Meet Germany’s Effortless All-In-One HR Software Startup Kenjo — Founder Interview
- Juan Diego Parra Castillo
- 2 days ago
- 25 min read
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
This article is part of our coverage of Startuprad.io Knowledge Graph: The DACH Startup Ecosystem.
Executive Summary
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.
Kenjo is Germany’s rising HR Tech star.
A startup’s journey can be a tough one, but it doesn’t have ́to feel like you’re alone on your quest!
The best way to find investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups.
David Padilla (https://www.
New Blog
Meet Germany’s Effortless All-In-One HR Software Startup Kenjo — Founder Interview Startuprad.io brings you independent coverage of the key developments shaping the startup and venture capital landscape across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
Kenjo is the number one challenger of unicorn PersonioDavid Padilla, Co-Founder and CEO Kenjo
Executive Summary
Kenjo is Germany’s rising HR Tech star. They are the main competitor of Personio but are more standardized with a larger potential customer base. Despite being very young, they have already customers across Europe and the US. They count amongst their early investors the co-founders of the unicorns Taxfix and Wefox.
“I thought always I was ending up in London, but then Julian Teicke — now the founder and CEO unicorn WeFox — called me up … .”David Padilla, Co-Founder and CEO Kenjo
Subscribe Here
“In the beginning, DeinDeal was total madness and chaos and I loved it.”David Padilla, Co-Founder and CEO Kenjo
Our Sponsor Startupraven
A startup’s 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 by 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.
The best way to find investors and cooperation partners for early-stage startups. Sign up here:
The Video Interview is set to go live on Thursday, August 25th, 2022
The Audio Interview
You can subscribe to our podcasts here.
The Founder
David Padilla (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidpadillazh/) was born and raised in Madrid. He started out as a developer originally for DeinDeal AG in Zürich but is not actively coding right now. After leaving DeinDeal David co-founded EMPAUA in Berlin in 2014. There he realized the need for software that Kenjo is providing right now. At EMPAUA and Kenjo David was joined by the serial entrepreneur Julia Theicke, known as co-founder of unicorn WeFox.
The Startup
Kenjo is an all in one HR Platform, that helps companies do three things:
Core HR (all HRdata, workflows)
Recruitment
Performance management
They are pretty young, but already have Dominos, Jaguar and Landrover as reference customers. The startup has locations in Berlin, Zürich, and Madrid.
Venture Capital Funding
Amongst their investors are the co-founders of unicorn Taxfix and Wefox. Kenjo has raised 7.2 m US$ in total, investors also include Redalpine and The Delta.
Tune in to our Internet Radio Station here:
Feedback
We are always looking for ways to make the show better. Please take this opportunity and share your feedback with us! You can also suggest topics or interview partners that you’d like featured on future episodes by leaving a comment below — we would love to hear from YOU!!!
The Interviewer
This interview was conducted by Jörn “Joe” Menninger, startup scout, founder, and host of Startuprad.io. Reach out to him:
Keep Up to Date
Here is our publication calendar:
Automated Transcript
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 → 00:00:07.760Music.
00:00:07.609 → 00:00:13.023Startuprad.io your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene.
00:00:12.880 → 00:00:18.800Music.
00:00:18.646 → 00:00:31.036Hello and welcome everybody this is Joe from celebrated are all your startup podcast and YouTube blog from Germany looking a little bit sweaty because we are recording this at the end of June
00:00:30.988 → 00:00:43.6572022 and it’s actually getting really really hard right now in Germany and you know we German guys are not used to it that’s a totally different story for David my guests today hey give it
00:00:43.600 → 00:00:52.282Hi how are you how are you I’m doing great and I remember in Madrid it gets really really hot right.
00:00:52.855 → 00:01:02.643That’s right yeah you’re right you’re right so this is actually not not so difficult for me fortunately but I’ve been living in Germany for a long time now
00:01:02.631 → 00:01:09.800this is my sixth year now so yeah I think I you know I’m not getting used to it,
00:01:09.878 → 00:01:22.142and today you are a liar interview guests because you’re running tenjou which we will get to later and kenjo I would you said is the number one
00:01:22.103 → 00:01:30.091Challenger of persona which is already a unicorn here in Germany is that approximately right.
00:01:30.205 → 00:01:36.879This is that’s absolutely right that’s absolutely right wonderful so now we have,
00:01:36.975 → 00:01:44.513set the stage let us take a little dive into what are you doing so basically we realized we’ve been both
00:01:44.411 → 00:01:52.246in Madrid 2004 during the train bombings but at this time we didn’t know each other but you’ve been growing
00:01:52.180 → 00:01:59.294up there and can you tell us a little bit what you’ve been doing before because I’ve seen
00:01:59.247 → 00:02:10.079you’ve been Java coder to lose a joke Kota joke yes absolutely in my some at the beginning of my career I have technical background
00:02:10.013 → 00:02:14.967I actually studied in Scotland for two years then went back to Spain.
