Meet David, Co-Founder and COO/CFO of Yodel
Name: David Heininger
Twitter: @davidteeh
Current City of Operation: Vienna, Austria
Hobbies: hiking, cooking, theme parties
What is your passion at Yodel?
I am one of the Co-Founders of Yodel and the COO/CFO. This means I coordinate the operations of the company but am also responsible for the financial affairs and economical structure of YodelTalk.
My passion lays in our company’s working atmosphere. I structure the team and if anyone has a concern, they can talk to me about it and we will work it out together. My priority is it to make YodelTalk a great company to work for.
I also do most graphics for the company as well as test new product features. I make sure that all of Yodel’s features are working properly by testing extensively anything before it goes live.
Let’s talk about Yodel. What do you love about the Yodel bot?
I use Yodel everyday. My work relies on being available for people to talk to me and I also need to call our business partners on the regular. The AI technology that we use, makes it possible to see who is calling and the reason for the call in our business chat platform before I take the call. This makes life so much easier for me.
Another huge plus point is that you do not have a physical phone on your desktop. Due to this, it enables everyone to have a flexible workplace. It actually saves money as well. Think about buying all your employees a phone. But I guess this is the finance-guy in me talking now.
What do you like best about being part of the Yodel family?
Like I said in the beginning I love that our work atmosphere is amazing. Everyone is happy and contributes towards it. For me it is also great that I have been with the company since the very first hour. I was and still am involved in the shaping of our product. It is exciting to me to see how Yodel has grown in the past year.
Furthermore, I like how we communicate. It is easy going but still respectful. We use a flat hierarchy in our business. I like this especially.
Back to you David. What is your background? What have you done before you joined the Yodel Team?
After school I finished an apprenticeship as a high-voltage installation technician. Then I fulfilled my service at the Federal Armed Forces and afterwards I jumped right into self-employment.
I joined my father in his business at an advertising agency. After a few years Mike joined the family business. Side note: Mike is not only my business partner as Co-Founder and CEO at Yodel but he is also my brother.
Mike and I started working together over 20 years ago. Together we gained a lot of experiences in the field of media and Software as a Service. One of the companies we founded, had a product which was a SaaS tool. This is where we hired Mario as our developer. Now almost 10 years later, he is with us in the Founder-team of YodelTalk.
Mike and I also had a company that was working for the public and private sector and specialized in consultancy in the fields of web, IT, communications and knowledge management. This gave us insights of working together with leading private sector companies in both visual and technological design. We also were able to gain a lot of experience with other cultures, languages and people from all over the globe.
I just think our overall experience is what help us tremendously with YodelTalk. From a business perspective we already have done those steps successfully quite a few times, this gives us an advantage over people who are new to the business, and we can focus more on the product itself.
How did you figure out that, this is the kind of profession you want to work in?
I figured this out quite some time ago, since I got the chance of being self-employed at a very early stage of my career.
I have always been fascinated by technology. I remember that at the age of 8, I built a mechanism that triggered an alarm whenever Mike tried to go into my toy box. So I knew since my childhood, that I wanted to invent new things and wanted to work for myself to do things the way I feel it is the most successful.
If someone who reads this wants to be an entrepreneur, what advice would you give that person?
If you have the idea, then go for it!! This is really the best advice to give. Don’t doubt your own ability to be successful with your idea. If you think that your product is awesome, then why wouldn’t others see it as well that way? You do need to be aware that when you decide to become an entrepreneur, you need to work hard to make it. You should like solving problems, because they will occur and you need to be creative. There are many books you can read up on but in the end you need to go your own path.
I would recommend to take two more people into the boat with you, that are as well excited about the product. If you are three people, there will always be a clear decision made when you take a vote.
Can you recommend any websites or tools, that you wouldn’t want to miss?
I work every day with Google Team Drive. It is great for handling Documents, since you can share them with everyone and work collaboratively. It works seamlessly with Mac. I am an Apple enthusiast.
I also read up on news every day. My go-to site is derstandard.at. I like being up to date with the current world affairs.
And of course I would recommend Yodel. ;-)
Last but not least: What is the most random fact about you?
I like to host and attend theme parties. My spouse and I have been doing this for years now to escape our everyday life for an evening. Together with a befriended couple we meet up bi-annually and take turns hosting these parties. Other hobbies of mine include hiking with my spouse and also being creative in the kitchen.
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