Meltwater News Berlin, 2005

How it all started:

Five years ago today was my first day at Meltwater. I had never heard about the company before I joined. I only knew that I was going to start in a sales role within a small Norwegian start-up that had ambitions to expand globally. The company had only 60 employees in Northern Europe back then and together with two Norwegian managers (Ingolf and Fredrik), our team of four new hires ( Christiane, Sonna, Inga and myself) entered the German speaking market. We opened our first office in Germany’s capital, Berlin.

Back then our office set-up was very simple; we had nothing more than basic office equipment accented by some bright pink furniture. Everything felt very start-up and it was a little overwhelming when we started to present our media monitoring service to the first German customers. We had limited knowledge about the market, but our spirits were high and we were inspired by the ambitious goals of becoming the European market leader in our segment.

We soon faced challenges and setbacks. We learned that in order to persuade others to purchase our service, it would take a lot more than just pitching what we thought was interesting. It was a long and hard journey, but over time we were able to develop our negotiation skills and also created structured guidelines adapted to the nuances of each industry that we approached.

Where we are now:

Since 2005 the Berlin office has grown to a hub in Meltwater’s European operations, housing different product divisions like Meltwater News and Meltwater Buzz as well as key functions like Client Relations, Controlling, Recruitment, Human Resources and Communications. Perhaps most importantly, many people that started in the Berlin office became managers and launched other meltwater offices in Germany (Munich, Hamburg), Switzerland (Zurich) as well as in France (Bordeaux) and Spain (Barcelona).

Looking back on the last five years, I feel that I’ve learned a lot. After I started in sales, I helped to set up the client relations department in the German speaking area and gained valuable management experience. I then moved on to work as a Recruitment Manager. Based on that experience I then took over a more strategic role – and became the manager for our university relations activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since last year I’ve been the project lead of our global University Relations initiatives, which operates within the Communications team.

What I learned:

1. Negotiation skills are important. Upon reflecting back on my experiences, I feel that my job has a lot to do with negotiation. Additionally, giving presentations requires the right skills and executive presence- all things that I learned during my time in sales. Many times students that I meet are very interested in applying for positions in university relations or communications rather than sales. However, I would encourage anyone who is starting their career to develop core skills in negotiation and public speaking. There is no better place to dive into that than in sales.
2. Take ownership of your success. When we started in the German speaking market, we knew that it was our full responsibility – it was up to us — to ultimately be successful or not. We knew that our ideas, efforts and spirit would ultimately make an impact. I’ve realized that at the end of the day, you are the only person who can make a difference. Therefore, it’s important to take ownership in everything you do.
3. Have fun. Especially when we started from scratch – things sometimes got tough and tiring.

I am really glad that we never forgot to have fun and enjoy our work. I think that if you enjoy what you are doing, you will excel in what you do. Also, the celebration of your victory is that much more enjoyable because you had fun working hard along the way.

Reflecting back on our initial team in Berlin, I feel that we all accomplished a lot and grew personally as well as professionally. We moved into interesting positions within Meltwater and many times had the chance to start divisions from scratch.

Fredrik is now heading up our non-profit organization in Ghana, Africa.
Inga is now working as a Human Resource Manager for Europe.
Sonna is managing the Client Relations efforts for the product division, Meltwater Buzz in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Christiane is overseeing all controlling activities in Central Europe.
And Ingolf is now Director of Controlling for Meltwater Group.

Besides everything we learned and accomplished over the years, we also developed incredibly strong friendships. So for our 5th year anniversary, our team will be celebrating our success by spending a weekend in a spa hotel near the Baltic Sea!