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1 Stunde 12 Minuten
Christian Miele grew up carrying one of Germany's most recognizable names, without ever being a shareholder in the family company. That tension shaped everything that came next: building his own startup, becoming a VC, and backing the highest valued private company in Europe.
In this episode, Christian explains how a random WhatsApp from a friend working in the French government led him to Mistral, now valued at $21B, and why he believes the smartest career advice for young people right now is to become an electrician, given Germany's 250,000-person shortage. He also breaks down why he thinks "the math ain't mathing" on Germany's budget, and makes the case for Europe's shot at staying relevant through robotics, AI, and energy.
Guest: Christian Miele Host: Roman Kirsch
Timestamps: 0:00 – Cold Open 1:08 – Growing Up With the Miele Name 8:36 – The Chip on His Shoulder 9:42 – The Builders Network Origin Story 23:48 – The Mistral Deal — From WhatsApp to $21B 26:38 – Europe's AI Sovereignty Thesis 34:54 – Going On Shark Tank Germany 40:15 – "Germans Are Terrible Entertainers" 1:02:23 – What We're Underestimating: Become an Electrician 1:04:34 – Germany's Budget: "The Math Ain't Mathing" 1:07:13 – The Optimistic Case: Anthropic, Nvidia & Europe's Shot
In this episode, Christian explains how a random WhatsApp from a friend working in the French government led him to Mistral, now valued at $21B, and why he believes the smartest career advice for young people right now is to become an electrician, given Germany's 250,000-person shortage. He also breaks down why he thinks "the math ain't mathing" on Germany's budget, and makes the case for Europe's shot at staying relevant through robotics, AI, and energy.
Guest: Christian Miele Host: Roman Kirsch
Timestamps: 0:00 – Cold Open 1:08 – Growing Up With the Miele Name 8:36 – The Chip on His Shoulder 9:42 – The Builders Network Origin Story 23:48 – The Mistral Deal — From WhatsApp to $21B 26:38 – Europe's AI Sovereignty Thesis 34:54 – Going On Shark Tank Germany 40:15 – "Germans Are Terrible Entertainers" 1:02:23 – What We're Underestimating: Become an Electrician 1:04:34 – Germany's Budget: "The Math Ain't Mathing" 1:07:13 – The Optimistic Case: Anthropic, Nvidia & Europe's Shot
1 Stunde 5 Minuten
Julian Teicke is a serial founder, in the last 12 months alone, he's co-founded four companies. But before any of that, he spent 10 years as CEO of the company that made his name, scaling it to €800M in revenue and 1,500 people.
He raised the money using an "ultimate experiment of manifestation," as he calls it: find the largest round ever raised in your vertical at your stage, then take it times two. It worked — Series A went from a $15M benchmark to $30M raised, Series B from $120M to $240M, Series C from $300M to over $600M. Then he tells you the part most founders never say out loud: it came from wanting to be seen, not from a calibrated goal.
In this ICONS episode, Julian gets specific about what actually happened — not the sanitized version. He explains the difference between building from "dirty fuel" (a paradigm he calls the dominant theme in venture capital, built on exploiting childhood trauma) and building from a grounded place. He recounts the moment an employee confronted him directly: that his unresolved dynamic with his father was scaling to every corner of the organization, taking the whole team hostage. And he admits, on the record, that going full-stack instead of building a broker model was the wrong choice — one that cost the organization its spirit.
He also walks through what he's building now: The Delta, a Berlin campus and venture builder that started as a way to process the 30 business ideas he generates in a single hour, and BAD1, the conference that grew out of it. He makes the case for why Berlin is the ecosystem worth betting on, backing it with the ecosystem's own 10x ambition — from €169B to €1.7T by 2036, with 250 unicorns and €30B in annual venture funding. And he closes on something AI still can't do, no matter how good the models get.
Watch or listen to the full episode on our channel or Spotify.