00:02:15.091 → 00:02:28.768And I think IT consulting for a few years before I started in my my interpreter journey and developer joke I it’s been a long time since I I don’t go and I’m not so involved in to Colleen anymore.
00:02:28.954 → 00:02:36.330I’m sorry I guess I’ll use a classic one big the classic joke of it’s not a it’s not a back it’s a feature,
00:02:36.399 → 00:02:45.809whenever someone complains about the about the product because I don’t know how to use it and I think it’s also one of those is one of those jokes that brings a lot of joy to developers you do because they’re like
00:02:45.662 → 00:02:52.543hey I did this the way it was supposed to at least the way I was told I should do it and it’s there now if it doesn’t work as expected.
00:02:52.855 → 00:03:00.573I’ve done my job yeah the the usual thing the progress of the problem is in front of the screen right,
00:03:00.651 → 00:03:03.580I have seen you have
00:03:03.559 → 00:03:11.457started as a Salesforce developer in lovely too rich for minded
00:03:11.355 → 00:03:23.421Auggie I think that’s where your entrepreneurial Journey really started can you tell us a little bit about what you’ve been doing there and how you moved up to head of operations there.
00:03:24.093 → 00:03:35.916Absolutely yes I’m so after a few years in Spain working in IT consulting and where I mainly was working in cloud computing and say force in the Salesforce the Salesforce ecosystem.
00:03:36.210 → 00:03:50.193And that’s that was that connects why then later I think we’ll get there why I eventually founded a company in the Salesforce partner basically and we’re going back then in 2011 I was in Spain.
00:03:50.479 → 00:03:59.466Working in as I said in IT consulting and for already back then for a couple of years I had filled this.
00:03:59.796 → 00:04:00.726Spinner.
00:04:00.867 → 00:04:10.476Let’s say urge to understand startups into basically to go work for a start-up to understand what are these companies are growing so fast these days back then
00:04:10.455 → 00:04:15.9312010–2011 the startups in Spain was non-existent they were like.
00:04:16.072 → 00:04:25.941Literally two companies that were relatively famous or very small ecosystem and I started looking for a job to join a fast-growing.
00:04:26.119 → 00:04:29.029I always thought I would end up in London.
00:04:29.494 → 00:04:40.642But then I got a call from a crazy guy his name is Julian Tai Chi we I think we maybe I can tell everyone about his data because he’s a CEO from brief exchange your take,
00:04:40.666 → 00:04:49.275the u.s. also unicorn and one of my he’s one of my angels and investors and but he was one of the founders of that company time deal in City.
00:04:49.425 → 00:05:03.013Give me a call 11 days later I landed in Zurich and I started working for them I landed in the right place at the right time company was growing super quickly and I wanted to also understand.
00:05:03.325 → 00:05:11.844The business part of the side of things I already had been working in tech for a few years but I wanted to understand from a business perspective.
00:05:12.381 → 00:05:19.910Everything as much as I could operations and that’s how I transition internally in the company to an operations or basically.
00:05:20.267 → 00:05:23.574In the beginning was that helping a sales guys and,
00:05:23.652 → 00:05:31.946sell more sell more efficiently and then eventually I ended up living in tight entire operations and just to give you an idea so you have a,
00:05:32.015 → 00:05:43.091a you can get a paint a picture of a of the madness that was going inside inside the company that time we went from around 8 million in Revenue to 100 million in three and a half years
00:05:43.088 → 00:05:47.223so it was it was total Madness chaos and I loved it
00:05:47.175 → 00:05:54.839it’s not too late even though I think I never worked I’ve never worked as hard to be honest and,
00:05:54.863 → 00:06:02.437but it was a great challenge it was a great opportunity to growth and even though I was not I was not a founder.
00:06:02.650 → 00:06:05.443For me that’s the start of my entrepreneurial Journey.
00:06:06.458 → 00:06:19.847Hmm I think we have a quarter promote this interview dandy like yet it was total chaos they were total Madness and I loved it but at one point it looks like.
00:06:20.069 → 00:06:27.895Looks like end of 2015 you jump ship and dandy laggy and basically.
00:06:28.315 → 00:06:37.041Co-founded a company in Berlin I would pronounce and poor and you pronounce.
