EWOR Been There, Done That Podcast

In this episode, Josiah Senu, Co-founder and CEO of Zuba, shares the difficult decisions he had to make to go from being a Harvard law prodigy to building the payment infrastructure Africa’s never had. Together with Petter Made, Josiah discusses receiving hate mail after turning down a magic circle barristers' chambers in the UK, a failed business partnership that cost serious time and capital, the psychological whiplash of switching from crisis mode to investor pitch in five minutes, and why optimizing for hiring ‘nice’ people nearly cost him everything. Plus the fundraising insight that changed how Josiah sees the game entirely – there are no rules.

In this episode, Alfons Huber, Co-founder and CEO of REPS, talks with Daniel Dippold about what it actually took to protect his invention when the people he trusted most tried to steal it. Alfons invented energy harvesting technology 200x more efficient than anything on the market, with 90,000 trucks already driving over it at the Port of Hamburg. Getting there meant walking away from his degree after four university professors threatened to destroy his career if he didn't hand over his work. He left to start over in a 20 square meter lab with almost nothing on his bank account, ripped the motor out of his own washing machine to save €5,000 in research costs, and went two weeks without washing his clothes as a result. The people who tried to stop him were his role models. Succeeding required him telling them to fuck off in order to bring his invention to life.

In this episode, Julian Rothenbuchner, Co-founder and CEO of Tumbleweed, talks with Daniel Dippold about the real cost of rejection before you break through. Julian is a rocket scientist building the infrastructure that could make manufacturing in space as accessible as mailing a package, with a SpaceX partnership to show for it. He opens up about the mental breakdown that followed SpaceX's initial rejection, six co-founder splits including a romantic relationship that didn't survive the pressure, and getting rejected by EWOR twice before finally getting accepted. Getting to yes cost more than anyone saw, and in this episode, Julian doesn't spare the details.