Project A Podcast

In our first episode of our “Talk to the CMO” podcast series, Luke Costley-White, Head of Acquisition at Project A sits down with Wiktor Stopa, Head of Growth DACH at Revolut, one of Europe's fastest-growing startups. Luke and Wiktor discuss the transition from a hyper-growth startup to a global scaleup and the strategies you should be using to make this transition as seamless as possible.

In this episode, Leonie Althaus, co-founder and CEO of traide AI shares her experience of building a company that combines cutting-edge AI technology with the expertise of long-standing customs professionals.

How much sales and marketing knowledge do you need to get into Revenue Operations? What are the latest trends in RevOps? In this episode, Evan Dunn, Director of Growth Marketing at Syncari, answers these questions and talks about the RevOps discipline and what it can do for an organization.

How do you build a business as an out-of-network and technical founder in a foreign country without a support group? Alina Bassi, CEO of Kleiderly and Co-Founder at Founderland shares her experiences and tips on how to navigate such circumstances with a 360° lens.

In this episode, Florian Heinemann, Founding Partner at Project A, welcomes Christian Schneider-Sickert, Founder and CEO of LIQID Investments. In the conversation with Florian, Christian talks about LIQID's mission and culture and the role of marketing and branding in the wealth management space.

In this episode we welcome Tim Schumacher, Managing General Partner at World Fund, angel investor, and multiple times founder. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Tim shares his insights and experiences from over 20 years of experience founding and investing in startups, and explains why he focuses on ESG investing.

In this episode we welcome Fabian Niedballa, co-founder of Sharpist, a coaching-based, results-oriented people development platform. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Fabian talks about why he believes company culture is an ongoing project that needs to be recalibrated and explains why and when the product or engineering team should take the lead in a founding team.

In this episode, David Kübler, Senior Sales Consultant - Revenue Operations at Project A, welcomes Alicja Arts, Head of Sales Operations at Sennder, to discuss the emerging topic of Revenue Operations and how RevOps roles can help organizations scale.

In this episode we welcome Marius Hepp, Co-Founder of Junto, a B2B upscaling platform empowering young talents to learn from work-class operators. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Marius shares his learnings from founding a company in the EdTech space and talks about the importance of a strong technological infrastructure to scale successfully.

In this special edition of our 42 Answers from founders to founders, our Operating Partner & MD Rainer Berak sits down with our leadership team at Project A. From People, Tech, and Growth all the way to Data and ESG, our Project A experts answer the questions every founder wants to know on how to grow a company successfully.

In this episode, we welcome Paul-Christian Brenndörfer, Strategic Lead at Jung von Matt START. In the conversation with Simon Walter, Chief Brand Officer at Project A, Paul shares his experience working with early-stage startups and discusses how startups and brands can successfully grow up the funnel.

In this episode, we welcome Malte Bedürftig, Co-founder & CEO of JoinImpact, a joint group of startups that help people take a positive role in society through activism, volunteering, community building, and entrepreneurship. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Malte shares his learnings as a founder in the ESG space and explains how in purpose-driven companies, culture often builds itself from the common goal that unites every team member.

How do you find your co-founder? When do you start talking to investors? What frameworks do you use for ideation and validation? Andrea Fernandez, Co-Founder of Vitamin, shares her learnings and insights from the early days of building her company.

In this episode, Sven Lackinger, Co-Founder of Sastrify, a virtual SaaS procurement service, shares his learnings from running a company that is 100% tech. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Sven shares why Sastrify is not based on product-led growth, and how a remote-first approach has a positive impact on the company's culture, diversity, and even environmental footprint.

In this episode, Alex Melzer, Founder & CEO of Zolar, a digital platform for residential solar systems, shares his experience from founding a company in the ESG sector. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Alex shares why he believes that having strong company values and a common goal is crucial for Zolar's success and explains how tech enables his customers to make an impact against climate change.

