Artificial intelligence is currently finding its way into many business areas. In an interview, founder Simona Hübl, opens an external URL in a new window gives an insight into the AI-controlled job platform Nejo, opens an external URL in a new window, which she co-founded, and reveals which qualities she thinks Gründer_innen should definitely have.
Simona Hübl, you have a degree in Economics and you always have been working in the tech environment, starting your career in venture capital. From your own experience what qualities or traits have you consistently noticed in successful technology startup founders?
Early-stage startups are really bets on people. Products change. Markets evolve. It’s the founding team that makes or breaks a company. The best founders have this interesting mix of humility and confidence. They listen to feedback and aren't afraid to quickly kill ideas that aren't working. At the same time, they stick to their vision when everyone else thinks they're crazy.
Having made the jump from VC to founder myself, I only now truly understand how tricky this balance can be. Confidence and arrogance can sometimes feel similar. I'm constantly trying to find that fine line – being confident enough in my vision to pursue it wholeheartedly, while avoiding the arrogance that might make me dismiss valuable feedback or lose touch with reality. It's a delicate balance I work on every day.
You recently made the leap to entrepreneurship by founding the job platform Nejo (https://mynejo.com) together with two co-founders. According to research of Harvard Business School professor Noam Wasserman 65% that fail do so because of co-founder conflicts. What was the reason that you decided to found a start-up together with two others? Do you have personal advice how to prevent founder conflict?
I've seen those statistics play out in real-life when I was in venture capital. Co-founder conflicts happen very frequently and not only get ugly but often really break a company. Investors won't invest in a company with a non-operative and often non-cooperative co-founder in the cap table holding a share just as big as the others.
But: data also clearly shows another side. The average number of co-founders in unicorn companies is 2-3. For me, the decision comes down to complementary skills. My co-founders and I each bring different strengths to the table. The math is simple - we each only get a third of the cake, but we’re confident that together we can build a much bigger cake overall. To prevent founder conflict, I believe in preparation.
Have the difficult conversations before you start. We discussed our motivations, personal goals, financial situations, and how long each of us could work without earning a salary. We talked about our vision for company culture, remote versus in-person work, and our approach to hiring.
These aren't easy conversations, but they reveal potential issues before they become real problems. It's about aligning expectations from day one. Finding co-founders is a bit like finding life partners – the relationship needs constant work, clear communication, and mutual respect.
No matter how well you prepare, always have a proper vesting agreement in place. If someone leaves, their shares get redistributed. Standard terms are monthly vesting of founder shares over 4 years with a 1-year cliff.
Nejo is a job platform that provides AI supported research by aggregating open positions directly from employer websites. What was the biggest challenge for you personally at the start of Nejo and how did you overcome it?
My biggest challenge is accepting that building a product takes time. I'm naturally impatient with a hands-on mentality, and it’s frustrating not being able to just jump into the code myself and help out. The truth is, I don't have coding skills, and my co-founders would never let me near the codebase anyway. Probably for the best.
Coming from venture capital, I was used to seeing a somewhat finished product, not the messy middle where things are half-built and full of bugs. But you probably know how the saying goes: "If you ship it when it's perfect, you shipped it too late." Finding the right balance between shipping something that users will genuinely love, while accepting it can't possibly be perfect with the time and resource constraints we have, is a daily struggle right now.
When describing yourself you once mentioned that you try to do something for the first time every single day. What was that you did for the first time yesterday?
Yesterday I tried sewing an ear onto a crocheted racoon I'm making for a pregnant friend. I've never done that before, and I was surprisingly tense about it. I'd been working on this racoon for several evenings in a row, it was almost finished, but if I messed up the second ear, made it asymmetrical, there probably wouldn't be a good way to fix it.
My boyfriend noticed how nervous I was and jokingly said, "I didn't know you had such fear of failure in you at all." The truth is, I definitely do have those worries (and I frequently remind him of that fact!), but I'd rather try something and fail than look back at my life when I’m old and wonder how different it would have been if I just didn't let the worries get in my way. By the way, the racoon-ear turned out alright. Not perfect, but done is better than perfect in startup-world.
Simona Hübl live: On April 10, Simona Hübl will be a guest at the ACE Talk "Tomorrow's Leaders: How AI is changing the rules of entrepreneurship." and will report on her experiences, the first steps towards starting your own company and at how AI is changing startups.
Register now