From NYC to Berlin and Crushing it in the Insurance Business with John Ismailoglu

The Germany Expat Business Show

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It was a thrill when John Ismailoglu cheerfully accepted my request for a podcast interview. He is hands down one of my favorite LinkedIn follows, posting about - of all things - Insurance!
A fellow American born and raised in NYC, John is a ‘4th culture’ person with a family story that spans Turkey, Bulgaria, the U.S. and now Germany.

With close to two decades in the dynamic realm of insurance, John has seen it all. John's story began in New York where he started from the bottom, selling car insurance in a call center. Over time, he climbed the ranks to handling the needs of prominent businesses and the affluent. "From Call Center to Rockefeller Center" will be the title of John's insurance biography - he just needs to put pen to paper and write the thing.

Nowadays, John is venturing into new territory in Berlin and embarking on a fresh chapter with INSRD, an insurance and risk solution provider for startups, scaleups, and tech.
In this interview we talked about:

• How the buzz and diversity of Berlin feels similar to being in his hometown of NYC 3.
• How a his experience working at a call center in high school led to INSRD
• Our shared American respect for the art and talent of selling and customer service (of course!)
• His German language journey from learning it, forgetting it, then learning it again and then learning ‘Insurance German’
• His rule of thumb advice for the basic insurances every business needs
• Balancing the market opportunities with the bureacratic challenges of setting up and running a business in Germany
• His excellent, excellent LinkedIn game and how and why he built up a following on the platform

And congrats! INSRD just received €500k in Pre-seed funding!

You can find this episode and all episodes as well as show notes for each at www.eleanormayrhofer.com/podcast
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Chapters

1. From NYC to Berlin and Crushing it in the Insurance Business with John Ismailoglu (00:00:00)

2. Life and Business in Germany (00:00:03)

3. Navigating Challenges in Transition to Entrepreneurship (00:09:31)

4. Insurance and Business Opportunities in Germany (00:14:09)

5. Cultural Sales Strategies and Start-Up Support (00:25:31)

6. Migrant Accelerator and Entrepreneurship Challenges (00:33:20)

7. Challenges and Opportunities for Entrepreneurs (00:38:12)