Instead of a short bio, let us know what are your top 3 books everyone working on digital transformation needs to read and top 3 tech gadgets one needs to have?
Books? What are books? Kidding aside I would recommend not to read books on digital transformation but rather books on economics or politics. I also like Ken Follett 🙂 (Available in Germany, United States, UK, France and Spain) For digital transformation I would rather read TheVerge or other websites on the topic.
You went from developing games as to building companies for BCG Digital Ventures. How did that happen? Is there a secret sauce to successfully build up ventures? What could start-up founders and corporate managers learn from that?
There is no secret sauce. You can build a successful venture if you solve a problem for a specific target group, if you can make money off doing it and if its technically possible to do it. As a corporate customer you should also consider if you have an unfair advantage doing it. If all of this comes together you have a good chance of succeeding! I like building ventures in the B2B context now because most of the time they rate better in the dimensions given above. You solve a real problem, companies are easier to persuade to pay money than teenagers and websites are easier to build than games.
In your opinion, what will be the next 3 tech trends that will shake up industries in Germany? Do you see already promising use cases?
The current buzzwords are clearly IoT, Blockchain & AI. Out of these I personally think AI will have the biggest impact in the next 30 years. A lot of existing (digital) processes can be either augmented or replaced by AI which will bring new products & services and also reduce costs a lot. This will be super exciting!
You build new ventures for old companies. What are the top 3 tips you advise your clients after you hand over the ventures?
- Keep the venture as operationally independent from corporate HQ as possible
- Don’t have too specific KPIs. e.g. rather set a general revenue target and leave it to the startup how to reach it.
- Hiring is important. Don’t treat the venture as a graveyard for unwanted corporate employees. You need to hire people with a startup spirit.
Biography:
Karsten has over 15 years of experience in digital product management and gaming (PC, console, mobile & web with over 10 products & services released). He created a franchise of three AppStore games with over 20 million users & 7-digit revenue. His products were featured by Apple, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA. He founded three startups, raised over 2m EUR in several funding rounds, hired & lead teams of up to 30 employees, negotiated exit to Goodgame Studios. He has management & hands on experience in MVP definition based on ethnographic research, agile development, live operations and KPI driven iterations.
