The digital knowledge panorama has reworked dramatically over the previous 20 years, changing into a cornerstone for decision-making in enterprise, journalism, and analysis.
Firms that accumulate, analyse, and current knowledge successfully are actually on the forefront of innovation, shaping markets and influencing methods worldwide. On this context, Friedrich Schwandt, Founding father of Statista and CEO of ECDB, is a becoming voice to elucidate the present valuation of information and the main target essential to make it worthwhile.
Friedrich has spent almost 20 years shaping how companies, media, and establishments work with knowledge – and in our a hundred and fiftieth episode, he displays candidly on what that journey actually regarded like.
After we sat right down to file the a hundred and fiftieth episode of the EU-Startups podcast, Friedrich described his profession as “comparatively straightforward to elucidate,” however the substance behind it’s something however easy. After early roles at BCG and Deutsche Telekom, he made the leap into entrepreneurship in 2007, launching Statista at a time when paid digital content material was nonetheless seen as unrealistic.
“Folks talked about paid content material the way in which they talked about going to Mars,” he stated. “It sounded good, however nobody actually took it severely.”
Statista began with two easy concepts: knowledge ought to be straightforward to search out, and simple to make use of.
“There should be a spot the place folks can go and discover statistics on all related enterprise matters – and the information ought to be dependable,” Friedrich defined. “And second, the information ought to be ready in a approach that’s straightforward to make use of.”
That readability of goal carried Statista from a bootstrapped Hamburg startup to a world platform masking over 80,000 matters, utilized by tens of millions worldwide.
However success didn’t come with out pressure. One of the vital elements of our dialog was Friedrich’s honesty concerning the pressures of progress.
“For years, each January was about planning how many individuals we would need to let go in an effort to survive,” he stated. “It by no means occurred […] one way or the other we made it by way of the 12 months after which the subsequent 12 months got here.”
Later, managing a post-pandemic organisation of greater than 1,000 folks introduced a special problem altogether – managing a rising enterprise turning company and worldwide.
In 2023, Friedrich stepped down as CEO of Statista and moved into a boss position – a call he described as each relieving and tough. “I used to be not chargeable for the salaries of 1,500 folks. And you’re feeling very relieved,” he stated. “However it’s additionally your child. So that’s tough.”
His answer was deliberate distance: “I requested myself: what sort of chairman would I need as a CEO? [..] You need somebody you’ll be able to go to, you’ll be able to ask questions. You attempt that he be as goal as doable however in any other case you need him out.”
That transition allowed him to completely concentrate on his subsequent enterprise, ECDB – the eCommerce Database – aimed toward bringing transparency to on-line commerce by way of transaction-level knowledge.
We additionally mentioned AI, the place Friedrich was refreshingly pragmatic. “I consider in the event you’re a generalist then AI generally is a risk. In the event you’re extraordinarily specialised on one thing, it’s harder to assault. I consider in the event you combination knowledge, it could possibly be a risk. When you’ve got your individual database, it’s simpler to defend,” he stated.
For ECDB, AI is much less a disruptor than a instrument – bettering entry, evaluation, and velocity.
Past knowledge and corporations, the dialog was additionally private. From his love of handwritten to-do lists to reminiscences of learning in Eire – and even working as a redcoat at a vacation centre close to Dublin – Friedrich jogged my memory that long-term founders are formed as a lot by life as by enterprise.
Taking on the EU-Startups Podcast as host was all the time going to really feel like a milestone, and I couldn’t have requested for a extra becoming visitor for my first episode than Friedrich.
