The OMR Podcast International – Go inside the minds of the biggest names in digital and tech

Jeff Kolovson is COO at Faire, a B2B wholesale eCommerce platform that Techcrunch described as “Indie Amazon.” But with capital raised north of USD 800m, a valuation of 12.5b US as of May 2022 and a recent partnership with Shopify, all obfuscates Faire's size. But at its essence, the label fits: retailers can access, via subscription, millions of products by 100,000 brands on the platform and use some very clever filters to ensure that the products align with retailer values. We discussed the robust offering of features and tools the platform offers, the retailer and brand-friendly features aimed at attracting and aiding new users build their shops and the impact of partnering with Shopify.

Today, we are talking about the future of our mobility and our cities with Dance mobility co-founder and CEO Eric Quinedus-Wahlforss. Dance is a Berlin-based mobility startup offering its users eBikes and eScooters on a subscription basis to have and to hold as their own. In today's pod, we discussed the challenges of overcoming the sodded reputation of eBikes and how Dance succeeded in selling those “clunky contraptions” most-commonly associated with unathletic retiree-types to the hipster, chic types in Europe's major metro areas. We explored the business model, the community, the value of high-profile investors and Eric's vision of the city of tomorrow and why he's confident that cities will continue to move away from cars and incorporate new forms of mobility.

Quentin Bordage is the founder and CEO of Kolsquare, a leading European SaaS service that connects influencers and KOLs with companies and brands. Originally founded in 2010 as Brands & Celebrities, Kolsquare in its current form has been around since 2018, acting more as a self-service platform for companies to find, vet and connect with KOLs, or key opinion leaders. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, Bordage sat down with host Scott Peterson to discuss the current state of influencer marketing, why the 2018 pivot was more natural evolution that hard paradigm shift, as well as the nuts and bolts of the platform. We also touched on best-case practices and absolute no-gos for brands and companies new to working with KOLs.

Today's episode features Johanna Dahlroos and Emma Tracey, co-CEOs and co-founders of Berlin-based creative brand agency Sceal. Its focus lies primarily in helping tech companies grow at scale, finetune brand values, overall brand presence, products and brand campaings. This episode is driven by the atypical founder stories that Johanna and Emma have. Johanna transitioned from a career as a painter in her Native Finland to digital designer and now founder, while Emma is a serial entrepreneur having founded Honeypot, an IT job platform that Emma sold in 2019 for 57m. We talked about bootstrapping, the current startup landscape, marrying a career with family and their client portfolio including storied Berlin techno club Tresor.

Nikolas Bullwinkel is co-founder and CEO of food delivery startup Circus. Based in Hamburg, the venture launched in May 2022 and has set as its mission nothing short of creating what it calls the "Kitchen of the future." In this episode of the OMR Podcast, Nikolas spoke about his plans to redefine kitchens, incorporating AI into the back of the house and why he left Flink.

We all know it's important, but only a few of us know where to start: safeguarding and safe handling of data. Fortunately, Thomas and Kivanc are two of the aforementioned few, having built the number 1 PIC solution that now serves over 3,000 organizations worldwide. Dataguard is essentially one-stop shopping for privacy, information security and compliance matters. Thomas and Kivanc discussed current privacy regulations and mandates, how Dataguard assists companies in self-inspecting their data setup for vulnerabilities and compliance issues, as well as differences in privacy policies between the EU and US and why having a secure data setup need not come at the expense of performance.

Christopher Leidinger is a branding expert as founder LIT Create. He has been instrumental in the rebranding of major fintech players in Nuri and Solarisbank, as well as smaller scale enterprises ranging from a chemistry startup and a chocolate startup to an AI food delivery startup, a craft spirit brand and even an underground techno club in Berlin. Furthermore, LIT has worked with Airbnb, Volkswagen and Hyundai on various image and ad campaigns. We discussed the state of branding, what it is, how it's evolved and why every company, big or small, should be cognizant of the image it projects and also got Christopher's take on Twitter's rebrand to X.

