This story was migrated from our old blog, originally published on September 9th, 2021.
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We started with 2–3 employees.Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest
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At the start we wanted to build a robo advisor. Now we have a platform on which our clients, the banks, can customize their own robo advisor.Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest
The CEO
Olaf Zeitnitz is also kind of a returning interview guest (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-olaf-zeitnitz-722b0a1b/). He was part of our Robo Advisor talk, dating back to October 2016, when not every video was turned into an audio podcast. VisualVest is not an average Robo Advisor, it is a white-label company, integrated into a much larger group of cooperative banks in Germany. Olaf studied physics and his Ph.D. studies took him to the CERN particle accelerator, where he was one of the first users of the newly invented internet. He also attended the first www conference.
The German market may be big enough for 2–3 specialized independent robo advisors, with different specialization.Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest
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Not one robo advisor startup was ever able to become profitable in a few years … VCs have to invest for the long term. If you invest for two to three years, a robo advisor is the wrong VC investment.Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest
The Corporate Startup
VisualVest (https://www.visualvest.de/) is part of the cooperative banking group, a group of independent banks — known as Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken — (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksbanken_und_Raiffeisenbanken), working closely together on many services, including asset management. Their asset manager is called Union Investment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Investment) and VisualVest is a corporate startup of Union Investment and the DZ Bank, the central bank of the cooperative banks in Germany.
VisualVest is a SaaS platform. They are basically a toolbox where the different banks within the group can choose their features to create their own robo advisor.
I was there at [CERN], when they invented the internet. Our experiment was one of the first users.Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest
Youtube Video from October 2016
Olaf has been a guest in our robo advisor talk back in 2016, together with other returning guests. You can find it here:
Investing is the opposite of sexy.Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest
I was positively surprised that BaFin did not try to kill robo advice from the start.Olaf Zetnitz, MD VisualVest
The Video Interview is set to go live on September 2nd 2021, at 17.00 CET
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This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
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Transcript
[0:00] Music.
[0:08] Startuprad.io, your startup podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startups.With News interviews and Live Events,welcome everybody this is Joe from startupradio your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany as well as towards firstinternet radio station dedicated to startups and tech companiesas always when you wherever you are listening to this are watching this make sure to hit the like And subscribe button and leave us a very nice commenttoday I would like to welcome a media partner of ours Michelle from laptop radio hey how you doing.I’m saying good hello.
[0:54] So great to have you as guests here because I was also a guest on your show and some month ago but this time we are talking about a specific topics within our seriesentrepreneur tools and we are talking aboutcorporate culture and your us Specialists there but first can you tell us a little bit about what you did before you actually startedto be a start-up person entrepreneur in NFP artists a radio show host and a podcaster.Hi my name is Michelle and I am a hose at laptop radio on bleeding edge Tech and creativity.Before my dive into entrepreneurship I was actually a lawyer at PayPal for 6 years and before that I was at a triple play companyand Cisco eBay send something an applein the order and in college I was working as a web developer and a technical writer designer for a database management company.
[2:00] So you can code yes and you can do law yes.
[2:08] That’s that’s a very rare combination I do understand why startups like you but not only that but you alsothe co-founder or mentor of several Ventures that’s actually what we’re talking today she’s already nodding for everybody or Nadia podcast and we want to talk a little bit aboutculture here especially how we can start a company culture and how you can sustain it because as I’ve been always talking to a lot of people on different episodes of startupradio as well as on the entrepreneur toolsit’s not you do just click press the button and you have a company culture it’s actually created witheverything you do but maybe you could talk us a little bit through year.
[2:57] Yeah so I think I think when you’re thinking about culture I would recommend that before you even start,the company you know to really look at yourself you know because you’re going to become a founder and the company that you found you’re going to have an impact on.And I think you as a Founder well impact culture which well then becomesthe brand right I think Tony hsieh Founders apples basically said that your culture is your brand which isit’s really true and who is that culture it’s really usually the founder and so you know.So what are you doing right so I would basically think about your mission and your vision and then also what are some of the values that you care about that is an extension of.You know the company that you wanted to build and really defined that and make sure that the branding and the company and every aspect of the companycorrelates to those values and they and then they don’t you know they don’t just embrace it in words but also in actions as well.
