Maximilian Tauber
"The analyst's edge is a richer space of experience; the founder's edge is a narrower one."
My Backstory
Where were you born?
I grew up in Essen, the industrial heart of Germany, where people are known for being hard workers, straight shooters, down to earth, and easy to grab a beer with. My parents taught me the value of dreaming big and working hard. My mother founded a successful biomedical startup in the 1990s, growing it for 15 years before selling to a large firm. She taught me about perseverance, breaking through barriers, and doing simple things better than overconfident incumbents. My father started as a car mechanic before founding his own dealership in the 1970s. He saw success come and go with industry changes, but his amazing relationship skills allowed him to relate to anyone.
Starting at age 8, my parents had me help out on a small farm, which helped me appreciate physical labor. In my teens, I worked admin roles at my mom's startup, learning efficiency and attention to detail. At 16, I took a monotonous job besides high school at a bank’s account statement printing department that taught me patience - which is valuable as an early-stage investor. I studied energy management and finance, doing my undergrad in Germany before a Master's at Purdue and Tsinghua.
After university, I started in corporate finance and M&A, focusing on renewable energy deals. I then joined a large utility amid industry transformation during and after Fukushima. My role changed to business development in batteries, grid storage, and distributed energy. I also supported early tech investments at the intersection of energy and power retail tech. Later, I helped a global engineering firm leverage its vast hardware expertise to partner with early-stage hard tech founders - right before embarking on my own journey as a founder (unsuccessfully).
What is your name?
Maximilian Tauber
Where were you born, where were you raised?
I was born and raised in Muehlbach, a small village in South Tyrol. My home region is famous for its mountains, skiing and great food.
What is the area you are from famous for?
South Tyrol is the jewel of the alps. We have more sunshine than most mountain regions in the Alps, the dolomites are a beautiful world heritage site and at the same time also very good infrastructure. We also have great food like Apple strudel, Speck (cured ham), Knödel (bread dumplings) and also great wine.
What did/do your parents do?
My father works in management consulting and my mother is a successful landscape architect.
Any siblings when you grew up?
I have two younger sisters.
What are the two things (outside of school) that you spent the most time on when you were a kid or teenager?
When I was a kid I read a lot and did Judo as a sport. I also loved playing with Lego as a kid and really had a lot of different lego sets. I started lifting when I was 14 and enjoy it a lot today.
I also got into Social Media Marketing during my early teenage years and lost some money when I invested in Crypto when I was 15. I later started learning how to code at 16 and build some websites for local businesses later.
What are you missing from your younger years?
I mostly miss the times after school where I was messing around with friends, being around on the farm of my cousin and the quality time with my family.
Did you have a side job during school?
I worked on the farm of a family member of mine in one summer, then continued in the wood factory of my uncle the next summer and when I was 15 I also worked in a sky rental shop during the winter.
At 17 I worked for a local software company in a local town as a software engineer.
Later at 18 then I started to build some websites next to school to make some extra money.
What did you study, and where?
I am currently still doing my Bachelor in International Business Administration at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, near Frankfurt.
I Am On The Lookout For
What are values that are ultra important to you in other people in business life?
- Loyalty
- Being very good at prioritizing the correct things at the adequate time
- Being very direct and straight to the point
Describe what ‘partnership’ means to you.
Partnership to me is the forming and sustaining of a unit out of different people with different backgrounds for a single shared goal.
Sustaining this partnership unit is very hard and requires first of all that all parties involved bring equal skillsets and value to the table, but also that all members of this partnership have a shared foundation of trust and values as basis for this partnership.
What are you chasing in your life?
I chase freedom for myself and great impact for the people around me.
I have the goal of owning a farm in my home region of South Tyrol, but also contributing to charitable causes such as animal welfare and the protection of woods and regional natural sites in South Tyrol.
Cool cars and great experiences are fun too, so if you have an 1985 Audi Sport Quattro to spare, just hit me up :)
What intrigues you? As in, you see or hear something like this, you stop whatever you currently do.
When I hear someone talk about interesting political topics, Gym and Fitness stuff and Espresso.
Any favorite readings?
My favorite non-fiction book is “Great Power Politics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution”.
What is your favorite quote or mantra that can be applied in a business context?
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Cool. Now give a second quote or mantra you like in a business context.
”Most businesses get zero distribution channels to work: poor sales rather than bad product is the most common cause of failure.”
What is your secret ninja-skill?
Connecting different areas like demographics and politics and thinking deeply about global risks, problems and developments in specific geographic areas which are reinforced and accelerated by changes and disruptions in history and technology and then making business opportunities out of them.
In what ways do you feel inferior to some people you look up to?
Communication and self-awareness.
If you were a super-hero, what would be your super-hero name?
Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the armies of the north (Gladiator is one of the best films ever made :))
What is one person in the world you would like to have dinner with?
Otto von Bismarck, or Napoleon if I knew French :/
What can you nerd out over for hours with the right discussion partner?
Geopolitics, conspiracy theories and political science.
When someone who knows you in your business life very well were to describe you, what adjectives would they use for you?
Direct, straight to the point, technology-side-focused.
Is there something you would never mind spending a lot of money on?
Good food and great experiences, such as trips with my boys.