Who this is
Daniel Dippold comes from theoretical mathematics, also holds a business degree and had his first entrepreneurial exit in his early twenties. According to the EWOR website, he founded NewNow Group, Unlimitix and EWOR in his twenties and initiated the Sigma Squared Society, a network for young, ambitious founders. As a business angel he has done around 50 deals, seven of which became unicorns. With EWOR he runs a fellowship that picks roughly 0.1% out of more than 40,000 applications a year and supports founders with money, talent and distribution. He once trained a math olympiad team in China and has written a book of more than 300 pages on productivity for founders.
Episodes
Numbers from the episode
FAQ
What is EWOR?
EWOR is a founder fellowship built by Daniel Dippold. He explicitly says EWOR does not see itself as an investor: 80% of the work goes into supporting founders with money, talent and distribution. EWOR usually invests half a million, sometimes a million, and targets roughly 7% equity. 40% of its full-time staff have built companies worth 100 million to 10 billion dollars themselves. There is no fixed program and no cohorts; support is put together individually. To the episode →
How does EWOR pick its fellows?
More than 40,000 people apply each year and roughly 0.1% are accepted. According to Daniel, the team of around 25 people reviews every application by hand, with no AI pre-filtering. AI is used only for decision support, for example to spot out-of-distribution indicators in applications or to show via similarity search how many others applied with the same idea. At EWOR the person is almost everything: Daniel speaks of 99% founder, because the team can help shape the idea. To the episode →
What is the Sigma Squared Society?
The Sigma Squared Society is a non-profit Daniel started to bring together ambitious young founders. It grew out of his own first startup, when he knew nobody and pitched more than 100 investors without success. Networks like YPO require 10 million in revenue; Sigma Squared selects on potential instead and works peer to peer. According to Daniel, it expanded into 40 countries in its first three years and now has a chapter in Uganda, among others. To the episode →
Why does Daniel Dippold think business schools are outdated?
Daniel holds both a business and a math degree himself. He says you can get network and signaling elsewhere today, course material is available online and soft skills are learned on the job. Go-to-market is the decisive skill, but it has nothing to do with your degree, because the playbook changes every year. His advice to a 20-year-old: build now. To the episode →
How does Daniel Dippold plan his goals?
He first draws the line from A to B: where am I, where do I want to go. EWOR plans in a three-month OKR rhythm and then starts over, with no one-year or two-year plans. In the ideation phase he plans weekly. Then come time management, meaning efficiency and effectiveness, and energy management through sleep, blood work, supplements and psychological work. To the episode →
Where can you get Daniel's book on productivity?
In the episode Daniel says an older 180-page version is available on the EWOR website. The new version of around 330 pages was due to come out soon, and depending on the publisher he wants to offer it for free. He also shares content on LinkedIn, and ewor.com has free founder resources. To the episode →
Quotes
„… eigentlich ist gutes Unternehmertum meiner Meinung nach jeden Tag die Disziplin zu haben, die langweiligen Dinge zu tun.““Good entrepreneurship, in my view, is really having the discipline to do the boring things every day.”
„Ich muss in jedem fucking Filter die beste Person sein. Und das trennt die 0,1% von den Top 3%. Alle Dimensionen sind optimiert.““I have to be the best person in every single damn filter. That's what separates the 0.1% from the top 3%. Every dimension is optimized.”
„Und Obsession in Gründern ist so viel wichtiger als Trauma. Und Trauma hat per se erstmal wenig mit Obsession zu tun.““Obsession in founders matters so much more than trauma. And trauma in itself has little to do with obsession.”
„Es ist so ein geiler Deal, Unternehmer zu tun. Du musst nie wieder was arbeiten. Und du musst aber auch die Shots nehmen.““Being an entrepreneur is such a great deal. You never have to work again. But you also have to take the shots.”
„Wir machen keine Jahrespläne, keine Zweijahrespläne.““We don't do annual plans, no two-year plans.”