[4:11] I remember that basically you cannot just.Cat head count on a permanent basis and then read any company culture all our employees are our most important asset it just doesn’t work like that you have to be stringent withwhat you’re doing do you have.
[4:34] Any recommendations any tests where to start because for most people it’s all look at yourself yeah I’m a guy I’m averagea little bit this is a little bit that how can you make a culture out of that are their assessments are the tests should you talk to your friends how do youinitially start this creation process yeah sure so.You know I think when I say self assessment is more you know what is your strength and weaknesses right and how how do you act.How do you relate to other peopleduring the Cecil startup is not about just a Founder it takes an entire Village right that helps you build that set up so that I become successfulso when per sample you know after I left PayPal you know I spent about a year just basically working on myself you know like how,you know what are some of my weaknesses or some ice trains our you know write it downand you know kind of like really think about here’s my growth areas here’s what I’m really good at because essentially you would later on wanted to hire people that have better skill set than you rightso during setups for a long time I meet a lot of founders.
[5:58] I’ve met Sounders who have lied and and when your founder and you lie you cheat that becomes your brand you know that’s your company right so you want to make sure that you’re honest.You know and I think some books that you wanted to be are you know Renee Brown she.Talked a lot about different attributes.
[6:27] And then The Four Agreements also you know to make sure that your word is consistent with your action.And there are like tons of self-improvement books I would not like spend three years or even two years on it because then you would never you know find a,you know I would basically make sure that you sit down though and say hey I’m really good with coding.I’m really bad with you know — language or JavaScript you know I’m really good with.You know the front end but I’m terrible with a back-end and here you know I’m not a good salesperson.Um I might be a little you know better at marketing here I am I’m going to you know look for other people to help me.And then you know what I also did was I wrote down what I want the companies to feel like and to be like rightso I want people to be collaboration to be collaborative I went through a lot of training on PayPal you know like we could choose different.
[7:34] Purses that we want as an employee,and I’m really self-sufficient most of the time so you know I took a lot of public speaking classes because I’ve been doing Toastmaster and other public speaking.For a long time and I don’t really need to be told.So and it will escalate it well after PayPal I you know when there’s no public speaking classes I would just kind of take it for fun I would I want to.Improv comedy just so that I would basically speak and think you know.On the feet right because that’s what you want to do and you know so do you want your company to be collaborative do you want people to make mistakes right.So I think a lot of it is really a lot of improv values I know that I really like because.When people do an improv when people make a mistake they kind of go into Circle they make a sound that’s it and they kind of start over and they make things better,and there’s always that and you know like.Something is something and something and something you know know is never really something that’s a kind of embraced.
[8:47] So I you know kind of like the collaboration I kind of like thatthe end I kind of like Integrity so I would write that down you know you don’t want any employees to lie to you I don’t like people who gossipso you know you wouldor who are grateful because then people would kind of complain and when people complain you basically kill your company because you don’t want people to really God’s about your startupgreens and I was really really hard and you want as many people who support you as much as possible.Bit you know in an honest way because you don’t want people to say yes all the time I’ll do and never grow.So you can have to embrace feedback as well right so those are some of my traits and looking at those traits I would then you know developed a valueless of a few values that I love.And then I would find people,based on that value and what is really cool is that once you have your value you also have an identity right you basically wanted to put down what your.
[9:53] Company shipping your startup should be known forso Apple has cool products right so for example cool might be one of your identity list I call it identity if I don’t know what other people call it you know so like that is your your corporate startup identityyeah we make cool Podge you know products and all your marketing and everything that you create will bewould be related to that right so there’s a correlation between culture and branding and you wanted to be consistent.