Guest: Julian Teicke, Co-Founder of wefox, Founder of The Delta & BAD1 Host: Roman Kirsch
Topics Discussed
Scaling wefox to €800M in revenue over 10 years as CEO — with his father joining the team as a hire along the way
The fundraising formula: find the largest round ever raised at your stage, then raise 2x
Series A, B, and C — how the round sizes escalated, and what it revealed about manifestation
The honest admission behind the strategy: raising to be seen, not from a calibrated goal
"Dirty fuel" vs. clean fuel — why he calls trauma-driven ambition the dominant pattern in venture capital
The employee who confronted him: how an unresolved family dynamic was taking the whole organization hostage
The full-stack insurer decision he now calls the wrong choice, and what it cost the company
Why trauma is not required to build great companies — and what he believes now instead
The job of a CEO: spotting which data point turns into a positive spiral versus a negative one
What he looks for in founders now: whether they seek discomfort or avoid it
Co-founding four companies in the last 12 months, and the one just announced that's "a completely different beast"
The Delta's origin story: turning 30 business ideas an hour into an actual venture-building platform
How BAD1 grew out of that same need
His case for why Berlin is the ecosystem worth betting on
Berlin's 10x ecosystem goal by 2036 — from €169B to €1.7T, 250 unicorns, €30B in venture funding
What Julian believes AI still can't replicate about human connection
Chapters: 0:00 Cold Open 1:12 Meet Julian Teicke 3:41 Welcome, Julian! 4:57 Why He Became an Entrepreneur 6:44 "Dirty Fuel" vs. Clean Fuel 8:04 The Manifestation Story 13:41 From Dirty Fuel to Balance 14:52 Hiring His Father — The Hostage Moment 17:00 Would He Do It Again? 18:29 The Delta & BAD1 Origin Story 20:12 Luca App, Theo, Handly — The Hit Rate 21:49 What He Looks For in Founders Now 23:45 4 Companies in 12 Months 29:57 How AI Changed Company Building 32:10 15 Years of Lessons 41:59 The Fundraising Formula: Raise 2x 44:47 The Goal Wasn't Calibrated 47:18 The Wrong Choice: Full-Stack Insurer 51:44 Masa Son & "The Beginning of the River" 58:09 Berlin's 10x Ecosystem Goal by 2036 1:03:08 Rapid Fire Questions 1:03:26 "Stop The Suffering" 1:03:40 What AI Still Can't Do About Julian Teicke Julian Teicke is a serial founder who has co-founded four companies in the last 12 months alone. Before that, he spent 10 years as CEO scaling a company to €800M in revenue and 1,500 people. Today he runs The Delta, a Berlin campus and venture builder home to over 900 early-stage founders, and BAD1, the conference that grew out of it.
He raised the money using an "ultimate experiment of manifestation," as he calls it: find the largest round ever raised in your vertical at your stage, then take it times two. It worked — Series A went from a $15M benchmark to $30M raised, Series B from $120M to $240M, Series C from $300M to over $600M. Then he tells you the part most founders never say out loud: it came from wanting to be seen, not from a calibrated goal.
In this ICONS episode, Julian gets specific about what actually happened — not the sanitized version. He explains the difference between building from "dirty fuel" (a paradigm he calls the dominant theme in venture capital, built on exploiting childhood trauma) and building from a grounded place. He recounts the moment an employee confronted him directly: that his unresolved dynamic with his father was scaling to every corner of the organization, taking the whole team hostage. And he admits, on the record, that going full-stack instead of building a broker model was the wrong choice — one that cost the organization its spirit.
He also walks through what he's building now: The Delta, a Berlin campus and venture builder that started as a way to process the 30 business ideas he generates in a single hour, and BAD1, the conference that grew out of it. He makes the case for why Berlin is the ecosystem worth betting on, backing it with the ecosystem's own 10x ambition — from €169B to €1.7T by 2036, with 250 unicorns and €30B in annual venture funding. And he closes on something AI still can't do, no matter how good the models get.
