Blindfeed Podcast

In our final episode of the season, we talk to Michael Ardelt. Michael is the COO at FreightHub, Europe’s first digital freight forwarder in Berlin. We dive deep into the challenges of endless opportunities, his dedication to culture, how he balances building a family life and a business at the same time, and his passion for surfing.Credits:Intro music: "Shinsaibashi" by Pierce MurphySubscribe and share this episode with your friends!

Listen to this episode and explore: 01:48 - A journey to Berlin startup scene 03:45 - Finding passion about entrepreneurship 05:50 - Translating professional athletic experience into daily work 09:20 - Staying disciplined 10:45 - Hiring the best 12:57 - The most challenging professional experiences 18:29 - The power of self-reflection 22:55 - The books worth recommending 27:50 - Rule number six 31:00 - Staying real 36:00 - Getting real feedback 41:00 - Plans for the future Books mentioned in this episode Ray Dalio 'Principles' Kim Scott 'Radical Candour' Stephen Covey 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen "Thanks for the Feedback" Learn more about us Email us at community@blindfeed.com Follow us on Instagram: @blindfeed Read our blog Subscribe to our Bi-Weekly Digest Credits: Intro music: "Shinsaibashi" by Pierce Murphy Subscribe and share this episode with your friends!

Listen to this episode and explore: 01:00 - From anthropology to VP People 06:54 - Navigating HR in the fast growing startups 10:30 - Fostering growth mindset 12:50 - Think solutions not problems 16:30 - The art of the growth feedback 19:05 - Mindfulness and career 25:30 - People teams staying relevant to the business 27:20 - People analytics: What should and what should not be measured 36:00 - Company values and how they are manifested 39:30 - The future and potential of the People Teams 41:00 - Performance Management in GetYourGuide 47:25 - Future plans 51:05 - Focusing on what is important Few quotes from the episode: You need to have a culture in the [people] team where everybody feels as a partner to the business and everybody in the people organization tries to really understand how what they're doing adds value to the business and tries to understand the context around that, which sometimes isn't that easy because it's not very direct. In sales you work directly with clients and it feels more directly related to the growth of the business; but then there’re very obvious links also in HR: happy people, content people, productive people will do a better job for the customers. We think it's very important to give people context. If we want them to take ownership and to take take on a lot of responsibility and stretch themselves they need to also understand where the business is going, what the problems are, what the challenges are, what's not going so well and what is going well, what our goals are, and what our vision is. That's something we also invest a lot in: we have a typical all hands where we share a lot, we try to end at the side of oversharing and we treat the whole company is a big circle of trust. I think it's important to stay nimble and agile and change things quickly when we see they don't work. It's important that people feel they can go to HR or the people team when there's a problem, but it’s more important that people feel they can go to the manager and their team if they have a problem. This should be the goal and this is what we are working on: we don't want to become those crutches, that kind of support managers, but we want to be their partners. We're not kind of ultimately accountable for productivity of the teams and the happiness of the teams, and the success of the teams - that's the manager’s role; but we are there to support the manager and the teams and give them information, give them data, coach them if necessary, provide trainings. There’s a dilemma about the culture fit assessment: you want to hire people that fit into your culture but you should also take into account that people change and adapt. People come from different company cultures, maybe someone comes from a corporate culture and starting in a growth company they will adapt and change their behaviour, and they will change their way of thinking. I am extremely fascinated and feel really lucky to be able to work in the industry and in the job, because there's so much innovation and there's so much to learn, and there's more and more data to look at, and there's a lot of support from the business and also awareness on the business side that the people topic can be helpful for growth and it's very important to hire the right people for each stage. That's super crucial to have the right talent on board and then when you have the talent and you've invested a lot into hiring and attracting that talent, you want to keep that talent, you want to grow that talent. There's a lot of awareness that this is important and there's a lot of conversations with the business about that. I don't have this and I've never had a very clear career path and I was actually personally struggling with that. I always thought I have to have that and I was trying to find it even as a teenager. Now I don't anymore and looking back it's worked for me. "What do you think any culture of any company can benefit from?" - "Kindness. Be kind, that’s important." Learn more about us Email us at community@blindfeed.com Follow us on Instagram: @blindfeed Read our blog Subscribe to our Bi-Weekly Digest Credits: Intro music: "Shinsaibashi" by Pierce Murphy Subscribe and share this episode with your friends!

Listen to this episode and explore: The way to Berlin (01:10) Lessons learned from other companies (03:30) Balancing freedom and accountability (10:25) Being strategic about the future (12:35) Putting yourself in conversations (13:30) Kylie Jenner (19:40) Developing yourself (21:20) Addictiveness of Technology and responsibility of tech companies (24:35) Defining your competitors (36:10) Favourite Apps (40:15) Few quotes from the episode: You have to set out a mission before you even think about what your startup is going to be. There’s not a big difference between being a founder and a great employee, because you always need to have this mindset of 'Are we doing the best we can?', 'Are we focusing in the right things?', 'Are we the most and productive we can be?', 'Are we reaching our goals?', 'Do we set the right goals?' Anything that I am doing that can help me learn is beneficial to me and to the company. I think you want to put yourself into conversations. So I will try to have as many chats as possible, I will try to reach out to people. I reserve at least two hours a week for me to try to talk with people from different companies, from different industries for me learn as much as I can. [...] There’s someone who’s already cracked the problem you are trying to solve. Always. No matter what it is,. Be it better or worse it doesn’t matter, but someone at least looked at this problem you are trying to solve. It’s always good for people to be connecting and to be sharing experiences. There’s always been a little bit of stigma with 'Oh, this person spends 1,5 - 2 years in the company they are in'. I myself was afraid of this. I think when people leave there’re usually two reasons: one is negative, because there are unhappy about something that is not changing . And then on the other hand, a positive, when a person just wants to expand their knowledge. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Don't be afraid to reach out to whoever you want to reach out to. Just go for it. Mentioned in this episode: Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix WALL-E Learn more about us Email us at community@blindfeed.com Follow us on Instagram: @blindfeed Read our blog Subscribe to our Bi-Weekly Digest Credits: Intro music: "Shinsaibashi" by Pierce Murphy Subscribe and share this episode with your friends!

