Competition amongst companies for the best talent is fierce. Acquiring, recruiting, and retaining top talent can be a major obstacle to scalable, lasting success. In the context of growth and success, hiring the most capable people in each role is especially important. Hiring right not only ensures success in each department but also ensures a positive and driven work environment. Thankfully, at FireStart, our Chief People Officer, 

, joined our ranks to help us find and retain the best talent.

Benedict's mission is to find the right FireStarters and help them to grow in their roles. As a company that values self-development and teamwork, we want to ensure that each person at FireStart feels supported and excited to grow and thrive in their daily work. 

With Benedict's expert guidance, we have been able to make this happen. Our team, both remote and in-house, are united; dedicated to powering a world where every workplace has a clear single source of truth, so they can simplify their daily work. It's no easy feat, which is why Benedict's guidance and skills are so needed to ensure that FireStart continues to grow and scale while retaining our unique company culture.

A native German from Berlin, Benedict ventured south to Austria to further his career. He had just finished his education as a psychologist and was ready to use this knowledge to help businesses improve their recruitment process. His role changed and evolved over the years to focus intensely on talent acquisition, organizational development, and HR process management.

Over the years at FireStart, Benedict has focused on recruiting talent with a strong vision and enthusiasm for the company. He is always on the lookout for people that are eager and excited and willing to learn. Contributing to our shared vision, talent has to be willing to get their hands dirty and work together to create something great.

This backbone of engaged talent is part of what makes the company culture at FireStart so unique. Benedict defined the company values to clarify our "why" but also, to help guide our actions. Our main values of joy, simplicity, and trust inform everything that we do. In all departments, we're focused on empowering our customers through service.

Part of our hiring process at FireStart involves hiring diverse talent. Since Benedict joined, we have hired talent from over 10+ nationalities, all working together at our hub in Vienna. Creating a successful multinational company involves creating a culture of mutual understanding and compassion.

Having a diverse team has allowed us as a company to better understand our flourishing new customer base, no matter where they are in the world. 

A. Learning and coaching. For me, learning more about technology and digital HR helps me to do a better job as an HR professional. I really love to learn new things and always grow my mind and skills. Coaching, on the other hand, helps me to give something back and help others become the best versions of themselves.

Q. How do you simplify your day to focus on what matters most?

A. By using FireStart! For self-organization, I use the rule of three. I have three key goals for the week, three goals for the day, and three goals for the month.

A. On my weekends, I focus on spending quality time with my wife and two sons. I prefer novels over Netflix, improving my skills on the piano, and playing football with some mates.

Become a FireStarter to be part of a thriving start-up culture.

Join FireStart to make a real difference

Meet our resident HR expert, Benedict Stacke, the CPO of FireStart.

Benedict Stacke is the Chief People Officer (CPO) of FireStart. His expert HR skills have helped FireStart grow from a small core team to a growing business. His skills revolve around not just hiring great people but building a diverse culture of highly-engaged individuals to drive the FireStart mission.

At FireStart, we're committed to growth in our business goals and with our people. Benedict Stacke, a trained psychologist with several years of experience in talent acquisition, has been an integral part of the successful growth at FireStart. With his help as Chief People Officer (CPO) we have driven company growth and ensured that teams work harmoniously together.

Meet FireStart's CPO, Benedict Stacke

At FireStart, we are more focused than ever on expanding throughout Europe and beyond. To drive growth and scale,

has joined our ranks as our new CFO to help us to reach our ambitious goals.

Originally from Bozen, South Tyrol in Italy, Christof was previously a Corporate Finance Consultant at PwC, and also assisted in managing other e-commerce startups (

). His diverse previous experience has equipped Christof with expert insight into what makes a company successful, especially when it comes to finance-related matters and management. Our new direction into a product-focused company means Christof's insights are more valuable than ever.

His trajectory is set on helping FireStart's new product offering, FireStart Cloud, be as successful as it can be. Initially, Christof chose FireStart because of the company culture, and the possibilities of the new product. "I love the company culture at FireStart. Everyone is very open, transparent, and respectful in their communication. FireStart Cloud is also such an exciting product. I'm optimistic about what we will achieve."

Get to know Christof in these quick questions below.

A. Having a healthy balance between intimate relationships, family, friends, and work. Balance is the key to a rewarding life!

A. I prioritize everything by following the 80:20 rule. The Pareto principle states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions, so the goal is to make those actions count.

A. I find the most peace and balance by exercising regularly and prioritizing my spiritual health too. Spending quality time with my family, time in nature, having inspiring conversations; these little things create a lot of balance in my life.

