German Startup Awards 2023: Jenny von Podewils on Why Performance Management Fails
In short: Leapsome co-founder Jenny von Podewils won Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 at the German Startup Awards. In this interview she explains why traditional performance management fails: it only looks backward, and you cannot measure performance until people know what is expected of them. Her alternative: clear goals, continuous feedback and development.
What Is This About?
This is Episode 401 of Startuprad.io, first published on November 2, 2023. Jenny von Podewils, co-founder and co-CEO of Leapsome, had just been named Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 at the German Startup Awards, run by the German Startup Association. She explains how Leapsome grew out of its own cash flow for five years, why it then raised a $60M Series A, and how its people enablement platform replaces backward-looking reviews with alignment, feedback and development.
Founders like her sit at the centre of the networks that decide who scales in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We map those networks in our pillar on power structures, hidden champions and gatekeepers. Jenny returned to the show in 2026 for Episode 779 on Leapsome's path to an agentic HR platform.
Watch the Video Interview
Watch the full interview on YouTube.
Listen to the Audio Podcast
Listen to Episode 401 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The full transcript is at the end of this post.
Key Takeaways
Alignment comes first. People need to know what is expected of them and how their work fits the bigger picture before any performance metric means anything.
Traditional performance management fails because it is backward-looking. It reports a missed target, such as billable hours, without looking at the behaviours behind it.
Modern performance management is forward-looking and competency-based. It combines self-assessment, peer feedback and development objectives that come back up in regular one-on-ones.
Manager enablement matters as much as employee enablement. Managers have hard jobs, and the software should make that job easier, not add HR admin.
Leapsome grew out of its own cash flow from 2016 to 2022 and only then raised a $60M Series A. The goal was faster international expansion and a move upmarket, not survival.
FAQ
Who is Jenny von Podewils?
Jenny von Podewils co-founded Leapsome with Kajetan von Armansperg in 2016 and runs it as co-CEO. She studied international relations and economics in St. Gallen and environmental change and management at Oxford. Before Leapsome she worked in clean tech sales and as chief of staff to the CEO of Zeitverlag. In 2023 she won Female Entrepreneur of the Year at the German Startup Awards.
What is wrong with traditional performance management?
According to Jenny von Podewils, traditional performance management is mostly backward-looking: it records whether a target was hit but ignores the causes. Expectations are often unclear, so performance is measured against goals people never knew they had. Modern systems define expectations and competencies first, then review progress against them.
What is people enablement?
People enablement is Leapsome's term for helping employees know their strengths, what is expected of them and where they need to grow. In practice that means onboarding, continuous feedback, regular one-on-ones, periodic 360-degree reviews and development objectives that managers follow up on.
How did Leapsome grow without venture capital?
Leapsome was profitable enough to grow from its own cash flow for about five years. Jenny says that, even without VC money, its growth from $1M to $10M ARR ranked among the fastest when investors benchmarked it. In March 2022 it raised a $60M Series A led by Insight Partners, with Creandum and Visionaries Club, to expand internationally and move upmarket.
Traditional vs. Modern Performance Management
Jenny's core argument is simple: "You can't measure performance when people don't even know what's expected of them." Most review systems skip that step. They score the past, such as a missed sales number or too few billable hours, and stop there.
A modern system works the other way round. It starts by defining what success in a role looks like: the targets and the behaviours that lead to them, such as time management or time spent finding new projects. Then it looks forward: which competencies does someone need for the next role on the career ladder?
She walks through a new consultant, Mike. Mike gets structured onboarding and weekly one-on-ones with a fixed agenda. After three months he has a check-in that combines his self-assessment, his manager's view and peer feedback. Together they set two development objectives, one that builds on a strength (he is excellent at Excel modelling) and one that closes a gap (project management). Leapsome then puts those objectives back into the one-on-ones so they do not end up in a system nobody opens.
Joe pushed back from his own consulting years. Many companies run engagement surveys and then quietly drop the negative answers. Others buy a new tool and keep the old habits. Jenny agreed. She said poor performance management practice is a big reason Leapsome grew, and that the software is not neutral: it is built around a view of how reviews, OKRs and feedback should work.
In 2023, AI was already part of that. Leapsome used it to help draft OKRs, prepare review feedback from earlier notes and goals, and summarise thousands of open-text survey answers for customers such as Spotify and Northvolt.
