Mirka Wilderer is the CEO of De Nora Water Technologies. De Nora is a leading provider of equipment, systems, disinfection, and filtration solutions for water and wastewater treatment.

Back in my years as a sales engineer, I used to map the competitors' landscape when working on large projects. And in my quite specialized world of advanced wastewater treatments, I was very good at predictions, or that's what I thought.

One day, on a very large project, I was discussing with the design office, and they had curious Ideas as to how to shape their process. I couldn't recognize any of the patterns; the usual suspects would have left! The reason would reveal some weeks later: there was a new kid on the block, De Nora Water Technologies.

If you recall my discussion on that microphone with Reinhard Hübner, we've already seen examples of companies rapidly built from the bottom up in our otherwise conservative sector. But DeNora is again another breed than SKion Water. The water division was created in 2015 from an M&A move involving Severn Trent Services.

And since then, the company has followed quite an aggressive track, through internal and external moves, with a double-digit growth that led to a successful initial public offering on the Milano stock exchange last summer. 

It's been a while that I wanted to address this trajectory on the podcast, and I had already approached Mirka for this around the BlueTech forum last year in Vancouver, but with the IPO on the horizon, the timing wasn't right. 

So when our paths crossed again during Sciens Water's Rethinking Water conference in New York, I couldn't let the opportunity slip away to get some valuable insight on how to successfully go public, keep and develop a hunter mindset, or grow into a fully different area as a before quite traditional family business. 

As for Patrick Dekker last week, I was a bit short on time to go into the level of depth I would have liked to. But you'll see that Mirka goes straight to the point and probably delivers a new record in insights per minute on that microphone! 

So without further due, I'll let you dive into our conversation. Just remember that if you like what you hear, please take that episode and share it with a colleague, a friend, or your LinkedIn network! Come one, do it, and I'll meet you on the other side!

How De Nora Grew from 0 to IPO in 7 Years (with Cheat Codes!)