How Philipp trusted his instincts and caught the right waves early to make OMR what it is today..

Philipp Westermeyer didn’t build OMR by trying to reinvent the media world — he grew it by spotting the right waves early and riding them. From the early days of digital marketing to the rise of podcasting and events, his career shows how trusting your instincts and moving with the momentum can sometimes be the best strategy of all. I caught up with him ahead of the 2025 edition of the OMR Festival on May 6 and 7 to talk about this year’s festival, where OMR is headed, and more.

About OMR

OMR is the leading platform for the digital economy, spanning content, events, and tech. The OMR Festival launched in 2011 and is today the largest meet-up in Europe for execs, managers, and decision-makers from the digital economy, media, and marketing spaces. OMR publishes a wide range of content daily on these topics via its daily blog, newsletters, and podcasts. The 2025 edition of the OMR festival will take place on May 6 and 7 in Hamburg.

Building OMR Into an International Media Powerhouse with CEO and Founder Philipp Westermeyer

Robin Haak: Great to talk with you, Philipp! I wanted to start with the first time we connected. I did an MBA at Hamburg Media School and was one of the first people to go through the Marketing Rockstars workshop with you and do an online marketing camp, those were the early days of OMR. Since we both studied there, what was it about Hamburg Media School that pushed you to do big things? Was there a specific feeling in the group?

Philipp Westermeyer: Yeah, of course. I mean, as you know, I was part of the first MBA class ever at Hamburg Media School. I was drawn there by one of my professors, who basically recruited me from my previous university. He told me I could join him there, work with him, and that he’d make sure it would be a great experience. I also had a grant that allowed me to go, so that made the decision easy. Hamburg was exciting, the media industry was exciting, and being part of something new was really exciting too. Then, a year or two after I left, the school reached out to check how my experience had been, and I told them I’d had a great time—and when you reached out, I told you that you should go there too. That’s how it all started.

You were the executive assistant to the CEO of Gruner + Jahr before you became the founder of OMR. You must’ve seen a huge transformation throughout your career—from publishing as it was with magazines, to everything being mostly online now. What are some of the biggest things you’ve had to navigate?

Good question. For me personally, it felt like a very natural transformation. I only spent about three years at a traditional media house, and then I started my own ventures with colleagues and partners. That was still the early days, when everything was fresh. Google was new, Facebook wasn’t even really around yet. So, there wasn’t much of a transformation for me. It was more like I was surfing the waves created by these big platforms, riding the momentum from companies like Facebook and Google rather than transforming anything myself. I just happened to be there very early, and it all came naturally.

Let’s talk about the progression of OMR. You officially founded it in 2009, and the first event that I attended was held in Hamburg in 2011. I remember that it used to be held in the Lion King theater across the Elbe, and now it’s held in the Messehallen—a massive event with big-name speakers like Ryan Reynolds this year. Can you tell us about the journey from 2009 to today?

I mean, the modest and also accurate way to put it would be that I started doing these events as a hobby, putting on seminars, and that first festival, because people asked me to, and I wanted to help. It was fun. I made a bit of money on the side; it was just a weekend project. But since the industry was growing so much, the interest and relevance of digital marketing were exploding, we had the opportunity to grow with it.

What started as a side project slowly became my real company, my actual career. I had other ventures before that, and I never planned for it to become this big. But the timing was right, and it just kept growing. That’s how we scaled—from hosting the event in a small music club to a theater, then into the exhibition halls. It was very much a bootstrapped scaling journey.

What was the scaling like, and at what point did you realize that you were going to have to hire a lot of people?

We could only invest what we had—and that’s still the case today. We never really scaled using all the rules and mechanics you hear about with fast-scaling digital companies. OMR is now a 16-year-old company, and we have grown gradually over time. We’d invest what we had, then try a new pillar—podcasting, education, software reviews, and so on. Each pillar came one after another, and one would finance the next. It wasn’t this all-out scaling effort like you see with huge digital companies. It was more like a family business-style of growth.

I just want to take it back to the COVID times. How did you get through that, given that you couldn’t host the OMR festival, and what came out of it?

COVID really forced us to diversify the business and strengthen the other pillars I just mentioned. It used to be all about the festival, and after COVID, it was more about podcasting, our software review business, and education. That shift was a huge benefit long-term. But obviously, the first year of COVID was tough—probably one of the toughest stretches in my professional life.