The Guest
Jenny von Podewils wanted to become a diplomat. She studied international relations and economics at the University of St. Gallen, with semesters abroad in Geneva and Lund, and later studied environmental change and management at Oxford. Internships at the UN, in the diplomatic service and at a carbon credit company under the Kyoto Protocol pushed her towards business as a faster way to have impact. She then joined a Berlin battery-storage startup, where she moved from business development into sales, and became chief of staff to the CEO of Zeitverlag, publisher of DIE ZEIT. In 2016 she co-founded Leapsome with Kajetan von Armansperg, starting out of his kitchen.
The Company (as of 2023)
Leapsome grew from its 2016 founding without outside capital until a $60M Series A in March 2022 led by Insight Partners, with Creandum and Visionaries Club. The platform combined goals and OKRs, meeting management, engagement surveys, performance reviews and learning. Customers included Spotify and Northvolt. In 2023 the team was hiring in Berlin and New York, ran a Leapsome for Startups discount programme, and was not actively raising money.
Quote Highlights
"People need clarity what's expected of them and how their work fits into the bigger picture." — Jenny von Podewils
"A lot of the bad traditional performance management has been mainly backward looking." — Jenny von Podewils
"You can't measure performance when people don't even know what's expected of them." — Jenny von Podewils
Where Leapsome Stands Today (2026 Update)
Three years on, Leapsome looks different. In October 2024 it rebuilt its core as an HRIS, and in July 2026 it launched a unified platform with five EU-hosted AI agents, serving more than 2,000 organizations. Its 2027 Workforce Trends Report analyses how the 100 fastest-growing tech companies run HR. Jenny walks through the full ten-year journey in Episode 779, published September 29, 2026.
There Is More to This Story
For Entrepreneurs Vault members, I go one level deeper: what happened between the bootstrapped years and the AI-agent platform. Members get the side-by-side comparison of Leapsome in 2023 and 2026: what the $60M Series A was meant to fund, what was actually built, and what founders can learn about when to stop bootstrapping.
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Automated Transcript
Automated transcript of the video, lightly corrected for names. Timestamps follow the YouTube video. Minor transcription errors may remain.
[00:05] Intro: Welcome to startuprad.io, your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews, and live events.
[00:19] Joe: Hello and welcome everybody, this is Joe from startuprad.io, your startup podcast, YouTube blog, and internet radio station from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in English. Today I do have another guest here with me, Jenny, the winner of the Female Entrepreneur 2023 for the German Startup Awards, co-CEO and co-founder of Leapsome. Hey Jenny, how you doing?
[00:45] Jenny: I'm really happy to be here with you today.
[00:47] Joe: Totally my pleasure. Uh, we may say that this interview is supported by startupraven.com. A startup journey can be a tough one, but it doesn't have to feel like you're alone on your quest. Invest in others' success with us, joining our community of entrepreneurs who are building amazing things every day, no matter how big or small their ideas may seem at first glance. Best way to register early is startupraven.com. And we may also say that this interview is in cooperation with the German Startup Association, Bundesverband Deutscher Startups, and the German Startup Awards. They honor each year outstanding female and male entrepreneurs and investors in special categories. You can learn more in the link down here in the show notes.
[01:37] Joe: And of course, there is a playlist for our interviews from 2021 and 2022. That is now all out of the way. Um, I was actually— we talk about the person first. Um, when I'm looking at your background, I, I was wondering, are you currently in NYC?
[01:59] Jenny: Yes, I am. I'm sitting here. I'm actually working from home today out of Brooklyn. Um, our office is over in Manhattan, but I had some early meetings, so didn't make the commute today. So you, you see a tiny bit of my, my, uh, place if you're on the YouTube channel.
[02:16] Joe: It reminded me a little bit of a brownstone, what you're showing there in the back. So that, that was my first hint. But before we get to your US expansion, US location, um, I've been looking at your LinkedIn profile, which is linked down here in the show notes. You've gotten quite around. You've been in St. Gallen, in Lund, in Geneva, and in Oxford. What drove you to study at all those universities?
[02:42] Jenny: That's a good question. So when I mean, even going back to school, I think the most influential teacher I've had in school was my politics teacher. And I think he ultimately sparked a lot of interest in me in tackling some of the big global challenges. And when I finished high school, I ultimately wanted to become a diplomat. So I ended up going to St. Gallen because they had an international relations study that seemed to be a really cool way to move into that direction. However, St. Gallen is a very business-heavy school.