[10:29] I actually had in mind when you talk about what you call valleys you always have to see that they’re workingwith the start up for example of what came to mind because I just watched it on a weekend Charlie Sheen and Two and a Half Men for him his personal branding this worked for Two and a Half Men but if you really want to get investors and employees on boardthen please may be trusting you with helping to paying off the mortgage or something like that yeah that would not havenecessarily work also I had to smile when you talked about The Four Agreements because I really really lovethis audiobook I do believe it was one of the very first I ever heard and this speaker yes this very deep and soothing voice and it actually is very relaxing if you listen to it I really like it and it’s actually also not that long so.
[11:26] Step one we make as an entrepreneur or maybe even asthe founding team you do self assessment then you look we need to improve and he put down the values that you like you take into account the feedback and how do you actuallydevelop it and work on it do you have you called bellies just underwater just behind your desk and always make sure to look at them.
[11:56] Yeah so instead of your small company so you don’t want to print you know you can have it on the badges for every employee but you know you don’t have employees yet I would basically have it in a documentand because I mean this is really specifically what I did so I would have a list a Google doc and say hey these are our values and I wouldyou know summarize it and then explain it you know one by oneand then when we have you know when we have collaborators they would basically be trained on these value soI was eager working with someone who is making your logo what do you sent them right you sent them your values you say hey these are my these are our values this is the logo we want to make and we want to make sure that the logobasically in line with our values you know so that they talk to each other so that’s really important and then when your,you know looking for co-founders or people who wanted to contribute to your company you would basically send them the values.
[13:06] And all the team meetings that you have from done or other Communications are really based on those values that’s more of a proper wayto do it it’s just a really you know to be a value-based company.
[13:22] Do you have a list of or do you have any experiences with values that are very good andeasy to follow up and some of them everybody would like to have and basically they never get there or they’re very hard to defy be any experience thereno I think I think most of the startup thatI mean most of the cultural values that I reviewed are pretty good you know there are co-founders I work with I have their values and I’ve looked at their values and they’re pretty good I thinknormally usually they had that use or they don’t have that use any think sometimes it becomes a red flag went.
[14:07] You know I’m thinking about that the ones who have no values would be the ones who are.You know talking about their schools are a lot or they’re non-existent like they’re not really communicative of it.And you’ll see that sometimes they would we hire people that may not be that align with their values or just normal basic values.You know for example if someone is not delivering.They don’t have a value as well as but they get rehired because they don’t have that value list so from my experiences I’ve seenstartups with no values and because they have no values their culture isit could be anything and then start out with values and those are more consistent can you also give us an idea.I love how you values could tie in your strategy because one Builds on another and disclaimer before an Excel sheetis neither proof that you have company values in the war is an Excel sheet with a few accounts and a few numbers on it a valid strategy,both just don’t work.
[15:25] Values is really something that you have to execute it’s not something that you know it’s not just there to look pretty you know and say that you have it you really have to honor it right those are your code of conduct.You know you have to basically practice it and sometimes is really hard right.So I think I have you know personally in one of my culture value is communication.And you know I was in a situation where I had to you know I was talking to someone and they said that before you let them gothey wanted to be you know to they wanted to be let known you know what happens.
[16:13] And you know like and I had to basically you know I did that right you have to do it.Um if you meet with the you know the person and you have to basically kind of tell them without being reasonable because you don’t you know like you know a lot of big companies a lot of people.All right you know terminated and they without any reason and whatnot in Starbucks is a little bit different because.You know you’re there’s really not a lot of people.In the startup and it’s more it’s more informal right so I mean in terms of you know everyone is just basically working.So you basically have to baste or you want to base your culture on those values and so you want it to be.
[17:10] You kind of want to keep your word right so if someone says you know you know before you know I were to let go I kind of want to know why because in the past,you know I was just let go I wasn’t told the reasons and so you know it’s a little bit different and sometimes if you have like.Communication or some kind of you know good.More reasonable founder Vibes in a you know you should definitely keep your word and make sure that you don’t become super rude and unfriendly I’ve also met a number of relay.
