Thierry Schoen and Adrien Loesch are the hosts of the popular business podcast, LuxUnplugged, where they interview Luxembourg’s foremost business leaders. They share their origin story, their highlights and their thoughts on the ecosystem.
Do you remember the first time you had this idea for a podcast? What was your initial intention?
Back in 2018, we sat in a pub in Shoreditch (London), as you do on a Sunday afternoon before the week starts. Having spent many years away from home and wanting to somehow reconnect with its business scene, we came to the realisation that there was no English in-depth content about Luxembourg-led initiatives. So the podcast idea came to light as we believed there was a way to not only unearth untold stories about Luxembourg businesses, but also expand our network whilst not being in the country physically to meet new people.
What do you say today in retrospect about how far you’ve come and how many episodes you’ve recorded?
When we decided to launch the LuxUnplugged show in 2019, we knew podcasting in Luxembourg was in its infancy. However, we did anticipate that English content would attract international listeners expressing an interest in Luxembourg business insights. After Luxembourg, our second and third largest audiences are from the US and UK, respectively. Overall, listeners tune in from more than 80 countries, which is way beyond what we were expecting. To date, we’ve recorded close to 50 episodes on a bi-monthly basis.
What have been the highlights so far?
As a new brand and uncommon medium of communication in Luxembourg, our idea was initially received by our guests with skeptical enthusiasm, so to speak. But our guests really like the format which has allowed them to talk more extensively about their involvement in the Luxembourg ecosystem.
From our side, we enjoy the in-depth discussions with our guests. So far, we have had very prestigious guests from multiple industries coming on, such as Jean-Claude Juncker, Steve Collar, Gerard Hoffmann, Franz Fayot, Francoise Thoma, etc. We love the part where they have the opportunity to discuss what they would change in Luxembourg.
How do you see the evolution of your podcast and the next seasons?
As we mentioned earlier, when we launched the podcast we weren’t sure how the podcast landscape in Luxembourg would develop, let alone our brand. But after more than 2 years of existence, we continue to release high quality insight conversations so that our listeners hear about the great things Luxembourg based companies do and who their leaders are. In the near future we will release different series focusing on more specific sectors.
After all these discussions, what is your view on the Luxembourg entrepreneurial scene?
This is a very good question, there are many positives such as that the private sector entrepreneurs are very resilient; this was highlighted during the Covid pandemic. What we noticed as well is that Luxembourg could benefit from having more female business leaders or entrepreneurs.
We spoke to a handful of female leaders and we noticed that Luxembourg is lacking the promotion of female leadership. However, Luxembourg entrepreneurial ecosystem has demonstrated rapid growth within the last decade that offers us a great opportunity to further evolve our show and deliver more diverse content to our listeners.