[03:21] Jenny: So in the end, I actually ended up studying politics or international relations and economics, like a dual degree. With also a lot of exposure to business studies. And Geneva and Lund were just semesters abroad. Always liked to explore new things, try new things, and had the opportunity to do that twice, which was a lot of fun. And then I actually took a year in between my undergrad and my postgrad and actually did an internship both with the UN as well as and the diplomatic service and figured out I really do want to work on these big global challenges. However, I do need— I'm very impatient. I needed another way to have impact faster. And the third internship I actually did at the time was with a carbon origination and trading company.
[04:12] Jenny: So under the Kyoto Protocol, there was a way to basically build projects that reduced CO2 in certain countries, often with a development impact, and then actually sell those carbon credits to ultimately finance these projects. And I thought it was so cool because it was very impactful, but it was a very entrepreneurial organization. And that got me hooked to doing, yeah, having impact through a business and an entrepreneurial path. And my studies in Oxford were actually very much focused on environmental change and management. So as the continuation of that from a studying perspective.
[04:52] Joe: And now you have to take the leap together with us because then you ended up in a sales role. How on earth did that happen?
[05:02] Jenny: Very clear progression. So I,
[05:07] Joe: um, I'm curious how this clear progression comes along.
[05:11] Jenny: So after Oxford, I ended up starting to work for a clean tech or green tech startup. Again, like really cool impact-driven cause. We were working on building pretty much the missing piece to get to 100% renewable energy future by building battery storage and smart controls and algorithms, getting them onto grid and ultimately thereby being able to stabilize the grid in every sort of like shorter moment, which is something that's historically done by rotating masses of power plants. So, it's very impactful. It was very impactful technology, very cool startup and founders. And I joined the company in a fairly undefined role and then actually ended up sliding into like a business development, but then increasingly sales role. So, I never planned my career in sales. And I think a lot of people actually coincidentally end up in a sales role, but I really loved it.
[06:09] Jenny: Like, it was very entrepreneurial, early stage sales, but I learned so much doing that on the job. And yeah, I think it's been a really, really great foundation as a founder that you actually have had exposure to sales in the past.
[06:24] Joe: Let's see if there's really a linear progression here, for, for, for the very simple reason because the next thing you have been doing is then ending up in a newspaper here in Germany, Zeit, also known as the number one place where you would advertise if there's a chair open to become a professor at a university or stuff like that?
[06:51] Jenny: Yes, that's one business area they're very strong at. So I got the opportunity to work as chief of staff, Referentengeschäftsführung, for the CEO of Zeitverlag. And again, like the sort of like continuation was it's a very impact-oriented business in the sense that I believe quality media, and I would say the Zeit, like their flagship product, is probably still by far the best publication within Germany. And I believe that quality newspapers or quality journalism, I mean, it doesn't matter what form, is the 4th pillar of democracy. So again, very impactful cause. And I got the opportunity to be exposed and work on a lot of transformation and change projects. And I thought it was actually a really interesting challenge after being in the startup world to see how a more established business actually works and what some of the challenges actually are there. And there's actually, I can talk about that in a second, some similarities between the startup and the Zeitverlag challenges that I saw that actually led to why Leapsome exists.
[08:02] Jenny: And yeah, so it was again, like really strong impact orientation. It's still relatively sort of like entrepreneurial organization certain ways. Um, and, um, yeah, an opportunity to have impact, to learn fast, and work with really, really great people.
[08:21] Joe: And then, as you, as you already said, 2016, you co-founded Leapsome. Um, actually, that, that is quite some time. That are now 7 years. Did you think at the time you would still be around, let's say, 5 or 7 years after founding the company?
[08:41] Jenny: I mean, I would say every founder has a big vision. And I mean, we had a really big drive to succeed. I don't think you start a company necessarily if you don't believe you can make it. So we very much had this drive and this vision ahead of us. And obviously there also is always the risk of failing. But I mean, I think we got pretty far.
[09:08] Joe: I think so as well. And 5 years after founding the startup, you made the first investment. Everybody would think, yeah, a few million here and there, but actually you then raised just from nowhere Series A of $60 million US dollars. Um, can you take us a little bit along the journey when you started out until this funding and what Leapsome actually does?