[17:52] You know almost Psycho-Pass Founders and I think because this is on culture that it could be saidand with those you know because they lie and they cheat you know that becomes their culture and they have usually I think most of them have no value.
[18:10] They have no value I don’t think they even care about it because obviously because they’re basically lying from from day one.So I think it just really something to have as a guideline because you might want to collaborate with other partners with the same value for example you know if your value is more like,white hat you know you wanted to work and do business with other people with Integrity because internally you want your.People on your team to have integrity.Then if you meet a partner and you know there are eight they wanted to sponsor you or they wanted to buy your product but you know that there are fraudulent you know so the the question is what you do business with them.I sometimes your value should drive that.
[19:03] You know and different people basically response different ways but I think that’s just an example of what and follow your culture basically intersect with Partnerships.And strategy.
[19:19] Personally I think you made also very valid point because your company culture is not onlyinside it’s also outside with whom you’re doing business from whom you’re taking moneyplus I would like to add that the most important times,when the company culture is important is when the entrepreneur.And or the company are under real stress and that’s.Usually the make-or-break decision for corporate culture because if you do then just.Go over your culture and completely ignore everything you’re going to partly damaged everything you have built upso far in culture for example if you really need to get the the next funding round if you really need to get this client you cannot just completely throw your culture your valuesout of the window dish.Just doesn’t work but that’s a point where seed most frequently that this actually happened is this also your experience.
[20:32] Yes.
[20:34] The startup World ecosystem is really small right so you wanted to beas honest as possible I think as a human we all make mistakes right so you know sometimes I’ll say I’ll do something but sometimes will take months he doesn’t like that I’m not going to do it but it’s just because you know.I just have like a lot of to do things on the list.
[20:59] And you know and sometimes people could ask you to do things that you didn’t promise because they might have questions for you right so I mean I don’t really expect everyone to be perfect.However I think if you lie right.
[21:15] Very few people unreasonably you know that is really different right so I have you know co-founders who reach out to me and said that you know there are other co-founders basically.
[21:29] You know basically you know just to get a bunch of really bad things to them and the word kind of gets out there.So it’s it’s really you who want to be.That’s reasonably because you know it’s also tied to your reputation and your reputation really impacts your company.
[21:55] Mmm very important point I would have to.Also very important points so do you have some great examplesfor company culture that maybe one or Another Empty entrepreneur or want to be entrepreneur who’s just thinking about founding his or her company.Weather can take examples blueprint or things.Other people thought a lot about where can you find some of those examples today do you have one or two examples where people just can take inspiration from.
[22:40] Yeah so I can some Tiffany Bay and and PayPal and I think one of the.
[22:47] One of those something from Ebay that I really learned is human is basically good.And when you really look about that line it seems really simple you know because of course there’s a lot of,fraud in human but really think about the internet and how it has change you know a couple years ago.You know people are really freaked out from sharing and buying things from other people that they don’t know right because when you buy something you go to a shop you don’t go to eBay.However it’s change the way that we purchase things right.Because then we can now go to a platform and we can buy things from strangers.And when you were talking about that line you really think about how that how the internet has further changed that right because with with.
[23:38] With Uber you basically share ride and you you know get a ride from strangers Airbnb you basically.Rent homes this year homes or people that you don’t know.So I think that line you know it’s a great one because it’s really.Change the way that we do this is and in a way it is true that humans are basically good,you know and and that’s that sigh of it that you kind of wanted to trust right one from PayPal I really love is.Practice trip judgment right.
[24:19] You know like we make decisions every day but sometimes we need to make a judgment sometimes you know we may be wrong right because.You know when you’re doing startups and were you eating so many Founders most of them are going to be good most of them are going to be bad,some of your decisions are going to be good but you don’t want to be stuck in like decision paralysis where you really can make up your mind because you need to,March for so you know constantly you want to change you want to be agile and if something is like big experiment.So you make a decision your hypothesis might be proven wrong after a few experiment then you have to make another judgmentand then you know if evidence shows that is wrong that you make another judgment right so I think one example is defining your target audience.