Last year, Figma was headline news around the globe. Adobe announced it had reached a deal to acquire Figma for over USD 20 billion—which would make it one of the largest startup exits ever. While that deal is being held up in regulatory limbo, it is nevertheless an impressive feat for a company that only launched seven years ago. Figma is a collaborative design platform that is used by millions around the world. Yuhki Yamashita is Chief Product Officer at Figma, a position he's had since June of 2022. Yuhki joined me for a chat ahead of Figma's annual CONFIG conference to talk about design, the creative process and, of course, what the future for Figma in the Adobe ecosystem figures to be.

Konstantin Baum, Germany's youngest-ever Master of Wine, runs one of the world's largest wine channels on YouTube. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, we spoke about the business of wine on social media, his YouTube channel, monetization and community-building strategies, and other business verticals revolving around his passion for vino.

In this episode of the OMR Podcast, we're talking with CEO and founder of Hinge Justin McLeod, the dating app "designed to be deleted. We talked about Hinge's long road to success, the company business model, why he completely tore down Hinge back in 2015 and why the company has no need for standard performance metrics like retention and engagement.

By founding Snapchat in his mid-20s, Evan Spiegel reached billionaire status at a very early age. Today, some 350 million people use the app globally. In the OMR Podcast, he talks about the failure of his first startup, drops his take on when augmented reality glasses will become part of people's everyday lives and why he still believes in Twitter's potential.

In less than a decade, Sridhar Ramaswamy went from Google grunt to Senior VP of Ads and Commerce. After a decade and a half at Google, Sridhar decided he'd had enough with data-driven search and that the sector was in need for disruption. Enter Neeva, a privacy-focussed, user-centric and subscription-based search engine. Funded in part by Greylock Partners, Neeva has raised over USD 100m—despite the seemingly long odds of outperforming Sridhar's former employer.

Maybe when Tim Brown retired from professional soccer in 2012, he should have seen it coming: swapping out cleats for shoes. It was in fact his shock at the amount of plastic in the footwear freebies gifted to him during his playing days that gave rise to an obsession, which, eventually, evolved into Allbirds, a D2C stalwart and love brand for sustainable footwear founded in 2016.

In the OMR Podcast International, co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia discusses the importance of user experience for eToro, the impact of the social component on growth, engagement and retention, platform features, crypto, investment tips for beginners and a rather unsucessful dinner with Warren Buffett. He also spoke at length about past, prominent ad and marketing campaigns, including sports sponsorship deals, ads featuring Alec Baldwin and a spot during last year's Super Bowl.

It has been an eventful 12 months for Contentsquare. From rolling out a slew of key new features, AI capabilities and a cookieless solution, among others, acquired a couple of companies, expanded globally adding a number of new offices and nearly doubled its workforce to approximately 1500 at present. On top of all that, you locked up approximately USD 600m in funding recently, the latest in a 12-month span that saw Contentsquare acquire a total of 1.4B in backing and helping CS's total valuation double to USD 5.4B. And that's not taking into consideration the mergers and acquisitions Contentsquare has undertaken in the past 3-4 years.

While the problems Prof. Yunus and Saskia Bruysten, CEOs and co-founders of Yunus Social Business, hope to solve may seem impossible, the way they laid out the path to success in this episode of the OMR Podcast, impossible seems plausible.

For the past 8 years, Margrethe Vestager has taken the fight to the world's biggest tech companies in her role as EU commissioner for competition. Despite the incredibly deep pockets of tech lobbyists, she has had some very high-profile "wins." In the OMR Podcast, she discusses what will happen next.

Almost exactly one year ago today, Morgan Selzer was appointed CCO at mindfulness platform Headspace. In that time, she has spearheaded content expansion on the platform, which now includes music, guided meditation, sleepcasts and, recently, content focussed exclusively on women's health. And her efforts have begun achieving widespread recognition, as well, as she was named Podcast Executive of the Year by Adweek last month. Morgan joined the OMR Podcast to discuss the brand partnerships and content strategy she has employed at Headspace, her role in making conversations on mental health less taboo and how her experience at CMT—of all places—helped her learn more about the audience at Headspace.

