Interview with Frank Weber on customer success at OpenProject

Frank Weber has been with OpenProject for a little over 3 years but has known CEO Niels Lindenthal for 20 years, since 2004. They met at Georgia State University when Niels was an MBA exchange student.

Frank is also from Germany, though a different area than Niels, and OpenProject is headquartered in Berlin. A happy coincidence! Today, Frank is the US OpenProject Manager.

He loves classic rock and surrealism, like Dali and Hieronymus Bosch. He’s a boater, constantly learning more about boating, like navigation and plotting - mostly near shore using terrestrial navigation tools, not celestial, as he points out in our interview.

Outside the office, Frank enjoys grilling, hot-smoking meats, and hanging out with his neighbors, who are quick to point out that the smell is OK as long as he’s sharing! In fact, his first job was in the back of a butcher shop, cutting meats and cold-smoking sausages.

Frank says, “It was a family-owned operation, tough work, early hours, and a very demanding boss, particularly around not cutting corners.”

He explains: “In hindsight, I appreciate their high standards and unwillingness to compromise on quality even more. It taught me a lot, especially in contrast to some philosophies I don’t subscribe to in the business world, like solely focusing on maximizing profits. I personally care more about maximizing the customer’s value. That is more sustainable in the long run.

I also believe in building and sustaining trust with our customers by handling everything with complete discretion, NDA or not, and being almost like a fiduciary to customers who rely on my guidance, recommendations, and best practices. That works especially well with OpenProject. We have very high expectations for ourselves. We are service-oriented and highly value things like data privacy and data sovereignty.”

Frank is like a Swiss Army knife - in life and at work. He’s not afraid to take the lead, so it’s no surprise his main focus at OpenProject is leading the US-based OpenProject operations, from management and admin to customer relationships.

“I guide customers in the Americas - and some in Europe because I’m working while they are taking some time after dinner to look at the software. Our presence is also growing in Canada, South America, and Asia, and I enjoy helping them use and mature with OpenProject. It’s wonderful to see how we’re growing with intention and care for each other and our clients.”