Learn from founders – meet Hasib, co-founder of GoLiving

Ever thought about founding your own company? Hasib has been there – together with Tobias Brühne he founded GoLiving (now merged with Habyt), a platform that offers modern and hassle-free co-living setups. We spoke to him to learn more about what kind of difficulties, highlights and learnings he encountered while founding his own company.

You were one of the first employees of N26, what did you do afterwards?

Yes, when I joined N26 we were just about 25 people! After N26 I started to work for a couple of companies including Porsche Digital Lab in Berlin and Deutsche Bank Digital Factory in Frankfurt. In the beginning of 2019 I decided to co-found GoLiving.

How did you know that was the right time to found your company?

2017, when I quit N26, I knew it was the right time for becoming self-employed. You should never wait for the perfect moment, just for a good one. If you’re about 60% sure that it could work, that’s a good time to start. That was the case for me in 2017, but it still took years to transition from working as a freelancer to founding my own company.

How did you meet Tobias?

We were actually introduced to each other by a former N26 colleague of mine who was also friends with Tobias. He knew that we both wanted to do something in the Prop-Tech space so he helped us connect.

Which hurdles did you have to overcome when starting off?

On the personal level you’ll have to answer questions like is this the correct setup, will the distribution of tasks work and so on. On the regulatory level you’ll have to deal with a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy. Even when you’re fundraising you have to familiarize yourself with a completely new process. Then hiring and building a team, decisions regarding strategy, product roadmap, feature set, iterating and validating ideas and hypotheses and so on.

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Which were some of the big moments for you?

As I came from a tech background and didn’t have much sales and pitching experience, it was super interesting to sit at a table with big investors, selling our idea and vision. When we received a lot of positive replies, that was definitely a big moment. It was all very exciting for me.

Then we started working in a co-working office with our team, starting hiring, onboarding our first customers and so on, those were some great highlights.

As GoLiving is now joining forces with Habyt, what are your personal plans for the future?

We got to know the great people behind Habyt and are very happy about the merger. My plan is now to meet with people and see how COVID-19 has affected the world of startups. I’m considering a few options as to what’s next for me. One option would be to found a company again, another would be to join a founding team in the early stages.

GoLiving is a 100% subsidiary of Habyt now and we are delighted to have made this step. We got to know Habyt pretty well in the months during the merger process and are convinced of their strong team and vision.

What advice would you give someone just starting out?

If you’re considering founding your own company and are still hesitant, just do it. I know how tough it is to make the first step and how hard it is to deal with the uncertainty at the beginning. Don’t wait for the moment you have answers to all of your questions, because you’ll always only have about 60-70% clarity on what you’ll be doing and how. Be bold but don’t be careless. You should always challenge yourself, don’t wait to be challenged from outside. 

When you’re starting out, do it full time! I wouldn’t recommend founding a business while being employed. Networking is key, and playing on your strengths.

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