Probably everyone following what’s happening in the startup world has heard of Oliver Samwer before. Aside of some myths and rumors, there is not that much info about the CEO of Rocket Internet out there.
The latest rumors say that Rocket Internet is about to IPO in the coming weeks, being valued at over €4 billion. This is why we thought it might be entertaining to list 25 (some more, some less) interesting facts about him:
1. Birth/Childhood: Oliver Samwer was born in 1972. He is two years younger than his brother Marc and 3 years older than his brother Alexander. He grew up in Cologne and during his childhood he had to wear the clothes of his older brother Marc.
2. His Father: Oliver Samwer’s father, Sigmar-Jürgen Samwer, was a well-known lawyer in Cologne (mainly media and competition law). One of his clients was literature Nobel Prize Winner Heinrich Böll and Karl Carstens (who later became the President of Germany). As a teenager Oliver Samwer joined his father on Saturdays in his office.
3. Successful Ancestor: The grand-grandfather of Oliver Samwer founded the insurance company “Gothaer Versicherung”, which in 2012 generated over €4 billion in revenue. He’s also a citizen of honor of the German town Gotha.
4. Early Plans: During a boat ride as teenagers on the Vierwaldstätter Lake, Oliver and his brothers decided that they once want to to start a company together.
5. His Mother: Oliver Samwer’s mother was not amused about her sons’ plan to become entrepreneurs. She thought it would be better if they work for an insurance company or something similar.
6. School Years: Oliver Samwer graduated from high school at the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cologne. His grade point average was 0.8, which is better than an A. Until this day, Oliver Samwer and his brothers send greetings cards to their favourite tutors, for example at Christmas.
7. Military Service: Oliver Samwer couldn’t do military service because of an injury caused by a bicycle accident. However his older brother was in the German army for his military service and his younger brother did community service.
8. Studies: Oliver Samwer studied Business Administration at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar near Koblenz. During his studies, Oliver Samwer received a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (“Foundation of the German people”).
9. Education/Employment: In 1992, Oliver Samwer worked as a trainee at the investment bank Sal. Oppenheim. This period was one of the few months in his career where Oliver Samwer was employed by a company that he didn’t start on his own.
10. Silicon Valley: In 1995, Oliver Samwer visited the Silicon Valley for the first time.
11. The First Startup: Oliver Samwer founded his first startup (Ego International Trading Company) 1996 in Bolivia. The company produced Filz-shoes for South America.
12. Diploma Thesis: Oliver Samwers’ diploma thesis in 1998, which he created together with Max Finger, was named “America’s most successful startups”. It is still worth reading and can be found here.
13. The First Clone Idea: During the Christmas of 1998, Oliver Samwer
and his brothers talked about eBay’s business model and decided to copy it.
14. Alando: On 1 March 1999, Oliver Samwer and his brothers started alando (in Berlin, Kreuzberg). in addition to the Samwers, the founding team also consisted of Karel Dörner, Jörg Rheinboldt und Max Finger. Horst Albach, once BWL-Professor at the WHU in Koblenz, provided Oliver Samwer with the initial funding to start alando.
15. First Big Exit: About 100 days after the start of alando, Oliver Samwer and his brothers sold the company for $43 million to eBay. Today, Oliver Samwer names this quick sale to eBay as the probably biggest mistake of his career. After the acquisition, Oliver Samwer stayed with ebay for a while as a Managing Director responsible for the German speaking market.
16. Jamba: After his ebay time, Oliver Samwer, his brothers,
Max Finger and Ole Brandenburg founded the ringtone provider Jamba in the year 2000.
17. Jamba Exit: Four years later, the company was sold to Verisign for $273 million. Oliver Samwer was part of Jamba’s executive team till the end of 2005.
18. VC Activity: With the European Founder Fund (EFF), a venture capital fund started by the Samwer brothers, Oliver Samwer invested in countless startups over many years. Global Founders Capital (founded in 2013) could be described as EFF’s successor. Global Founders Capital has been equipt with €150 million and recently merged with Rocket Internet.
19. Rocket Internet: Oliver Samwer founded Rocket Internet
back in 2007. Rocket Internet became famous (and feared) for being the most successful and most aggressive clone factory for startups on a global scale. In 2014, Rocket Internet switched its legal form to an AG (IPO around the corner). Currently, Oliver Samwer is the CEO of Rocket Internet.
20. Big Money / Big Brands: In 2013 alone, Oliver Samwer raised with Rocket Internet and its many projects around the globe about $2 billion. The startup brands in Rocket Internet’s portfolio include or included CityDeal (sold to Groupon), Zalando, GlossyBox, foodpanda, CupoNation, eDarling, Wimdu, payleven, Helpling and many, many more.
21. Name Selection: Oliver Samwer showed some kind of humor with regards to the name selection of Zalando. The name is a tribute to alando, the eBay-clone of the Samwer brothers. The Z was inspired by Zappos, the model for Zalando. When you look at the huge amount of companies Oliver Samwer started (or helped to start) over the years, you clearly see his preference for short ‘fantasy’ names.
22. Sports: Oliver Samwer often speaks in soccer- and formula 1-metaphors when he talks about business, but Oliver and his brothers actually used to play hockey. In fact, all three of them became hockey trainers.
23. Programming Skills / Vanity: Oliver Samwer has no programming skills at all. With regards to vanity, Oliver Samwer claims that he didn’t set up a Google Alert for his name. He usually also avoids contact with the press.
24. Being Aggressive: Oliver Samwer once called himself the “most aggressive guy on internet on the planet“. In the same email he stated that: “I will die to win and I expect the same from you!”
25. Big Plans: Someday Oliver Samwer would like to be seen alongside the tradition of major German companies like Miele, Grundig or Siemens. Although he’s already 42 years old and worth many hundreds of million euros, Oliver Samwer recently stated that he plans to work as hard as ever for at least the next 25 years.
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