Enpal has long been doing more than solar – is that going well, Mario Kohl?

Mario Kohl actually looks as if he had just meditated: calm, relaxed. A monk in cargo pants. However, the interview was over at 4 p.m. sharp, says the Enpal CEO, and he still had to go to the hairdresser. Anyone who arrives there late will immediately lose their appointment. One of Germany's few unicorn founders isn't taking any risks.

Mario Kohl drinks black coffee, crosses one cargo trouser leg over the other – and thinks about our questions for a long time. It's about unemotional topics – the new fintech subsidiary, heat pumps, solar panel production in Europe – and more emotional ones: criticism of customer service, of the culture at Enpal, of coal itself. Every now and then the founder checks an answer with his chief evangelist , who has taken a seat at the head of the small conference table where our conversation is taking place. He won't overstay a minute.

What does he think of 1Komma5° boss Philipp Schröder? “Is that the former Chancellor?” Kohl asks – so coolly that you briefly buy it. It's important to him to demonstrate: We don't care about the competition, we don't want mudslinging, we don't need bashing. His tips are discreet: Coal refers to “other players who are thinking in the IPO category.” Or he says, when asked in 1Komma5°, that there are circus horses and workhorses – “and yes, we see ourselves more as workhorses – we are the ones who tackle things and build things ourselves instead of buying them in.”