S2E21: How to Build and Scale Innovative Ventures - with Filip Dames, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures and former Chief Business Development Officer at Zalando
36m | May 11, 2023My name is Kilian Karrasch and in this episode, I talk to Filip Dames, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures and former Chief Business Development Officer at Zalando and founder of Zalando-Lounge.
Filip went from founding a first small startup to joining Zalando as part of the founding team to helping build it into one the largest fashion retailers in Europe. Now, Filip is Germany's "Investor of the Year 2022" and has joined the ranks of the FORBES Midas List Europe as one of the most influential investors on the continent.
In our podcast episode, we talk about:
- how to hire the right talent to fuel your innovation ambitions
- how to successfully identify, validate and scale innovations internally
- and some of the hottest trends in the market
If you enjoyed this episode, please take a minute to subscribe, like, or share this podcast to spread the word, so I can continue bringing you outstanding guests and conversations. 🙏
And if you have questions about this episode or on how to start building digital products or services, you're welcome to reach out to me.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kiliankarrasch/
E-Mail: kilian@hatch.studio
Filip Dames on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/filipdames
Cherry Ventures: cherry.vc
Timeline:
0:00 - Introduction
0:27 - Who is Filip Dames?
0:48 - Topics of the podcast
1:06 - What you wouldn’t expect about Filip
1:55 - Reasons for choosing an entrepreneurial path
3:13 - How a first business can set you up for success
8.20 - Top learnings from internal venture building at Zalando
9:39 - The entrepreneurial spirit of trial, error, and iteration
11:01 - How to keep the entrepreneurial mindset alive while scaling the company
13:58 - How to transition into startup investments
16:39 - Core success factors for startups and innovation teams in the beginning
17:56 - Who should be your first hire
21:10 - The factors to look at when investing in startups
24:26 - How to know when to pivot and change direction
28:11 - How to identify product-market-fit
31:19 - Boundary conditions for innovation success
33:14 - How to figure out which internal innovation is the most promising
34:30 - Which KPIs are most important for evaluating innovations
37:29 - The hottest trends and ideas in the market
40:27 - How to get in contact with Filip