Q. Why did you choose to live and work abroad?

I was always curious about the world beyond the mountains surrounding my hometown.

Join our ranks to help people and processes perform as one.

Want to join the FireStart team?

Meet our new CFO, Christof Koessler, who is helping to pave the way to FireStart's success.

We have a new member of the leadership team! Learn about FireStart’s new CFO, Christof Koessler.

To set sustainable growth year over year, Christof Koessler has joined the FireStart leadership team. As Chief Finance Officer, Christof is excited to support the team with his expert e-commerce knowledge so we can drive growth.

Meet FireStart's New CFO, Christof Koessler

Creating technology that improves lives is what drives us at FireStart. We want to deliver products to our customers that improve their daily work life, reduce stress, and avoid cases of overwhelm and burnout. Front and center of our minds is always: 

how can we help companies perform as one?

At FireStart we have an amazing technology team that really understands what perform as one means to our customers. They’re always coming up with new and creative solutions to common problems and thinking outside the box when it comes to what we can deliver to potential customers.

 that works to deliver quality systems. They’re passionate, willing to go the extra mile, and always on the lookout for the next best technical implementation. Get to know more about them in this Q&A!

Stefan: The people at FireStart. If I have a flat tire at 3am in the morning, they are the kind of people that would fight over who can help me first.

Karim: The team and the people I’m working with, but also the constant challenges and problems we face. It wouldn’t be as exciting if there wasn’t a challenge to overcome.

Valentin: A highly motivated team that practices collaboration, supporting each other, and building something great together without blame or negative energy.

Daniel: The collaboration within the team and continuously improving together.

Thomas: Working with long term friends and challenging each other to constantly improve.

Lukas: The team! It is amazing how everyone helps each other.

Manuel: Building a high-quality cloud application, that is destined to make the lives of people easy, fast and hassle-free. We build something here, that can bring real value to our customers.

Stefan: I am currently in the progress of adding a book reading session before I start my workday. Usually, our team standup is the kickoff where we start working on the current sprint.

Karim: After coming to the office, I usually read until we have our daily standup where we then talk about the current state of the sprint.

Valentin: I start my workday with the daily standup where I sync with the team about possible challenges and the progress of the sprint.

Daniel: I start every day with a morning routine I have developed over time. Meditation and a morning coffee are an important part of my routine – plus not looking at my phone until I have been awake for over 30 minutes. It’s really important to me that I have a positive start to my day.

Thomas: A coffee, go to the standup and then take the next ticket from the board to start working on.

Lukas: I’m working at FireStart alongside studying, so my day is a little different. I usually come to the office after my lessons which means I wake up early, about 5:30am, so I have enough time for a morning routine before getting my work done.

Manuel: Gather with my colleagues to discuss upcoming work and celebrate the finished tasks.

What is the first thing you do when you face a new challenge?

Stefan: Take a step back and discuss the aspects of the upcoming topics with my team.

Karim: I try to think about underlying issues that could be the actual cause of the problem before trying to tackle it. I make sure I’m always in sync with the team to be as efficient as possible.

Valentin: I think about it how to solve it and talk to my team about my assumptions and iterate on them.

Daniel: I focus first on being effective vs efficient. Being effective means ensuring that I really understand the challenge. Being efficient means making sure that it’s the correct thing to be working on right now. Then I can understand if the challenge is caused by a different problem which might need to be tackled first. Generally, I try to look at the challenge from a bird’s eye view to see the big picture. This helps me to be as efficient as possible.

Thomas: Make an assumption about how to solve it. Quickly tell a team mate and ask for feedback on that idea. I try not to waste any time and implement a solution as quickly as possible before refactoring.

Lukas: At first, I try to solve the problem on my own. I think about what the reason for the problem could be, and take a step back and see the bigger picture. If I can’t find a solution on my own because I am stuck, I usually ask one of my co-workers for help and then we can fix the problem together.

Manuel: Study the problem and really get to know it. I find it useful to not jump to the first solution I think of, but ask about the what and the how and the why. It’s the most rewarding experience when you don’t quick-fix it, but forever-fix it.

What is unique about being a software developer at FireStart?

Stefan: I have worked at many different companies, from startups to big governmental corporations, and the biggest difference is the management principles and the amount of change that is possible at FireStart. If things don’t work out, we simply change and improve towards perfection.

Karim: FireStart in a nutshell is all about continuous improvement. I also like that we are a self-organizing team with the autonomy and responsibility and to share failures and successes.

