Hosted by Christian Soschner · 🇺🇸 US · EN-US · 221 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Blueprints for Builders and Investors Hosted by Christian Soschner From pre-seed to post-IPO, every company—especially in deep tech, biotech, AI, and climate tech —lives or dies by the frameworks it follows. On Beginner’s Mind, Christian Soschner uncovers the leadership principles behind the world’s most impactful companies—through deep-dive interviews, strategic book reviews, and patterns drawn from history’s greatest business, military, and political minds. With over 250 interviews, panels, and livestreams, the show ranks in the Top 10% globally—and is recognized as the #1 deep tech podcast. With 35+ years across M&A, company building, board roles, business schools, ultrarunning, and martial arts, Christian brings a rare lens: What it really takes to turn breakthrough science into business—how to grow it, lead it, and shape the world around it.
Christian Soschner hosts Beginner's Mind, a business show with 221 episodes published.
Private companies are staying private longer, and that changes who gets liquidity, when, and why. Founders, employees, and early investors can wait a decade or more for an IPO or acquisition. Meanwhile, venture funds fac
Only one in three eligible lung cancer patients receives the targeted therapy they should get. That is not a failure of science. It is a failure of delivery. After more than two decades of precision oncology, biopharma h
Some books explain how the world works. Influence explains why people move. Why someone takes the meeting. Why an investor leans in. Why a customer trusts. Why a team follows. Why a board stays stuck. Why a founder keeps
Most leaders think negotiation begins when both sides sit down to talk numbers. By then, trust, incentives, timing, internal alignment, and first impressions have already shaped the outcome. That is why smart founders, e
Most people still treat climate solutions as a cost. Wanwipa Siriwatwechakul argues that this is exactly why so many leaders miss the real opportunity. The next industrial era will not be built by patching old systems, b
Power demand is rising faster than the systems meant to support it. AI, electrification, and industry all need stable energy, but the dominant story sold to the public was far simpler than reality. In this episode, Bret
Most investors think they’re rational. Most founders think they’re disciplined. Most boards think they’re strategic. They’re usually wrong. In this episode, we unpack Fast Forward Thinking by Luis Pareras — a physician t
Most biotech breakthroughs don’t fail in the lab. They fail when science meets manufacturing reality. And by the time this bottleneck appears, tens of millions are already sunk. This episode examines the most under-discu
Nine out of ten startups fail, yet Europe keeps funding them the same way. Governments replace judgment with bureaucracy, capital replaces experience, and failure is misunderstood instead of learned from. This conversati
Most goals don’t fail because of laziness or lack of ambition. They fail quietly — buried under daily noise, competing priorities, and forgotten intentions. By March, even the most meaningful goals have slipped down the
Breakthrough science has never been stronger — yet patients still miss life-saving therapies. Despite decades of innovation, most precision medicines fail at the last mile of healthcare delivery. The problem isn’t discov
Most founders obsess over ideas. Breakthrough companies obsess over inflections, conviction, and structure . This episode unpacks Pattern Breakers by Mike Maples Jr.—a book that quietly explains why most startups never b
The world has grown quiet about climate change. Too quiet. We scroll past floods, fires, droughts… and move on with our day. As if the problem solved itself. As if we’ve earned the luxury to look away. Janos Pasztor (ful
Europe leads the world in discovery — yet too often, its breakthroughs never become global companies. Billions in research funding turn into patents, not products. While others build empires from ideas, Europe risks beco
Most founders dream of raising millions. Few survive the 153 “no’s” it takes to get there. Behind every biotech breakthrough lies exhaustion — late-night calls, failed rounds, and investors who walk away at the finish li
Imagine waking up to find your company’s most valuable IP leaked—not by hackers, but by the very AI tools you trusted. This isn’t a distant scenario; it’s happening inside pharma and biotech right now. And the cost isn’t
Most founders obsess over products. Jensen Huang built a $3 trillion company by obsessing over inevitabilities. This episode unpacks The NVIDIA Way by Tae Kim—the definitive account of how NVIDIA went from near-death sta
How do you succeed in a business where being wrong is the norm? Marc Penkala has lived both sides of the table: as an entrepreneur who built, sold, and failed with companies—and now as a venture capitalist running his ow
Here’s the harsh truth: If your business model can’t survive a spreadsheet, it won’t survive the market. Every year, ambitious founders pour months into product, pitch, and brand—yet the single biggest reason startups di
Why do Europe’s brightest founders still feel forced to leave for Silicon Valley—no matter how much money or talent we pour into the region? Every year, ambitious startups across Europe and CEE struggle to scale—not for
Detected from recent episode content. Sponsor presence is a real signal of listener purchasing power and show monetisation.
No public pitch examples yet for this show.
Generate your own personalised pitchBased on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:
Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.
Shows with the most semantically similar episode content. Pitch one, pitch all; producers cluster.
Beginner's Mind has a verified contact on file. Create a free PitchCentric account to access it and generate a personalised pitch in seconds. Research at least 3 recent episodes first and lead with a specific angle that serves their business audience.
Beginner's Mind is hosted by Christian Soschner. The show is categorised under business (entrepreneurship) and has published 221 episodes.
Beginner's Mind has published 221 episodes.
Beginner's Mind regularly covers business, entrepreneurship, investing. It sits in the business category, with a entrepreneurship focus.
Beginner's Mind is accessible for guests with genuine business expertise. A personalised, episode-aware pitch will still outperform a generic one every time.
Beginner's Mind hasn't explicitly signalled guest openness in recent episodes. That doesn't rule out pitching. your hook just needs to be especially compelling and relevant to their recent content.
Episodes of Beginner's Mind average 79 minutes, giving guests a long-form format with plenty of time to expand on their expertise.
Our data rates Beginner's Mind's guest bar at 80/100 (Premium tier). Established thought leaders with verified media credentials. Sign in to PitchCentric to see how your own Pod Score compares against this show.
Methodology. Booking Probability™ blends Listen Score, 30-day Virality, open-to-guests detection, and Apple ratings. Data refreshed every 60 minutes. Listen Score and Booking Probability are calculated by PitchCentric. Last enriched 8 days ago.