There was so much uncertainty. We didn’t know if we’d ever be able to put on a show like that again. We didn’t know how to satisfy our customers in a different way. We didn’t know what would happen to the team—would they still have jobs? Looking back now, it’s easy to forget how uncertain it felt. There was this idea that live events might never come back. Everyone was saying digital events were the future, and digital event platforms were suddenly worth billions. I really thought, “Wow, maybe our business is going away.”

And then on top of that, during COVID, Clubhouse came along—and for a few weeks, it looked like it might kill podcasting. So within 10 months, it felt like I might lose both the live business and the podcast business. That was tough. Thankfully, things didn’t turn out that way—and now everything is back—but that was a tough time.

In terms of revenue, are you making about the same across the board? Is the event still the biggest driver?

No, it’s different. I mean, the event revenue is cost-heavy. Digital revenue—like podcast revenue—is very different in terms of quality and margins, so the numbers aren’t directly comparable.

Let’s talk about this year’s event. How have you managed to get big names like Ryan Reynolds to come to Hamburg? What’s the strategy?

It’s something we’ve built up over the years. It always works the same way. You need to explain very credibly why it makes sense. You need to get a chance to talk to someone they trust, who can tell them, “This could be interesting.” People think it’s just about money, but it’s not. It’s about getting that first introduction, that first meeting, and clearly explaining what we’re trying to do and why they should come.

The truth is, people of that kind of relevance and status have opportunities and have a lot of options. They get invited to events around the world. So what we’ve built is a network of freelancers working across Europe and the world who help us. It’s not always me who knows everyone directly, but I know people who know the right people. That’s our real asset, this behind-the-scenes network that constantly brings in new ideas.

The network, but also the profile of the event, right?

Of course, you need a relevant event, something with a real presence. But beyond that, you also need people who can vouch for it. People who can say, “I’ve been there, I trust them, this is worth your time.” It’s those two things together—the product itself, and the second-level network behind it.

A lot of companies work this way—Robin Capital works this way, too. It’s about the power of the network.

Yeah, exactly. It’s all about finding people you trust, who have their ear to the ground. You can't know everyone yourself, but if your network is strong and well-connected, you can still access amazing opportunities through those trusted relationships.

So, this year, a few new things are happening at the event. Maybe we could talk a little bit about what’s new and, more specifically, the Black Pass.

Yeah, the Black Pass was probably the latest idea we had to make the event feel more personal and tailor-made for certain members of the community. Over the years, I’ve always had last-minute requests, close friends asking me for tickets. I’d tell them, “Look, I don’t really have any tickets left, but you can just come by and hang out backstage,” and it turned out to be a great experience.

It wasn’t planned, it just happened organically, so I figured, why not formalize it? A lot of my friends asked if they could do it again the next year, so we turned it into a proper product. That’s how the Black Pass came to be, a personal VIP experience for a small group. It might be interesting for your audience.

And Finance Forward is new in the sense that this year, they’ll be on the same stage as everyone else—they won’t have their own hall anymore.

Yeah, that’s true. What’s also new is our partnership around Finance Forward with the team from Manager Magazin, which is probably the most prestigious business magazine in Germany. We decided to team up with them and relaunch the format a bit. It’s not completely revolutionary, but still a notable shift.

Was there anything else you wanted to highlight about this year’s event that will be different?

I think the thing I’m most proud of is just the bandwidth—the range of what we’re covering. I mean, we’ve got digital business, marketing, the global product head of ChatGPT—probably one of the most important people in tech right now. But we also have other great speakers from pop culture and sports on stage, for example.

We try to connect those worlds and bring together different ecosystems. Our core is still business—people want deals, contacts, introductions—but they also want to be inspired. I think that mix is maybe what makes OMR a bit different from other events.

I wanted to ask about the future. Like you said, ChatGPT and other AI-led companies are starting to shift the marketing landscape. What do you think we’ll see over the next five years?

Yeah, I think we’re definitely going to see a reshuffling. It starts with search, where people go first on the web. That has been a given for the last decade—it was always Google. But now, who knows? It could be ChatGPT, it could be Perplexity, or some new interface. Maybe an app. The fact that this is even in question—that tells you a big reshuffling might be happening. And that’s huge for marketing, because marketing is always about where the attention is. And right now, the attention game is still wide open.

There are so many new platforms entering the picture. Suddenly, Reddit matters again after years of living in the shadows. And companies that never saw themselves as media companies—like Netflix, PayPal, or Uber—are all becoming media or advertising platforms. So on one side, there’s this reshuffling of the platforms where attention starts. On the other side, attention is now distributed across almost every major app. Those are two big shifts happening at the same time. I don’t think it’s ever been as unclear as it is now.

