2025 annual letter

Here are my observations and learnings from 2025. Along with some recommendations on what you should see and read. This annual letter is inspired by Dan Wang (more on him later, you can find his annual letters here).

I spend a lot of my time building my company Valuent, developing our capabilities around revenue management (Salesforce Agentforce Revenue Management formerly Revenue Cloud). This work includes close collaboration with our clients and with Salesforce. While we know the quote-to-cash domain well, Salesforce only launched the new product last year and there is a big need in the marketplace for education and enablement both on the client side as well as on the Salesforce side. It’s exciting.

In October I attended Salesforce Dreamforce for the first time. For those unfamiliar with Salesforce, Dreamforce is their flagship conference bringing around 100K people to San Francisco to talk about AI and watch cute mascots come to life (see here).

In SF I met some of the entrepreneurs who made previous waves of the quote-to-cash revolution happen. One of them showed me a demo on his laptop, with the excitement of a five-year-old. It was humbling to see an accomplished entrepreneur so hungry and excited about the future.

Meeting one of the entrepreneurs who made the quote-to-cash revolution happen.

Encounters like these and building relationships to create something new and solve problems are what makes life exciting.

Feeling the entrepreneurial thrill was too rare for large parts of 2025, I got too complacent. This has changed recently. Talking to some more experienced entrepreneurs helped me get clarity around what I want, why and also to have more peace with myself. It made me realize that important relationships in my business were out of whack and that I needed to do something about it. I look forward to carrying that into the new year and let that be a reminder to pay attention and notice when I need to change something. Because if I’m not excited about what I do and it doesn’t pull me out of bed in the morning, why even do it?

People should create more.

One way to create is to write. While my 2024 writing focused on Valuent with the founding story and customer win stories, I wanted to try out some new things with my writing in 2025. One piece is “What writing taught me about quality”. But the one I’m most proud of is “A guide to everyday persistence”. I like that it’s practical and I know that persistence has made a big difference in my life and it can make a difference in other people’s lives. My baby steps to leaving the world better than we found it, isn’t that what we’re here for?

Let’s change gears here and talk about economic growth. We’ve had too little economic growth for too long and that needs to change. The wealth of you and me and the people around us depends on it. Because wealth is not the natural state (see here). The wealth we’ve experienced is an anomaly if you look at the grand scheme of history. There is an opportunity to continue the path of progress, but it requires hard work and tough decisions. One of the key enablers of growth is innovation and productivity, so I’m curious to learn more about those two and what I can do to make more of that happen.

In the spirit of creating and bringing into the world more of what we want to see, David (my co-founder) and I started the “Meine Erste Million” podcast. One episode I’m particularly proud of is with Dr. Felix Bertram. He’s built a dermatology clinic chain in Switzerland and shares his inspiring journey with us. We met Felix through the podcast, which is cool, because meeting people who build cool stuff, learning from them and sharing that was exactly the vision I had, when I decided to start the pod.

In 2025 my Misogi (a play on an ancient Japanese tradition, urging you to take on a year-defining task) was to hike Kilimanjaro. The thing that surprised me most was to see how many porters it took to help us carry the luggage. I viscerally felt what it means when it’s calories that power the transport of things from a to b rather than ski lifts or other technology that we’re used to. We were a group of 5 people and 25 porters to make the hike. It’s exhilarating. Once I got down I said, “I never have to do that again”. That’s 7 months ago and I can already feel my stance changing.

But I haven’t yet decided what my Misogi for 2026 is. If you have ideas, let me know.

I love learning and I’m convinced that two of the most important things for a fulfilled life revolve around curiosity and learning.

Here are some of the books I enjoyed and why.

“The Making of the Atomic Bomb” by Richard Rhodes captured my imagination. Part one is about the scientists and the ideas that made a nuclear bomb seem possible, part two is about the collaboration between the scientists, the government and the industrial complex to make the “Manhattan project” happen and part three is about the ensuing destruction after the bomb was built and used. Niels Bohr had argued that building an atomic bomb “can never be done unless you turn the United States into one huge factory.” We now know what happened next. The sheer scale and going against all odds of making this happen reminds me of how things that may seem impossible today, may one day become mundane.

“How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading”, a book that everyone who wants to go deeper should read. To my surprise, reading the book made me want to read harder books, books I had previously avoided. Books that I don’t immediately understand. Because those books offer the opportunity to increase my understanding. Sounds obvious, but wasn’t to me. This is encouraging. In a world drawn to short-form content, I think going deep is continuing to be a difference maker. And it inspired me to finally tackle my first Ayn Rand book.

“The Fountainhead”, a classic in Silicon Valley circles. It aligns with an emerging theme, one I’m struggling to come to terms with. Ideas like individual excellence, going against the grain, having ideals and striving for them. An unapologetic celebration of the independent thinker and doer. As I read about second-handers I begin to wonder what the standard is that I set for my own life, a reflection that is ongoing. A line that stood out to me: “Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.”

Last but not least I want to talk about Dan Wang, the man whose writing inspired me to write this letter. I enjoyed his book “Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future” and wonder what the vision for Europe / Germany can be going forward. Even more than his book, I like his annual letters. I like their irreverence, their boldness and how they got me interested to try out new things like going to the opera.

By the way, I use Goodreads to keep track of the books I want to read or have read. I can highly recommend it and would love to see more friends on there, sharing their book reviews (feel free to connect).

In closing my first annual letter, let me talk about my favorite subject. Silicon Valley.

Dolores Park, San Francisco.

One of the main reasons I love spending time in Silicon Valley is the people and their attitude. Germany / Europe doesn’t need to become Silicon Valley. But there are useful things to learn. Things like viewing ambition as good, staying curious, doing things that seem out there, and appreciating progress.

I’m convinced that there is a lot of valuable stuff we can build here in Europe. I know there are different movements like {Tech: Europe} by Bela Wiertz, EU-INC by Andreas Klinger and others that I see on Twitter and that’s good. We don’t need the entire society to change at once, a few outliers can lead the way. I would like to meet more of them and work with them to make it happen. But it needs to happen fast. As Dan Wang notes, China proudly calls itself a developing country: that’s exactly the spirit we need here too.

I want to know more about what my friends are up to, what they’re learning, what they’re struggling with and in that spirit I encourage you to share your own annual letter.

Let’s go.