Marius Westhoff’s Post

Couldn’t agree more… thank you, Miriam Partington and the Sifted team to write a piece that resonates deeply… I left Germany in 2013 and spent the next 10 years in India and the US… Coming back here to start a new business, I realised the absurdity of German bureaucracy - the notary system (sorry, I love you all as persons and know you’re just doing your job) is absolutely ridiculous, labour laws are insane (e.g. Bundesagentur für Arbeit (unemployment office) dictating how much I have to pay to individuals to grant visas even though the pay is significantly higher than minimum wage), safety requirements being absolutely non-practical and even the BGs (the mandatory accident insurance companies) themselves don’t know what the latest legal requirements are anymore… Germany needs to massively deregulate itself to get back to a growth path - notary system, pen-and-paper processing of literally everything, BG requirements, vocational training regulations, utilities / energy… someone needs to come in, take red pen and get rid of a ton of random outdated laws and regulations… Social welfare is good and some regulation is important, but if you don’t give your businesses room to breathe by constantly restricting market dynamics - the economy will simply not grow… and guess what?, the money to finance the social welfare system won’t grow on German trees - it needs to be earned…

🙏 Excited to welcome Arjun, Gregory and Kia from noa to the smalt journey and incredibly grateful for the continued support of our existing investors General Catalyst, Owl Ventures and HEARTFELT_ 🚀 We will use the EUR 8M fresh capital from the pre-empted fundraise round to keep tackling some of the biggest macro issues Europe is facing - the talent shortage, low labour productivity, the energy transition & immigration crisis. 🚌 Building a business is about getting the right people on the bus… the route may change along the way, but it’s the people you brought along in the journey that will support you in taking the right turns… 🙏 Thankful to all our customers who have trusted in us from the early days and, most importantly, all the smalt team members who joined Khurram and myself over the last 1.5 years... This is just the beginning… onwards and upwards 🚀… Constantin Weiss Lukas Eisenberg Lina Wegner Bengi Peltekoglu Jonah Goral-Wood Natalia Gutierrez Fabian Krapp Aleksandar Kalabic Moritz Hirsch Jorrit Knief Marc Vincent Thun Cecil von Croÿ Moritz Otteni Kriti Bansal Jenny Wang Ian Chiu Judith Dada Samuel Beyer Robert Martin Lee-Ann Beeck

Could not be more excited to share the story of Mohammad, one of our first trainees at smalt and cannot wait to see the impact that he will have with smalt over the years to come... At smalt, we firmly believe in the diversity of talent in the European labour market - seeing team members like Mohammad rising the ranks - is what gives us the energy to do what we do every day. Onwards and upwards 🚀

Calling for - working students - who have a passion to work some of the biggest macro topics for Europe: Energy transition, talent shortage, immigration & labour productivity. 🚀

Come join us and work with our amazing head of partnerships, Constantin Weiss, Khurram Masood and myself in building the talent supply & labour productivity engine for the energy transition… it’s gonna be fun.

We’re going our team and looking for an account manager who can work with our incredible partners and clients… join the journey in of transforming talent supply & labour productivity for the energy transition… 🚀

Join the journey and work hands-on with our amazing first employee Lukas Eisenberg, Khurram and myself…

Thanks for the shout, Robin Godenrath, Philipp Emig... Onwards and upwards, smalt... 🚀

Anyone in my network has experience with implementing simple, light-touch ERP-systems for material management or can recommend someone who has experience here? Thanks!