[25:11] I’m just say that because I was on club house earlier with one of my friend and there’s some film will going on because all world is opening up sowhat happened to all these online groups and my friend plays music on clubhouse and.You know I would I go there and listen to it you know to chill like every night you know doing downtime and so I said you know.You’re talking about is going to be different from people who actually go out you know a certain location here on the internet I could be anywhere and I can listen to you.You know so and that is basically a decision right to continue or not to continue you know becauseyou see some live musicians playing music live somewhere and you wish that you would be live and sometimes you don’t appreciate the online forum is where anyone can join anywhere in the world.And so you know and I think there’s a market for that I think there’s a different target audience for that.You know and you have to constantly adjust and make decisions and find those people right.
[26:23] So hopefully that helped and another culture that I really really love and was really influenced by is Tony hsieh that.Founder of the apples I think he’s I think he got culture really really well so he wrote something called your culture is your friend and he basically gave examples of some of his 10 core valueone is deliver while do service member that is Apple’s is based on customer service and he trained,his staff ons what it means to poor customer service his everyone basically has to go through a one month of full weeks training and they take customer calls.In a PayPal when we had customer service at Omaha.
[27:11] Tails I think some of us have taking customer service calls there just to learn customer service to see you know what are some of the needs from from the people.You want to embrace and drive change that is another examples one create fun and another work and a little weirdness so you want people to be themselves and have fun in the workplacebe adventurous creative and open-minded fire pursue growth and learning 6 Bill open and honest relationships with communicationcommunication is always very important again you know what is a result of really that culturepeople will leave right you’re going to have a high turnover rate and then you can’t retain your team they will leave because they don’t want to work with you anymorethat’s like the number one reason people leave.
[28:02] And then seven built a positive team and family Spirit eight is do more with less not as be passionate and determined and then is be humble so he already is always one of the one that I really love because.You know as a founder and as an advisor you know you meet so many Founders do you want it to work with foundersor really arrogant or do you want to work with Founders who are humbleyou know founders of arrogant who yell at people for no reason LaShawn people you know who have a bad day and then post Jack thatto everyone their team will not laugh people will leave right I walk and I walk with Founders who are really wealthy like they’re millionaires.You know but they may not pay their their staff which is really weird even if they have raised moneyso what happened you have a high turnover because you’re not taking care of your staff so that’s another even though you have two resources that’s even worse,so those are some examples of values that the Apple hadyou know and you can find that there’s an article by him call your culture with your brand and I think he’s one of the individual that really care about culture so you white.
[29:25] Might wanted to read his book The Pursuit of Happyness and reuse article your partner is your plan.
[29:32] Ratings great hints I have to admit maybe some people hurt me typing because I just want to make sure we have everything in the show notes and.
[29:42] Whatever would also came to my mind when you talked about famous examples is Google don’t do eviland as we talked about the culture would need to match so I remember I think it was Facebook they had to move fast and break things.As part of the culture but if you’re doing a regulated fintech that may not be the way to go forward.Yeah cultures also knowing what your your mission and vision is as well right the Google’s culture don’t do evil it’s been gone you know I think they took it out because I don’t think.Say they’ve done all things that my not aligned with that value so if you actually look around there might be someone who wrote about that.
[30:35] So I think it’s also important that you kind of.Define because culture is just not the core value you can’t say oh I have the core value and therefore we have culture.So it’s not that way right it just is comprised on a number of things you have your values you have your mission and you have your vision you know you start,you know when you’re hiring people you know that that criteria for that hiring process isyou know you wanted to look for people who have these valuesnot just a talent and you can be desperate you can especially when you’re just starting you know you’re looking for someone who can put Ruby on Rails or example and you know the furnacethe first thing that we saw is I oh my gosh you know you know that person is talented it could help me code.But you forgot to actually interview look for you know the values which is really bad because I think I think there was one time when I was looking for someone with Scala.
