Eckhardt Weber on his learnings from building companies with FinLeap and Heartbeat Labs

Startup Notes

Since 2014, Eckhardt Weber has been one of the key people behind Berlin-based company builder HitFox Group and especially its FinTech-focused branch FinLeap, which has seen some tremendous success in recent years with him leading it as its Managing Director. Having a background as a corporate lawyer and being specialized in business development within highly regulated markets, he was especially instrumental in creating solarisBank - a well-reputed FinLeap venture that managed to obtain a full banking license in Germany within just 9 months. Since summer 2017, Eckhardt is focusing on creating new tech ventures in the healthcare industry under the umbrella of newly founded company builder Heartbeat Labs, which also belongs to the HitFox Group. Up to five startups per year shall be created and supported with the company builder’s help that Eckhardt co-founded and again leads as Managing Director. In this episode, we are talking to Eckhardt about how he made his way from being a lawyer to building companies in the FinTech and healthcare sector, his best practices for being productive and efficient, the reasons for FinLeap’s success, his plans for Heartbeat Labs and mistakes that he sees founders make over and over again. Here is the full list of topics that we discussed with hands-on company builder Eckhardt Weber: [00:02 – 01:49] Introduction of Eckhardt and his background [01:50 – 03:06] One thing people would be surprised to know about Eckhardt [03:07 – 05:37] What a typical day in his life as an entrepreneur look like [05:38 – 06:57] Eckhardt’s best practices for daily routines [06:58 – 08:49] How to best plan your tasks ahead [08:50 – 13:26] On the reasons for FinLeap’s success as a company builder [13:27 – 16:01] What Eckhardt is doing differently now building Heartbeat Labs in comparison to his time at FinLeap [16:02 – 19:20] The first tasks to tackle when setting up a company builder [19:21 – 23:07] Why Eckhardt is still bullish on the business model of a company builder [23:08 – 27:49] Why it makes sense for founders to start a startup with a company builder [27:50 – 30:15] How founders can ‚wow‘ Eckhardt to convince him for investing into a startup with Heartbeat Labs [30:16 – 32:48] One challenging question that Eckhardt asks when founders seek for funding [32:49 – 35:09] On the most innovate service that will likely be launched in the health industry within the next 5 years [Listener Question] [35:10 – 38:22] Eckhardt’s view on the challenges of starting a health startup in Germany [38:23 – 43:26] The ‚secret sauce‘ of the company culture behind the success of FinLeap and Heartbeat Labs [43:27 – 45:46] One mistake that founders do over and over again when starting a company [45:47 – 49:07] Advice that founders should write on some post-it notes and remember at all times