Listen to this episode and explore: The three Vs that sparked Tina's interest in AI (2:30 ) When you curiosity is bigger than your fear (6:30) AI and cognitive biases (8:30) Can we conquer our unconscious biases in the workplace? (13:15) How growth mindset manifests itself (20:50) Motivating your team (24:10) Fostering the feedback culture (26:40) The dangers of using AI for HR processes (30:05) What do you value in your colleagues (32:20) Few quotes from the episode: "I looked into it [voice search and visual search] and pretty soon figured out that what’s behind it is artificial intelligence. And my immediate reaction was ‘F*ck’. Because it meant it’s techy [..] It sounded like rocket science, and I was convinced it is something that I would never understand” "My curiosity was bigger than the fear." "If you have the intrinsic motivation, if you are really passionate about something, you can learn anything. It doesn’t matter if you were bad at school, or if you have this voice in your head saying that you can’t do it." "What I am looking at is a certain spark. You talk to people and you can see it in their eyes, you can see in their behavior that they are driven by something. And this is usually a good sign." "For a small team, it is very important to create the open atmosphere. To show, that that’s ok to be open and that’s ok to criticize. Actually, it’s good to criticize. It’s also good to make mistakes and talk about it because mistakes are the thing that makes us learn. So we need to fail in order to get better." "No one can force you to be curious, no one can force you to be inspired. That’s something that’s within you. And in the ideal case, you have a job that goes in the direction that sparks your curiosity. Because then you can be the best in your career, but even more importantly - you are happy." Mentioned in this episode: "Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of Mathematics" by Eugenia Cheng Learn more about us Email us at community@blindfeed.com Follow us on Instagram: @blindfeed Read our blog Subscribe to our Weekly Digest Credits: Intro music: "Shinsaibashi" by Pierce Murphy Subscribe and share this episode with your friends!

Listen to this episode and explore: The journey from restaurant business to product management (1:10) The beauty of working in the early stage organisations (7:10) How do you know that you are able to strive at an early stage company? (8:50) How does adaptability manifest itself? (11:45) How can you foster healthy attitude to criticism in your team (13:30) How to be a good leader (17:20) Learning from failures and past experiences (20:20) Identifying the gap between where you are and where you want to be (26:20) The importance of having meaningful goals (29:50) Having peers, mentors and mentees that help you reflect (31:00) Clear goals vs meaningful goals (38:00) Emotional part of defining goals (45:00) How work will look like in 10 years from now (48:05) Few quotes from the episode: "Some people tend to get drained by the results-oriented environment, because they either overengineer it or just push themselves too hard. Some people get too harsh with others, because they can not deal with the pressure, so they pressure other people further. So you really need a strong inner balance to still stay calm and focused, even if the weirdest things happen." "Try to look for as many opportunities as you can find to be vulnerable in front of as many people as possible. Enjoy the moment when you can stand in front of 200 people and say "Ok, I f*cked it up, I was wrong, this was my mistake", because then you a true leader." "People work for people and not for companies." Mentioned in this episode: "Principles" by Ray Dalio "Atomic Habits" by James Clear Connect with us: Email us at community@blindfeed.com Follow us on Instagram: @blindfeed Read our blog Subscribe to our Weekly Digest Credits: Intro music: "Shinsaibashi" by Pierce Murphy Subscribe and share this episode with your friends!

That’s what we discussed with Mo: Why Berlin is the great place to live and work MoBerries and why it is a ‘sports agency for regular people’ Make it, master it and then matter Sticking to your core values and standards Does a university degree garantee you the better position in the work life? Barnacles of the startup industry Being punched in the face and getting back on track Do you really hire the best? If you must go on ice, you might as well dance Tough times do not last, tough people do. Enjoy :)

Nikita Gorshkov, Associate Director at Wayfair, talks about his thinking frameworks on a way to a creating better work, his experience in organising and leading various teams, being lucky and being responsible, and the best advice he has ever received.

In this episode Björn and Liam, product designer at Blindfeed, talk about the meaning and responsibility of design and everyday struggles designers face. What do you need to become a designer? Is there actually something as 'good' design? Be prepared for the not-so-amazing recording quality :) But the content is amazing, promise!

Björn and Anna talk on the notion of work, being busy vs being productive, creating work that matters, having a bullshit radar and doing things that you are uncomfortable and scared to do.  Warning: this is an ugly baby podcast, do not expect perfect, expect honest and enthusiastic 

This is Blindfeed Podcast, your no bullshit guide to work life. We honestly talk to people who do awesome work on things that matter.