It’s time for your third TEAM TALKS blog! This week I caught up with another member of SPRT, Kheli our Product Owner to chat about him, Boxing and the best Döner in Berlin!?
So, let’s get right into it and start by you introducing yourself to people that might not know you…
‘Well I’m Kheli I’m 33 years old and born and raised in Berlin (KREUZBERG BABYYY ?) with Pakistani roots. Before I came to SPRT I was a freelancer and student of Business Administration with a strong focus on Marketing and Human Resource Management.
Right now, I am working as the product owner of SPRT. I honestly never thought I would go into this field, as I started off in B2B and community building: But this is the beauty about start-ups, you end up somewhere completely different than where you started and still love it!?’
Haha that’s very true, can you tell everyone a bit about your character?
Well, we can all definitely vouch for the creativity of your pranks and jokes in the office that’s for sure. There’s never a dull day! What about your passions then, I know you’re really into sports maybe you could tell us a bit more about that?!
Well, we can all definitely vouch for the creativity of your pranks and jokes in the office that’s for sure. There’s never a dull day! What about your passions then, I know you’re really into sports maybe you could tell us a bit more about that?!
‘I come from a family where sports really was no big topic. Neither my father nor my siblings had any particular interest in sports, but we all loved action movies. Growing up watching Kung Fu and action movies with actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Jackie Chan, I always wanted to look fit and be able to defend myself. Since I wasn’t allowed to do any martial arts when I was younger, I started playing football, which also became a great passion of mine. As soon as I turned 18 years old, I started pursuing boxing, weight lifting and other martial arts and I still love them. Sports keep me balanced and sane! It is the only time where I can forget everything else going on because I can just blur it out and focus on the task in front of me: Whether that’s boxing, playing football or lifting weights. It is my form of recharging my battery pack! ?’
How did you come to join SPRT?
‘I got to know Jakob through a very close friend of mine because they started studying together 6 or 7 years ago. When Jakob initially explained the concept about SPRT to me, he needed someone who could write articles for the SPRT-App website and also supervise the other bloggers who were writing in German. My written English is quite decent I would say, because I went to a school with a strong focus on English, so we had a lot of subjects like geography, history and so on in English instead of German. When the concept of the App started forming more and more, talking with development teams and so, he approached me if I want to be part of SPRT help building it from scratch.’
What would be your 1 top tip to someone who wants to try Boxing?
‘Always wrap your hands if you start working on heavy bags. People don’t realise how fragile your wrist and your body is: similar to a car, except you can’t really replace broken hands!?I learned boxing from an old Russian boxer, he had a really really hard upbringing and you could see that in the way he trained us how to box as well. The one thing that I do regret till this day is that I never wrapped my hands when I went to work on the heavy bag. Being young and tough I taught that not wrapping was the way to harden your hands. I never had problems with my hands or wrists in my younger years, but in order for you to do sports as long as possible, you will also have to make sure that your body lasts. So no matter what kind of sports you do, be smart about it!’
Wow, great advice! Is there anything your working towards right now out of the office?
‘I am trying to learn new rope skipping skills and combinations to make rope skipping a little more fun.’
Wow, I had no idea, what’s been your highlight of the year so far or something you’re really proud of?
‘The release of the App of course! …And the release of the last Marvel Avengers movie, haha!!!?’
Haha it must have been a close call for the top spot! What’s your biggest pet peeve? Is there something very ordinary that gets on your nerves?
‘Well, I have two things which kind of annoy me. People who eat really loudly and secondly wasting things, whether it is food or buying something and then not using it!’
Oohhh have we opened a can of worms? ?Think happy thoughts! Let’s move on… What’s your favourite kind of food (need we ask?!) and where to get it in Berlin?
‘My favourite kind of food is Döner and Pizza. Once in a while, I go to Balli Döner Kebab in Tempelhof and a friend of mine makes me the biggest Dürüm Döner Kebab you can imagine. I once weighed it and the scale showed that it was 1kg! [It really did he sent us a picture!?] I love Pizza Hut American style pan pizzas too!’
Haha so let’s talk Berlin, can you give us one reason you love Berlin?
‘Berlin is the best city in the world. The variety of people and food is unbeatable! The way Berlin is built as well, having so many different “city centres” is really different and you don’t have to live on the outskirts to have an affordable flat compared to other metropolis.’
Great and so finally because I know you’ve got important things to be getting onto, what 3 things would be your desert island picks?
‘Delicious food, computers (Playstation, Internet etc.), and sports!’
