Entrepreneur, Investor & Board Director.
When I founded Qype more than four years ago, I always dreamed that this should be a Pan-European business, not just a German one. I remember vividly how hard it was, particularly in the UK, to get early traction. Since then, we have launched in a total of 8 countries. Today, the Qype team surprised…
I recently read the book “Cradle-to-Cradle,” which is an international bestseller. Brad Pitt was quoted as “one of the three most important books I have read”. Michael Braungart takes a committed stand against the ethics of renunciation in the German sustainability movement. Against the existing paradigm of eco-efficiency (“fewer pollutants, fewer resources, fewer people”), he…
I deliberately took a while while to decide how I want to work and where to get involved. I pondered to join a VC (too far away from the business) and looked at direct investments in other people’s ideas (sometimes felt I could come up with better ones myself). I enjoyed the last couple of…
Cem Basman brought this interesting article from Harvard Busines School to my attention: There is a new study out that measures the success of first time entrepreneurs versus repeat entrepreneurs. Quote: Successful entrepreneurs in the study had a 34 percent chance of succeeding in their next venture-backed firm, compared with 23 percent for those who…
Whenever I work with web entrepreneurs, the discussion quickly goes onto one point: What is it that your company does better than anybody else? In an era with unprecedented low barriers to entry, and where competition is absolutely global, answering this question correctly and then executing on it becomes more important than ever. And it…
Finally getting to talk to people again. Discussing ideas, market developments, the underlying trends, barriers to entry, business areas worth disrupting and all these things just plain fun for me. I will get bored eventually as I prefer to do things instead of talking about doing things, but for the moment I enjoy the conversation….
“Germans will have to drive different cars and live differently, spend more money on food and monthly heating costs and work harder if they want to maintain their standard of living. And most importantly, you have to conserve energy until it hurts.” Der Spiegel, 7.7.2008
Just received a nasty comment (anonymous) about unnecessary air travel to conferences. This exactly the point. I have not yet been to great conferences like reboot, SIME, leWeb, Picnic. But the few successful conferences I have attended just demonstrate the point that you can not replicate the experience via video conferencing. In fact, I need…
Even the smallest regional commuter planes now come as jet. I recently had the pleasure to fly with a Dash 8 Q300. Did you know that the fuel consumption per passenger kilometer is considerably lower than on a comparable jet plane? Also, as these planes cruise at a lower altitude, I assume that the additional…
I just arrived in Greece for a conference. There is a saying that all religions are based on guilt, just with different holidays. Maybe this whole CO2 discussion is a new religion. The more you think about it, the more guilty you feel. And while I am very serious about sustainability, trying to reduce my…