[09:34] Jenny: Yeah. So, I mean, ultimately, Kajetan von Armansperg and I founded Leapsome because of the challenges we'd seen in previous organizations. And I mean, going back to sort of these previous experiences I mentioned, I think in order to succeed, a company needs to be really, really strongly aligned, whether it's a phase of growth or a phase of transformation. And what do we mean by alignment? Like, it's how do you march to the same tune? Like, does everybody know where we're heading as the company, what might department, my individual role is in ultimately getting there. So, we'd seen, like, a fuzziness in that alignment in previous organizations we worked for, and that was one of the things we wanted to tackle. In addition to that, if you want to be successful as an organization, you don't just need an aligned workforce, but you also ultimately need an organization and an environment in which people can succeed. And this was also something where we saw, like, how hard it is to scale that, how hard it is to also keep evolving the organization the way you need it when you're under the pressure to transform. So, we really also wanted to help companies to really build and iterate and continue to build really exceptional organizations based on data, like what do people need to be successful in these organizations? What that means from a product perspective, I can talk about in a second.
[10:50] Jenny: And in addition to that, the third challenge we've seen in these previous organizations we worked for is, were we as individuals, as managers, really supported to grow and develop alongside the challenges we had ahead of us. And that's sort of like people enablement in the core. Like, do people know their strengths? Do people know where they stand, what's expected of them, where they need to sort of like grow, develop? That's also something that often really didn't work in the organizations we worked for. So, we ultimately, with Leapsome, we've built the tool that Kajetan and I were missing in these previous organizations we've worked for. And we started the company out of Kajetan's kitchen in end of 2016 and started to like really start with the question of what makes people successful in organizations and thought about different processes, just different starting points. And I think back in the time, we always would have had the assumption that we might be raising in a year or 2 when we have the first product, first traction. But what ultimately happened is we were so successful with the product we'd launched that we were able to actually grow out of cashflow very fast and very effectively. So when we actually then finally decided to raise, and I can talk about why we did that, we were benchmarked against a lot of other startups of how long it took us, for example, to get from $1 to $10 million ARR.
[12:10] Jenny: And despite not having VC funding, we actually were in the top tier of companies when it came to the speed of our growth, just by having been able to hit a pain and build a product that serves this pain very, very effectively. So we didn't necessarily, we didn't bootstrap growing out of our cash flow from a dogmatic standpoint, but we were able to do that in a very effective way. And then early 2022, we basically asked ourselves, like, what do we need to unlock the next stage of growth? Like, how do we get to $100 million ARR? Like, what are the things that need to change? What do we need to invest in? And we basically decided like, we really want to double down our international expansion. We want to double down on moving more upmarket. We already had really exciting customers in, in, in the sort of like bigger segments, like Spotify, for example, that was already an early customer. And so in order to double down on some of these additional growth hypotheses, expansion, moving upmarket, we decided it would now actually be helpful. to have additional cash to invest upfront. And that's basically the point in time when we decided to bring in external funding.
[13:24] Jenny: And we did a very lean round quite successfully, brought Insight Partners on board. They're an incredible software investor, actually also helpful beyond the money. And yeah, great partners, very, very happy to have them. Also, Creandum and Visionaries are great funds. Um, also incredible smart people. And yeah, that's, that's been a bit of, of, of the story there. And I haven't talked about the product, but I can do that at a later stage.
[13:51] Joe: Yes, but I would, I would give you a lead into the product because you said with the co-founder you had a few assumptions what makes companies successful. Can you walk us through those assumptions and how you struct— how you build a product out of that?
[14:10] Jenny: Yeah. I mean, it's basically the— I've implicitly mentioned those already. So, the first one for me is alignment. Like, is there clarity of where we're going, what every department, every team is expected? Like, people need clarity what's expected of them and how their work fits into the bigger picture in order to succeed in organizations. And some of the ways we support that is breaking strategy down into goals, into OKRs, but also staying aligned all the way to the daily do. Yeah. through really effective meeting management. And that's, I think you said we are an HR platform or something along those lines.
