This week, the SphereCast team speaks with Sophie Schwerdtfeger, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at welearn — the parent company of wehorse and wedog. welearn’s goal is to be the go-to destination for educational content on certain niche topics. welearn’s first endeavor — wehorse — offers users the world’s largest library of equestrian content, all from one single streaming platform. welearn’s second project — wedog — is currently in early stages but, similar to wehorse, will give its users access to an enormous library of streaming content related to dog training.
Even before acquiring the horse-riding content library in 2018, Sophie knew that, to succeed, she’d have to radically change how this content had been historically distributed — through DVD sales. And, with that mission in mind, she and her co-founder embarked on a journey to build and lead a company, while also digitally transforming that company to a streaming platform. On the podcast, Sophie shares tons of knowledge on leading well — and particularly on leading well in times of major transition and growth.
Noteworthy Quotes:
"Communication and feedback among your team is the most important thing. You must implement a feedback culture straight away so that everybody can live in your company and live to the highest potential."
"In order to be an effective CEO or leader, you have to be a good communicator and you must be emotionally intelligent... Leading by example is also extremely important as well."
"When it comes to decision making as a CEO, the most difficult thing is making the right decision at the right time. Especially since technology is changing all the time."
"Early as an entrepreneur, you must be flexible and be willing to adjust. And always be reflective of what you do and appreciate all feedback you get... But at the end of the day, entrepreneurship will always be unpredictable. You can't really learn it beforehand."
"I think it's very important for co-founders to have like-minded interests... You have to be aligned on what you want and your vision. And be accepting of the others' ideas."
"Hiring remote employees is a huge advantage for us. We no longer, for example, hire on location but hire on motivation and skill set."
"When I'm at my desk, I'm 100 percent focused... In our busy days, you must use the time you have in a very efficient way."
Bullet List of Resources –
Sophie Schwerdtfeger
wehorse – The Online Riding Academy
wedog – The Online Dog Academy
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