In this episode of the OMR Podcast, we are chatting with Mirko Caspar, CEO of omnichannel eyewear provider Mister Spex. Since Mirko has been at the helm, he has focussed on enhancing brand perception and convincing eyewear consumers to turn to online outlets as well as offline offerings. A decade later, a tenfold increase in annual revenue to EUR 194m is all you need to know about how it's going for Mirko and Mister Spex. We spoke about specifics regarding purchasing habits of prescription eyewear consumers, how a streamlined omnichannel shopping experience and local partnerships have contributed to growth and how AI is impacting the present and the future of Mister Spex.

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 07:28:12 +0000 https://omrpodcast-eng.podigee.io/52-johannes-kliesch-ceo-snocks 7f2de18f2bd6061cb144aef17a417374 52 full Johannes Kliesch is co-founder and CEO of Snocks, a basic fashion startup from Mannheim, Germany that has grown considerably since its founding in 2016 thanks primarily to its clever D2C business model. Recently, Snocs secured a 10-figure investment from no Philipp Westermeyer, founder and CEO of OMR / Scott Peterson, digital marketing editor, OMR

The OMR Festival is a place for the unexpected. From the guests and speakers to everything else, it's a series of moments that surprise and inspire. While surprising certainly qualifies for talking robots and a 1960s school bus converted into a mobile recording studio (where today's episode was in fact recorded), inspiring perfectly describes my guests in this episode of the OMR Podcast: Ammar Kandil co-founder of Yes Theory and Max Rantz-McDonald, who organized a Global Citizens Live event among other things. Most recently, Ammar and Max set up Team Ukraine Love, an initiative aimed at assisting Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border. I spoke to Ammar and Max about Team Ukraine Love, about Yes Theory, mobilizing community and how they use social media for good.

Our guest today in the OMR Podcast was not only instrumental in revolutionizing the music industry by inventing the iPod, but also helped lay the groundwork for the iPhone and founded—and sold—Nest (to Google). Simply put, Tony Fadell's decades-long career has been characterized by superlatives. In the OMR Podcast, guest host Florian Heinemann spoke to Tony about his past and current projects, as well as the role tech can play in protecting the environment.

In early 2021, Adam Ross was appointed CEO at Awin, the world's largest affiliate network. In the OMR Podcast, I spoke to Adam about his tenure at AWIN, how the industry has evolved from being perceived as supremely shady to an absolute must for advertisers and publishers, how the company has transformed from a niche service provider to a "feature-rich martech platform" and the impact of influencers on Awin—and Awin on influencers. If you've ever wanted to know what affiliate marketing is and why it's essential in today's landscape, this is one podcast episode you do not want to miss.

Christian Horner runs one of the top racing teams in all of Formula 1: Red Bull Racing. In the OMR Podcast, he speaks with Philipp Westermeyer this past season, one of the most exciting in recent memory. He explains what impact "Drive to Survive" has had

In 2013, SAP bought up CRM and cloud service provider Hybris for 1.5 billion US. At the time, the deal was the largest of its kind for a European entrepreneur, but for anyone in . It also came at a time when cloud technologies, their use case and applications, were in their absolute infancy. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, I had the chance to discuss the deal with Thoma, if he has any regrets about the timing and the price—can you regret a billion-dollar deal? We also discussed his activities as an angel investor, his investing strategy and we didn't leave any meat on the proverbial bone getting the low-down on his chain of BBQ smokehouses stateside.

Maya Leinenbach is not your typical teen. In the space of two years, she's transformed her passion for vegan food into a thriving love brand, Fitgreenmind. In this episode of the OMR Podcast International, she discussed how simplicity, vision, repetition and time management have all converged to let Fitgreenmind flourish.

Founded in 2015, Activant Capital was a relatively unknown VC fund until recently. A string of higher publicity investments saw Activant and its CEO & founder thrust into the proverbial limelight, but truth be told its bonafides were legit long before it started to make a name for itself: 4 funds since founding, assets totalling over USD 1.5B under management and 35 companies in the portfolio and several successful exits. Plus, last month it joined other US companies in establishing a presence in Europe. Then came the hefty investment in delivery and retail startup Jokr. Reason enough to sit down with Steve and talk shop about the VC scenes in the states and in Europe, why Jokr when competition seems fierce and some straight talk about what it means to be in the VC trade.

