The OMR Podcast International – Go inside the minds of the biggest names in digital and tech

Jeff Kolovson is COO at Faire, a B2B wholesale eCommerce platform that Techcrunch described as “Indie Amazon.” But with capital raised north of USD 800m, a valuation of 12.5b US as of May 2022 and a recent partnership with Shopify, all obfuscates Faire’s size. But at its essence, the label fits: retailers can access, via subscription, millions of products by 100,000 brands on the platform and use some very clever filters to ensure that the products align with retailer values. We discussed the robust offering of features and tools the platform offers, the retailer and brand-friendly features aimed at attracting and aiding new users build their shops and the impact of partnering with Shopify.

Quentin Bordage is the founder and CEO of Kolsquare, a leading European SaaS service that connects influencers and KOLs with companies and brands. Originally founded in 2010 as Brands & Celebrities, Kolsquare in its current form has been around since 2018, acting more as a self-service platform for companies to find, vet and connect with KOLs, or key opinion leaders. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, Bordage sat down with host Scott Peterson to discuss the current state of influencer marketing, why the 2018 pivot was more natural evolution that hard paradigm shift, as well as the nuts and bolts of the platform. We also touched on best-case practices and absolute no-gos for brands and companies new to working with KOLs.

Nikolas Bullwinkel is co-founder and CEO of food delivery startup Circus. Based in Hamburg, the venture launched in May 2022 and has set as its mission nothing short of creating what it calls the "Kitchen of the future." In this episode of the OMR Podcast, Nikolas spoke about his plans to redefine kitchens, incorporating AI into the back of the house and why he left Flink.

Christopher Leidinger is a branding expert as founder LIT Create. He has been instrumental in the rebranding of major fintech players in Nuri and Solarisbank, as well as smaller scale enterprises ranging from a chemistry startup and a chocolate startup to an AI food delivery startup, a craft spirit brand and even an underground techno club in Berlin. Furthermore, LIT has worked with Airbnb, Volkswagen and Hyundai on various image and ad campaigns. We discussed the state of branding, what it is, how it’s evolved and why every company, big or small, should be cognizant of the image it projects and also got Christopher’s take on Twitter’s rebrand to X.

Konstantin Baum, Germany's youngest-ever Master of Wine, runs one of the world's largest wine channels on YouTube. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, we spoke about the business of wine on social media, his YouTube channel, monetization and community-building strategies, and other business verticals revolving around his passion for vino.

By founding Snapchat in his mid-20s, Evan Spiegel reached billionaire status at a very early age. Today, some 350 million people use the app globally. In the OMR Podcast, he talks about the failure of his first startup, drops his take on when augmented reality glasses will become part of people's everyday lives and why he still believes in Twitter's potential.

Maybe when Tim Brown retired from professional soccer in 2012, he should have seen it coming: swapping out cleats for shoes. It was in fact his shock at the amount of plastic in the footwear freebies gifted to him during his playing days that gave rise to an obsession, which, eventually, evolved into Allbirds, a D2C stalwart and love brand for sustainable footwear founded in 2016.

It has been an eventful 12 months for Contentsquare. From rolling out a slew of key new features, AI capabilities and a cookieless solution, among others, acquired a couple of companies, expanded globally adding a number of new offices and nearly doubled its workforce to approximately 1500 at present. On top of all that, you locked up approximately USD 600m in funding recently, the latest in a 12-month span that saw Contentsquare acquire a total of 1.4B in backing and helping CS’s total valuation double to USD 5.4B. And that’s not taking into consideration the mergers and acquisitions Contentsquare has undertaken in the past 3-4 years.

For the past 8 years, Margrethe Vestager has taken the fight to the world's biggest tech companies in her role as EU commissioner for competition. Despite the incredibly deep pockets of tech lobbyists, she has had some very high-profile "wins." In the OMR Podcast, she discusses what will happen next.

In this episode of the OMR Podcast, we are chatting with Mirko Caspar, CEO of omnichannel eyewear provider Mister Spex. Since Mirko has been at the helm, he has focussed on enhancing brand perception and convincing eyewear consumers to turn to online outlets as well as offline offerings. A decade later, a tenfold increase in annual revenue to EUR 194m is all you need to know about how it's going for Mirko and Mister Spex. We spoke about specifics regarding purchasing habits of prescription eyewear consumers, how a streamlined omnichannel shopping experience and local partnerships have contributed to growth and how AI is impacting the present and the future of Mister Spex.

The OMR Festival is a place for the unexpected. From the guests and speakers to everything else, it's a series of moments that surprise and inspire. While surprising certainly qualifies for talking robots and a 1960s school bus converted into a mobile recording studio (where today's episode was in fact recorded), inspiring perfectly describes my guests in this episode of the OMR Podcast: Ammar Kandil co-founder of Yes Theory and Max Rantz-McDonald, who organized a Global Citizens Live event among other things. Most recently, Ammar and Max set up Team Ukraine Love, an initiative aimed at assisting Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border. I spoke to Ammar and Max about Team Ukraine Love, about Yes Theory, mobilizing community and how they use social media for good.

In early 2021, Adam Ross was appointed CEO at Awin, the world's largest affiliate network. In the OMR Podcast, I spoke to Adam about his tenure at AWIN, how the industry has evolved from being perceived as supremely shady to an absolute must for advertisers and publishers, how the company has transformed from a niche service provider to a "feature-rich martech platform" and the impact of influencers on Awin—and Awin on influencers. If you've ever wanted to know what affiliate marketing is and why it's essential in today's landscape, this is one podcast episode you do not want to miss.

In 2013, SAP bought up CRM and cloud service provider Hybris for 1.5 billion US. At the time, the deal was the largest of its kind for a European entrepreneur, but for anyone in . It also came at a time when cloud technologies, their use case and applications, were in their absolute infancy. In this episode of the OMR Podcast, I had the chance to discuss the deal with Thoma, if he has any regrets about the timing and the price—can you regret a billion-dollar deal? We also discussed his activities as an angel investor, his investing strategy and we didn't leave any meat on the proverbial bone getting the low-down on his chain of BBQ smokehouses stateside.