The motto is: “Why should we fight over a muffin?! Let's make a big cake out of it and build the industry together.” - Paul
Although the hemp industry is literally just blossoming and getting new wind at the moment, it is not new. Hemp has been around for forever.
I’ve studied industrial engineering in Jena and Hamburg. During my studies, I did many internships and thus got to know many different industries. With my master thesis, which was about the automation of pre-roll production, I started to get in contact with the hemp industry. For me as an industrial engineer, the hemp industry is a completely different and new industry compared to industries like the automotive industry. Hemp and the growing market fascinated me and I loved to speak to many experts for my master's thesis, because I wanted to learn more about the existing products, cultivation and further processing of hemp.
After my master's degree I really wanted to continue working in the hemp industry, so I researched what hemp companies were out there. That's how I came across Signature and after two calls with our CEO Florian I knew it would just be a perfect fit. Our young, dynamic and international team makes the work very exciting because I can learn so much from my other team members. But not only is our team very international but so is also our trading area. I get to know so many people from all over the world with all their cultural differences and that’s just amazing.
I really enjoy working in a startup environment, because you can bring in your own initiative and the work is very flexible in multiple ways.
Most obviously related to this is our remote work concept, which allows me to work wherever I want. Yes, sometimes I miss the personal contact, but I wouldn't want to go to an office every day either. The team is very important at Signature, and as we are aware that remote work can sometimes be very lonely, we meet regularly for remote Get Together and as often as possible for real meetings to keep us all connected. And at the end of the day, I really enjoy being able to work anywhere. Like this one day when I was on Fuerteventura with a friend. He wanted to go surfing, so we drove along dirt roads to a very secluded beach. I brought an ironing board and a plastic chair from our flat and worked there on the beach. It was a bit hot, windy and the connection was pretty bad, but it worked and was quite fun actually…
The second very flexible part of my work at Signature is my usual working day. Apart from the daily Kick-off Call I have with our CEO Florian and our CTO Max, I don’t really have a daily routine. Some days I start work straight after the shower, sometimes I exercise in the morning and sometimes I start the day with a homemade cup of coffee. It really depends on how I feel that day. I don't have a set pattern of what my day looks like. My job, among other things, is to motivate the team and to find new cooperation partners. This means I often have crazy working hours due to the different time zones our clients are in. But that’s no problem for me, because of the remote work concept. I can integrate it into my day in a way that suits me.
And this leads me directly to the third flexible part, which is my task area. I do basically everything with sales, from organisation to processing, but also a bit of purchasing, product development and job interviews sometimes. In my opinion, the variety of tasks and the fact that you also work on things that do not directly belong to your own area of responsibility makes working at a Startup like Signature very attractive.
Max Wölk
Although the hemp industry is literally just blossoming and getting new wind at the moment, it is not new. Hemp has been around for forever. It has been used for over 1000 years, but has not been made as popular as it actually has potential to be.
I think it’s a pity that for so many people hemp is still only the plant you can get high from. This makes things much more complicated. For me, for example, the hemp and cannabis industry was always an industry I wanted to work in, but there were few legal jobs. Happily things have started to change in the last few years. Hemp foods are legal, CBD oils are legal (if properly declared), and even cannabis is already legalised in some countries. Even old-fashioned conservative countries (e.g. Germany) are discussing plans to legalise it right now. The people start to comprehend what an outrageous potential there is in hemp and get very interested in the industry and in what we are doing.
I myself use quite a lot of hemp products in my everyday life. I drink a protein shake with hemp protein every day, I love hemp seeds in my salad, I use CBD oils when I'm not feeling well, and every Sunday I treat myself to homemade pancakes with hemp protein. But these are only a few uses of hemp in everyday life.
For us as a startup it’s great to be in such a new industry where there are not those fixed standards other industries have, because we can grow together with the industry and help establish the standards. We want to get rid of the stoner image and build the way to the professional hemp market of tomorrow.
At Signature Products we try to live an open, honest and transparent communication with our customers and partners. Especially in sales, we don't try to sell a refrigerator to an Inuit in his igloo just to make money, even though he has no need for this at all. We don't want to find customers, we want to win cooperation partners. My personal opinion is that we should develop the understanding of sales in such a way that we don't try to impose something on others, but to help them and get them the things they need with quality and partnership and not just with quantity.
In the hemp industry, even if the companies offer the same products, there is never any real competition compared to other industries. The motto is: “Why should we fight over a muffin?! Let's make a big cake out of it and build the industry together.”
That's the spirit I love about this industry!
Let's grow together and build a sustainable industry with meaningful regulations. There are still many steps to go, but I feel we are finally on a good path.
Get in touch with us: info@signature-products.com / +49 7231 1332 640