Founder of the Week: Maximilian Werner

• Maximilian Werner is a 22-year-old, Swiss CEO and founder of INSPIRED.
• INSPIRED is the world’s first social media platform dedicated to innovation
• The platform acts as a kind of constantly running digital innovation event, connecting visionary ideas with the right supporters.

 

 

Tell Me About Yourself and INSPIRED

 

I’m Maximilian Werner, 22, founder of INSPIRED – the world’s first social media platform dedicated to innovation. Born in Zurich, I began attending startup events at 13 and was working in investment and early-stage startups by 20. In 2023, I left university to focus full-time on building INSPIRED. The platform acts as a constantly running digital innovation event, connecting visionary ideas with the right supporters. In just six months, we grew to a 15-person team and attracted over 17,000 waitlist signups globally, proof that there’s strong demand for a smarter way to surface meaningful innovation.

 

What Inspired You To Start INSPIRED? What Problem Were You Trying To Solve?

 

While working in investment, I kept meeting founders with powerful ideas who couldn’t get visibility. One urban agriculture startup in Zurich had a closed-loop system that cut water usage by 90% – yet they spent nearly two years trying to find funding. The right investor was also in Zurich, but they never crossed paths. That experience made the problem clear: we don’t lack good ideas; we lack discoverability. INSPIRED gives innovators a dedicated platform where projects are surfaced based on purpose, not popularity – finally offering a structured space to get seen, supported, and funded.

 

 

What Has Been Your Biggest Challenge So Far? How Did You Overcome It?

 

Convincing people that a 22-year-old could build a credible social platform was tough. Without a product or traction, hiring the right team was especially difficult. I initially focused too much on CVs, but quickly realized alignment mattered more. I reworked our interview process to ask about mission-fit and motivation. It took six months of trial and error, but once we found our core team, everything changed. We grew from 3 to 15 people in just eight months and built momentum from there.

 

Can You Describe A Pivotal Moment That Significantly Shaped the Direction of INSPIRED?

 

The urban agriculture story was a turning point. That founder had a proven solution – 90% water reduction, 60% faster crop cycles – yet remained stuck in funding limbo. When I learned that both the founder and the ideal investor were within 20 kilometers of each other but had never met, it hit me: the real problem is visibility. Not funding. Not only innovation. That insight fundamentally shifted our design strategy. INSPIRED became more than a networking tool, it became a discovery engine for purpose-driven projects, built to give global visibility to ideas that truly matter.

 

How Do You Define Success? 

 

For Your Business: Success is becoming the go-to digital destination for innovation globally, where changemakers come to get discovered and funders come to find solutions. Our north star is this: if 25% of funded innovation projects start their journey on INSPIRED, we’ll know we’ve built something that matters with huge impact.

 

As a Founder: Success is seeing lives improved and problems solved because of something I helped create. Important investors and innovators are using INSPIRED from day one, and we have just launched – that makes me proud and motivates me a lot.

 

What Advice Would You Give To Someone Thinking About Launching Their Own Startup?

 

Start with a problem you’ve lived through. For me, seeing great projects go unnoticed was deeply frustrating. Before building INSPIRED, I interviewed 50+ impact founders to understand their pain points. Don’t wait until your product is perfect, launch lean and learn fast. And when hiring, surround yourself with people who challenge you and push the mission forward. It’s a long road, but if the problem is real and the purpose is clear, every step will be worth it – even the hard ones.

 

What’s Next For INSPIRED? Any Exciting Developments We Should Watch Out For?

 

We’re launching micro-investment functionality that allows users to back projects from as little as €10 using tokenized shares. We’re also building an events section, where users can discover and attend sustainability conferences or stream them live. Our goal is to reach 100,000 users by the end of 2025 and 1 million by 2026. But more important than user numbers is impact: we want every project on INSPIRED to connect with aligned supporters in weeks, not years. That’s how we’ll know the system is working.

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.

 

Founder’s Five with Maximilian Werner

 

Being a successful entrepreneur and startup founder is an impressive feat, but who is the man behind INSPIRED? Here’s our exclusive “Founder’s Five” with Maximilian Werner.

 

1. Favourite Business Tool?

Milanote — perfect for visualizing product and brand strategy.

 

2. One Lesson You Learned the Hard Way?

Don’t wait for perfect. I used to hold back until everything felt “ready.” But perfectionism delays impact, and kills momentum.

 

3. One Future Trend You’re Watching?

Tokenization of real-world assets. It will democratize how people co-own and fund innovation, especially in sectors that need patient capital.

 

4. One Quote You Live By?

“Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs. A reminder to stay focused on building what people truly need.

 

5. One Book or Podcast You Recommend?

“Zero to One,” by Peter Thiel. A classic, but still one of the most valuable reads for anyone trying to build something new from scratch.

 

Want to be featured as TechRound’s Founder of the Week? Know someone who deserves to be recognised as a founder making waves in the startup landscape? Find out more about this weekly feature and how to get involved here.