In this episode, we welcome Till Faida, Co-Founder and former CEO of eyeo, an ad-filtering technology that aims to create a better value exchange between users, publishers, and advertisers on the internet. In his conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Till shares his learnings from founding a profitable company since the first year and explains why his first hires were self-taught talents who had previously contributed to creating open source projects.

In this episode, we welcome Emilia Theye, Co-Founder of clare&me, an early-stage startup offering mental health support through artificial intelligence. In her conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Emilia shares her learnings from running a young company with a small team and explains why it is so important for early-stage startups to be close to the audience at a product level.

In this episode, Jochen Engert, Co-Founder of Flix, one of the largest long-distance mobility networks worldwide, shares his learnings from growing a small German startup that within 10 years has become the market leader in the field. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Jochen talks about the impact that tech and data have on Flix's day-to-day operations and how he believes that business, product, and tech need to work closely together for any company to succeed.

In this episode, Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A welcomes Kimberly Breuer, Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Likeminded, a mental health platform that operates in the B2B context. Kimberly talks about how her company aims to break the stigma around the topic of mental health by offering companies support for their employees, and how a strong data and product team are essential to bring forward a successful, user-friendly mental health platform.

In this episode, Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, welcomes David Nothacker, Co-Founder & CEO at Sennder, Europe's leading digital road freight forwarder. David deep dives into why data is so important for logistics and how their environmental footprint can be significantly reduced by being a data- and tech-enabled company.

In this episode, Dr. Henryk Seeger, Founder and Managing Director at GNIW, shares his learnings from founding a company in the real estate field with a very unique target audience. Together with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, he talks about the significance of employee satisfaction and company culture, the importance of empowering fellow colleagues, and much more.

In this episode, Verena Hubertz, Founder and former Managing Director at Kitchen Stories, shares her learnings from founding her own company at a young age and her experiences in her recent career shift from the startup world into politics. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, Verena explains why she believes that brand is more important than ever, both in the B2C and B2B landscape, and why often a company's approach to data should be data-informed instead of data-driven.

In this episode, Kristina Prokop, Co-founder and CEO at Eyeota, shares her top three pieces of advice for early-stage founders and explains why building a network and turning to it for mentorship and guidance can benefit any early-stage founder. In her conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner & MD at Project A, she also explains why she firmly believes that leading by example is the foundation for a successful company culture.

In our new episode, our guest is Boris Lokschin, Co-Founder & CEO of Spriker, a composable commerce company targeting big enterprises such as Siemens, Toyota, and Aldi. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, Boris shares his learnings from running a successful company in the B2B landscape and explains why he believes that time is the most important KPI of all.

In our new episode, Toni Hohlbein, Co-founder and CEO at Growblocks, shares his insights and best practices on being a commercial market leader, and how a leadership position in this field has evolved over the past years. With his background in operations and revenue, Tobi brings his knowledge to the table and talks with Charlotte, our Head of Venture Development, about go-to-market strategies, product limitations, and target setting.

In our new episode, Steffen Kiedel, Co-Founder and CEO of Superlist, shares his passion for productivity and gives insights into what it's like to build the future of work organization. Steffen discloses to Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, how the product is leading everything they do and elaborates on the vital role of branding.

In our latest episode, Caroline Weimann, Founder and Managing Director at JoinPolitics, shares her learnings from running a non-profit organization that supports new political talents with seed capital, network, and knowledge. She explains to Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, how transparency, integrity, and fairness are three fundamental values that should drive any organization, especially in the ESG sector.

In this episode, Florian Heinemann, Co-Founder and General Partner at Project A sits down with our very own Simon Walter, Chief Brand Officer, Thuy-Ngan Trinh, Chief Marketing Officer, and Raul Porojan, Director of Sales & Customer Success. They dial in from Tuscany during the Project A offsite, to discuss how the current economic recession is affecting some of our portfolio companies, how we can support them better during these uncertain times, and how our operational team is adapting to the current circumstances.