[31:35] You know and that person have like.Dale experience and that’s really hard to find however I kind of learned that he left the company or he had granted shares.
[31:48] With a company because it was not that’s it the founders investor shares and I didn’t want her toyou know engage with him just because of that because you know if you can walk away with someone’s entire stock and work with me you can also walk away in my stock and work with someone else you knowum so it’s you really have to really think about.You know some of the values individuals have and and whether that that alignedwith your core values and an aligned with the vision and the goal of the company as well so you have to be really mindful or you want to be really mindful of that so that.The vision and the vision the mission the vision and the intention of the company’s onlinethat they’re aligned with the values in your culture and they’re also aligned with you know the brand you know how people see you as a company so I think I think those are really important.
[32:51] So we have now a lot of very big intimidating names in terms of culture we had some very good examples and we now know,you have to start right from the beginning with the values of the entrepreneur and take it from there and especially the determining timesAvi company culture is when you and or your company under stress I waswondering if you would have a few useful tools either by name or by linkpeople could use to to really get started working on the company culture on their own Valdez something like this where people just can start their homework.
[33:46] Yeah I don’t I mean I literally just use Microsoft Word and you know just title it values and just write down the values that I care about.Best of all I started it.I didn’t look for any kind of any other tools that you need I think you know sometimes that start-up founder we overcomplicate ourself rightbut I think this one is you know pretty simple is get a piece of paper.You know right down the characteristics of the company that you wanted to create and what the values are based on oh actually there’s a book called value based company that I was actually given,a couple years ago from the MIT Stanford Venture lab.
[34:35] Event well we have a Spoke were we have a speaker but I think I’ve done my culture even before that.
[34:46] And I can share that the name of the book so that we can share it out actually have it in my bookshelf I see it now.So I have that.Book but when I first started I didn’t even need anything I basically go to a used Microsoft Word or Google Sheets.Google Document and then just wrote down my values and then might brand mission.
[35:10] That’s going to be on the website the vision and the brand of the company so you’re probably need that.And then I also determine the color and look and feel of the company as you guys know.And then when I’m looking for team members I want to make sure that they align with the values.And then you want to make sure that you recognize and we wore your staff based on those values as well right and then culture,always needs to be re-evaluated it could change and it can grow and it could bounce back,so it’s something that you don’t just do it once you know you wanted to re-evaluate that and I’ve kind of been been at all so big companies where the culture changesthe worst thing I think is is where you have especially for startups is when you hire people.There’s they just wanted to get your paycheck and they wanted to go you don’t want that kind of employee because you know you’re straight upit’s really difficult for your startup’s to grow if you want someone that’s just basically count hours and they just want your paycheck you want someone who actually is passionate who believe your company.
[36:25] And then when you’re hired hiring people you wanted to really look for that passion that that motor that determination I think that those are the most important whatever the skillset is because people could basically learn the skillsbut it’s the drivers of that it’s really hard,and you want people with that kind of drive that kind of determination I think you know what I think I had a you know there was an intern once thatyou know that we had and she was working on something but I saw that she did it like 300 something’s times that is determination and she did really wellbecause you can’t she handles Drive.So those are some of the stuff that you know I would I would think about I don’t think that you need major sophisticated tools to do this you know I think you just really need to you know be humble about it.Be humble about yourself putting a lot of Sounders we have a lot of Pride and then just kind of think about.You know some of the things that you care about writing down and then once if you have co-founders share it talk it through go through every single point.And then make sure that your brand your logo and everything basically circles those values.
[37:45] You need to update it keep upthe valleys and keep up the company that was also something we talked about it it’s like notonce you’re at the down and that’s it and you never look at them again but basically you shouldyou should have like like your interaction with them look through our they still valid is it still the right values for us did we develop in a different direction Pluswhat I also found important the the point he made was that you have to reward people alsobased on value so not only if they hit their sales Target if they hit the deadline but also if they did it within the frame he said for the company.
