-German speaking listeners will find a detailed English summary in our show notes … and please join us again next week! Hosts: Britta Weddeling (@bweddeling), Editor-in-Chief of Bits & Pretzels (@bitsandpretzels) Featuring: Judith Gerlach (@gerlach_judith), Bavarian State Minister for Digital Affairs (https://www.stmd.bayern.de/) More to explore: Visit our website: https://www.bitsandpretzels.com/podcast Follow us: Twitter: @bitsandpretzels Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bits-&-pretzels If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review. You can also send us feedback directly at podcast@bitsandpretzels.com.