Lee and Peter discuss:

• The natural sense of caution with which Peter takes risks

• Falling in love with the problem in order to solve it

• The inspiration for Trustpilot’s original form and subsequent evolution

• Importance of consistent high work rather than a single pivotal moment

• Changing strategies for success as a company grows

Links & references

Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/

Peter Holten Muhlmann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-holten-muhlmann/

Trustpilot: https://www.trustpilot.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/trustpilot/

Get in touch: lee@extrology.com

Episode highlights:

“On the one hand, I think of myself as not taking chances and not being reckless and being pretty meticulous in my thinking. At the same time, I’m doing things that other people would consider as high risk, but that I have somehow thought through and measured on the objectives that I care about is, in fact, low risk.” - 5:00 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

“Some people will take a class in leadership. I think there's great value in learning about leadership, but learning about leadership without being able to do it and practice is a little bit like reading a book about dancing without going to the dance floor.” - 11:25 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

“Trustpilot was much less one eureka moment where I was sitting in a bathtub with a rubber duck, or an apple fell down in my head. It was much more of a long journey where I picked a problem, rather than coming up with a solution.” - 21:10 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

“Only the third most important thing is your original idea for solving a problem, because that idea will change 1000 times if you have the right team to solve it. But you have to be in love with the problem you're trying to solve, and the problem you're trying to solve has to be meaningful.” - 25:45 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

“There’s a bias, you're only reading about the successes. I remember reading about Instagram, right? They're 14 people, and they get sold after 2-3 years for a billion dollars to Facebook. We wondered how we’d been going longer and not done that, but the reason you read about it is because it's so unusual.” - 33:30 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

“The way you're successful when you’re a tiny business is very different from how you're successful in your role as CEO when you are a much larger company. The challenge there is that sometimes you have to learn things that make you successful, but then in order to reach the next level, you have to unlearn those things.” - 43:20 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

“I think to a great extent I equated succeeding with doing something that is meaningful. To me ultimately, success in a moment has a very short half life in terms of the happiness it gives you.” - 49:45 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

“If you want to be really successful as a CEO, you need that extra gear. You need that reserve of energy, because the most difficult problems come to you. When there's a crisis, everybody looks to you, and then you can’t be burned out already. Then when something happens, you need to be the one who says ‘You may all be really exhausted and scared, but I have the energy, I'm taking us through this’.” - 56:00 - Peter Holten Muhlmann

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