With his resolution: “I want to make myself superfluous in my start-ups”, Christopher Roskowetz is making a clear statement in terms of corporate and employee management.

Finding challenges and opportunities. This has been Christopher Roskowetz’s motto since the beginning of his professional career. Whether it was when he founded his first company straight out of university, as Co-Founder and Managing Director at Jung von Matt TECH or today as Co-Founder and CEO of bluplanet. With his latest venture, he has hit the nerve of the times. The digital marketplace for cloud solutions enables companies to undergo digital transformation and is changing purchasing behavior in the software market in the long term.

Digitization is still years behind in Germany

The search for new impulses has taken Christopher to the most diverse corners of the world. Whether as Business Director at Interone China in Beijing or Director Digital Consulting at BBDO Worldwide in New York. In China, the importance of digitalization became clear to him once again.

“Answering emails 5 floors underground in a mall was no problem in China. In Germany, you have to postpone appointments as a precaution if you’re on the train at the time and can’t rely on a stable internet connection.”
Spurred on by the desire to make a difference in his home market, he founded Jung von Matt TECH after his return to Germany in 2018 and was Managing Director there for the following years. He was regarded as one of the young rebels and pioneers. A fact that made him a role model for other young talents in particular and still benefits him today when it comes to retaining employees.

Recognizing talent and retaining it across company boundaries

Christopher’s ambition is to give something back to the planet and his fellow human beings in a sustainable way through his daily work. His talent for correctly interpreting trends in the economy attracts the attention of potential partners and investors as well as up-and-coming potential employees. “It’s important to offer a perspective and to change positions accordingly to keep things exciting.” This attitude is attractive, and several employees have already followed Christopher across company boundaries. Thorge Wandrei, who at the age of 25 is now a Product Engineer and responsible for the entire brand identity at bluplanet, says: “I don’t care what it says on my business card. I’m loyal to companies and people I believe in, who support me and help me progress.” He started out at Jung von Matt TECH and followed Christopher to bluplanet. The multiple hiring method has the advantage for both sides that the focus is on the personal compatibility and strengths of those involved. This is a plus for employees, as they are much freer in their choice of position. It is not so much the specialist knowledge that is decisive, but rather the interaction within the team. A lack of specialist skills and knowledge can be learned through training and further education, but getting on the same wavelength is much more difficult.

Five-year plan: Not a chance

At 33, Christopher is still not a fan of plans. He can’t say where he will be in five years’ time. He prefers subscriptions, leasing and renting to fixed ownership – so he can change location more quickly. For this reason, he believes it is particularly important to know where your own strengths lie, what specialist knowledge you can learn, but above all to recognize when someone else can do it better. In his start-up, he is building a team around him that will ideally no longer need him at some point. “I want to make myself superfluous in my start-ups. Whoever does the job better than me in a few years’ time should take it over”. In return, he will then have more time to devote to new challenges.

But what accompanies him in every start-up and position? His guiding principle: “Whatever you do, do it right.” Perseverance, passion and focus are the key qualities for Christopher. “Many people give up at the first problem. But for me, that’s the point that motivates me the most. That’s when I’m fully focused and go the extra mile.” Values that are also reflected in the way the team at bluplanet works and that Christopher passes on to other founders as CEO of Roskowetz Ventures.

Commercial success and doing good are not mutually exclusive

As a father and husband, Christopher’s private life is a priority alongside his work. It is important to him to take over the morning routine, take the children to nursery and be back home in time for dinner so that he can spend time with the children and then with his wife. For his children and with his work, Christopher wants to have a lasting positive impact on his environment. Together with bluplanet and the employees, he regularly campaigns for socially relevant issues, for example at events in cooperation with Salesforce. Employees are given a special quota of days off for voluntary work so that they do not have to do these activities outside of work, which could have a negative impact on their work-life balance. Work at bluplanet should be sustainable and possible in the long term without burning through all personal resources. Resource management was then also an essential factor in the idea for the current business model and the founding of bluplanet. Purchasing processes in the software market are time-consuming and complex. Enormous time and personnel resources are usually required to introduce and productively use new processes and tools. Christopher was convinced that there was a simpler way.

bluplanet – the Check24 for cloud software

The digital transformation of companies is a must. Customers expect modern business models. Companies need to further develop and adapt processes in order to remain competitive and keep customers in focus. Especially in the wake of the pandemic, 95% of companies (according to the Bitkom Study 2021) state that digitalization has gained in importance. With his latest venture, Christopher and two partners have recognized these challenges and the resulting opportunities and created bluplanet, a digital marketplace for cloud solutions that brings together sales, service, marketing, retail, IT and analytics teams at German SMEs and start-ups and enables digital transformation. “Anyone who has ever bought enterprise software knows the problem: on demand. With bluplanet and the world’s first online store for Salesforce, we want to provide a new transparency for prices and shortened paths without sales advice from individual providers.”

With its digital business model for consumers, bluplanet aims to become a Check24 for cloud software from Salesforce, Aircall and more, while always remaining independent when advising customers. To this end, every customer is assigned a contact person from the very first license, who accompanies and supports the introduction, use and further development of the products. “At bluplanet, we always focus on our customers; customer lifetime value is the decisive factor for us.” The aim is to use bluplanet’s service to enable SMEs and start-ups to undergo digital transformation and to continue to accompany and support them beyond the process. The next goal for bluplanet is to expand into other European countries. How big Christopher’s role will be in this over the next few years is something he is looking forward to.

Link to the original article published in STARTING UP on 14.11.2022