To Zoom or Not to Zoom?
If there is something that home office has shown myself and my team it is the importance of both efficiency and human factor. When I speak about the human factor at work it can be a simple exchange by the coffee maker or even knowing when a colleague is going through a hard time. These two topics of humanness and efficiency are often shown in direct conflict with one another but now more than ever I see how they are interlinked.
What I noticed in the first two weeks of zoom calls is that there needs to be a cap on time. Shorter calls create better efficiency. There were a few calls that seemed to drag on and the forever problem of meetings that could have probably just been an email.
Of course this is because without the physical place there wasn’t the space to have these nice pleasantries as there would be when we all worked in the office together. When we moved out of the office it was my goal to open my mind to new work models and listen to my team and their needs.
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As always new challenges mean new chances!
Our course of action was to keep all video meetings short and have a weekly team meeting (under 30 minutes) for announcements and to catch up at the end of the week. Under this structure we keep our meetings short and efficient over zoom but also recognized the importance for a weekly catch up. I have even switched to giving my CEO announcements via voice recording over slack. This way I can give 5 to 10 minute updates to align the team with more general information from my side without having to coordinate with everyone’s schedule.
As a CEO, I do not have the time to control what my team does and this sort of control is not something I want. It is more important to align the team with a target and have the members work together to make that target a reality.
Podcast Boom
One of my most recent passion projects, Age of Voice, was started at the very beginning of the corona crisis where I felt that the market was in a shock. This was not an easy time to start something new. I would interrupt my day to publish new content amidst an overwhelming flood of information. I had this immense feeling of being 1 out of 100 and concerned by what value I was giving without a strong community.
When starting a new project it is important to calculate the value that I share but also the value that is returned. At the present moment I felt that the project would have more value when there was more time to slowly build a strong community. As I had meetings with tax consultants, lawyers, focused on employee management and resource management -I felt that a podcast would not be the fastest and most effective way for me to add my value to help combat the crisis.
So as a CEO and founder with a knack for effectively establishing and mobilizing new companies I couldn’t help but think what to do to help the most people as quickly as possible. This led me to create Medelino.
Medelino to the Rescue
From my personal and professional network I noticed many requests from the government to get more masks from manufacturers to the organizations that need them most.
So to solve this problem my team and I created an online shop called Medelino. Here suppliers were connected with government agencies to request masks, disinfectants, gloves and other supplies essential for hospitals and medical institutions. My focus here for the last four weeks was to help the government and big institutions to get the supplies that they needed.
With Age of Voice I did not get the feeling that my value as a CEO was being used to its fullest. Spending my time and energy on Medelino allowed me to add value to institutions that needed help immediately. I cannot say that hospital supplies is my new passion… but helping other in a time of crisis is and always will be a passion of mine.
Gruenderfreunde.de
Recently one of the first companies I founded, Gruenderfreunde, asked me on as a guest for one of their podcasts for a segment called Gründerfreunde Quick Pitch. In my episode I focused on giving a quick founder pitch for ePilot.
The podcast can be heard on:
Apple Podcast – Google Podcast– Spotify – Soundcloud
I wanted to share with the startup community my initiative to really push forward in 2020 with ePilot. ePilot lets employers offer electric scooters, bikes and cars as a benefit to employees, all with a convenient monthly subscription.
During the initial outbreak of corona it seemed uncertain for electric mobility. Many service providers removed their vehicles from the streets or reduced their number of employees. As the service providers are bouncing back ePilot is ready to bring in a new wave of electric mobility as the best way and easiest way for employees to commute.
Keep in touch for updates.
Back to Crypto
As many of you know I still am deeply involved in the crypto scene. Cryptoticker, a crypto specific news publication I founded some years ago, created a “live ticker” in the event of the Bitcoin Halving last week. Seeing Cryptoticker still a success story considering the ups and downs of the crypto industry is something I am always proud of.
In the past couple of years my interests have expanded into electric mobility, podcasts, voice technology and so on. But I will always have a passion for crypto.
To Sum it Up
I wish everyone and your families maximum success in 2020!
Let’s stick together and as always more updates to follow soon. Right now is a time to focus on what you have and what you can do to make it stronger. As I was navigating the system here in Germany during corona I saw many government sponsored opportunities for handouts. It got me thinking with young businesses and founders accepting these sort of credits what will happen to them in the months and years to come? How will the next few years look if economies are built upon financial bubbles?
In my mind it is imperative to build strong projects and not to get in a position to need a credit from the government and risk bankruptcy in the future. As always with entrepreneurship one most think about deliverables and results.
I would like to lastly ask my readers this question:
Do you want to build your business on a bubble or on solutions?