00:06:37.192 → 00:06:51.06710 power and power ik can you tell us a little bit what you doing there because my understanding is you’re still a co-founder you still on Equity but you’re not operationally involved in it anymore right.
00:06:51.424 → 00:07:01.375Correct that’s rightyes so I will tell you also a little bit of the the story how we hide out there and and in,
00:07:01.453 → 00:07:13.186in 2015 the deal was acquired by Media Group from from Switzerland called Rainier and the founders transition leave the company,
00:07:13.291 → 00:07:14.311and I also thought.
00:07:14.668 → 00:07:24.114What’s next for myself where do I where do I want to do what do I want to do for the next stage of my of my life and my career and then I asked myself what do I,
00:07:24.201 → 00:07:31.649no what can I do well and two things came to mind one of them was myself was background and I had.
00:07:31.835 → 00:07:43.487Been working with the technology to help scale other companies and in particular time deal and and I knew how to run the operations of a fastest growing business.
00:07:43.655 → 00:07:48.663Then that was why that’s why I didn’t.
00:07:48.778 → 00:07:56.126Together with Julian tiger the see of Rome we focus on my mic off my partner and co-founder Adam Powers work and in other people.
00:07:56.249 → 00:08:06.164We can to Germany to Berlin said okay we’re going to build the first European say for spare for BC back startups because what we know how to do well is scale companies.
00:08:06.620 → 00:08:12.204And in Salesforce technology and we know Salesforce can help startups grow,
00:08:12.292 → 00:08:21.072very well very fast is a very practical perspective something very agile that you can adjust very quickly as the company grows and so we put these two things together.
00:08:21.249 → 00:08:25.438And and build basically of co-founded in power in 2015.00:08:25.849 → 00:08:34.125And you’re there Europe’s only Salesforce for startups partner right yes correct.
00:08:34.464 → 00:08:44.793Can you tell us like the people for me and a few thousand people will listen to this interview and most of them will have a clue what’s a force is but
00:08:44.646 → 00:08:54.056can you tell dual mansplaining for guys like me what Salesforce actually is and what you did because
00:08:53.954 → 00:08:56.109I personally don’t have a clue.
00:08:56.304 → 00:09:10.413Yes I absolutely Salesforce I would say it used to be a CRM customer relationship management system to manage their relationships with your customers in the beginning very very very much focused on sales,
00:09:10.491 → 00:09:19.226and then over time it has grown to become a full customer let’s the customer experience platform where you can mark it.
00:09:19.944 → 00:09:24.493And generate demand for your business or Market your products or services.
00:09:24.733 → 00:09:33.261Then organize sales in also customer service in support only one platform and in my opinion for the Enterprise it has the,
00:09:33.348 → 00:09:42.578the most powerful underlying technology that gives companies the ability that they need to change processes and to adapt at data as they scale.
00:09:42.854 → 00:09:51.139Mmmh I see but and one point you then decided to really.
00:09:51.731 → 00:09:58.251Go out for yourself and co-founded another company and that is.
00:09:58.374 → 00:10:04.553Be intertek kenjo .i o will be talking about today right
00:10:04.532 → 00:10:17.372yes exactly and so what happened was since the there’s another let’s listen to the story that intertwines with the with my my my whole personal story and.
00:10:17.882 → 00:10:23.836Pin at some point in Switzerland exertion 14 2015 14 I became a manager for the first time.
00:10:24.166 → 00:10:32.118And I realized how much I actually liked the whole topic of people management and helping.
00:10:32.844 → 00:10:36.907People be their best at work creating.
00:10:37.111 → 00:10:43.335Opportunities at work where they could play to their strengths making people work better work better together from from a
00:10:43.305 → 00:10:56.244soft skills but also hard skills and that was my kind of first place a first connection with HR and then I put all of that into in practice when I found it in power when I fought in my first company.
00:10:56.403 → 00:11:05.777Just to give you an idea we implemented holacracy or Legacy is like a new radical way to manage companies without bosses with full transparency.
00:11:05.909 → 00:11:14.392Very Niche not a lot of people know about this system and but it was it was for us it wasn’t our attempt to try out new things.
00:11:14.686 → 00:11:25.816Around people management and because we were passionate about it because we liked it and we wanted to find out how we could create the most engaging workplace possible.
00:11:26.065 → 00:11:29.993So was that it wasn’t for me a time to experiment with.
00:11:30.251 → 00:11:39.031People management and at the same time I was doing a lot of recruitment growing my company Performance Management.
00:11:39.146 → 00:11:48.070I mean stuff as well and eventually I realized that there was an opportunity from from an impact perspective.
