Build To Last
The person who inspired me most to become an entrepreneur is my father! Close to his retirement from his professorship in physics & informatics, he solved a 300-year-old open problem in optics: how to manufacture aspherical lenses at high precision and high speed. He founded Asphericon, now market leaders in their field.
We do come from a very entrepreneurial family, actually. Not even 100 years ago, we owned large swaths of land and many factories in the lush mountains of the Thuringian Forest. However, World War II came in-between and my grandparents lost everything. My father and I are now rebuilding the legacy, with pride.
I thus went on a quest to try out entrepreneurship early on my career. I first cofounded Worldsensing, then 5G Courses, then Sirius Insight and then Movingbeans. Each had their own challenges, their own ups and downs. However, I do not regret a single moment of it, even if it meant working through nights.
As I always taught my students in the King’s entrepreneurship classes: “There is no failure in starting a business: you either learn or scale. The only failure is if you think you should try but you don’t.”
Worldsensing (B2B)
I have held various executive roles in Worldsensing, a company I cofounded. Since early 2013, I am a non-executive member of the Board of Directors of Worldsensing worldwide.
From 2009-2012, I have been the CTO where I impacted the choice and use of wireless technologies for Worldsensing’s product portfolio; and also negotiated major tenders for the company across Europe. My biggest decision as CTO was to move away from Zigbee and embrace LoraWAN, Sigfox and cellular technologies.
Worldsensing – under the leadership of CEO Ignasi – has become one of the world’s leading B2B instrumentation companies, leveraging its knowledge in the Industrial Internet and Machine-to-Machine technologies. It raised several million of $ in investment, and had its market cap doubled every year!
It employes more than 100 people worldwide, and now focuses solely on infrastructure safety and industrial monitoring markets. The company has acquired several other companies.
5G Courses (B2B)
The CEO, Peter, has drawn me as narrator and then co-founder into this venture which I was highly excited about it at the time. I have stepped out ever since but had a really amazing time co-running this venture with Peter.
Our strategy was very effective: First, create detailed technical courses on emerging technologies – mainly 5G and related. Second, call up the HR departments of large corporates who had to spend money for upskilling. Third, sign the deal and offer a license key; occasionally, have a webinar or face to face with the clients.
The courses I worked on was an “Introduction to 5G“, which became LinkedIn’s number 1 course on 5G. I have created variations of this course for various customers too. I have then done an in-depth 5G NR course as well as an IoT course. They all were very popular at the time, it seemed.
I really liked that business model as I did what I do best: teach complex topics in an easy-to-understand way; record and process it once; and then scale globally.
SiriusInsight.AI (B2G)
I am co-founder and former CTO of SiriusInsight.AI. Since early 2023, I am a member of the Board of Directors, where I advise and vote on the direction of travel.
The company – under the leadership of CEO Malcolm – has become one of the world’s leading B2G maritime security and safety companies, leveraging its knowledge in satellite imaging, real-time radar and artificial intelligence. We almost bootstrapped the company; yet, it had its market cap (almost) doubled every year!
As CTO I oversaw the implementation of data processing pipelines, AI algorithms and various engineering projects. Whilst I have not meddled with radars in space, I was more than once on a ship off the rough waters of the UK.
SiriusInsight employes dozens of people worldwide, and now focuses solely on maritime surveillance for governments and insurances. The company has acquired several other companies.
Movingbeans (B2C)
On a hazy morning in October 2016, Dan, Gemma and myself — all close friends — chanced upon an interesting newspaper article that highlighted the horrific environmental impact of the single-use plastic and aluminum coffee capsule industry.
Thus, Movingbeans was born. I loved building it, my first consumer company. We had a vision and a mission: replace the plastic/aluminum polluting Nespresso pods with a sustainable compostable and equally tasty coffee pod. Movingbeans was half a consumer company, and half a material-science company run by the fantastic CEO Gemma.
We did really well with sales doubling years on year, and expanded internationally. Eventually, in 2024, we were acquired by Grind who share our sustainability ethos.
I will never forget the first sales which I hand-delivered in Central London; the hand-packing and endless parcels at home; the marketing videos we shot using the cute hands of our daughter; the supply chain issues forcing us to fly across the world to sort all out; etc etc.
