The Forbes Effect: What do such awards really achieve?
When Hanno Renner landed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in 2020, Personio was five years old. Since then, the Munich-based HR unicorn has raised over €500 million in fresh capital and was most recently valued at €7.2 billion .
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Celonis Co-CEO Alexander Rinke was also among the Forbes 30 honorees in 2015; seven years later, the company's valuation was around 11 billion euros (13 billion dollars) .
Awards like the Forbes list are considered coveted recognition for young founders. But behind all the dazzling LinkedIn posts, the question remains: Does such a seal really provide tangible benefits – for example, in fundraising or recruiting? Do startups whose founders have been recognized have it easier than those without such a seal of approval?
We spoke to Nina Mannheimer (Klim, Forbes 2023), Felicia von Reden (Ovom Care, Forbes 2025) and Sead Ahmetović (WeAreDevelopers, Capital 2023) about this.
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