00:11:48.265 → 00:11:53.678And from a that’s a financial perspective a market for a company like kenjo.
00:11:54.008 → 00:12:00.304And can you it’s a it’s an all-in-one HR platform that helps companies do now three things mainly.
00:12:00.877 → 00:12:06.011Core we call Core HR so it’s a system of record for all the employee data.
00:12:06.396 → 00:12:13.555Where you can store all the empathy information on have your workflows automate processes like onboarding holiday planning Etc.
00:12:13.867 → 00:12:22.152Recruitment so high a new people organized the recruitment process and Performance Management as well these three things we put this into one
00:12:22.131 → 00:12:35.683into one platform for a small and medium companies across Europe and now so we are active in Latin America as well and yeah I think that’s a that’s how.
00:12:36.058 → 00:12:40.958Yeah things correct how I came to the conclusion that kenjo.
00:12:41.144 → 00:12:52.436Made sense because of one side it’s a gives us an opportunity to have an impact on companies and help companies be manage their people better.
00:12:52.550 → 00:12:59.107And but at the same time we know that most of this in bees across Europe and actually worldwide.
00:12:59.212 → 00:13:08.865Don’t leverage yet HR technology so that’s a that’s a good opportunity for for a business that makes sense also from from a financial perspective
00:13:08.745 → 00:13:19.362I vividly remember from all the companies I’ve been to I’ve been an employee of all I work for in one capacity or another HR is usually
00:13:19.161 → 00:13:23.701Australian different systems and actually at some of the companies
00:13:23.500 → 00:13:34.198I will working for I always had to search in the internet in old emails what is the current to we’re using for this and that on a Ford isn’t that because it’s like
00:13:33.970 → 00:13:46.711spread all over and then you realize oh dang it that that was the old system I’m supposed to do that in the new system and plus you’re always have this very informal stuff so basically a team
00:13:46.672 → 00:13:58.783in a project that’s it’s vacation planning maybe they’re not even members of your team and then you have to go into the system of accompanying officially due to Vacation stuff and all of this that is
00:13:58.762 → 00:13:59.629quite
00:13:59.563 → 00:14:18.516tiring and basically what you do is do this for one company but my understanding is you’re not necessarily targeting the marks to BMW the machine is like the really big companies what is your target size here in terms of employees of this
00:14:18.333 → 00:14:26.402company yes and we do get a small and medium companies and up to maximum 1,000 employees.
00:14:26.417 → 00:14:35.647And that really The Sweet Spot is up to 500 in this range that’s where a platform like that can you makes more sense.
00:14:35.806 → 00:14:36.646That.00:14:36.976 → 00:14:49.231Already sounds like there is a lot of potential customers out here in Germany with the globally there should be like millions of companies like this out there.
00:14:49.445 → 00:14:54.489Before we get a little bit into that I was curious because I have also seen shift
00:14:54.306 → 00:15:06.498planning in there in the past I was in the paramedic ambulance and it was always Troublesome how this was how the how this planning was done back there that was
00:15:06.414 → 00:15:18.939like before 2000 and did the person charged did it with an Excel sheet stored on a floppy disk and can you do this now automatically like
00:15:18.792 → 00:15:25.610press a button you have all the people in there and all the holidays everything is in there you can he do that
00:15:25.598 → 00:15:30.642that’s exactly it yes go ahead so let’s say well you can do it yes as receive planning Institute for,
00:15:30.756 → 00:15:36.475and for shift managers operations managers and one of the one of the functionalities is that,
00:15:36.490 → 00:15:41.201once you have your people there that availability with one click it creates smart,
00:15:41.217 → 00:15:55.965small rotas for four people and then it also sends out with a mobile confirmations people can basically Choose Or accept shifts upcoming shifts so it really is is the pain of coordinating,
00:15:56.007 → 00:16:05.040lots of people have what we’ve typically seen here is Excel files on one side and for the operations manager and then a lot of what’s up.
00:16:05.343 → 00:16:10.603So basically asking people what’s up hey can you do this shift and you do this now it’s much easier
00:16:10.573 → 00:16:17.868and so if you if you’re an operations manager she’s manager it’s going to give you some some hours of your life back
00:16:17.802 → 00:16:29.697from my personal experience will also be cool if people could start I’m exchanging shifts if that all works within the the frame rate given by the company or legal frame,
00:16:29.757 → 00:16:34.207that would be awesome can they also do this and do they need Whatsapp for it.
00:16:34.573 → 00:16:41.355Exactly what we’re working on this actually I shift swapping we call it and it’s it’s giving,
00:16:41.469 → 00:16:46.756people the opportunity to exchange shift specific so you say oh I would like to take off.
