“I always wanted to build something, and I just could not see myself working for someone, doing someone else's bidding”: Lieferando’s founder Christoph Gerber shares how he became a successful founder and entrepreneur.
“I think I'm very much an un-hireable person,” Christoph Gerber told The Big Question.
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And that is not to say he’s workshy or an insufferable person. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
As the founder of Lieferando, one of Germany’s leading food delivery services and CEO and founder at Talon.One, a digital infrastructure provider for discounts and promotions, Christoph knows how to build and lead a successful business.
In this episode of The Big Question, Christoph Gerber joined Hannah Brown to discuss entrepreneurship and the secrets to success.
What type of person makes a good founder?
“I think it would be a very bad world if everybody would be like me,” Christoph laughed.
And while this might be excessively self-deprecating, he makes a good point. Not everyone should be a founder.
He emphasized that resilience and a base level of optimism that everything is resolvable are key personality traits that a wannabe founder should possess.
Christoph did not mince his words about the importance of being critical of your own ideas. “There's a very high chance that your idea is s**t.”
While a healthy dose of hubris and an ear for other people’s feedback is what a successful founder needs, Christoph also said that you should not let negativity overshadow your creativity.
“For Lieferando, everyone told us this is not gonna work. For Talon.One, everyone told us this is not gonna to work,” he explained.
“If you would ask people in my high school about me they would say I'm arrogant,” he continued.
“The way I would now look back at it is I never really cared so much what people said about me or my ideas. Maybe a big ego, I don't know. But I think you need that kind of big ego to push through against everything that's from the outside where you feel the world's closing in and things don't work.
“Some people are better off working for a founder in a sort of normal career progression,” he added.
Lessons from business
Chrisoph’s first company Lieferando merged with Takeaway.com in 2009 in what was, at the time, a record-breaking deal in the German startup scene, with a price tag of €62.9 million.
Though it was not necessary for Christoph to continue to work, he found himself not wanting to hobnob with the super-rich, and all his favourite people were still busy building their careers.
Having identified a problem his team struggled with during the Lieferando days and knowing they were not alone in this, he called up his co-founder and set about creating Talon.One.
Now he helps brands to use their data to drive sales through strategic promotions and discounts.
“Things need to move beyond [the] transactional to create value,” Christoph explained.
“Brands actually create value for their customers in the way they engage. And in a way, it's a contract because you give them your data, you say for the loyalty programme I'm going to give you a bit more data, I'm gonna tell you how old I am, what my relationship status is, [and so forth].”
“And therefore you expect the brand to create benefits that make it worthwhile for you to give them all of the other details about you. I think that is what brands are slowly starting to understand.”
The key to success
Christoph founded his two businesses at two very different ages and stages of his life.
For Lieferando, he was 23 and it was a lot of late nights, working over weekends, partying and, self-admittedly, poor market research.
“If we would have done the proper research in a sort of McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group style, like look at all the competition there is, we would have probably never got into that market,” Christoph reflected.
Now as a father of three in his early 40s, Christoph’s philosophy about work and life has adapted as he progresses with Talon.One.
“Talon.One is a business, it shouldn't be my identity, and I don't expect that from anyone in my team.”
After clocking in their expected work hours, Gerber expects his employees to close their laptops and be with their families – and that the output will be better for it.
He admits that he cherishes his time outside the day-to-day workings of his company, when he can take his kids to swimming lessons, hockey practice or play with Lego.
“I would say I'm plain boring outside of work. And that is totally fine,” he explained.
At a certain point, successful CEOs and founders should realise that taking time for the gentler things in life should take precedence over chasing the bottom line, Gerber insisted.
“I don't want to have on my tombstone founder of a pizza delivery service and founder of a coupon promotion infrastructure. I'd rather be recognised as being a great dad, great friend, great partner… and the rest is business.”
The Big Question is a series from Euronews Business where we sit down with industry leaders and experts to discuss some of the most important topics on today’s agenda.
Watch the video above to see the full discussion with Christoph Gerber.