Last November, Lithuanian second-hand clothing app Vinted announced it would attempt to merge all 8.5 million German "Vinties" into the mother app. It was an ambitious plan with massive risk attached in a second-hand market with a total volume approaching nine figures. Much was at stake for Vinted and its CEO Thomas Plantenga, who called it "brand suicide." OMR editors Martin Gardt and Scott Peterson take a closer look at the second-hand fashion market to see if Vinted's move paid off.

If it were film, you'd think Hollywood had taken significant liberties with factual accuracy. And yet, the genesis of Gymshark, now a billion-dollar DTC fitness fashion brand, begins with all the hallmarks of a sappy Hollywood biopic. While working at a local Pizza Hut, 19-year-old Ben Francis, a dedicated weightlifter, founds his passion project Gymshark. After two years of hand-sewing clothes and barely making ends meet, he catches his big break at a local fitness trade fair, where he stumbles upon the marketing strategy that will catapult Gymshark into unicorn status. A decade after those humble beginnings, Gymshark has bulked up to heavyweight status and USD 1.45B valuation. In the OMR Podcast, Francis breaks down the marketing strategy that has helped Gymshark flex on the competition.

Today's episode is all about one of the hottest things anywhere on the internet—Pokémon cards! Search for TCG, trading card games, and unboxing, or some combination thereof on YouTube and you will find all sorts of examples of people shelling out beaucoup bucks for boxes of Pokémon cards. The hype surrounding Pokémon plays into the larger popularity of TCGs, including Magic: the Gathering, Yo-Gi-Oh and Dragonball Z, among others and their collectability—A shadowless “Charizard” Pokémon card recently fetched over 200k in an auction, while the Black Lotus card from Magic: The Gathering typically fetches over 30k. My guests today Marko Schädlich and Jamin Kauf from Cardmarket, know all there is to know about the Black Lotus and everything else on the TCG scene, as Cardmarket is Europe's largest resale platform for Trading Card Games. Cardmarket has over 100m items for sale on its platform and with 500k users from 30 countries Cardmarket is a fascinating case study in community building and target group segmentation. So without further ado, here are Marko and Jamin to give you the lowdown on how Cardmarket went from nichey passion project to big-time international player.

Phil Libin joins the OMR Podcast International this week discussing all things mmHmm (save user figures) and speaks at length about remote working, revenue generation for startups, how he came to be CEO despite a complete lack of formal training and looks back at his time at Evernote, dissecting growth strategies, the role of luck in Evernote's rise and why he considers it his life's work.

Based in Berlin and now present across Germany, the Netherlands, Paris and London, Gorillas is a grocery delivery service that promises to have groceries—at grocery store prices no less–at your door in 10 minutes or less for €1.80. Founder Kağan Sümer joins this episode of the podcast to discuss everything from how Gorillas has already managed to raise over $44m in capital from investors, why it could crack $100m in revenue this year and why the startup is on track for a USD 1b valuation. In addition, Sümer discusses why water polo, bikes, techno music and growing up in Istanbul are key elements of Gorillas' company culture.

Hollywood superstar Ashton Kutcher discusses his career on and off the silver screen, including successes and failures as an investor, why even failed investments are a net positive, which social networks he currently sees potential in and why he recently reached out to a German politician on Twitter.

As the tech and culture reporter for the New York Times, Taylor Lorenz has a knack for finding people who creatively employ apps, online tools and social media in general—oftentimes in ways that are unheard of outside of the States. A must-listen for anyone who wants to know what figures to be the next big thing.

OMR CEO Philipp Westermeyer and digital marketing editor Scott Peterson are keeping tabs on everyone who's anyone and everything that's anything in the European digital, marketing and tech space. In free-flowing talks with the biggest players and companies disrupting and shaping European tech and beyond, we keep you abreast of what's up this side of the pond. New episodes drop every couple of weeks straight to your inbox. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Nicolas Julia is the CEO and co-founder of Sorare, a platform that combines a fantasy football game with the exploding world of NFT collectables. NFT provide provable scarcity and authenticity, which make these collectable items much sought-after goods for professional collectors and investors. Nicolas joins OMR's international digital marketing editor Scott Peterson to discuss the world of NFTs, how Sorare convinced major European football (soccer) clubs to sign licensing agreements with the French startup up and how professional investors, who are driving up prices, affect the gaming aspect of Sorare.

