Why did you decide to become a mentor?
I became a mentor to share my expertise and help other founders build better products and realise their dreams. I’ve been through the early stages of a startup and know what it takes to be successful. I want to help others avoid the mistakes I made and get up to speed quickly.
There are so many things that a first-time founder has to consider and grapple with. It can feel overwhelming. Figuring out what’s important and what’s not is the key at any stage of a business to avoid wasting time and money on the things that don’t matter.
I know that I have some valuable learnings from my own journey.
How did you get your career start?
It’s a long (and somewhat funny) story. It’s too long to cover here but it partly consists of living on social security for five years while learning web design on my own and even working at an online-sex company as an intern before meeting my Wunderlist co-founder Christian Reber. You can read more about my founder journey here: https://superfounder.io/about
He was a strong mentor for me and it was obviously a pivotal moment when I met him and founded Wunderlist with him and his friends.
How do you usually set up mentorships?
Mentoring is highly individual and I customise the experience to the need of the mentee. One mentee might be struggling with getting started with an idea while the next one might need feedback on how to improve his app while the third is struggling with his mindset or daily routine.
With 12 years of experience as a founder and digital product designer I had to deal with most of these issues. It’s just part of the journey to acquire a very broad range of experiences.
What’s been your favourite mentorship story so far?
My favourite mentoring was with Alexander Sachs, a super talented, successful developer and entrepreneur who became a good friend (and also mentor for myself).
He is now one of the most sought after NFT and Crypto experts in Germany and we’re constantly doing cool things together. I think he even has an account here on MentorCruise.
This is part of what I like about mentoring: Connecting with people and building long-term relationships. Obviously some mentorships are a better fit than others, but hey, that’s how it always is in life.
What are you getting out of being a mentor?
As mentioned in the previous answer, mentoring is not a one-way street. It’s super interesting, rewarding, and enlightening to meet founders from around the world and help them solve their challenges and realise their vision.
That might sound a little cheesy, but it’s true. Being able to share what you know with others and also learning from them is a surefire way to grow as a person in many areas.