You are on page 1of 5

Dont listen to the people that tell you that you have to work smart.

Continuity is the
most important aspect because everyones smart; dont think you are the only smart
person in the town. The winner is the one who works very hard. Founder of Unicorn,
WestTech Ventures, and S&S Media Group, Masoud Kamali

Unicorn Berlin, WestTech Ventures, and S&S Media Group founder Masoud Kamali offered his
time to Silicon Allee to shed some light on the startup community. From Venture Capital to Co-
Working, Masoud Kamali is an expert in his field. Shedding light on what it takes to make it in
the scene to his generous demeanor, Masoud Kamali has a lot to offer to those curious to break
into Berlin.

What is the elevator pitch for your company?

WestTech Ventures invests in the young companies of Berlin. Our focus is on media
technology, media content, content commerce, Tech, software, education, etc.

I am also the founder S&S Media Group which is a tech publishing company. It is also a tech
event and education company where I am no longer active; Im just a shareholder. I founded
that company; the other company that we are starting now is called Unicorn which is based on
three different elements or pillars. They are work, eat, and meet. We want to define the future of
work and give the people the ability to work and eat and meet. I think that is the future of
professional office renting that will be here. Actually, its like what you guys are doing, but yours
is a bit more community based.

In what year was Unicorn founded?

September 2015.

Who are the founders?

Theres myself and Alexander Klpin. But, WestTech Venture is the overall founder. We have
some new people coming as well; we have a new managing director, Sabine Jankowski, who is
also a shareholder of the company.

What inspired you to start your company?

I had the privilege to start my own company - S&S Media - and I got a lot of help from the
community; it was a good business model. Happily, the company was successful and I thought
that I can help the people. I can shape a little bit the future of work, the future of education, and
social systems that we have. I can help the young company and thats what Im doing. I help
them as you can see when you can go to our website. We help other people to get as
successful as us. That was the idea. Help for the others to participate. It brings good fortune to
all of us.
Only when we have an environment which everybody is happy, we can get happy. Without it,
we couldnt be able to be happy. So, that means that when the people are not happy, you are
not also happy; you will have a lot of problems. Maybe just a little selfish, but I want to have a
world that is healthy and wealthy. I will get also my part here in the world; I will be able to live in
security. I want to have an environment in which a lot of wealth, health, and security is available
for everybody.

Tell us a bit about your competition and why you are better?

Fortunately, we never had a competitor here because investment is still very young here. We
havent seen that the people are fighting to go and invest in Berlin; that is fortunate. The
situation in Berlin is still whenever the companies come, they are even happy to get more
funding. So, we want to be the funding. For this purpose, we have our incubator which is a part
of WestTech Ventures called Project Flying Elephant. The supply of startups is higher than the
supply of money. So, that makes it easy and we work with almost all other VCs in this town.

What advice would you have for entrepreneurs starting out in Berlin?

My advice is start with a good accelerator or with an accelerator which can give you some
value. The second piece of advice is try to work very hard. Dont listen to the people that tell you
that you have to work smart. Continuity is the most important aspect because everyones smart;
dont think you are the only smart person in the town. The winner is the one who works very
hard.

Also, try to network with your community around you and dont forget to start with the sales
early. It would be a good idea if you dont see the CEO every night in another networking event.
You dont need your startup going everywhere all the time; you should be a bit picky. You
shouldnt go to all of the events. Maybe sharing the events with your team - if you have a team
so you can go to one and the rest of the team goes to others. Dont give the people the
impression that you are only at the event in the evening checking the community. But
networking is definitely very important. More important than networking is conferences
pertaining to your interests. An example would be like going to re:publica. You will learn
something. Try to go to the places where information and networking have a flavor of education.
You will always learn something. There are a lot of events in this town; you just have to find
which is best for you.

What one group/individual/project has been the most influential to you during your time
as an entrepreneur in Berlin?

I am a very hands on person. When I think that I have to do something I do it. I thought we had
to create Unicorn. I didnt do any research; I just started with that. Thats the reason why I dont
have that many role models because whenever I thought of something I never asked Okay? So
where can I draw inspiration? Many people asked, Why did you start Unicorn? In reply, I
asked them how many offices do we have in Berlin? 50,000 offices? We need 50,000 coworking
spaces in Berlin, also. So, for five million people in 2035, we need 50,000 office spaces which
are no lingered modelled after the classical one formatted by big companies. We need the new
Silicon Allee, Unicorn, Beta House, etc. They are all different.

Therefore, I cannot tell you that I had a role model, but, regarding investment, I like the courage
of Lukasz Gadowski the founder of Delivery Hero because he is very courageous and he wasnt
scared to invest in a lot of different stuff and try. He helped a lot of entrepreneurs here. That is
something I always like about him. He was able to be courageous which was often is missing
here.

