Olivier Momma didn't pay Messi's €1.5 million endorsement fee. He found the back door. In this conversation we get into how he actually landed one of the most unreachable people on earth, then went on to land Steven Bartlett and Diary of a CEO for the 1% TravelPack. Both without the standard playbook.
Olivier is the founder of Ekster, the Amsterdam brand that started as a Kickstarter smart wallet in 2016 and now heads past $50 million a year across wallets, travel gear, and accessories. In this episode he breaks down the exact story of how Ekster landed Messi (through a broken merch website), how the Bartlett deal came together (starting with a single high risk podcast sponsorship), and the 1% mindset that's been baked into every Ekster product for a decade.
We also get into why life is still chaos after ten years, what he'd tell any founder starting today, why he still hasn't felt the "I made it" moment, what home actually means to someone who moved every three years, and the SMS he'd send to every phone in the world.
In this episode:
The full Messi story, including the broken web store back door
How the Steven Bartlett and Diary of a CEO collaboration actually happened
Designing the 1% TravelPack with the DOAC team
Why the modular wallet decision was the marginal gain that changed everything
The Hong Kong 2016 QR code moment that started Ekster
His sister's €500 Kickstarter video that raised $350,000
The failed first venture (Delhi Scouts) nobody hears about
The secret sauce for building a brand in 2026
Why he's still not settled, and what home actually means to him
Chapters:
00:00 The Messi backdoor (cold open)
00:30 How the Steven Bartlett collaboration actually happened
06:00 Designing the 1% TravelPack together
10:00 The 1% mindset has always been Ekster
13:00 The modular wallet decision that changed everything
15:00 Hong Kong 2016: the QR code moment
17:00 Kickstarter, his sister's video, and the first $350K
21:00 What he misses about the early days
24:00 The secret sauce for starting a brand today
30:00 The storytelling framework every brand should steal
35:00 Why life is still chaos after ten years
39:00 Behind the scenes versus the Instagram life
50:00 The full Messi story: how the deal actually closed
57:00 The World Cup viral moment
1:00:00 What home means when you've moved every three years
1:02:00 The price of the entrepreneur life
1:03:15 How he finally learned to switch off in Cape Town
1:05:47 Rapid fire: Own the Unknown
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
Marcus Engel. Innehållet i podden är skapat av Marcus Engel och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