00:16:47.230 → 00:16:53.670Friday afternoon to do whatever does someone want to take my shift now we’ll do another one.
00:16:54.405 → 00:17:00.881Okay one more thing about the shift playing because just personally curious about that and then we go on
00:17:00.743 → 00:17:15.455you’ve been you’ve been saying like on a mobile app you can take shifts or it’s also for companies who have like a lot of part-time employees just showing up for 10–15 hours a week or something like this,
00:17:15.506 → 00:17:21.577and basically you can send out messages to all those people on their cell phone and they can accept shifts,
00:17:21.682 → 00:17:28.364and basically then you you only have to take care of everything that is not accepted yet is is that true.
00:17:28.623 → 00:17:41.022Kate that’s correct us yeah exactly yeah that’s one of the main use cases when you jump a lot of part-time people part-time employees in the in the company and then you can send through it.
00:17:41.181 → 00:17:43.200App requesting for them.
00:17:43.458 → 00:17:52.103And then they can accept reject or send some comments back to the operations manager so you got that absolutely right even without what’s a perfect.
00:17:53.082 → 00:18:08.488Dealing with our website that’s the idea that sounds pretty good and what type of Industries are you targeting because my understanding is if you have Industries with shift like in production like in medicine and a lot of ice
00:18:08.323 → 00:18:12.665other areas that actually need more than one shift,
00:18:12.725 → 00:18:18.876that should be sweet spot because apparently it will take a lot of work from those operational managers.
00:18:19.026 → 00:18:33.523Correct correct and one of the or some of the industries where our product has its it creates more more has more impact Industries like retail manufacturing.
00:18:33.646 → 00:18:36.404Etc that there are very intensive when it comes to.
00:18:36.869 → 00:18:49.250Time management and she’s management as well but I have to say there are other Industries like for example Business Services they might not have asked complex requirements but they also work sometimes you see if because it maybe have an IT support team,
00:18:49.265 → 00:18:52.032fast to stay up at night and have to turn,
00:18:52.110 → 00:18:59.872like they take basically shifts to be 24/7 on duty so it’s not only exclusively.
00:19:00.095 → 00:19:02.843To say,
00:19:02.930 → 00:19:11.332failure to retail manufacturing of one specific industry but it’s more about the companies that need managing shifts.
00:19:11.546 → 00:19:16.518Is there a like Industries you completely Target or you basically say.
00:19:16.794 → 00:19:22.540Mostly wood little bit customizing with a little bit adjustment it works for like all Industries.
00:19:23.060 → 00:19:28.185We’re very were quite agnostic when it comes to Industry so we have customers from from.
00:19:28.902 → 00:19:35.918All Industries and but it’s too late there are 56 in the street where we see,
00:19:35.996 → 00:19:43.876our product is usually the best choice for customers in these are the industries that I mentioned before Industries like retail,
00:19:43.972 → 00:19:53.715manufacturing also Healthcare and education they are very that’s where we see among other things because of who you mentioned that the fact that.
00:19:53.847 → 00:20:02.573We she’s planning it’s an important part of the tool it’s something that we do very well and these companies typically have strong.
00:20:02.886 → 00:20:11.288Needs or demands things when it comes to to time management so those industries that for which ocular work quite well.
00:20:11.429 → 00:20:19.867Would also came to mind when you’ve been talking about this would be restaurants but then I’m not sure if they are big enough it’s a requirements are big enough.
00:20:20.107 → 00:20:23.270For most restaurants WhatsApp group will do.
00:20:23.942 → 00:20:36.287Correct correct and if they go beyond a certain threshold in terms of number of employees then yes and we have one of our customers is Domino’s in Germany they’re German branch.
00:20:36.401 → 00:20:43.921And for a company like Dominos make sense because they they have people that could work in different in different functions.
00:20:44.467 → 00:20:56.704Yeah exactly in pieces shops at the same time they also some of the some of the restaurants are quite big actually the way in the employee significant amount of people so for them workwise it works
00:20:56.683 → 00:21:04.005quite well if you have company like small restaurant with only 6 and people you probably can do without what’s up mmm what’s up girl.
00:21:04.344 → 00:21:16.050We’ve been talking about more the blue collar jobs but actually I’ve seen you also say that you can be faster with HR.
00:21:16.245 → 00:21:20.614Um meaning onboarding of people getting new hires done.
00:21:21.070 → 00:21:28.284How does your software support there because like most of the listeners right now in.
00:21:28.524 → 00:21:33.505As of last week 94 countries across the world would be more interested in.
