Meet Nina, CCO at Yodel
Name: Nina Hödlmayr
Twitter: @ninayodel
Current City of Operation: San Francisco, CA, USA
Hobbies: exercising, playing the piano, traveling
What is your passion at Yodel?
I’m a founding team member and CCO. This means I’m in contact with everyone starting from customers, potential leads to business partners and investors. While managing all those things, the most important aspect to me is to stay in contact with our customers and to understand their needs so we at Yodel can make their lives easier.
It’s also vital to me that we have good relations to our integration partners and strategic partners. It’s a lot easier to work together this way.
Let’s talk about Yodel. What do you love about the Yodel bot?
The best thing about the Yodel bot is that I know who is calling. I hate it when I don’t know who is on the other line. Especially, because I’m bad at understanding acoustically over the phone. Sometimes I don’t understand their names or the phone numbers I could call them back at. That often results in me asking them to repeat this information which is quite frustrating for me. The transcription part of Yodel works great for me. I have all this information written down in my business chat.
What do you like best about being part of the Yodel family?
You are responsible for your own to-do’s. You have to decide for yourself what is important and should be done right away and what can hold up. In case you are unsure about certain things, you can get support from your coworkers. It is an honest collaboration and trust in each other.
We all know that everyone is trying to do their best work possible. We all are independent and there is no judgement when something might not work out the way as planned.
Back to you Nina. What is your background? What have you done before you joined the Yodel Team?
I attended a secondary school with the major in economics and languages. I always have been into languages (side note: Nina speaks four languages fluently. German, English, Spanish and French). After graduating I attended Vienna University of Economics and Business. I did an undergraduate in international management. During these studies I did several internships in different corporates all around the globe.
How did you figure out that, this is the kind of profession you want to work in?
I always had my own mind and my own opinion on how things should be done. I knew I had to work at a company where I experience the freedom of doing my work the way I think it is right to do. A startup is great for this because my work does make a difference. I also always had an economical thinking. My family and I once went to a restaurant when I was about 4 years. I was really bored while we had to wait to be seated and there I saw a basket full with apples. So while we waited, I started to sell those apples for one dollar a piece to strangers who walked in and out of the restaurant. It was so much fun. :)
If someone who reads this wants to become a CCO, what advice would you give that person?
Don’t be afraid to fail and don’t be afraid to talk to new people. It is a lot about working hard and informing yourself. But it also includes a lot of networking and you should be somewhat of an outgoing personality that likes to talk to people.
Try to make a good impact on people you meet. I’m just a goofy person, making other people laugh and having good conversations with them. It really makes a difference because you get remembered way better for the next time you meet again. My work would be way harder if I would not enjoy networking.
My advice: Start doing this in your free time: Talk to the cashier, talk to strangers on the street and so on. This is how you can see if you are cut out for it or not. And you learn a lot by just doing it!
Can you recommend any websites or tools, that you wouldn’t want to miss?
FitBit. I’m a fitness geek so I love FitBit.
Last but not least: What is the most random fact about you?
I am a very, VERY clumsy person. Clumsy to that extend that there’s nothing else I can do than just laugh about it. So every time I hit my toe against the door, slip or burn rice in the kitchen (yep, that has happened before) I laugh instead of getting angry.
Here I am in Peru (it was winter during that time) and I wanted to go to the ocean. Suddenly a big wave came along, drowning my shoes and parts of my jeans in it. I was freezing but it made me laugh anyways! :)
Got another minute? Read up on our other team members!
