We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lilith Diringer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lilith below.
Lilith , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear you experience with and lessons learned from recruiting and team building.
There was the boy who just didn’t say “no” quickly enough…
For far too long my project, inventing a sustainable booking engine was just a theory with great functions and nice displays but everything remained a mock-up. Until I finally dared to ask Jeroen, my dance partner in Rock’n’Roll Acrobatics and Cheerleading, whether he would try not only to be responsible for my survival when catching me in our stunts but also the one responsible for bringing my project to life. I knew he studies computer science, so I attracted his interest in collecting experience programming an app. “Collect experience” ended up becoming a full-time occupation and a project of the heart– finally for both of us. That was maybe the craziest way to recruit a person – but: it shows something that is essential to finding the right people for the team. Often, they come from your surrounding. They may be friends, they may be classmates, or they may be on the same sports team as you are. That is why it is so important to build a great network with people from different backgrounds. You never know when they will become useful one day.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I’m Lilith and together with Jeroen, I founded the social start-up ChargeHorizons in 2021. We are both burning for a sustainable social future in the tourism sector. While I have a lot of experience in the field of sustainability as a sustainability coach in Netzwerk n and former WWF youth council member, Jeroen as a computer science student is the subject matter expert for the IT infrastructure and code behind our app. In my work as CEO of the company, I combine my academic knowledge in the fields of International Relations and Public Policy with my identification of being a global changemaker. As a sustainable entrepreneur, I love to contribute to a better world and enable everybody to continue traveling with a sustainable and respectful mindset for nature and cultures worldwide.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Finding the right balance between continuing to work on something and changing the trajectory when necessary is always hard. The flexibility and agility of a start-up have a lot of advantages but also make it difficult to operate while keeping long-term goals in mind. For us in particular, we had to recognize that the market of traveling is highly competitive and that it is difficult to gain enough individual travelers to keep the business running. Hence, we pivoted to business travelers and governmental travelers. While we could use some of the functions we had already built before, we still needed to adapt and change a lot to meet the special needs of our new customer group.
Any advice for managing a team?
First, it is important that the team understands the mission and vision of the company. Additionally, the employees should reflect on what the company does. In my case, I lead a start-up that enables sustainable friendly travel. Hence, it is important that I have team members from all over the world, contributing to our work by sharing their different perspectives. A fully remote working environment makes it even more important to keep everybody motivated, build professional and personal connections and support each other whenever needed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chargeholidays.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chargeholidays/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChargeHolidays/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/80431174/admin/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chargeholidays
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPNRccGeI3o3N68X1C1otdA
- Other: AppStore: https://www.chargeholidays.com/charge-holidays-app/