Watch or listen to the full episode on our channel or Spotify.
Guest: Julian Teicke, Co-Founder of wefox, Founder of The Delta & BAD1 Host: Roman Kirsch
Topics Discussed
Scaling wefox to €800M in revenue over 10 years as CEO — with his father joining the team as a hire along the way
The fundraising formula: find the largest round ever raised at your stage, then raise 2x
Series A, B, and C — how the round sizes escalated, and what it revealed about manifestation
The honest admission behind the strategy: raising to be seen, not from a calibrated goal
"Dirty fuel" vs. clean fuel — why he calls trauma-driven ambition the dominant pattern in venture capital
The employee who confronted him: how an unresolved family dynamic was taking the whole organization hostage
The full-stack insurer decision he now calls the wrong choice, and what it cost the company
Why trauma is not required to build great companies — and what he believes now instead
The job of a CEO: spotting which data point turns into a positive spiral versus a negative one
What he looks for in founders now: whether they seek discomfort or avoid it
Co-founding four companies in the last 12 months, and the one just announced that's "a completely different beast"
The Delta's origin story: turning 30 business ideas an hour into an actual venture-building platform
How BAD1 grew out of that same need
His case for why Berlin is the ecosystem worth betting on
Berlin's 10x ecosystem goal by 2036 — from €169B to €1.7T, 250 unicorns, €30B in venture funding
What Julian believes AI still can't replicate about human connection
Chapters: 0:00 Cold Open 1:12 Meet Julian Teicke 3:41 Welcome, Julian! 4:57 Why He Became an Entrepreneur 6:44 "Dirty Fuel" vs. Clean Fuel 8:04 The Manifestation Story 13:41 From Dirty Fuel to Balance 14:52 Hiring His Father — The Hostage Moment 17:00 Would He Do It Again? 18:29 The Delta & BAD1 Origin Story 20:12 Luca App, Theo, Handly — The Hit Rate 21:49 What He Looks For in Founders Now 23:45 4 Companies in 12 Months 29:57 How AI Changed Company Building 32:10 15 Years of Lessons 41:59 The Fundraising Formula: Raise 2x 44:47 The Goal Wasn't Calibrated 47:18 The Wrong Choice: Full-Stack Insurer 51:44 Masa Son & "The Beginning of the River" 58:09 Berlin's 10x Ecosystem Goal by 2036 1:03:08 Rapid Fire Questions 1:03:26 "Stop The Suffering" 1:03:40 What AI Still Can't Do About Julian Teicke Julian Teicke is a serial founder who has co-founded four companies in the last 12 months alone. Before that, he spent 10 years as CEO scaling a company to €800M in revenue and 1,500 people. Today he runs The Delta, a Berlin campus and venture builder home to over 900 early-stage founders, and BAD1, the conference that grew out of it.
1 Stunde 30 Minuten
Ramin Hasani spent a decade studying a 2-millimeter worm before anyone outside academia knew his name. Then he solved an equation that had gone unsolved for over 100 years, published it in Nature Machine Intelligence, and woke up to an inbox full of term sheets he never asked for. That paper became Liquid AI.
While every other foundation model company was racing to build bigger transformers and consume more compute, Ramin went the other direction. Liquid foundation models cut the exponential energy cost of AI down to linear — same output quality, a fraction of the hardware. They run on phones, laptops, and cars. No data center required. Today his models are downloaded 1.4 million times per week on Hugging Face. Liquid AI raised $270M at a $2.2B valuation with 110 people — while the companies they compete with raised that in a single week.
In this ICONS episode, Ramin covers the full arc — from growing up in Iran with an anatomy professor uncle who made him study the human brain, to the two professors at Politecnico di Milano who introduced him to brain-inspired computing, to the PhD at Vienna and MIT where he discovered that a microscopic worm with 302 neurons could control 95 muscles better than any robot ever built. He explains the mathematics behind liquid neural networks, why the transformer architecture hits an inevitable energy wall, and what two years at Vanguard — the $8 trillion asset manager — taught him about building for real enterprise value. He also talks about closing Mercedes-Benz in four months, why he thinks 85% of AI token spend is waste, and what he believes the world looks like in 25 years when humans stop talking to each other entirely.
