Topic: Guest Lectures

Maria Baumgartner is way more than Speedinvest Heroes Managing Partner. During her career, she had a lot of great accomplishments and success stories. In this interview, she is revealing some of her secrets about how she became the great manager and visionary she is.

Tell me about your experiences that led you to the startup world. What brought you where you are?

My experience can be summed up with three words: friendship, relationships, and curiosity. When I started my career, there was no knowledge about the internet, startup, or whatever. We created something absolutely new and we had to stay together and try it out. We never gave up and we learned it our way!

You are the Managing Partner and CEO of Speedinvest Heroes, how do you feel in this role?

I don’t see myself as a managing partner. I know that I am, but I rather see myself as a team member. I see myself more as a founder, more specifically a female founder.

In this regard, which is the greatest challenge for female founders in your opinion?

I had a company and I was a CEO with three small kids and that is something that nobody should experience. It was extreme. Also, a big challenge is that you often feel alone.

That is why you need to start your company with partners you really like and you are able to see also as friends.

You will stick together in the good and in the bad and you need to know you can count on them. Problems and crises (such as COVID-19) are always around the corner, but with the right people, it is easy to stick together.

What advice would you give to a young professional, starting her career?

My advice would be to think big, try not to focus on what you are not good at, but on your strengths. That’s enough.

What was the main idea behind Speedinvest Heroes?

The idea was that Heroes is a strategic partner for startups and VCs. We position ourselves as a company with not just an extraordinary way of thinking but with the expertise by which we always plan one step ahead… and that’s how we help in the development of innovative startups. In these 4 years, we formed a lot in order to develop a strategic and holistic view, to deliver the right solutions at the right time. Startups could easily run out of money, have a founder clash or go through many other troubles, but we were always there for them, carry on until the very end.

Why did you decide to take the lead?

Personally, I didn’t want to be the managing partner again. I wanted to focus on the coaching and on the Startup Anatomy Project. That was my core project and I always wanted to focus on this. I know that there are certain patterns amongst the startup founders and corporate managers and I was eager to find them in order to develop a methodology where we can classify the success factors. We conducted the study in Austria (the results will be soon available online) and we really want to expand it and do the next step in Europe.

Was there a moment in your life where you realized that focusing on the people was the key for a healthy team and hence, a successful business?

After the exit from the first company, I was thinking about what I learned from this experience and what I wanted to take out for my personal ride.

I realized that all the projects that had problems or conflicts, haven’t failed because of skill sets or technical problems, but because of personal interaction and politics. Hence, I recognized that if we focus on relationships, we can do everything.

According to your opinion, are there characteristics which are more important than others to work well in a team?

I believe that the most important thing is communication, feedback, and interaction. Personally, I need on-going, in-between, and personal communication. The most important thing is to speak to me, in person. That’s when I can focus the best and share all the important stuff I have in my mind.

And to conclude, is there any recommendation you want to share?

I guess the key is always to be self-reflecting and to have the courage to deal with the gaps in your knowledge. You have to be comfortable not to do everything perfectly!