Our alumnus Niklas Schwab aka Hedgefonds Henning (Class of 2022), studied Business Administration at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne and completed his master's degree in entrepreneurship at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in 2024.  While still a student at the University of Cologne, he launched the Instagram profile ‘hedgefonds.henning’, where he posts humorous images, memes, and infotainment with an ironic take on business administration clichés and the financial world on a daily basis. With now over 287,000 followers, ‘hedgefonds.henning’ is the most successful German finance and economics meme page. And since its launch, this Instagram page has spawned other formats: Firstly, there is the YouTube channel ‘highperformer.henning’, which showcases companies and business personalities for funk, an online content network and part of the German public broadcasting service. On the other hand, there is the print magazine HYPER, which summarises business topics in a way tailored to the Gen Z, as well as a newsletter of the same name. Through his production company, Apollo Studios, he is also working on other business formats. In our alumni interview, we talked to him about his original ambition to become an investment banker and how things turned out completely different, the origins of meme marketing in traditional poster advertising, and his plans to engage Gen Z and Gen Y on Instagram and YouTube with business content.

Dear Niklas, you grew up in Koblenz and began studying Business Administration at WiSo in 2018, originally intending to become an investment banker. What brought you to Cologne? And why did you end up taking a completely different path?

After graduating from high school in 2018, I knew I wanted to study Business Administration. I had several renowned state universities to choose from, such as Mannheim, Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne. Since Koblenz is not far from Cologne and many of my friends were studying in Cologne or in Bonn and raved about the student life, I finally decided to study in Cologne.

Originally, I wanted to become an investment banker because it sounded exciting, without really knowing what the job actually entailed. Once I found out more about the day-to-day work, I quickly lost interest. Instead, I became more involved with start-ups and entrepreneurship through student initiatives. I was active in the World Business Dialogue and the Entrepreneurs Club Cologne, among other things. The more I became involved in the start-up world, the more exciting I found it, and I gradually became more immersed in this scene.

During your studies, you created the Instagram profile hedgefonds.henning, which has become the largest German finance and economics meme profile on Instagram. Was the intention to monetise the page in the long term from the outset?

No, not at all. I actually created the site out of sheer boredom during exam season. I started posting memes on Facebook back when I was in Abitur examination, just for fun. While studying, I spent a lot of time on Twitter and noticed that there were lots of funny finance meme accounts in English-speaking countries, but virtually none in Germany.

During Business Administration studies, one is constantly confronted with traditional career paths such as consulting or banking. Naturally, this gives rise to lots of clichés and stereotypes that make for great jokes. The whole thing came about rather spontaneously, and the profile just kept growing over time.

To what extent are the memes inspired by reality on campus, in the lecture hall and in seminar rooms?

The memes draw heavily on reality. Naturally, a lot oft hem come directly from everyday university life, such as lectures, exam periods and group work – which has a sigificant impact. But I would say that about half of them are also based on internships. Business Administration is a practical subject, and when you work in a company, you encounter typical situations that almost every business student is familiar with: endless Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides, not to mention your colleagues. Many of the ideas come from these situations, as there are so many scenes that are perfect for memes.

Influencer marketing has firmly established itself as an effective method for companies to reach new target groups and boost the visibility of their products. With hedgefonds.henning and your large reach of over 287,000 followers, you offer meme marketing , which is a relatively new concept. Could you briefly explain what this involves and how it works? How does it differ from traditional influencer marketing?

We don't just do meme marketing. I am also present as an individual in many formats, which is more like traditional influencer marketing. Technically, meme marketing itself isn't new. Companies like Sixt have been using humorous advertising for decades. The only difference is that the whole thing has shifted to social media.

Memes are essentially a further development of this approach. In the past, funny posters and TV commercials were popular, but nowadays it's images and memes that work online. Therefore, humour in advertising is not a revolutionary concept; social media has simply given it a new format.

Since April 2022, your company, Apollo Studios, has also been producing video portraits of companies and business personalities for Hessischer Rundfunk and the ARD and ZDF youth content network, funk. These videos are published on the YouTube channel highperformer.henning. Memes are, of course, a must, so your signature style is still recognisable in the videos. What are your long-term plans for your production company?

There isn't really a fixed long-term plan – we're pretty open about that. When we started the YouTube channel three years ago, there were hardly any formats that made economic topics accessible to young people. Our aim was to change that, and now we're close to reaching 100,000 subscribers. We’re reaching a large target audience, with our videos averaging around 170,000 views despite being almost 20 minutes long. This demonstrates that long-form content on economics can be highly successful.

However, it is important to distinguish between productions made for public broadcasters and private projects. At Apollo Studios, our focus is generally on long-form business formats, for YouTube, traditional media libraries, streaming platforms, and companies that want to develop their own formats.

There is still a lot of potential, particularly with regard to the Gen Z and Gen Y target groups roughly aged 18 to 35, as many established media outlets no longer reach this demographic. This is precisely the area in which we come in, provide ideas and formats that appeal to young people, either independently or in collaboration with partners. I believe there is still a lot that can be done here.

In conclusion, could you complete the following sentence: When I think back on my time as a student in Cologne, I remember...

When I think back to my time as a student in Cologne, lots of things come to mind. The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, Carnival, followed by the city of Cologne itself and its lovely people from the Rhineland, who I think are really cool. However, I also immediately think of the pandemic, as unfortunately half of my time as a student coincided with it, meaning that I didn't really get to experience proper student life.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our students? Do you have any tips for studying?

My first piece of advice would be: enjoy your student life. It's a unique time that won't come again, offernig lots of freedom to try new things, both personally and professionally. Time passes faster than you think!

Secondly, especially if you are studying Business Administration or Economics in general, don't just focus on your grades. Of course, they‘re important, but I‘d say they only account for half of your success. The other half is practical experience. Do internships, work part-time and try out different industries. Finding out what you don't want to do is just as valuable as discovering what excites you.

And thirdly, build up a network. This may sound obvious, but it's incredibly important. The more people you know, the easier many things will be later on. Networking doesn't have to be cringe-worthy; it can just happen over a Kölsch. Be open, go out, talk to people and show interest. This won’t be taken negatively, especially when you're young – quite the opposite. This can happen through initiatives, events or at parties.

Dear Niklas, thank you very much for your time and for this interview!

Questions by Pascal Tambornino