milestones
Looking back to the past >10 years, 3 milestones have shaped my profile as an entrepreneur. Lucky enough, I was always in an entrepreneurial position - weather or not I was working in a team or for a corporate group.In every of of these milestones i've identified at least one mentor who helped me develop the skills i have today.
1998 - 2001 from one website to an ad-network - on-web AG
Everything started with Germany's first free eMail and free SMS Service, surfway.de in 1998. Rapidly the userbase grew to 5-digit numbers and was mentioned together with hotmail, bigfoot and other leading mail providers. At this time, on-web AG was born. The company created several Internet projects and a advertising network with which the company marketed between 10 Mio and 15 Mio ad-impressions on CPM basis each month. I left the company in 2001. Today, on-web AG is a leading e-commerce service provider.
2002 - 2006 building operations for mobile services - Buongiorno SpA
In 2002 i've joined the Buongiorno Group which, after the 89 million EUR takeover of MyAlert SA, was building a portfolio of mobile content & services. As the Director, Operations I was in charge for setup, management and maintanance of our core-services with a team of 25 employees in 3 offices.
We've managed services for T-Mobile, Vodafone, Swisscom, Jamba! and others in more than 5 Countries.
Buongiorno went public in 2004 after the purchase of Vitaminic in 2003 with a market cap of more than 150 million EUR.
2007 - 2010 from ideas to an incubator - CNM
In 2006 i was among 6 people deciding to head back to entrepreneurship. We than founded a small incubator, called CNM wit the idea of enabling startups the entrance into the european Mobile & Internet market.
In 2007 & 2008 the company started 2 ventures: beschenkmich.de, a wishlist service and fashionfreax.net europes first fashion community. Since 2009 a significant team work's on SocialCom - a new way for social network monetarization.
The company is Berlin (Germany) based.
2009 - today commercializing R&D projects trough an incubator - Deutsche Telekom AG - Telekom Laboratories
Since April 2009 I'm supporting Deutsche Telekom by creating the Entrepreneurs Program. My responsibility is to identify partners, evaluate ideas and setup the process. The Program aims to start the first companies in 2010.
The Entrepreneurs Program has been developed at Telekom Laboratories to support internal and external start-up teams to unlock disruptive potential by providing seed funding. The focus is on technology-oriented products and services from the areas of telecommunications, Internet, and the digital media which can help unlock new markets through synergies with Deutsche Telekom. The program funds several teams each year, with the decision on which teams are accepted to the program made by a distinguished jury of industry experts, investors and experiencedentrepreneurs.
Under the Entrepreneurs Program, a comprehensive range of services are made available to help the participants achieve their objectives. Modern offices, management support by experienced entrepreneurs and a first-rate technical infrastructure provide a solid basis for nurturing the new companies. The start-ups receive funding to develop their ideas and, what is more, get access to additional financing through Deutsche Telekom and existing relationships with venture capital providers.