B&P #53: "You have to stick to what you believe in the core"

Bits & Pretzels Podcast

Oliver Holle, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Speedinvest, shares his key takeaways from the past for founders and investors for a successful 2021

This week’s guest is Oliver Holle, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Speedinvest, one of Europe's leading investment companies, which is working with some of the household names in the startup ecosystem such as Tier, Schüttflix or Planetly.

Before becoming an investor, Oliver had started a business himself which struggled quite a bit during the first years but then merged with two other startups and became 3united, a mobile content and messaging company. It was acquired by VeriSign in 2006 for 55 million Euros.

Together with Oliver, who has lived and worked both in Silicon Valley and Europe as a founder and investor, we’ll be taking a look back to find out what learnings he has to share especially from the past year - and we will look into the future: At major trends and developments and how to succeed as a founder or investor in 2021:

“As a founder in crisis, you need to be two things. You need to be ignorant. You can't listen to everybody. You can't believe all the things people tell you, because if you do that, then you throw in the towel immediately. So you have to stick to what you believe in the core. And on the other hand, you have to listen super carefully and differentiate and substance, say, be flat, open up your inner beliefs about what you think is true and really challenge that for yourself.“

Tune in to this episode if you want to hear more about 1) Oliver’s tips for entrepreneurs on how to get through 2021 - another year which will for sure be strongly influenced by the ongoing pandemic, 2) the importance of a strong company culture and a reliable team and 3) what playing cards with his daughter has taught him about taking risks and why he recommends time offline to everyone.

More to explore:

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Host:

Britta Weddeling, Bits & Pretzels podcast host

Featuring:

Oliver Holle, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Speedinvest

Production:

professional-podcasts.com (Regina Körner, Migo Fecke), Dina Zhakupova, Sophie Dechansreiter.

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