The European Startup Show

Jan Hugenroth, an ex-Mckinsey consultant turned entrepreneur, is building a no-code solution that allows organizations to automate the remaining manual processes that exists today outside of project management and ERP tools. They have attracted seed investments from two veteran VCs in Europe - Crane ventures and BlueYard Capital. I sat down to find out why he thought this was an attractive space and his approach to hiring and funding.

Show Notes

About Next Matter
  • [4:16] - What does Next Matter do?  Can you share a few use cases?
  • [6:45] - How does Next Matter differ from other project management tools?

Big Trends
  • [9:08] - Are no coding tools realistic for large companies with complex and unique processes?
  • [13:59] - What trends do you see for how the future of work will evolve?

Building your company
  • [17:58] - How do you position Next Matter effectively in the prospect’s mind?
  • [19:52] - How do you get people to actually pay for yet another tool that is going to help them with coordination and collaboration?
  • [22:02] - How did you decide on the specific use cases to work on?  How did you focus your team on the right manual processes to digitize?
  • [24:43] - When raising funding, what was your approach to pitching investors?
  • [32:00] - What is your advice on hiring your first 10 people?


Links:
Next Matter

Book recommendations:
Hard things about hard things by Ben Horowitz
The Swarm - A novel of the deep by Frank Schӓtzing

What is The European Startup Show?

To inspire technology entrepreneurs in Europe with stories and practical strategies from other successful entrepreneurs.

If you are a CEO, founder, or work in sales or marketing, and your company is based in Europe or is looking to expand into Europe, then this podcast is for you.