[14:49] Jenny: And we would actually, I think we're often considered HR tech, but ultimately, we actually consider ourselves something technically beyond, because that really goes into how do we enable managers to do their role well? How do we enable the C-level to ultimately execute on their strategy? And that's the first dimension. That's the alignment piece. The second piece is, how do we build organizations in which people can succeed? And in order to do that, we need to first measure what works and what doesn't work. And one way we empower that is actually doing that with engagement surveys, pulse surveys, pretty much measuring the pulse of the organization, listening to your employees that often do know what works and what doesn't work, but not stopping there. Like, so basically, we aggregate that data in real time. But we help you to segment that data, where certain challenges in the organizations, where things improving, deteriorating, but even going a step further and making that data actionable in order to suggest, like, what's your next smartest step in order to actually improve your organization and be that environment and build that environment in which people can be successful. And then the third dimension, and I would actually even divide that into 2, is people enablement and manager enablement. So, people enablement and going into that, maybe an element of that is performance management, really starts with generating clarity of what's expected of people.
[16:21] Jenny: Like, you can't measure performance when people don't even know what's expected of them. So, generating that clarity, what is expected of you in your role, Joe? And then also working, basically providing clarity, what's expected maybe in the next role, what are competencies, what are career ladders, and making sure there's instant feedback, continuous feedback, but also we take a step back at a certain point in time to review where you're at, what worked, have you delivered on these expectations, but also what are your next steps. And then supporting the individual also with pushing through on development objectives, pushing through on learning. And that's basically what we do along the entire employee journey. Like, you get support being onboarded, you have first feedback interactions maybe 3 months after being onboarded continuously as part of your one-on-one check-ins, but then maybe biannual 360 to have an even more holistic view on where you're at and where you can go next. And then, from a manager perspective, it's somewhat similar, but it's really something we aren't optimized for the HR persona. Obviously, we serve the HR persona because they set up a lot of these processes. But we've truly always optimized to be set up to optimize for the end user.
[17:36] Jenny: So, the individual, but also the manager. Managers have really hard jobs. There's a lot that's expected of them. So, helping them to really understand how they're leading their team, what are the strengths of the people on their team, what are people struggling with, and really helping them through the combination of that alignment data, managing their meetings, having understanding of the competencies and the development tracks of their team, knowing what works and what doesn't work on the team through the survey data. We really help managers to actually make their jobs easier. And actually, a really cool continuation of that is we've also been integrating a lot of AI features. And so, in multiple parts of the platform. So, we help you to draft good OKRs with AI, like if you don't know how to put it right, like put a couple of prompts and we help you to actually get those right.
[18:33] Jenny: When people write reviews, for example, like a lot of people, for a lot of people, it's much easier to edit rather than to start on a blank sheet of paper. So we help you, you put a couple of prompts in into like the review where you write, you see the contextual information of the feedback you've previously shared, the goals of that person, and we actually help you to then draft like really effective feedback to then prepare really effective feedback conversations with that little AI augmentation to make your job as a manager easier. And also in a similar way, like for example, we have some organizations like Spotify, Northvolt, parts of like Mercedes-Benz or Volkswagen, very big organizations in North America, different parts of Europe, where you have surveys that run with, I don't know, 5,000, 10,000 employees. And right, like we also help you to not just understand the quantitative data, but we also now aggregate the qualitative data with AI. So you have an instantaneous understanding of what are the comments, what is the sentiments across certain themes to really make that really rich qualitative data of the comments of people instantaneously actionable and helpful. And I think this is where all of the advances we've seen in generative AI unlock like a huge new level. of really augmenting the HR professionals, the HR business partners, the managers to truly do their jobs more effectively.
[20:04] Joe: When you've been talking about that, I saw a lot of buzzwords and I went through my own experience as a consultant as well as an employee. And you've been talking about the alignment with strategy. There are barely any companies out there where you can tell they do have a strategy. A lot of people mistake an Excel sheet as a strategy, but that is just the result of a strategy.
[20:32] Jenny: Yeah.
[20:33] Joe: And, um, personal experience, I, I've seen many organizations where they have like instant surveys, Yammer was around and stuff like that, but it appears, um, that they just eliminate the negative feedback. They, they just ignore the negative feedback. Yeah, there are some negative pieces here, we just ignore them. And everything is, is honey. Everything is wonderful. And we do those surveys on a regular basis, says the manager. And he just doesn't, doesn't say, well, you know, there's a lot of negative feedback. They just, they just say, oh, that, that's, that's an extreme.
