CEO & CPO
 at 
airfocus
   

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur?

I always knew I wanted to become an entrepreneur, but I always thought I wasn't ready. Then, while struggling with product management workflows in my first job as a PM, I became obsessed with product tooling. Initially I just built for myself. Then I learned many others had this problem, too. And only then my co-founders and I started thinking about how to make this product a real business.

What should leaders understand about their own role and responsibility?

They need a great deal of empathy and energy to drive everyone to not only get stuff done, but also get the right stuff done and solve the hard problems.

What's a skill that we should pay more attention to in the workplace?

Asynchronous work: most meetings don’t need to happy and you could use tools like Notion, Google Docs/Sheets, or airfocus for async work.

What was a pivotal moment where your business made a big leap forward?

When we rebuilt the entire platform in 2020 (took us a whole year) and became the only hyperflexible solution in the product management software category. This rebuild allowed us to satisfy the needs of larger product organizations.

What's a question you like asking — yourself or others?

Is there another way to solve this? So that it gets cheaper to build/complete or a better experience/product.

What shift in perspective has allowed you to see things differently?

You need to embrace remote work. There is no way you can fight it. Instead, use its advantages (like hiring amazing people from all around the work).

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Here’s More, From Other Founders Around the World

What's a mistake that you're happy you've made?

When I was 16 (way before the internet) I founded a travel-partner agency to connect people from different backgrounds seeking travel companions. After a year, I had to close the agency due to a lack of customers and the confusion some callers had regarding the nature of the “service.” Despite this setback, I gained invaluable insights into sales, communication and people’s needs, solidifying my desire to run a business that helps people.

  
from
 
Tobias
 
Forster
Founder / CEO
 at 
GOstralia!-GOmerica!

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur?

After graduating, I worked for an extremely well-paying automotive company. But I always had the feeling that there was more out there. So I quit and went into research with the aim of becoming a founder.

  
from
 
Alexander
 
Neb
Founder, CEO
 at 
Assemblio GmbH

What should leaders understand about their own role and responsibility?

There are no overnight miracles, it's very hard work: both physically and emotionally. Requires resilience, grit, strategic approach and grind.

  
from
 
Katia
 
Yakovleva
Co-Founder and CEO
 at 
ContentRadar

What’s an important guiding principle that informs the way you build and run your business?

One of our core values is experimentation. Rather than get stuck in arguing about what solution may best solve a problem or play to our ego, we focus on the smallest step we could possibly take to learn whether that’s true. It moves our minds away from thinking too big without sweating the small stuff and from getting stuck in discussions rather than actually doing something to understand the possible solutions better.

  
from
 
Mathias
 
Meyer
Founding Partner & Executive Coach
 at 
The Intentional Organization