00:00There's a high chance that your ideas produce.
00:02I think I'm a very much unhirable person.
00:05I wanted to create something.
00:12Welcome to The Big Question,
00:14the series from Euronews
00:15where we speak to some of the biggest names in business.
00:18I'm Hannah Brown and today I'm joined by Christoph Gerber,
00:21founder of Leif Rando and CEO and founder at Talon One.
00:24Thank you very much for joining me today, Christoph.
00:26So first of all, I just want to talk to you
00:28a little bit about entrepreneurship.
00:29You founded Leif Rando,
00:31Germany's leading food delivery company in 2009
00:33as you were finishing university.
00:35What made you decide to pursue that route?
00:37It's not as romantic as people wanted to sound.
00:40I had a friend call me.
00:41He was an investment banker at UBS in New York.
00:44He said, look, there's this food delivery thing in New York
00:47where I order food the whole time
00:49or when he's doing overtime.
00:51And I was in uni.
00:52I like to do things and not be in academia.
00:56So this was, in a way, my get-out-of-uni jail card.
00:59You know, like a monopoly you can get out.
01:01And I said, you know what, let's just start that.
01:03I think I always make the joke that if he would have called me
01:06and said, look, I found the perfect way to sell toilet seats online
01:11and we can solve the toilet seat market,
01:13I would have done that.
01:14So it comes down to I wanted to create something
01:16and not just be theoretical in university.
01:20And so at that time, that was a real gap in the market
01:22that you spotted here in Germany?
01:24No, it wasn't.
01:26Our research was bad.
01:27I think in the UK at that point, just it was already big.
01:30And I think at that stage where we were, I think I was 23 years old,
01:36the youthful not knowing, just let's do it,
01:41was the competitive advantage which helped us to conquer the German market.
01:45Because if we would have done the proper research
01:47on a sort of McKinsey, BCG style,
01:50like look at all the competition there is,
01:52we would have probably never got into that market.
01:55But in a way, when you're 23, you have nothing to lose.
01:59At uni, my parents said, what's the worst that can come?
02:02You've got to move back to your kid's room,
02:04which was nothing I wanted to do,
02:05but not actually understanding how big and competitive the market is
02:08helped us to start.
02:10And then I think we just executed a lot better than the rest.
02:20What kind of drew you to becoming a founder?
02:22And what do you think are the kind of important skills
02:25or personality type to be a founder?
02:28I have to ask my wife about that.
02:30But we looked at my school reports.
02:32And in my first report I ever got,
02:35which was after six months in first grade,
02:38it said, Chris wants to lead group work.
02:43And if he can't be the leader of a group work,
02:45he has a hard time motivating himself.
02:47So I think I want to lead, I want to create,
02:51and I always want to build.
02:52I want to build something.
02:54And I just could not see myself working for someone.
02:59I think I'm a very much unhirable person.
03:02I've never worked for someone.
03:04And I don't think that is a concept that works for me.
03:09Not everyone has the skill set,
03:12the resilience to be a founder or an entrepreneur.
03:15And that is okay.
03:16I think it would be a very bad world
03:18if everybody would be like me
03:20or like my co-founder Sebastian
03:23or an entrepreneur and founder.
03:25It would be a very unhealthy balance.
03:28So I think people need to tread carefully
03:31if this really is something they want to do.
03:34And some people are better left off
03:37in working for a founder
03:40in a sort of normal career progression.
03:44What advice would you give to new founders?
03:46Be critical about your own ideas,
03:48but also don't listen to everyone
03:52that's giving you advice on your ideas.
03:55For Lieferando, everyone told us
03:56this is not going to work.
03:58For Talent One, everyone told us
04:00this is not going to work.
04:02I think there's a fine balance
04:03between listening to feedback and understanding
04:07because there's a very high likelihood
04:09that your idea does not have the quality
04:12that it needs to produce a successful outcome.
04:16But there's also a lot of people
04:17that have no idea about what you know
04:19about your idea
04:20and what you might know about the market
04:22or the specifics
04:23that could lead for your idea
04:25to be very successful.
04:27And to have that thin line of self-reflection
04:31compared with a good portion of Hybris,
04:35just push through,
04:36that is a very thin balance.
04:37And I don't know what the right balance is
04:39and what the right mixture is,
04:41but in a way you have to push through.
04:43And so going back to kind of your career journey,
04:45after you sold Lieferando,
04:47back in 2015,
04:48you started Talent One.
04:50Can you just tell me a little bit
04:51about actually what Talent One does?
04:53We worked a lot with promotion
04:54in food delivery
04:56against our competition
04:58and we needed to build everything in-house.
05:01So I said,
05:01why isn't there something
05:03where we could just buy that part of the tech stack
05:06and implement?
05:08And that eventually leads me to think,
05:10okay, if this is a problem for me,
05:12it's probably a problem for more people,
05:15more businesses.
05:16Again, all the investors there
05:18that I spoke to said,
05:19although it isn't a problem,
05:21it's not an issue.
05:22Then I called my co-founder, Sebastian,
05:24who I went to uni with
05:25and said,
05:27look, I'm really good at productising building,
05:29but I'm extremely chaotic as a person.
05:32I need somebody to be my yang
05:34when I'm the ying
05:35or other way.
05:37So I need someone to take care
05:39of all the unpleasant part of the business
05:40which is running the day-to-day.
05:43And then we started.
05:44Obviously, so you essentially do the tech side
05:47to allow companies to do rewards,
05:49discounts, promotions.
05:50Why is that so important
05:51for a company and their growth?
05:53In a nutshell, Talent One allows you
05:55to really be granular
05:57on promotions, discounts,
05:59moving inventory,
06:00moving overstock.
06:01And we have a retailer
06:03that spends around 5 billion euros
06:06in deducted revenue
06:08through promotions.
06:09And that is because
06:10they just give blanket discounts,
06:1210%, 20%.
06:14They give that to their whole audience
06:16because they could not so far
06:17target the customer groups
06:19based on the customer segments,
06:20repeat purchaser,
06:21someone who likes a blue, blue,
06:24someone who likes more like earthy colors
06:26and connect that to the inventory levels
06:29they have.
06:30So if they could say
06:32they can reduce spend
06:33or promotional discounts
06:35by 10% in that case
06:38without actually influencing
06:40the total turnover
06:42so they would sell
06:43exactly the same amount
06:44but don't incentivize people
06:46that would buy anyway
06:47or actually understand
06:49that you would have done
06:50the same purchase
06:51not for 20% but for 5%.
06:54And that led us to reduce
06:56their promotional spend
06:57by around 500 million euros.
06:59And finally,
07:00do you think this is kind of
07:02the key way that companies
07:03can drive sales
07:04and protect the bottom line
07:05or do you think there is
07:06other things that companies
07:07could do better?
07:08I think we are one part.
07:09I would never go as far as say
07:10you can save your business
07:13with Talent One.
07:14If you sell a product
07:15and that doesn't align
07:16with the values
07:17or the quality
07:18that you say it should,
07:20no Talent One can save you.
07:21I think managing rebates,
07:23promotions, discounts,
07:24your loyalty program
07:25is one part of the relationship
07:27you have with the customer
07:28and we can really help you
07:30save or increase your margin
07:32on your products
07:33while also helping you
07:35to avoid brand dilution
07:36because if you always
07:37need to discount everything
07:38because you don't know
07:39how to do it right,
07:40it actually destroys
07:41your brand equity.
07:43Interesting.
07:43And on that note,
07:44thank you very much
07:45for your insights today
07:46and thank you for joining me
07:47on The Big Question.
07:48Thank you.
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