[38:32] You know like I’m not a parent but I think a lot of people are so maybe is relatableyou know like if you’re in a relationship or if you have kids you kind of understand thatyou know when you’re in a village you basically wanted to recognize people for doing well and you wanted to we want them and always give feedback and criticism privately,you know because you don’t want to embarrass everyone right.You want to make sure that and sometimes as a Founder you have to hear like and it’s hard that you have to accept responsibility everything is kind of like your fault.As a Founder like the decisions that you know like just as much as you practice judgment sometimes your judgment is not right,and you have to be humble about that so you want to be humble so you wanted to accept responsibility for it.
[39:24] You know I think there’s a book called Leaders Eat Last or something.So you know it’s it might be a little bit difficult to do.You know and because like startups you never know what will happen the lines are not straight up.You know sometimes it goes up sometimes it goes down and then goes up the next day and sometimes you go into circles right you have the bunch of people who believe in you,who wanted to work with you enjoying a team you know so.And so you got to be really wary about you and and making sure that you don’t lash on them when something goes wrong you know and they get mad and they could because they can’tyou know so it’s just really a lot of balancing of a bunch of things that remain cultureyou know it’s not just the value is your actions how you treat people.Your friends you know is your vision and Mission your goals and how you hire people and that is your culture.That’s what you know is known for but you can be conscious of it right you can you can call your your staff about it do training you can you can make decisions based on that,and make sure that you know you have those core values and then once you become a public helping you know you will have code of business conduct.
[40:50] And other things that your public company will be based on.So I think that is going to be really important to make sure that you develop your set of.Values and culture and branding you know and understand how they inter-related and interact with each other.
[41:11] You actually gave me a very deep insight into culture as you put it upunknown unless similar level to Parenting because you kids they may be very young and it may not understand everything they justimitate you so basically you cannot tell them no that is wrong and do it you have to live it,you have to be an example as well as you have to be an example for the culture right yeah,yeah you have you definitely have to be you want to be an example so that people can look at you and they would do the same you know and it’s actually now right we have a cancel culture where you know whatever people don’t like they would,cancel it you know and then a lot of the a lot of people basically there’s also like a lot of ghosting as well for.
[42:07] What if staff will maybe you know who my kind of live in a culture where you know they unfriend people you know when something happens and so you might have.You know staff who loves ghosting you know like if they don’t do well you know they might even they might want to disappear.So the but when you’re hiring you wanted to ask questions so that you don’t have that kind of culture that people are honest and openso the way that they they confront other people the way that they we saw items and disputes,those are going to be really important because you know when when something happened in the company you don’t want.
[42:57] You know people to point fingers and you don’t want people to leave and just ghost you you know because then you won’t know what’s going on especially if you delegate a lot of responses to people you want everyone to participate.Exactly well I think they’re meaty closing wordseverybody who would like to learn more go down here in the show notes will have a few links few examples and that’s not your company culture it’s not copy and paste it’s the point where you start,thinking about it culture yet and you’re straight up you know just get a team together and.Used Google Document.And write down a bunch of values have people vote on it people discuss each point of value and then finalize them it’s really not that difficultyou know and then when you’re doing your branding your social media everything will be really based on those value,you know and the use of color and how it’s how they express those cultural values those are going to be really important right for example you know if one of your cultures integrityyou know one of your color might be blue because blue is a color of trust right but if one of your value is creativity one of your color might be orange.Because orange basically invites creativity so.
[44:27] You know there’s a lot of correlation between culture and branding and culture marketing and culture and hungry.You know so that is really your core fundamental of having and building a company.
[44:41] Amazing closing words thank you very much for being a guest you welcome thank you for having me.Totally my pleasure thank you bye bye.And by if you are a professional looking at the European startup scene Germany is a place you cannot miss.
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