Hes from Poland, but hes German. He attended university here and so on. Hes the founder of
Team Europe Delivery Hero. Now he is a partner at Global Partner: the new VC. They are
located in Mind Space. Hes the chairman of delivery there. Also, hes definitely a friend of mine.

After him, the only other person I have seen and I really also appreciate in Berlin is Andrea
Peters. He is the managing director of media:net. She helped pave the way by how she
arranged and enabled the networking in Berlin. It is something I like and I try also to learn from
her.

Can you name one particular moment that has been pivotal during your time in
business?

Its a personal story. We started a conference in 2001 at S&S Media; its called Jax. We started
with the idea that we wanted to do a conference about enterprise computing. I left Germany
around that time and went on holiday. I went to a wedding of a friend in Cuba in this year. I was
at a hotel and they had a fax machine and I got a message from my colleague that we had just
sold the 600th ticket number. In that moment I thought, Okay, you can start something new and
you can be successful. That was a moment that I always imagine whenever Im a bit tired. For
example, when I go to the airport and wait for a flight and its cancelled, I ask myself, Why do
you do this? and then I think about that moment when we got the 600th paid attendee for the
conference. It is a huge motivator. For the first ever conference getting 600 paid attendees,
especially when it was not a really cheap one considering conferences like these run at least
around 400 to 500 Euro per conference, it was huge. This is the moment that I always think
about that I know, Okay; we can be successful.

This was hosted in a hotel next to Frankfurt a.M. where they actually extended the hotel later for
us because we stayed at least five more years in this hotel. They even built a new restaurant
because of our conference.

What is your favorite spot in the neighborhood?

Torstrae. Often when people ask me, Hey, look, why are you not in Frankfurt? and I tell them
why Im not, they get angry - especially my friends from Frankfurt. I always joke that, Frankfurt
is as big as Torstrae. Torstrae is my street because it is the heart of my neighborhood. I
have everything nearby like the school of my son to my favorite restaurants. Dudu, Pantry, and
Yumcha Heroes to name a few. They are all around. Weinberg Park is also a highlight. The park
itself is great to go in winter since the kids go there with their sleds. Its also great in the summer
to go and have a beer.

Has Berlins informal nature and unique history urban fabric, city divide, demographic,
etc. been a positive aspect of your time in Berlin?

When you look at how I am as a person, Berlin was actually always my city. The problem was
that, before 2008, Berlin wasnt that much. Everything started up in this time. Berlin is a city that
is a friend that I never had as the people say. It was a city Id never been to before and Im very
happy I came here. Before Berlin, dont forget, I was between Frankfurt and Singapore. I lived in
a big city like Berlin which was also a nation called Singapore. It is very similar to Berlin. Theres
many people who live there, theres good food, and everything is in the same place. I have that
here as well. I seldom go to other parts of the town, like Charlottenburg or Kreuzberg, and I also
dont do so much around here, but still I can do that like Singapore; its available if I want to. I
can go out and I can get to the airport in 12 minutes! Its about convenience, but at the same
time, the feel of the big city.

I can have London and Paris while at the same time having the cozy spot with everything
around. I dont need London to take the taxi for forty minutes from one spot to the other to pick
up Asian food; I have it here. I was in London for New Year's and we took the taxi always to go
eat and then forty minutes back to the hotel. But here, you have everything around and I can go
to the theater and then I can go with my son.

Where do you see Berlin in 5 years from now? 10 years?

I think in 5 years from now Berlin will be exactly the same as it is today, but bigger. Its also
about numbers as well. High population. Higher rent. Higher office rent. Be careful about that if
you are looking for that. Go now and do it now because it will all go up. In Berlin, we have now
less empty spaces than Frankfurt. In Frankfurt, we have more than 10% while in Berlin its only
2% when it comes to commercial rental spaces. That is a problem and the numbers will all go
up. Everything is going up.

But there is an important thing to remember. Berlin is the capital of Europe; Berlin is not a
German city. Berlin is the gateway in which doesnt exist for the business, but the location to
meet the people. Culturally, Berlin is the capital.

Finally, Coffee, Tea, or Club Mate?

Coffee and I love it. And the best ones are the ones you can find in Unicorn. We have two great
coffees. One is called Frenchie and the other one is called Five Elephants. They are both great.
Family. Enterprise. Coffee. All three are my passions. Both are expensive coffees; they are
either five or ten Euro. Per kilo its over 20 Euro. But, they are great coffees and I like the coffee
everywhere. I also drink the coffee here

You might also like