Christian Wiens is co-founder and CEO of Getsafe, an insurtech based in Germany. In 2020, Getsafe secured USD 30m in Series B funding and has plans to further bolster its market share in the UK and Germany, its two primary markets. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, Christian speaks with OMR's international digital marketing editor Scott Peterson about the unique challenges that being an international insurance provider entails, overcoming fierce pushback from incumbents who've never had to fend off a startup and how a broken door opened up Christian to the realities of a broken system.

Howard Lerman is the CEO and founder of Yext, an NYC-based global data management company. Lerman and Yext are a familiar face in the OMR cosmos as regular participants in OMR events, including Lerman's appearance at the OMR Festival 2018. He's also a recurring guest in the OMR Podcast with Philipp Westermeyer. In this episode, the pair of CEOs talk shop, catch up and take stock of the current search landscape, which companies are finding success despite corona and why it's essential for companies to provide a search alternative to Google.

Picnic co-founder Michiel Muller talks about a modern rethink of the "Milkman" as a business strategy, a logistics overhaul and expanding in Germany in the OMR Podcast.

This episode of OMR Podcast features German influencer Stefanie Giesinger and UK internet celebrity Marcus Butler drop by to discuss Instagram fame, life as an influencer in the age of corona and their new label "nu-in."

In the latest edition of the OMR Podcast, the Galloway and Westermeyer discuss the impact of corona on both sides of the Atlantic, and Galloway offers up his prognosis on how the pandemic will reshuffle the economy and why his own business figures to be one of the winners of the crisis.

This is a special takeover episode by Fiete Gastro the culinary podcast produced by OMR and hosted by star German chef Tim Mälzer. Mälzer, whose nickname is the German Jamie Oliver for all of his contributions to creating awareness for food, cooking and health, is joined by the REAL Jamie Oliver! Tim and Jamie are a couple of old friends who met working in a kitchen in London a couple of decades ago, met up in Berlin last week to discuss nutrition and education, how they got to where they are now, reminisce about their London days with all sorts of anecdotes from the kitchen and talk in depth about Jamie's new cookbook "Veggies".

Dave Pickles co-founded one of the biggest companies you've never heard of in The Trade. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, Dave sits down with Philipp Westermeyer to discuss what The Trade Desk does, provides insights into its business model and the future for programmatic advertising.

For Sophie Trelles-Tvede, founding Invisibobble was a headache. Literally. Invisibobble, you see, is in the business of hair ties—something that always gave Tvede splitting headaches. But thanks to a bad taste party and a university in England that really wasn't challenging her, she came up with the idea for Invisibobble.

Warby Parker (glasses), Away (suitcases), Casper (mattresses) and Harry's (razors) are just a few of the feathers in David Bell's professional cap. The DTC (direct-to-consumer) guru and ex-Wharton School of business prof turned investor dropped by the OMR podcast to discuss his role in the DTC economy, why the business model's success can be traced back to exactly three reasons and to what extent DTC brands now need local branches.

In a rare podcast appearance, global pop icon Billie Eilish joins Philipp Westermeyer for only her second-ever podcast appearance.

In this episode of the OMR Podcast, Gimlet Media co-founder Matt Lieber joins OMR founder Philipp Westermeyer to discuss the recent sale of Gimlet to Spotify, what the biggest issues are facing the podcast industry and just how lucrative the podcast industry can be.

In the OMR Podcast, Sir Martin talks about life post WPP, his new company S4 and how companies can compete in a world of digital walled gardens.

In this special edition of the OMR Podcast, OMR founder Philipp Westermeyer caught up with founding member Mike D in Berlin to discuss the new book, the band's legacy, why print sucks and coping with the loss of Adam "MC A" Yauch.