Torsten Reil
speaker
213 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Torsten Reil’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
As people have stated, there was no new conflict under Trump's last administration. And so if you go by that, then it would reduce it. But there are other players obviously involved as well. We don't know what kind of capabilities are being developed in North Korea, how someone feels on a particular day.
The danger that we have, and I think something that is hard to control, is accidental escalation. For example, at the beginning of the Ukraine war, I think there was a danger of escalation, potentially even nuclear escalation. I think that eventually settled. The situation became more readable for everyone involved. Why was there the potential for nuclear escalation?
Because we were in a new conflict that was moving extremely fast. We were in uncharted territory in terms of Western support for Ukraine, in terms of what weapons should or should not be used, what would be the reaction on the other side. It was hard to predict, and everyone was kind of feeling their way into the situation.
I think those are situations that are fast moving and also where there's limited information where things can escalate quickly accidentally, even though neither party wants it. That is very hard to predict. These are very nonlinear events when they happen. And so that's why it's hard to predict whether a conflict is going to happen under a particular administration or not.
We are not sufficiently alerted to the danger of conflict. We've lived in conflict for forever, basically, and then had a period of time where there wasn't one. And I'm worried that we don't take it seriously because we don't want to think about it. And by the way, I don't want to think about it either. It's not nice to think about conflict, but we're not taking it seriously.
I think money can give you security. To me, that's by far the most important thing. So not having to worry about money makes a big difference in terms of how I think you lead your life in general, but also what risks you take with, let's say, your next company. In order to build a successful company, you have to take risks. Being safe on the money side makes it easier.
It's not the only thing that you require, but it does contribute to it.
Yeah, I was just gonna, self-made espresso. We just bought a new espresso machine. A long walk every day makes me happy. Can't put a price on that.
Sounds great.
Most people believe that the environment in terms of taxation, regulation, et cetera, has a big impact on whether you can build successful startups in the country. I don't think it does. It's minor compared to attracting the right founders.
So I think the discussions that people have around how can we make a particular country a better place for entrepreneurs who are already there, I just don't think it makes a difference. What's the single hardest element of being CEO of Helsing?
It's the fact that the company needs to shed its skin every 12 to 18 months because it's progressing at such a pace that you just have to think about the org structure again repeatedly. You have to think about whether your processes are the right ones, whether you're talking to the right people. What did you not see in org structure change that you wish you had seen?
The biggest unlock for us was to have these quarterly found offsites where we basically reflect and think about what's working and what isn't working and how do we change it. Never did that previously and stuff just gets warmer and warmer until it's too hot.
I actually, I'm not sure I agree with even with a statement. I think it's perfectly, there's this trope that, you know, any decision is better than no decision. And I've never believed that. I think that sometimes you have to make a lot of decisions as a founder all the time. Well, I think no decision is a decision. So this is the thing.
If you make a conscious decision not to decide on something because you don't have the information right now that you're required to make it, I think it's totally fine. And I think people should make much more use of that rather than randomly going, I'm going to go for this one. It's just one of the many things that LinkedIn screwed up. There's so many pieces of wisdom on LinkedIn that are wrong.
It's just like all this work smart, not hard stuff, being a servant leader. Why is work smart, not hard bullshit? Because you need to do both, clearly. You're always out-competed by someone who works smart and hard if you're a work smart, not hard person.
You need to lead a company and you should not be afraid to say that. If you're the founder of a company, we made the decision for Helsing as well that we are a founder-led company. And we are all here to basically serve the company, to make the company successful. That's what we do. And the founders provide the vision and the direction. And if you like it, great.
If you don't like it, you don't have to work there. What have you changed your mind on in the last 12 months? I used to think that you needed to make sure that there was always a degree of process when teams work together on something, including something new. I have now learned that it's possible with exceptional people.
Just let them get on with the job without any stand-ups, any predictions on deadlines. Nothing. You just let them get on with the job in a fast-changing environment that we had to deal with, for example, over the last few months. It is probably the most efficient way of actually making progress rather than being structured about it.
And then eventually you have to move to structure, obviously, but I probably wouldn't have thought that two years ago. See of any other company for a day, which company would you choose? Probably ByteDance, and I would shut down TikTok immediately. It's crack cocaine for basically our societies.
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