[21:17] Joe: We just eliminate this one and that one and this one, and then you get a good result. So, um, I've— I see the usefulness of the tool, but you have to apply it really. Um, people enablement and manager enablement— I'm, I'm really traumatized by that one because in the past, especially as a consultant, you get mostly measured by KPIs that you yourself probably cannot influence. Um, most depends on if you're on project And if you're on project, depends on what projects the company gets. Um, that also depends on the partners and the directors and how they want to staff it. So that's the, I would say, 80, 90, 95% of your performance, and you can totally not influence it. So there are definitely companies where this really can work, but there is a a big, big lot of potential to really just make a bad company continue in their ways. Um, do you have some experience how companies are actually using it to, to really improve, to get over this? Because especially in Germany, I have seen that people are just introducing new tools, but they don't change the way they do stuff.
[22:43] Joe: They don't change their mindset. They don't change, um, anything. It's just a new tool and they do the same stuff with it.
[22:52] Jenny: No, I agree. And I think that's part of the— I mean, I would say that's part of the challenge of the topic, and it's also like a huge driver behind our growth, right? A lot of people have been burned by terrible performance management, terrible talent management, and I think there's a lot of Or like there have been, and there still unfortunately are a lot of really, really poor practices and processes out there. And I mean, ultimately that's the reason like Leapsome isn't just a software for people enablement, OKRs, modern performance management, employee engagement. We actually aren't like an empty software, but we have a stance. So we actually have a perspective on how these things were done in an effective and a pretty much right way. And just to make it very tangible, like for example, what you've mentioned. So, I think a lot of sort of the bad traditional performance management has been mainly backward-looking, right? So, you only said like, Joe, like you haven't met your target for billable hours, for example. So, purely backward-looking, not looking at the underlying causes, like not putting that into any perspective.
[24:03] Jenny: Whereas modern performance management we see is often like, there's obviously, we need to talk about sort of like, how did, I mean, first of all, again, it starts with clarifying the expectations. So, what do I expect of you to be successful in your role? Is billable hours one element of that? But maybe what are the leading behaviors that ultimately lead to that happening? Like, do you have good time management? I mean, that's a very basic one. Are you spending enough time maybe prospecting new projects, for example? Like just a lot of clarity on what's expected of you. And then in addition to that, it's also much more forward-looking and competency-oriented, right? What are the underlying behaviors for you to be successful in your role, for you to grow into the next role, right? Maybe in this stage, it's actually supporting— if you're a consultant, it's maybe supporting proposals, being effective in identifying pains of future clients, making strong sales pitches, whereas maybe the next step on the career ladder you're working towards is like actually leading the sales process with potential future consulting clients. So, just generating that clarity, not just on or having the conversation what worked well in the last period, but being very clear on what the underlying competencies and behaviors are and what you need to develop to potentially, if you want to grow into the next role. And, um, that's one, I would say, key characteristic where the old and the new systems differ. In addition—
[25:36] Joe: Made this experience because they, they have expectations defined so wide you could drive a Boeing through. And, um, then you have trainings that should enable you to get competencies, but actually it's just, um, skills on the job. that you need, and you don't have like a real development program in many companies. That is, that is something you're working on.
[26:03] Jenny: Exactly. So maybe just to finish quickly, the performance piece. So I think in addition to that, rather than just getting like reviewed by your manager, often I think modern processes take different perspectives into account. So while your manager might see you in certain situations, maybe also generate, or like including a certain level of peer feedback, ensuring you also have an opportunity to truly share like your perspective, your self-assessment. I think those are different building blocks and I could go to further ones that differentiate the old bet from the more modern people-centric process that ultimately really help lead to better performance. And, and to your point, like if we look at, at, at this from an employee process, let's say we have Mike. Mike is a consultant and Mike started a new job and on Leapsome, like he's, getting support with his onboarding. So, first of all, he's getting certain trainings to be accustomed to the key processes, the key things he needs to learn.
[27:05] Jenny: Some of that might be digital. Some of that might be certain mentorship sessions or trainings with other folks from within the company. So, he's first of all getting all the support he needs to understand like what he needs to be successful in his role. Then after, then we might support Mike and his manager to have like a weekly one-on-one check-in with a really clearly defined agenda. Like, I personally always like to start with like a check-in, how are you doing? Clarity of like, what do you need support from me on? Direction, coaching, what are just updates for me? What are some of the bottlenecks you need support on? So, I'm starting to have these conversations between the manager and Mike on an ongoing basis. Then maybe after 3 months, he has his first probation check-in or 3-month check-in. And there we review, like, do you have everything you need to be successful in your role? Do you have clarity of what's expected of you? Let's review how you're making progress on the things that are expected of you. Let's rate you or, like, give you feedback on the certain competencies you need to be successful in your role.
