Mostly Awesome is a podcast about the personal journeys of innovators. We talk to the doers and thinkers of our time to understand what motivates them and why they do what they do. Together we reflect upon their decisions, wins, and setbacks. Meet our inspiring yet relatable guests from the world of entrepreneurship and technology to find out what may help you to become an innovator of tomorrow!
Get ready for bi-weekly episodes on Wednesdays. We are looking forward to our guests and your feedback to podcast@cdtm.de.
Mostly Awesome is brought to you by the Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) in Munich. For more information, check www.cdtm.de/podcast.
And now lean back, listen in, and learn from the thought leaders of our time!
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Center for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM)
#54 Leon Szeli: On Selling Presize to Meta, Rejection as Fuel, Life After the Exit and Why Execution Beats Ideas
In this episode, we talk to Leon Szeli, CDTM alum and founder of Presize, the AI size recommendation startup he sold to Meta in 2022 for a reported $100 million. After four years as a product manager at Meta, he co-initiated the CDTM Venture Fund, the first university alumni fund in Germany, and is now building Valorian, a European community for founders navigating life after an exit.
We start with the rejections. CDTM said no three times before he got in, and Meta turned him down years before it bought his company. Leon explains why he keeps aiming at things he probably won't get, and how a childhood spent on projects like building a tree house turned into building companies.
Presize was born in CDTM's Managing Product Development course as a smartphone-based sizing tool for factory workwear, before pivoting to e-commerce. Leon is blunt that starting with the technology instead of the problem is a terrible idea. What made it work was execution: parties where people got free beer in exchange for body measurements, and outcome-based pricing where brands only paid a share of the extra revenue after returns. The company raised only about 3 million in total, grew to 50 people, and hired engineers on coding tests instead of CVs, including former lawyers and kindergarten teachers.
The Meta deal began with an email that landed in his spam folder and is now framed in his office. Leon walks us through the structure, 50% cash and 50% stock over a four-year earn-out with one condition, "just don't die and don't quit," and what he learned inside Meta about incentives and performance culture.
We close on life after the exit: what he sees now from the investor side, why the CDTM Venture Fund raised from alumni with a 98% conversion rate, and why Valorian's Circles act as a personal advisory board for exited founders.
We wrap up with a rapid fire round covering everything from founding now versus joining a rocket ship to raising 2 or 20 million, and whether his success was luck or earned.
12 Aug 2026
#53 Seb Hapte-Selassie: On Voice AI, the Agent Era, High Agency and Why Speed Beats Planning
Host Alex Lieberman interviews Seb Hapte-Selassie, co-founder and CTO of telli, about the future of voice AI, building high-agency teams, and why speed trumps planning in startups.
13 May 2026
#52 Sarah Fleischer: On Battery Recycling, Deep Tech, Growing Up Between Cultures and Lessons from Failure
Host Alex interviews Sarah Fleischer, Co-founder & CEO of tozero, about her journey through startup failures, cultural identity, and revolutionizing battery recycling with deep tech.
Who has been a guest on Mostly Awesome
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Seb Hapte-Selassie
Sarah Fleischer
Pip Klöckner
Magnus Grünewald
André Petry
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Spotify
5.0 / 5
26 ratings
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