Valentin: People here don’t work because they “have to” or only for money. They work here because they have a genuine passion for what they’re doing. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible to have so much fun and get work done at the same time.

Daniel: The atmosphere and the colleagues I would say mostly. Also working and having influence on a product with great potential is really enjoyable.

Thomas: The colleagues here are super cooperative and ready to help you with anything. The constant improvement mindset also helped me grow personally.

Lukas: The management structure and the co-workers. It’s amazing to see how everyone is there for each other and the one-on-ones where you can talk about serious things and get help if needed are really interesting and helpful.

Manuel: We don’t blindly follow processes and use techniques. We question and change everything to create the best product possible in the most healthy environment possible with us getting as smart as possible in the process.

What tool can you absolutely not live without in your day-to-day work?

 functionality. I just love developing with them.

Karim: Automated pipelines that allow us to eliminate a lot of tedious work from our development flow.

Valentin: Having at least two screens to have information ready while developing in my IDE.

Daniel: Not sure if this counts as a tool but I would say shortcuts. Not only the typical shortcuts but also finding ways to reduce the needed manual input to reach a certain output on the PC. This greatly reduces the delay between the moment I want to do something and the moment I managed to do it on the PC. Then I can more easily reach a flow state with my work.

. Have been working with their products for a long time and I am way too used to their workflows and shortcuts.

Lukas: Shortcuts in our development software.

Interested in joining the FireStart team? Apply for an internship in our technology team.

Join us and make a difference

Meet the people behind the technology and see who builds FireStart from the ground up.

echnology is at the core of what we do at FireStart, and having a creative and passionate technology team is super important. Learn more about the people that build FireStart in this Q&A.

Technology is at the core of what we do at FireStart, and having a creative and passionate technology team is super important. Learn more about the people that build FireStart in this Q&A.

Meet Our Technology Team, Stratus

While FireStart Cloud is no-code, behind the easy-to-use platform are teams of people that code, create, and problem-solve to make FireStart a success. 

 are motivated to improve the lives of our customers, so anyone can streamline their workflows in a few clicks or easily delegate daily tasks.

Omnia is the next technology team that works to deliver a simple platform to our customers. They’re collaborative, creative, and never give up on a difficult problem. Get to know more about them in this Q&A!

Aaron: I really enjoy collaborating with my teammates and facing challenges together, it’s conceptual or technical.

David: I would say that I enjoy solving unique problems the most.

Philipp: I enjoy learning new skills and expanding my horizon every day.

Marco: What matters to me is collaboratively working on and delivering impactful solutions. It’s nice when what you’ve worked on is well received by our customers and stakeholders.

Andreas: I love working in a tight-knit team full of smart and motivated people.

Aaron: I like to use my time in the morning to research. It lets me start the day focused and ready.

David: I grab a Club Mate first and then look at the state of the sprint.

Philipp: I go over the priorities for the day while eating a fresh Zuckerkipferl!

Marco: I always grab a cup of coffee (or two) first. After that caffeine kicks in I check the current sprint progress and my calendar. I like to use the morning hours mostly for learning time before all my coworkers are in the office.

Andreas: I wash my hands as soon as I get to the office (better to be safe in these times!). Then I write a message into our Teams channel highlighting what I worked on yesterday and what my focus will be for today.

Aaron: I either go straight into hacking together a prototype to discover architectural and conceptual issues, or I work together with my team to solve the challenge on a whiteboard.

David: Before jumping into a challenge I like to think it through, either alone or with a teammate.

Philipp: I grab a notepad or a whiteboard for some brainstorming!

Marco: It really depends. When it comes to coding, I like to write down all known issues on sticky notes and then tackle them one by one.

Andreas: I like to sketch out the issues on a piece of paper or a whiteboard either by myself or with a colleague.

Aaron: I think FireStart is different because it puts long-term improvements before short-term achievements.

David: I would say that it is the work environment and the team.

Philipp: I appreciate the mix of the smart and interesting people I get to work with and the focus on continuously improving, both as a team and personally.

Marco: The people and the workplace make FireStart unique. The opportunity to work with a young and highly motivated team that is super passionate about the product makes all the difference. The environment is extremely supportive and that helps push us further.

Andreas: The autonomy. As a team, we can change our processes as we see fit, instead of how we work being mandated by the higher-ups.

Do you want to be creative daily and be inspired to reach your goals? Apply now to become part of the FireStart team.

Join our ranks

Our next technology team, Omnia, work daily to create a platform that empowers users.

See what it’s really like to work at FireStart from a developer’s point of view, and discover more about the people that build the platform.

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