00:21:33.655 → 00:21:38.997How you guys could help that what you could do there because.
00:21:39.192 → 00:21:49.826I would say I do believe if you faster in HR and getting out offers in getting on board people on-boarded faster you have a competitive Advantage right.
00:21:50.400 → 00:22:00.323Current absolutely absolutely what we do is on one side we help companies with their building a career page,
00:22:00.410 → 00:22:04.914that resembles their values the company value so they also attract.
00:22:05.055 → 00:22:13.160The right people need to think about it a career side is very actually very similar to your website for clients for your customers.
00:22:13.653 → 00:22:17.103But for people and at the same time it’s kind of the same system of the same you are selling,
00:22:17.208 → 00:22:24.233your company to people to you know to work for you basically and so we help them build,
00:22:24.320 → 00:22:31.660career sites that that helps companies attract the right people for them.
00:22:31.945 → 00:22:37.403And that’s something you can do in can you and then this carrier side then.
00:22:37.545 → 00:22:44.326We think in your you can create job offers and post them in multiple job boards.
00:22:44.656 → 00:22:51.645Paid and free both so you can maximize your reach to let’s say you know.
00:22:52.290 → 00:22:57.730Hand like a very wide net of of candidates and and then.
00:22:58.097 → 00:23:05.103We also held them digitized and orchestrate the hiring process internally so for example people apply.
00:23:05.407 → 00:23:09.325Into through there through the career side and then,
00:23:09.377 → 00:23:23.621and you can communicate internally with a hiring manager with other people that are may be involved in the hiring process you can communicate through the through kenjo with the candidate send automatic emails reminders.
00:23:23.735 → 00:23:28.779And then also sign the work contract or job offer,
00:23:28.803 → 00:23:43.381electronically as well from kenjo So eventually you will speed up speed up significantly you’re recruiting process and in today’s market that is very competitive when it comes to hiring the best talent it’s definitely an advantage to,
00:23:43.441 → 00:23:49.575tool towards in other companies that might use more let’s say we mentoree.
00:23:49.752 → 00:23:58.523Tools that is also something I was I was thinking this could be a help you win Talent.
00:23:59.321 → 00:24:06.436Can it also help you a little bit keep talent but I have to add one caveat because you can post the job
00:24:06.397 → 00:24:14.322all over but it does not recruit you the development Talent you need right now that’s something you still have to do yourself right.
00:24:15.165 → 00:24:25.485Yes is absolutely there are certain certain positions and take is one of them where you have to actually go out and so this can you come to help by the way because.
00:24:25.617 → 00:24:40.392And we have a browser extension so when you are in Chrome looking on LinkedIn for example looking for people you can capture their profiles and put them into into kenjo and then send them personalized messages out of kenjo.
00:24:40.534 → 00:24:44.939City council build what we call Talent pools even you even when you’re not looking actively.
00:24:45.089 → 00:24:56.290You can still build Talent pools to engage with candidates over time so that they are so they know your company and they’re you know they have to top of mind for when you open a position and then you can.
00:24:56.612 → 00:25:08.299Marketing with other positions are right now pretty much any band you we’ve been talking about development talent I would assume sales sales should be all those pretty much any man say one would else.
00:25:08.441 → 00:25:15.942This product as well and I can say here that it varies a bit country by country so we.
00:25:16.246 → 00:25:29.113We operate across Europe and Germany but also Spain Switzerland Austria and other countries and we see some differences but generally speaking I would say Developers.
00:25:29.326 → 00:25:34.622Tech people super difficult in all countries product managers.
00:25:36.348 → 00:25:44.191Germany quite difficult and tough to find parameters and especially if you’re looking for german-speaking product managers.
00:25:44.837 → 00:25:59.783I think that’s that’s that’s it’s it’s easier to see a start-up unicorn Than A German German speaking product manager rather more difficult so I guess we should start calling these people so unicorns I think okay what did you go to find it.
00:25:59.907 → 00:26:03.582I didn’t want to speak in front of my gear in Germany.
00:26:03.913 → 00:26:15.033And then say let’s just say it’s an especially for specialized roles like for example if you look in our case we look for for account Executives and is the ours with experience in B2B SAS sales.
00:26:15.669 → 00:26:18.670Very difficult very difficult
00:26:18.559 → 00:26:32.804I see everybody who would like to learn more about your tools they can go down here in the show notes as always your LinkedIn profile is linked but the company profile is linked that was of course not the end let’s talk a little bit about,
00:26:32.900 → 00:26:34.703startup itself because
00:26:34.628 → 00:26:43.066as you already said Domino’s is one of the customers you have on your website are also found Jaguar like the car producer
00:26:43.054 → 00:26:48.720and Land Rover but I do below believe they belong together and yes I have,
00:26:48.744 → 00:26:58.181also seen that investors are the co-founders of unicorn tax fix and intertek wheat Fox.