Topics Discussed
Growing up in Iran, studying in Italy, completing his PhD across Vienna and MIT
The C. Elegans worm: 302 neurons, 95 muscles, and four Nobel Prizes
How modeling worm neuroscience led to the discovery of liquid neural networks
Solving a 100-year-old differential equation — and why he thought he'd win a Nobel Prize
The Hacker News moment: one paper, one morning, and an inbox full of Silicon Valley term sheets
Transformer architecture explained — and why it becomes an energy crisis at scale
Liquid foundation models: reducing exponential compute to linear without sacrificing quality
Two years at Vanguard: what a $8 trillion business teaches you about enterprise and large numbers
Why foundation model companies should be started by scientists, not operators
Raising $270M while competitors raised $20B — and why that's a feature, not a bug
1.4 million downloads per week: how a 110-person company became one third of Nvidia's open source footprint
Mercedes-Benz: closing an enterprise OEM deal in four months
Shopify: foundation models powering product search and recommendation at scale
Why they charge per request, not per token — and why contracts run 4 to 10 years
The talent war: winning 3 out of 10 battles against Anthropic, xAI, Meta, and Cursor
The taste test: why training a machine learning model is an art, not a recipe
The next frontier: Bezos's Prometheus, AI for science, and the world model thesis
Why humans can't grasp exponentials — and what the worm's nervous system has to do with it
25 years from now: neural chips, parallel communication, and realities indistinguishable from the physical world
The goal: Liquid foundation models running on 50% of all devices on the planet by 2029
While every other foundation model company was racing to build bigger transformers and consume more compute, Ramin went the other direction. Liquid foundation models cut the exponential energy cost of AI down to linear — same output quality, a fraction of the hardware. They run on phones, laptops, and cars. No data center required. Today his models are downloaded 1.4 million times per week on Hugging Face. Liquid AI raised $270M at a $2.2B valuation with 110 people — while the companies they compete with raised that in a single week.
In this ICONS episode, Ramin covers the full arc — from growing up in Iran with an anatomy professor uncle who made him study the human brain, to the two professors at Politecnico di Milano who introduced him to brain-inspired computing, to the PhD at Vienna and MIT where he discovered that a microscopic worm with 302 neurons could control 95 muscles better than any robot ever built. He explains the mathematics behind liquid neural networks, why the transformer architecture hits an inevitable energy wall, and what two years at Vanguard — the $8 trillion asset manager — taught him about building for real enterprise value. He also talks about closing Mercedes-Benz in four months, why he thinks 85% of AI token spend is waste, and what he believes the world looks like in 25 years when humans stop talking to each other entirely.
