Matthias Wilrich

VP Vehicles & Supply Chain, Tier Mobility

After I started my career in consulting, I only later discovered my inner desire to build and create when I saw it happening in front of my own eyes. Thus, what thrilled me wasn’t mainly the visionary aspect of it, but the beauty of flawless execution leading young companies to catch-up with and disrupt often seemingly unshakeable incumbents. Since this moment, my main purpose has been to deliver operational growth and scaling to promising business models and I have taken the role of a founder, an executive manager or an angel investor - but in each I truly consider myself a builder.

Having built Lesara with its unique supply chain to a continuous European growth champion and seeing it decline thereafter taught me many lessons, the vast majority of which are strictly positive. Having moved with my team to TIER Mobility to help build one of the lowest funded participants in the micro mobility competition to be a European champion was and is a thrilling race. Also, I am proudly supporting my angel investments, from hidden champions like Seven Senders over brilliant executors like FlowerChimp up to an inspiring and visionary hyper growth story like Gorillas.

The red line here is building, great execution always outweighs simply having an idea. Great companies have great operations, but they all start hands-on and in a relative chaos. Chaos can be a nascent beauty, your company’s agility in such a stage is enormous. Chaos can be destructive, too, if you don’t manage it well and don’t continuously try to channel it. I firmly believe there is a vacant space in giving advice from builders to builders, which is why I am happy to share the best practices derived from many times being wrong and luckily many more times being right in the chapter of Supply Chain Excellence.