00:26:58.421 → 00:27:12.090I think we already know the story that we Fox founder has been a boss of yours which is not necessarily the worst the worst thing that can happen when you say a look he found that a unicorn.
00:27:12.384 → 00:27:17.329He was my boss but he still invests in me I think that that’s a pretty good sign right.
00:27:17.947 → 00:27:30.706I think so do I want to believe it’s a it’s a pretty good sign that and Jack’s fix how did this connection come yes our seed round was led by real Pine
00:27:30.658 → 00:27:37.854it’s a venture capital fan out of Switzerland and relevant had previously invested in toxics.
00:27:38.085 → 00:27:49.017At the seed stage is actually when taxes goes to was the project it was not the other unicorn inside and that’s how the connection came they made an intro I overtime,
00:27:49.023 → 00:27:53.131developed a good relationship with Matisse that is booty,
00:27:53.227 → 00:28:07.337hey there the founder and CEO in former CEO from tactics fix and he’s also one of our board members by the way and I realized over time like first of all we click the knob on a personal level and.
00:28:07.649 → 00:28:11.784He has experience when it comes to a position in product.
00:28:11.916 → 00:28:23.757Tried on half and I thought it would be very valuable to have him on board and So eventually that’s how it I think it is grew very very natural and that’s how we became,
00:28:23.790 → 00:28:35.469the investor in board member and I’ve seen you raced in total more than 7 million u.s. dollars including seat and the business Angel round as you said,
00:28:35.502 → 00:28:45.020investors include the Delta and red Alpine from Switzerland the usual question you guys would be open to talk to an investor right.
00:28:45.413 → 00:28:53.869Absolutely yes yes we actually are you currently in fundraising mode like I mean no no Carly in fundraising mode I mean we’re always
00:28:53.776 → 00:29:08.156found this always in fundraising for any and whoever will tells you otherwise they either don’t they’re lying or they haven’t realized yet but we’re always in fundraising let me rephrase this you’re not in extreme fundraising mode.
00:29:08.891 → 00:29:19.040Exactly we’re not actively the key word is active we’re not actively fundraising at the moment and but it’s a but I think we are now at the point.
00:29:19.280 → 00:29:21.803With can go where.
00:29:22.196 → 00:29:34.019We last year we grow we grow revenues by more than more than three hundred percent three on the 30% actually this year even though we took it let’s say we took it a bit cautious because of the
00:29:33.989 → 00:29:39.250situation in the economy we’re still going to more than double our Revenue again.
00:29:39.418 → 00:29:46.208This year so we let’s say we hitting with hitting the right the right metrics to be.
00:29:46.917 → 00:30:01.242To be able to fundraise successfully soon serious ALS yeah usually the magic threshold is or 1 million u.s. dollars and but when you guys are growing so fast I was wondering you guys are hiring as well right
00:30:01.113 → 00:30:05.797we are yeah yeah Ms yeah pretty much across because the board marketing and sales.
00:30:06.074 → 00:30:19.265Product take as always we link down here in the show notes your company HR career side and one of the last questions I would like to ask because we said you’re the number-one competitor here domestically
00:30:19.073 → 00:30:26.854of course onio how is it like a very early stage startup in seed stage competing
00:30:26.689 → 00:30:37.224with an already official unicorn I think I think that’s a pretty much like Sisyphus trying to roll up this this rock to the to the Mountaintop.
00:30:37.770 → 00:30:47.865Does it feel like this sometimes and no no I wouldn’t say so no and I wanted to do I like first of all when we look at the if you look at the market and.
00:30:48.096 → 00:30:57.137It’s a studying this from a macro perspective the market is huge in Europe only in Europe there are 1.7 million snp’s,
00:30:57.233 → 00:31:05.509you mentioned before they might be a couple of million companies around the world is in peace it’s only Europe its 1.7 million snp’s.
00:31:05.741 → 00:31:10.271That’s our target market very big Market if you look at how many customers personal has,
00:31:10.359 → 00:31:18.121it’s less than one percent market share so that means this is still the very very very early days,
00:31:18.155 → 00:31:27.673of the market and the market is now developing and maturing and and then there are different things that you can do as a jungler is not up
00:31:27.643 → 00:31:35.622the the more established player can do any more like for example you can you can build a different distribution strategy,
00:31:35.673 → 00:31:41.212in our case we do a lot of we call cell service
00:31:41.173 → 00:31:51.610low Dutch sales that means companies go go to kenjo they open a free trial date dip tube to create an account and then they buy the product online
00:31:51.535 → 00:31:59.190themselves without us really getting involved this is much more difficult for a company like Persona that has a much more direct sales.
