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In our interviews, we let our own 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 in a final round (yes, real customers). Almost nobody passes this stage. Julius Otto outperformed even senior sales leaders from some very well-known companies. It didn’t take long to say yes. Less than two weeks later, he landed in SF and has already transformed the company across almost every function. Julius 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐓 𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐄 like few people I’ve met. In his first weeks, he has automated countless internal processes, rebuilt our finance infrastructure, worked with multiple enterprise customers, built full-stack Python apps (despite not being an engineer), and flew onsite to customers. Despite his experience in finance at firms such as J.P. Morgan, he’s an entrepreneur at heart. Between the ages of 18 and 20, while studying full-time and completing internships, Julius 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝟎 𝐭𝐨 €𝟓𝟎𝟎𝐤 𝐀𝐑𝐑, 𝟒𝟎% 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝟔 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥-𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬 before successfully exiting last December. His customers included industrial leaders like Siemens and Schneider Electric. One question I always ask when hiring is: Would I invest my own money in this person’s startup? There are very few people I feel more strongly about than Julius. One of his references put it best: “𝐈𝐟 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐬, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐦, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲.” Welcome, Julius. It’s an absolute honor to have you on board at Dryft.