Johannis Hatt has spent 10 years working as a startup entrepreneur. Along the way, he’s developed an acute sense for spotting business development opportunities. His latest startup Productsup serves 800 clients worldwide including Trivago, HP, Farfetch, Ikea. In this talk, he focused on sales and obstacles whilst growing a company. The talk is based on first-hand experience, not things he read in a book ;) ** Johannis is an entrepreneur and investor at Cavalry Ventures, focusing on B2B solutions, software and e-commerce. Among his companies are: productsup – a cloud-based software provider for managing and optimizing product data; Faceadnet - the leading German Vertical Content Network (+40M impressions/month, sold to Ströer); Myprinting.com and NativeAds.

1. § Intro
§ Main problems whilst scaling a business
§ 10 slides – 1 Video
§ Questions…
What will you get?

2. § Studied in Paris, Oxford, Berlin at ESCP-EAP
§ 3 Years management consulting
§ Entrepreneur since 10 years
§ Founded 4 companies
§ Invested in > 40 companies
§ Entrepreneur by heart

3. The dark side…..Being an entrepreneur sucks!
§ “Selbständig” = selbst und ständig
§ Sleepless nights
§ Doubts – no security

4. But why do it?
§ Flexibility
§ Creating something
§ Constant learning

6. People
§ Hire slow, fire fast
§ Hire for ambition, train for skill
§ If in doubt say no
§ Hire A players
§ Do not underestimate the importance of communication

7. Finance
§ Submarine
§ Do your homework!
§ Cash = oxigen

8. Sales
§ Think about pricing – raise prices
§ Know the metrics – what you measure is what you get
§ There has to be always someone selling – the more I
train the luckier I get

9. Strategy
• Think big
• Do not forget about competition
§ High variance vs. low variance

10. Tips….
§ All entrepreneurs face the same problems
§ Exchange with other entrepreneurs
§ Do not be afraid to trust your gut feeling