Succession rethought: from manager to entrepreneur
This episode was recorded in German.
Entrepreneurship with a system: how succession becomes a strategic opportunity
Over the coming years, around 600,000 companies in Germany will be looking for a successor, and there aren't enough of them. While founder programs and start-up initiatives are booming, a huge opportunity often goes unused: entering entrepreneurship through structured succession. Tobias Kaulfuss, Managing Director of Castella Nova, talks with strategy expert Christian Underwood about how a demographic risk became a scalable business model.
Succession as an entrepreneurial alternative
Many executives want more responsibility, more meaning and more room to shape things, but they hit structural limits in a corporate career. That's exactly where Tobias Kaulfuss comes in: instead of founding a company themselves, experienced managers can step into healthy, established businesses that are looking for a successor. What's missing isn't the potential, it's the structure. Castella Nova offers a model that supports executives along the way: strategically, financially and operationally. "We bring managers into entrepreneurship, but not on their own. They're embedded in a system that works."
Strategy meets market logic
The approach is strategically thought through: Tobias Kaulfuss and his team analyze markets and identify high-growth industries with consolidation potential, such as IT system houses, property management firms or skilled trades in energy and building renovation. In these markets they build what they call verticals: groups of companies that grow through targeted succession solutions. The clever part: the owner often stays on as a shareholder, the business continues on stable footing, and new leaders can start with entrepreneurial backing.
From manager to entrepreneur, with responsibility
The path into entrepreneurship is not just a change of scenery. It takes capital, nerve and a realistic view of yourself. Tobias Kaulfuss is clear: anyone taking this step has to be fully committed. "'I could imagine it' isn't enough. It has to be: 'This is what I've been looking for.'" At the same time, he shows how much structure, network and support matter for making the leap work. In the new role, the lines between work and private life blur. Responsibility gets broader, decisions weigh more, but the impact is also greater.
A system beats going it alone
What makes it especially interesting: the Castella Nova model offers security for owners handing over their business and a real alternative for ambitious managers. Not a high-risk start-up, but a functioning company with a market position, staff, customers and processes, plus the freedom to develop it strategically. The platform provides the know-how, the legal and financial structure and a growing network of entrepreneurs. That makes succession plannable and entrepreneurial action scalable.
Who this episode is for
This episode is for everyone who wants more than a career: for managers who want to act entrepreneurially without starting from scratch, and for owners who want to solve their succession strategically and sustainably. It shows how succession becomes an entry point into entrepreneurship, with structure, backing and impact. Listen in and find out why this is where the real opportunities are.
**SHOW NOTES**