Topics Discussed
Growing up in Iran, studying in Italy, completing his PhD across Vienna and MIT
The C. Elegans worm: 302 neurons, 95 muscles, and four Nobel Prizes
How modeling worm neuroscience led to the discovery of liquid neural networks
Solving a 100-year-old differential equation — and why he thought he'd win a Nobel Prize
The Hacker News moment: one paper, one morning, and an inbox full of Silicon Valley term sheets
Transformer architecture explained — and why it becomes an energy crisis at scale
Liquid foundation models: reducing exponential compute to linear without sacrificing quality
Two years at Vanguard: what a $8 trillion business teaches you about enterprise and large numbers
Why foundation model companies should be started by scientists, not operators
Raising $270M while competitors raised $20B — and why that's a feature, not a bug
1.4 million downloads per week: how a 110-person company became one third of Nvidia's open source footprint
Mercedes-Benz: closing an enterprise OEM deal in four months
Shopify: foundation models powering product search and recommendation at scale
Why they charge per request, not per token — and why contracts run 4 to 10 years
The talent war: winning 3 out of 10 battles against Anthropic, xAI, Meta, and Cursor
The taste test: why training a machine learning model is an art, not a recipe
The next frontier: Bezos's Prometheus, AI for science, and the world model thesis
Why humans can't grasp exponentials — and what the worm's nervous system has to do with it
25 years from now: neural chips, parallel communication, and realities indistinguishable from the physical world
The goal: Liquid foundation models running on 50% of all devices on the planet by 2029
1 Stunde 5 Minuten
Martin Varsavsky has never had a job in his life. Not one. He arrived in New York at 26 as an Argentine refugee, convinced a Nobel Prize-winning scientist to build a biotech company with him, and has been founding unicorns ever since — six in total, spanning telecoms, fertility, and now AI medicine. At 66, he has just launched Certuma, the first medical AI company explicitly designed to be FDA-regulated and capable of writing prescriptions. The trigger: an AI correctly diagnosed a condition in his eye, recommended a specific medication, and then said 'I'm not a doctor.' He decided to fix that. In this ICONS episode, Martin covers his entire arc — from the pre-money valuation insight that unlocked entrepreneurship for him, to the meeting with the King of Spain where he said fertility — not nationalism — was the country's greatest threat. He talks about the technology his companies are building to make having children easier, the ethical lines he draws on designer babies, why he believes frozen embryos should be stored as a backup for civilization, and how cycling 14 hours a week at age 66 means he never had to plan for his own decay.
Topics Discussed
Fleeing Argentina during the military dictatorship, arriving in New York at 26 with nothing
Never getting a job offer — and how the same bank that rejected him funded his first company
Co-founding biotech with Nobel Prize winner César Milstein: how a random holiday party at Oxford changed everything
The Columbia MBA lesson that unlocked entrepreneurship: the magic of pre-money valuations
Three consecutive telecom unicorns: Viatel ($1.2B exit), Jaztel (€4B+ exit), and Yardcom
His method: solve problems you personally experience — telecoms, fertility, now AI medicine
The fertility crisis: every developed country is collapsing toward 1.0 — and the political divide nobody talks about
His private meeting with the King of Spain: 'Your heirs will have no inhabitants in this kingdom'
Gameto's Fertilo treatment — compressing IVF from 14 days of injections to 3 days
Overture: the embryology robot that automates the making of human embryos with ICSI
Vitara: the artificial womb saving premature babies, and the FDA battle blocking it
Why frozen embryos should never be discarded — as insurance for the species, not for religious reasons
Embryo selection: monogenic illness screening yes, designer babies: where he draws the line
Germany: the worst country in Europe for IVF regulations, and why
Certuma: the AI doctor company born to be regulated — and the story behind the founding moment
Starting his most ambitious company at 66, and why age is a bias not a barrier
Longevity through sport: 14 hours of cycling a week, blood work every quarter
US vs. Europe: healthcare waste, defence spending, and what America gets wrong about learning from Europe
Topics Discussed
Fleeing Argentina during the military dictatorship, arriving in New York at 26 with nothing
Never getting a job offer — and how the same bank that rejected him funded his first company
Co-founding biotech with Nobel Prize winner César Milstein: how a random holiday party at Oxford changed everything
The Columbia MBA lesson that unlocked entrepreneurship: the magic of pre-money valuations
Three consecutive telecom unicorns: Viatel ($1.2B exit), Jaztel (€4B+ exit), and Yardcom
His method: solve problems you personally experience — telecoms, fertility, now AI medicine
The fertility crisis: every developed country is collapsing toward 1.0 — and the political divide nobody talks about
His private meeting with the King of Spain: 'Your heirs will have no inhabitants in this kingdom'
Gameto's Fertilo treatment — compressing IVF from 14 days of injections to 3 days
Overture: the embryology robot that automates the making of human embryos with ICSI
Vitara: the artificial womb saving premature babies, and the FDA battle blocking it
Why frozen embryos should never be discarded — as insurance for the species, not for religious reasons
Embryo selection: monogenic illness screening yes, designer babies: where he draws the line
Germany: the worst country in Europe for IVF regulations, and why
Certuma: the AI doctor company born to be regulated — and the story behind the founding moment
Starting his most ambitious company at 66, and why age is a bias not a barrier
Longevity through sport: 14 hours of cycling a week, blood work every quarter
US vs. Europe: healthcare waste, defence spending, and what America gets wrong about learning from Europe
1 Stunde 28 Minuten
Oskar Hartmann has co-founded 20+ companies, invested in 150 as an angel, found 15 unicorns from seed stage, broke two world indoor rowing records, wrote a million-copy best-seller, and co-founded Accumulator — a financial infrastructure supporting private-company ownership for founders.
