Zebras that Dazzle: How Evgeni and his Berlin chapter are creating a dazzling future for Zebras in Europe
Hey everyone, Linzi Fidelin here, with another Zebras in the Wild interview for you. This month I spoke to Evgeni Kouris, who is the Zebras Unite chapter lead in Berlin, Germany. In our conversation, Evgeni gave some great examples of where he feels the Zebra movement is at in Europe right now, and what it needs to grow. He has some big goals for 2030, and there were definitely some quotable moments in there!
If you are a Zebra in Europe especially, this conversation is for you.
Hi Evgeni! Tell us about your journey from first hearing about Zebras Unite, to being the Berlin, Germany Chapter Lead?
I moved to Berlin in 2012, which was the year where it was really on the brink of its startup movement taking off. That year things started exploding; corporates started investing in startups, new Venture Capital (‘VC’) firms were created, and I arrived and founded a company.
Roughly 5 years later I hit a crisis with the VC model.
I had burned through around 1.5 million euros (which was a lot back then!), and was feeling disconnected from the company I was building.
I have a background in music and digital tech (I was working for Boston Consulting Group’s first digital arm back in the day), and I had started my company with the vision to apply that knowledge to children’s education. I felt that the whole education system in Germany wasn’t preparing kids for what would be needed from them in the future, and so my company used technology to support children’s education through augmented reality, and digital toys.
We got to be #1 in 35 countries in the Apple store, but once we took the first check from VC, we gave away our freedom and started needing to hit targets and grow exponentially.
It took us completely away from our mission.
We pivoted, our direction fundamentally changed and before I knew it, we were working on gamification campaigns with big brands, and no longer in education tech at all! This was not my vision, and it started me questioning the whole VC model.
It’s funny, because I was so convinced previously that VC would change the world for the better, but seeing that my vision for the company was not ‘scalable enough’, and realizing that so many companies have to end up changing their mission to go after the money, or go where investors have enough interest…it got me questioning the whole model, especially for people trying to build something long term, that they’re not planning on exciting.
So I started looking for alternatives.
Pretty quickly I discovered family businesses — or ‘Mittelstand’ as they are known in Germany — which are often very successful, but relatively unknown companies. They are often leading worldwide segments of the market, performing a lot of B2B functions, and playing a huge part in Germany’s economy — so called “hidden champions”. Additionally, they tend to be more long term focused (many of them have been around for generations), with no no aspirations to sell or exit, and have a deep rooting in European culture.
I started thinking about what it would look like if these companies were combined with the fast moving, innovative culture of startups. So I started ‘New Mittelstand’ with focus on everyone who is working on transforming medium-sized (‘Mittelstand’) companies in a sustainable, digital and innovative way.
Then, in 2019 I met Mara Zepeda in Denmark where she was speaking about Zebras Unite, and it was clear to me that we were very aligned. I then co-created the Berlin chapter, and ran our first event in the same year! It’s just kept growing from there, and in September we will have a Zebras Unite Berlin Day, which will be attended by Astrid Scholz.
Wonderful! And tell us, what have you learned about yourself along the way?
One thing that was extremely revealing was that I started surrounding myself with very different people when I founded my company, and stopped making music. I realized later on that I missed the creative scene, and that I had fallen into that ‘the CEO as hero’ kind of mentality. Instead of focusing on building a thriving, creative culture for my company, I was working very hard at being the type of CEO that I thought was expected of me (when the company wins, I win, when it fails, I fail).
It made me realize that it’s so important to pay attention to who you surround yourself with, because that’s who you become.
I completely agree! It’s one of the things that makes this movement so special; our ability to meet fellow Zebras and have them help shape who we, and our companies, become.
And what’s it like being a Zebra in Berlin?
Berlin has always been a creative city, full of tourism, partying etc. It tried to recreate what Silicon valley created, but didn’t quite manage it. In the end, I believe that we need to find our own way that is more rooted in European values — such as paying more attention to respecting people’s data privacy for example. We might never be as quick as the USA or China, but that’s Ok if we are ultimately more effective together and quality-centric long-term.
However, we do need to figure out what our definition of success is as Zebra companies in Europe. A lot of the time, people will ask me for examples of Zebras that have become unicorns; and that’s obviously not what we’re going for.
One big opportunity that I see for the European Zebra movement is to build on top of the need and realization that sustainability is crucial for the future. I believe this is one of the ways that we can build from being a niche movement, to something that is more mainstream.
At ‘New Mittelstand, we believe that collaboration between traditional family businesses and new startups with a long term, systemic focus will be a key driver for change. But there are challenges; for example, moving on from the monocultural ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it’ type of mentality of the family businesses, to companies that attract and hire in diverse talent and think in new and innovative ways. Luckily, the next generation in these family businesses are hungry for new directions, so this is helping to make a change.
It’s great to hear that the new generation is driving this change already. Tell us what your vision is for 2030?
I want to see New Mittelstand and Zebra companies all over Europe building a purpose driven sustainable economy together. The more companies we have working in this way, the more efficient they become and then we can convince consumers to switch over. People are resistant to change, and so unless we show them a better way, it will be hard to change their habits.
100%. It’s interesting to think about it from this angle’ business changing first and consumers following.
Thanks so much Evgeni, this has been great. What is one question that you have for the Zebra community?
Thanks Linzi. My question is mainly for the European Zebras. I want to know what we can do to support more purpose driven companies to join the movement. I know there are many more out there, which until now have been ‘going it alone. So, what can we do to help bring them in?
Want to hear more from Evgeni? You can find him at any of the following channels:
His company website: newmittelstand.org
His personal website: https://kouris.de/en/home
His socials: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kouris/
(5 Dec 2022 — We’ve updated this story to reflect that it was written by Linzi Fidelin, and published under the joint handle of the Zebras Unite founders.)