On the strategic side, there's all the operational stuff that ChatGPT can do for you, or that an AI app can do for you—but I think the first-level question is: where can a person actually be reached? And I think many times in media and content, people tend to look at the content itself and the way the content changes, and many are wondering whether an AI tool can now produce content. That’s another very relevant and fair question.

But the even bigger question is about distribution—who distributes the content, who has the touchpoint to the audience, who controls customer access? It used to be Google and we all went to Google, that was our go-to. And that might change. If that changes, I think that could be a bigger revolution than just changes in how the content is created. Distribution, I think, is more relevant than the content itself.

That's interesting. And I’m curious, what is your big plan now? What's the plan for the next five to ten years?

The whole DNA of the company at OMR is that we try to take it step by step and look around for opportunities. That’s how we discovered podcasting. That’s how we discovered the reviews business, education. That’s how the whole festival came about.

We don’t have that ten-year goal. I really enjoy building a media company, even though it's a difficult time. But I enjoy that. And I think nobody can really tell you what the media landscape will look like in five years. So it’s also not very realistic to say, "This is where we want to be." Five years before podcasting, nobody would have told you it was going to be big. Five years before review aggregation platforms—same thing. So it’s more about just enjoying the process of building, creating a good culture, strengthening the brand, and enjoying the journey.

I mean, I’m my first customer. I really love our products. I wish I could go to the festival myself and just sit back and watch. I record my podcast because I genuinely have these questions. I want to talk to the people I interview. So it’s a product and a lifestyle that I can enjoy because I’m the first user in many ways.

I don’t look that far ahead. I just try to make sure we have enough liquidity, enough potential, and then I think we’ll find a way to grow. We're now about 400 people, and maybe in five years, we’ll be a bit bigger. If you ask me, I’d expect that. But I couldn’t even tell you exactly what those people would be doing, especially in the media—it’s so tough. I mean, other industries are a little easier to predict. The media industry is hard.

I wanted to talk about you before we finish. You do a little bit of investing yourself, right? What kind of investor are you?

I mean, the good thing about OMR is that you come across a lot of people and see a lot of opportunities. So people approach me here and there and tell me what they’re working on. And sometimes we invest. I’ve done around—I don’t know—maybe 15 angel investments, maybe a few more. I also have a colleague who’s a very successful podcaster here, Noah, and we look at companies—maybe one or two a month. And then we do something together occasionally.

But I have to say, I’m very happy with the portfolio. Some companies probably won’t become that big—maybe not at all—but there are at least three or four that I think will definitely reach a valuation of 100 million or more.

So, you're a minority investor?

Yeah, it’s small, and I do it on the side. It’s very opportunistic. My investing doesn’t follow a particular strategy—it just follows my gut feeling about what could be something, whether I like the team. And it’s our own money, just from our balance sheet. There’s no strategic underlying plan.

What would you say your philosophy for business or life is —do you have one?

No, I’m not a big philosophy or tools person. I rely on my gut feeling—a lot—for most decisions. Balancing work and life is mostly instinct-based for me, not rule-based.

The good thing is that the business I’m in, with OMR, is a positive one. We bring people together, we inspire them, we teach them, we help them grow their businesses. That’s really rewarding. Every week, I get feedback on Instagram or LinkedIn from people who say the podcast or what we do at OMR inspired them. They tell me they’re now building something or becoming self-employed, and that OMR played a big role in that. That gives me a lot of energy.

And how do you find a balance between being the founder of OMR and your personal life?

I mean, as I said, I don’t think about it too much. I don’t try to create rules. It’s more about instinct - a gut feeling. And I’m very much supported by the leadership team here—my colleagues Isa, Jasper, and Philipp. We share the workload.

And also, I mean, I’m in a seasonal business. I keep telling people: you work in e-commerce, or tourism, or whatever it is, and you know when your peak season is. For e-commerce, it’s Christmas. For us, it’s April and May – the lead up to and the running of the festival. That’s our high season. So while I’d prefer not to be in a seasonal business, you can’t have everything. You power through the spring and then enjoy the summer more.

I learned one thing on one of our recent podcasts with Mike Otto, the legendary entrepreneur. I asked him a similar question, and he told me that his work-life balance is all about the interplay between tension and relaxation. He enjoys moving between those two states. And I think that’s true - you have to find the right mixture between the tightening and the tension and then the appropriate relaxation. Right now, I’m in a tightening phase—just a few more days to go until the Festival—and then in June or July, it’s more of a relaxation phase.

Life goes in phases like that. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so much, Robin! It was a real pleasure talking with you, and thanks for making the time to do this.