00:31:59.313 → 00:32:03.880It’s a model or approach and when you exactly
00:32:03.850 → 00:32:18.320it’s easier to test to take money or take more risks so I just mention one of the ways in which we compete in the in the market but it’s also the focus on a specific segment of the market that we were talking about before,
00:32:18.398 → 00:32:25.620we’re just on Industries where we are very powerful and forever for for example for a company like Persona that is that big and
00:32:25.600 → 00:32:32.570serves certainly a very wide range of Industries is much more difficult to be focused and on a specific segment of the market.
00:32:33.018 → 00:32:42.986So yeah that’s a I would I would say those are just a couple of examples on how you can you can put up a fight against the more established players I was actually
00:32:42.893 → 00:32:51.997very much smiling when you’ve been when you’ve been talking well to customers go on your website use the tool and then buy it it sounded
00:32:51.859 → 00:33:01.189pretty much like all your all your sales employees are just chilling in the office drinking an ice-cold bourbon like you know the cliche
00:33:01.141 → 00:33:09.561yeah now they have to work hard this works and about it it helps up this this model helps a lot because oftentimes,
00:33:09.648 → 00:33:15.475when we get a request for a demo someone wants to have a look at the product they in.
00:33:15.724 → 00:33:24.333They have already bought you know in their in their heads because they went through the product with a free trial they click everything every button and they saw themselves.
00:33:25.384 → 00:33:35.685Generating value for the companies with our product so they say the city is it’s easier and it’s not so much about pushing but rather pulling and helping the customer.
00:33:36.015 → 00:33:49.234On board themselves into the platform basically start realizing value as soon as possible so bottom line I would say you guys have more standardized more easily explained more easily implemented tool than for example pisanio.
00:33:49.420 → 00:33:52.537And it’s that’s also one of the things as well yes you did.
00:33:53.093 → 00:34:01.999All sorts of templates and Brie let’s say setup or configured workflows that you can activate easily for your company so the.
00:34:02.239 → 00:34:04.672Downloading time is also very very fast.
00:34:05.174 → 00:34:14.143Just to give you an idea we’ve had companies of almost 100 people 100 he’s onboard dating app running with the platform in eight working days,
00:34:14.230 → 00:34:23.703finally and last question you are also open to work with remote only employees right yeah we have some we have some good great.
00:34:24.448 → 00:34:30.086Generally speaking our policies like hybrid although very flexible when it comes to the office,
00:34:30.191 → 00:34:35.244but that we have some remote Talent as well in the company dammit.
00:34:35.592 → 00:34:46.461It was a pleasure talking to you we’re now recording for a little bit over 35 minutes so I assume our interview is 10 minutes longer than on average so
00:34:46.350 → 00:34:53.951thank you very much for your time who’s just a pleasure and when you progress I’m sure in some time we will have you
00:34:53.849 → 00:35:06.356back here and podcast thanks a lot it was a pleasure to be here with you and maybe next time when we become a unicorn we can repeat the June exclusive not anymore the challenge an exclusive promise
00:35:06.308 → 00:35:12.720I haven’t talked to my two icons guy haha he’s like one
00:35:12.628 → 00:35:21.120it’s almost a promise more than twenty thousand listeners are now almost this is awesome great thank you very much.
00:35:26.320 → 00:35:53.066Music.
Key Takeaways
Amongst their investors are the co-founders of unicorn Taxfix and Wefox.
This article covers a significant development in the DACH startup and venture capital ecosystem.
The DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) continues to be one of Europe's most dynamic startup markets.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the key facts about Meet Germany’s Effortless All-In-One Software?
This blog post first appeared first on old medium publication (https://medium.com/startuprad-io), and was moved to this blog with the relaunch of our website in summer 2024.
How does this affect the German startup ecosystem?
This article is part of our coverage of Startuprad.io Knowledge Graph: The DACH Startup Ecosystem.
What are the latest startup funding trends in the DACH region?
Startuprad.io tracks venture capital and startup funding across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Explore our pillar coverage pages for the latest data.
About the Host
Joern "Joe" Menninger is the host of the Startuprad.io podcast and covers founders, investors, and policy developments across the DACH startup ecosystem. Through more than 1,300 interviews and nearly a decade of reporting, he documents the evolution of the European startup landscape. Follow Joern on LinkedIn.
Comments