In this week’s episode of This Much I Know, Seedcamp founder, Moritz Plassnig, talks to Carlos about his journey from scaling a prototype into the creation of a company, CodeShip, that in spring of 2018 was acquired by CloudBees. Moritz founded Codeship aged just 21 and demonstrated maturity beyond his years in his decisions and accounts most of his success to being close to the customer. On dilemmas of speed vs. understanding, he notes the following: “As a VC, you are hedging your bets and hoping for those couple of companies, who will become extremely successful. However, as a founder, you are instinctively a bit more careful, as you want to be successful but on the other hand, the cycle, in our case, took up to 7 years, which means that you do not want the business to fail just by risking too much. Finding the risk-reward balance is extremely important.”
Speaking candidly with Carlos, Moritz shares the many stages of the company’s progress and touches upon his own evolution as a manager. In addition, Moritz discusses the acquisition by CloudBees and analyse the importance of an inclusive, but decisive culture. “At the end of the day, if you are the CEO, you have to own it. Any decision made in your company is also your decision and the only recommendation one can give is to never compromise on your underlying values.”
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