The Third Degree is back – Silicon Allee’s regular feature where we get up close and personal with Berlin’s brightest CEOs. This week, we talked blurring borders and dropping out of school with Hermann Frank of Fashionism.
SILICON ALLEE: If you weren’t a CEO, what would you be doing?
HERMANN FRANK: I’d be doing my Masters at Copenhagen Business School right now, because I dropped out. I was accepted, but I couldn’t start because I had already moved here. My Masters would have been in Management of Innovation and Business Development, so actually I’m living my Masters!
SA: When you leave Berlin, where do you go?
HF: I haven’t had a lot of holidays since I moved here – well, once I went to Cologne for a conference. I also visit Hamburg to see my family, but that’s pretty much it. I think the times that are coming up now are more exciting, with New York and San Francisco on the horizon, so I think this year will be a little bit more awesome, where travel is concerned.
SA: West or East Berlin?
HF: East. It’s more exciting, it’s more dynamic. You can feel how the city is growing into a real cosmopolitan place. The west, it’s not different from anywhere else. Like if you go to Charlottenburg it’s the same, if you go to Hamburg or Frankfurt, downtown it’s the same. It’s nice, it’s clean, it’s posh, but the east is more wild, raw, and growing.
SA: How do you spend your time away from work?
HF: Away from work? Somehow everything since I came to Berlin is work related. When I came here I didn’t know anyone, so all my friends I met through work, so pretty much everything I do is work related even if I’m not at work! But 99 percent of the time you’ll find me somewhere between Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg.
SA: What’s your favourite cafe?
HF: If you take it by quantity, its probably Sankt Oberholz. Before we moved in to Le Bureau (the co-working space above the Sankt Oberholz cafe), I spent a lot of time there – that’s where I started Fashionism.
SA: And your favourite bar?
HF: Neue Odessa is the place I go several times a week, at least for a drink. Rivabar and KingSize are also pretty common places I go to with friends, and Amano Bar is really nice too, it’s a great place if you want to just sit and drink in a great atmosphere.
SA: Tell us what you think the Internet will look like in ten years time.
HF: The borders between internet and reality will blur. Right now, the online world and offline world are starting to grow together organically, and that’s actually what we’re doing with Fashionism. I think this will continue to a point where you’ll constantly interact with content from the web in your real life.