Hey Croners! Welcome to our brand new column Crono Talks, a series of interviews with projects and people that have blown our minds. We aim to bring inspiration and give deserved credit to those working hard and with great ideas.
In this episode, we’ll have a chat with Julius Göllner, Co-Founder & Managing Director at ARRtist. In the first half of this interview, we’ll get to know Julius and then the project itself, let’s get started!
Crono Talks ep.4: ARRtist
Hi Julius, we like to start with a warm-up: describe yourself in 10 words!
Addicted entrepreneur, SaaS Investor, Passionate Runner, Thankful Father, Curious Mind.
Now, can you give us a little overview of your career and projects?
After completing my studies in business administration and economics, I joined the management consultancy McKinsey & Company, where I mainly advised banks and insurance companies.
I then joined the top management of Zalando, where I was a C-level board member responsible for building and scaling all non-full-price divisions (Zalando Lounge, Zalando Outlets) up to the IPO.
During this time, I was lucky and honoured to learn entrepreneurship from the ground up in a trustful but fast-paced environment.
After the IPO, I became an entrepreneur in my own right and am still very passionate about bringing new ideas to life.
In the last 10 years, I have founded 15 companies myself and invested in more than 40 at the preseed and seed stages. I love the very early days of a company from idea to product market fit and am grateful to have worked with so many inspiring people and founders around me.
How did you discover your passion for startups?
Definitely during my time at Zalando.
The creative freedom paired with a super high level of energy and ambitious, inspiring people was addictive and something I never wanted to miss again in my life.
Any advice for aspiring founders?
Follow your passion!
If you do something you are truly passionate about – a SaaS business, a bakery or a hairdressing salon – financial success will follow.
Don’t get me wrong – it won’t happen overnight. It will be a long, sometimes painful journey.
But your passion will help you survive downturns and difficult times. It will inspire and persuade those around you (employees, customers, suppliers), but above all, it will make your day-to-day work and life so much more enjoyable.
What's the biggest and most unseen difference you see in the DACH market?
Unlike many other European markets, the DACH region, particularly Germany, does not operate with a centralised approach.
Yes, we have some startup and SaaS hubs with Berlin and Munich, but the market is much bigger and much more fragmented.
We have great founders, talent and key customers spread all over Germany. Cities like Karlsruhe, Aachen or Bielefeld are not very well known but have huge potential in terms of purchasing power but also human capacity. If you want to be successful in DACH, it is very important to take this into account.
Also, having German native speakers on the team is a key asset, especially if you are selling to SMB.
Inside ARRtist
How does it feel to be the co-founder of ARRtist?
It is great because I love it when entrepreneurs tell me about the insights they gained or the connections they made in our community or at one of our events and how it has helped them to build a better company.
Also, I have the pleasure of being surrounded by inspiring people all day long.
My co-founders are experienced and inspiring entrepreneurs, our team is energetic and highly ambitious, and our audience and guests are super-skilled and inspiring operators and founders, as well as world-class investors.
Working with all these people daily provides me with a constant opportunity to learn and develop new ideas.
How would you describe the ARRtist project?
ARRtist is the leading SaaS ecosystem for the German-speaking markets. We try to provide SaaS founders and operators from all over Europe with everything they need to be successful in DACH:
The best available playbooks for Go-To-Market and Tech, contact to other experienced and top-class founders, access to investors who provide you with the right capital as well as a network of the best service providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Over 800 have joined our community and we receive applications for our events from great founders daily.
What's the story behind it?
As an angel investor in SaaS, I realized that my teams, but also founders all over Europe, face the same, very repetitive problems at every stage of entering and scaling in the DACH market.
On the other hand, there were already many successful stories and teams who had made their own mistakes, gained a lot of valuable knowledge and would probably have been open to sharing it.
It was time to build a platform to connect all these people and make the whole ecosystem more accessible, faster and more successful.
What are your favourite memories about it and your future goals?
Definitely opening the doors to the first ARRtist Summit in 2022. Seeing an idea come to life by bringing 500 of Europe’s best founders and investors together in Berlin was one of those moments you build for and are an entrepreneur for.
For the future, we are constantly thinking about how we can bring more value to the SaaS ecosystem in general.
For example, on 19th April 2024, we will host the first ARRtist Circus – Europe’s first and only training and development festival for sales and success teams.
With over 100 teams and more than 700 Sellers and Customer Success Managers committed already, we are sure to have a very unique and empowering day together. Welcome to the Circus ring…
Why should professionals join ARRtist?
Simply because it will help them build a better company and boost their personal growth.
We offer a unique ecosystem that makes everyone in it faster, better and more successful. You get access to the most experienced and knowledgeable operators, the best investors around the world, and the best solution providers to help you take shortcuts and save massive amounts of time and money.
More importantly, you will find a very inspiring group of people passionate about their work. And as I said – if you follow your passion – success and happiness will follow…
Discover more stories about inspiring projects on our blog!
