In our series 'How it works,' startup founders and employees share their favorite tools, routines, and working methods. This time, Christian Wust, co-founder of the corporate publishing startup Webmaghow he structures his working day, which things in everyday life annoy him and which book has fundamentally changed his view of work.
Munich Startup: What is your morning routine?
Christian Wust: Immediately after getting up, I do a few minutes of morning exercises, usually just push-ups, and then drink a liter of water. After that, I meditate for about half an hour. Then I have breakfast with my wife before starting work. If any of these elements are missing, it's usually not going to be a good day.
Munich Startup: What is your favorite work tool?
Christian Wust: Webmag Of course! We actually work quite a bit with our own tool. For example, in marketing, we can easily put together our own landing pages without having to ask our web designer, who works on larger projects, every time. This has to be done pragmatically for us, because we have limited resources, want to quickly try out new approaches, and avoid getting bogged down in lengthy projects.
Munich Startup: Which three apps are indispensable?
Christian Wust: Trello and Slack are indispensable for me. We work across multiple cities, so we need a functioning setup for virtual collaboration. We use Trello to organize all our tasks and projects and share project-related information. We communicate directly with each other in Slack, as if we were sitting in the same room talking to each other. The third app we use in marketing is Gist, primarily for communicating with customers.
“I’m not a big fan of meetings”
Munich Startup: Which Munich event is a must for founders?
Christian Wust: I highly recommend all events hosted by the Munich-based platform Sidepreneur. The meetups are aimed primarily at part-time entrepreneurs, but the expertise and networking opportunities offered there are of interest to all young entrepreneurs and founders.
Munich Startup: Which book do you recommend?
Christian Wust: A few years ago, the book "Stop Working" by Anja Förster and Peter Kreuz made me fundamentally change my view of what I understood as work. I recommend it to everyone, whether they're a founder or an employee.
Munich Startup: What is your favorite type of meeting?
Christian Wust: I'm not a big fan of meetings, but there are some situations where they make sense. If they do happen, they're best held in person, with clear objectives and as few participants as possible. What's important to me isn't so much how long or short a meeting is, but rather that something useful comes out of it. If the benefit is right, the effort is usually justified.
Telephone disruption factor
Munich Startup: What is your biggest stumbling block in your daily business?
Christian Wust: Definitely: unexpected calls. These are often important conversations that lead to important things being addressed or continued. Nevertheless, they consume a lot of energy because unstructured conversations without a specific place in the daily routine disrupt the rhythm. That's why, after countless phone calls, it often feels like nothing has been accomplished at the end of a day, even if the conversations were helpful.
Munich Startup: What is your motivation booster in your everyday work life?
Christian Wust: I'm motivated by feedback from users and customers of all kinds. Every time someone tells me that our platform provides real value, reduces workload, or inspires enthusiasm with its results, it encourages me in my work. For a DIY platform in the B2B sector, this is a critical factor: When people invest their valuable time working with your tool, you know it's creating tangible value. This motivates me to optimize the platform, further increase customer value, and support even more people and companies with digital communication.
Munich Startup: How do you end your working day?
Christian Wust: Unfortunately, I'm far too rarely aware of it. If no one reminds me, I often don't even realize it's already way too late. When I'm working from home, it's usually our cats who announce that they'd like dinner.