[28:10] Jenny: And then we have a joint conversation around that, potentially also incorporating peer feedback to have a good understanding of where Mike is. Mike has a good understanding of where he is. And then we nudge you to define, for example, like a development objective. So, Mike knows, well, I'm strong on this part, and it's very important for people to know their strengths to build on. Maybe there's other areas he needs to compensate on. And maybe we set 2 development objectives, one that's strengths-oriented, so Mike can focus, like, to really double down on his strengths, because that's going to be his superpower in our team. And I, as the manager, now have that clarity, like, Mike is the superstar when it comes to Excel modeling. So, I'm going to, later when I think about attributing work or initiatives in the team, to really build upon that understanding.
[28:56] Jenny: But maybe there's like, Mike is really bad at project management and he does need to work on that a tiny bit to be successful in that consultant role. Then we jointly define these development objectives and Leapsome pushes them into your one-on-ones again. So, you have these regular conversations maybe on a monthly basis again to make sure we don't just set them and they're in some system that nobody checks in and everybody forgets about them. They become actionable. They actually really help you to continuously work on and with them. And then we can review it again, maybe in 3 or 6 months. And when we have another, like, more holistic step-back touchpoint, and that's exactly the kind of system that helps Mike and his manager to be aligned and for Mike to truly succeed in his role.
[29:43] Joe: That would be really cool. if performance management at one point really works like that. And everybody would like to learn more, we link your company website down here in the show notes. We're already talking a little bit longer than usual for the simple reason that's an important topic for a lot of people. We know especially a lot of entrepreneurs are listening and they just built a little bit of model how this could work together here. Um, We usually end with 2 final questions. One of them, are you currently looking to hire people?
[30:20] Jenny: Yes, we are. We're always hiring. And I think maybe we can link our careers page and the show notes so that people have the best up-to-date view and all the exciting positions we're hiring for in Berlin and New York.
[30:32] Joe: We actually have a lot of new listeners. I think we, we may pass 200,000 listeners in our podcast this month. So we, what we usually do, we have one block post on Medium. Go down here in the show notes, there you find the Medium blog post, and there you find all the relevant links. For the very simple reason it's a nightmare to change a link or comment once it's out there. That's why we are linking to the Medium blog. And secondly, you raised, um, a Series A round back in 2022. Would you be willing to talk to new investors?
[31:06] Jenny: I mean, we're pretty laser-focused on execution, so we're not actively fundraising But as I do know, the investor community folks do generally always reach out no matter what. I think we just always need to be very intentional given how many things are going on and we can't do everything at the same time, how much time we can allocate to certain things.
[31:32] Joe: Great. So bottom line, if they are interested, they should reach out. We link your LinkedIn profile down here in the show notes. And if they are helpful, they may even get some feedback from you guys. Um, congratulations again on winning German Start Award Female Entrepreneur of the Year 2023.
[31:51] Jenny: And maybe, Joe, if I may actually mention one more thing, we actually have a Start Leapsome for Startups program where we have really attractive discounts for earlier stage companies, um, because we know, I think, part of what made us successful as Leapsome how we got this far is because we've done, we've been eating our own dog food. Like we've been really truly working on that alignment, that building a great organization and people enablement piece. And we want to give back to that early stage startup community. So we have the Leapsome for Startups program. Maybe we can also send over that link. And yeah, no, it was a lot of fun to talk to you.
[32:28] Joe: Down here.
[32:30] Jenny: Awesome. And congratulations to you for this amazing reach and listenership, if that's the right word.
[32:38] Joe: Yeah, totally fine. Thank you very much. Totally my pleasure.
[32:43] Jenny: Awesome. Thanks, Joe.
[32:44] Joe: Have a good day. Bye-bye.
[32:51] Intro: That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startuprad.io. Remember, sharing is caring.
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About the Author
Jörn "Joe" Menninger is the founder and host of Startuprad.io, the English-language startup podcast and media platform covering Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 2014, with 1,700+ podcast episodes across the franchise. He has more than 15 years of experience in management consulting and writes from Frankfurt am Main. Connect on LinkedIn.
Originally published on November 2, 2023, as Episode 401 (Medium archive). Republished from the Startuprad.io archive. Machine-readable index: Startuprad.io LLM index.
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