In this episode of ICONS, he gives the most unfiltered account of building at scale we’ve ever heard: the €500K liability that nearly destroyed him, the 2013 hospital breakdown, the frameworks of alternating and mini lives that rebuilt hi
Topics Discussed
From fitness belts to Pro Fitness Shop: how Oskar built his first internet business at 18 in Germany
What AI-powered research reveals about the 10,000 people who've built billion-dollar companies — and why 'you have to be abnormal'
How to read a founder in the wild: the warehouse CEO, the nightclub closer, the street fight walker
Launching KupiVIP on the day of the Lehman Brothers collapse — and the courier company that stole all the revenue
The true story behind building 20 parallel companies: a €500K personal liability and a desperate need for $1M in safety
2013: the year everything collapsed — bankruptcies, hospital, nervous system shutdown
The alternating framework: seasonal beast mode, recovery weeks, and what decathlon athletes can teach entrepreneurs about balance
Mini lives: how Oskar used 18-month focused sprints to break world rowing records and complete a 17-city stand-up tour
The Accumulator Fund: share pooling, adverse selection, and why 75% of founder outcomes are outside their control
What founders need differently in the AI era: speed, noise-muting, and trillion-dollar ambition
In this episode of ICONS, he gives the most unfiltered account of building at scale we’ve ever heard: the €500K liability that nearly destroyed him, the 2013 hospital breakdown, the frameworks of alternating and mini lives that rebuilt hi
Topics Discussed
From fitness belts to Pro Fitness Shop: how Oskar built his first internet business at 18 in Germany
What AI-powered research reveals about the 10,000 people who've built billion-dollar companies — and why 'you have to be abnormal'
How to read a founder in the wild: the warehouse CEO, the nightclub closer, the street fight walker
Launching KupiVIP on the day of the Lehman Brothers collapse — and the courier company that stole all the revenue
The true story behind building 20 parallel companies: a €500K personal liability and a desperate need for $1M in safety
2013: the year everything collapsed — bankruptcies, hospital, nervous system shutdown
The alternating framework: seasonal beast mode, recovery weeks, and what decathlon athletes can teach entrepreneurs about balance
Mini lives: how Oskar used 18-month focused sprints to break world rowing records and complete a 17-city stand-up tour
The Accumulator Fund: share pooling, adverse selection, and why 75% of founder outcomes are outside their control
What founders need differently in the AI era: speed, noise-muting, and trillion-dollar ambition
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Über diesen Podcast
Join serial entrepreneur & host Roman Kirsch as he uncovers
real founder stories, and growth secrets behind Europe’s
fastest-growing serious businesses.
No fluff, just actionable insights for entrepreneurs, marketers,
and brand builders.
The ICONS Show is the podcast diving deep into Europe’s most
iconic consumer businesses and entrepreneurs— revealing how they
won markets, built legendary brand identities, and made bold
strategic moves to rise above the competition.
Subscribe for high quality episodes featuring exclusive
interviews with industry leaders, founders, and innovators
shaping the future of European business.
Hosted by Roman Kirsch.
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