In our latest episode, Anna Alex, Co-Founder of Planetly, a leading climate tech company helping businesses to achieve their net zero targets, opens up about what it's like building a for-profit climate tech company. In the conversation with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, Anna shares her favourite sentence “Culture is eating strategy for breakfast” and elaborates on why setting a good company culture in the beginning is so important.

Project A just raised its 375m USD fourth fund to continue investing in early-stage European tech companies. With 1 billion USD assets under management now, it's time to talk more about what we like to invest in, our operational model and what's next for the industry. For that our host Rainer is joined by Project A co-founder Uwe as well as new principals Mey and Leo from the investment team.

In our new episode, Hans Scheffer, CEO & Founder of Helloprint, the #1 marketplace for customised print products in Europe, shares his enthusiasm for company culture. Hans explains to Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, why he believes there is no silver bullet for organisational structure and for what reason founders should never compromise on culture.

In our latest episode, Sophie Chung, CEO & Founder of Qunomedical, a digital health platform making healthcare accessible and effortless worldwide, deep dives into why she believes that data is the basis of success. Together with Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A, Sophie explores the meaningful role trust plays in her company. An inspiring listen for everyone interested in learning more about what it's like to shape the future of healthcare.

In our new episode, Anna Brandt, Founder of Invested and Global Talent Leader, shares her learnings from scaling ventures from seed through hypergrowth. With 15+ years of experience in Talent Acquisition at Zalando, N26, and Uber, Anna brings a wealth of knowledge and Charlotte picks her brain on the do's and don'ts.

In our new episode, Rainer Break, Operating partner at Project A, welcomes Lubomila Jordanova, CEO & Co-founder at Plan A, a science-driven SaaS platform for carbon accounting, carbon reduction and ESG reporting. Lubomila gets to the bottom of why data is everything for Plan A and shares for what purpose it is so important to stand behind your values.    Tune in now to take a look behind the scenes of an ESG company.

In this episode, Philipp Glöckler, Co-host of Doppelgänger TechTalk Podcast and Co-founder of Lollipod, shares insights on his recent journey in founding Lollipod, a marketplace for podcast advertising. Philipp explains to Rainer Berak, Operating partner at Project A, why he believes success is behind every failure. An episode not to be missed by anyone interested in learning more about building product-first companies.

In this episode, Markus Müller, ex Head of Product at N26, Circ, Lector and Coach shares his learnings about running experiments that help us to evaluate digital product ideas before they were built.

Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A has worked with plenty of founders over the past years. And thanks to Project A's network, he's in touch with hundreds more. Every founder and every company is different, but all startups have to tackle the same 5 topics if they want to build a successful company: Growth, Tech, People, Data and ESG. Rainer is asking a standard set of 42 questions to all of them. Their answers are as individual as they are, but together they provide great guidance for all those who have decided to be entrepreneurs themselves. This week's guest: Benedict Kurz, Co-founder at Knowunity

Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A has worked with plenty of founders over the past years. And thanks to Project A's network, he's in touch with hundreds more. Every founder and every company is different, but all startups have to tackle the same 5 topics if they want to build a successful company: Growth, Tech, People, Data and ESG. Rainer is asking a standard set of 42 questions to all of them. Their answers are as individual as they are, but together they provide great guidance for all those who have decided to be entrepreneurs themselves. This week's guest: Markus Wübben, Co-founder at CrossEngage

In this episode, Jakob Knutzen, CEO at Butter, shares his learnings of introducing pricing for his community-led workshop platform. Charlotte picks his brain on the do's and don'ts and what Jakob would do differently next time. A mandatory listen for everyone looking to monetise their community.

Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A has worked with plenty of founders over the past years. And thanks to Project A's network, he's in touch with hundreds more. Every founder and every company is different, but all startups have to tackle the same 5 topics if they want to build a successful company: Growth, Tech, People, Data and ESG. Rainer is asking a standard set of 42 questions to all of them. Their answers are as individual as they are, but together they provide great guidance for all those who have decided to be entrepreneurs themselves. This week's guest: Pia Frey, Co-founder at Opinary

Rainer Berak, Operating Partner at Project A has worked with plenty of founders over the past years. And thanks to Project A's network, he's in touch with hundreds more. Every founder and every company is different, but all startups have to tackle the same 5 topics if they want to build a successful company: Growth, Tech, People, Data and ESG. Rainer is asking a standard set of 42 questions to all of them. Their answers are as individual as they are, but together they provide great guidance for all those who have decided to be entrepreneurs themselves. Listen in, become part of this exchange and who knows: maybe you'll be next to share your 42 answers.

In our latest podcast episode Florian Heinemann and Rainer Berak talk with Project A's VP Talent Acquisition, Andrea Althaus about career opportunities for young talents. How do I make a career in management? Does it require more generalist or specialist capabilities nowadays? They also discuss how you can benefit from startup experience and why operational work can be useful for a career in management.

In this episode we'll discuss how business and technology changes the art market and what NFTs have to do with it. Tamer's guest for this topic is Kerstin Gold, Art Market Strategy Consultant and co-founder of the Art+Tech Report. Learn more about the forces and the reactions of an industry that is changing rapidly.

Fabian Furtmeier and Dominik Unützer are co-founders of Amazd, a personal conversational storefront which set out to overcome the current flaws of today's online customer journey. Often customers have to spend time on tedious research, sifting through incomplete product information to then be faced with the sheer agony of choice. Amazd helps customers make better purchase decisions by virtually connecting them with real human product experts. Listen to their story and how they plan to change the online shopping experience with Amazd for good.

In this episode Uwe and Leo chat about various topics, including Leo's personal journey into VC, the state of Crypto in 2021, why Project A's is doubling down on data infrastructure, investing in Open Source, competing against US investors in Europe and many others.

This episode is a conversation with Amber Riedl, founder of Makerist - a DIY marketplace - on how she found her first 100 true fans and last year exited the company to fabfab. Amber guides us through her journey from growth hacking to entering new markets and how the pandemic shaped what she is focusing on today. 

In this episode we'll discuss the process of creating a product strategy - step by step. Guests are Klaus-Peter Frahm and Michael Schieben, creator of the product field and field.so and experts when it comes to product strategies.

Perhaps your startup is growing too fast and you can't keep up. Maybe you're trying to throw together an MVP on the cheap. Whatever your situation, might have considered outsourcing some development work. But projects can go off the rails if you don't plan properly. We know both sides of the story because we outsource our developers too. So who better to ask about outsourcing than Project A's own CTO, Stephan Schulze?

What is brand intelligence, how can a brand be ranked and its value be measured? Irina Ermak, Business Director at Interbrand, and Simon Walter, our Chief Brand Officer, shed light on the topic and discuss why startups should look into this, too! If you'd like to know more about Brand Value, or other brand-related topics, don't forget to sign up for our annual Project A Knowledge Conference! Apply for a ticket now. We look forward to seeing you there. Apply for an online ticket now: https://bit.ly/2ZAY6hH

Most of us know what an MVP is supposed to do. .. in theory. An MVP is an early product version that is simple, cheap, and quick to build, so you can test it with real users.  But if it's so simple, why do some engineering teams get stuck iterating on MVP-quality code? Why is it so hard to throw the MVP away and start from scratch? In this week's discussion, Stephan and I try to clarify this conundrum with some concrete examples.

As the startup grows, the founding CTO has to undergo a painful metamorphosis into a fully-fledged executive. Or not. Some eventually step aside and allow a more experienced hire to assume the role.  Could continuing education help technical founders evolve into well-rounded CTOs who stick around for the long haul? Something like a… CTO school? Merlin chats with our own CTO, Stephan Schulze, to address this very question.