Technology Stories

I am passionate about technology, technology-led business models, innovation and entrepreneurship.

My focus moves from technically-oriented stories that describe detailed processes about eCommerce, unified commerce and marketplace to creating value with newly-founded businesses.

Work

As serial entrepreneur, my business world is diverse spanning from Dark Venture, Dark Studio and our portfolio companies that are technology-enabled startups or digital native vertical brands.

In 2014, I founded e2y and led the company as Chief Executive Officer. e2y is an award-winning digital experiences consultancy. It powers some of the largest ecommerce sites on SAP Customer Experience (formerly Hybris) and Mirakl.
e2y was acquired by Dimension Data, now NTT.

Previously, I worked for Fortune 500 companies including Dell, LEGO and Nikon leading global or European eCommerce and Direct to Consumer initiatives.

Tech Stuff

I’m passionate about digital.
I have to admit, I'm a geek :-)

My focus is about bridging the gap between business and IT.

I fancy tinkering with fancy technologies and business models. My passion is all about customer experience, ecommerce, marketplaces, digital payments, tools enhancing experiences such as PIM / DAM / WCMS / OMS / CDP as well as new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, process mining, deep tech, blockchain and NFTs.

Venture Studio

Venture Studios are the new way to create companies. We work on projects as early as the ideation phase, identifying the problem to solve, matching it with a large market and providing initial funds for the start-up to target product-market-fit.

Dark Venture aims to fund innovative & tech-enabled companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential. Its mission is to combine financing with incubation programmes led by Dark Studio.

Dark Venture invests in Dark Studio’s portfolio companies, and as an early-stage investor in the next-generation of tech start-ups that require capital to blossom.

Dark Studio aims to design, build and launch innovative tech-enabled start-ups. It uses a venture studio model, which combines venture funding and systematic company building through Dark Venture

The founding partners of Dark Studio are experienced entrepreneurs, engineers, finance experts, product creators and innovation leaders. Our core team of company builders, strategists, technologists and creatives apply a playbook "idea-to-execution" to launch our start-ups. We leverage our capital, years of experience, core resources and networks to reduce entrepreneurial risk and make our ventures successful.

Dark Studio’s Portfolio Companies are digital native vertical brands, unified commerce companies and category creators that solve real problems using innovative technology.

Companies

Dark Studio’s Portfolio Companies are digital native vertical brands, unified commerce companies and category creators that solve real problems using innovative technology.

Embley - Marketplace Automation Platform


Embley is a Marketplace Automation Platform that helps merchants and sellers, market and sell their products better and faster using a unique Intelligent Process Automation engine.

Embley - Marketplace Automation Platform


At Active Rock we design and engineer innovative socks with the specific needs of a sport in mind, and for all types of athletes, regardless of skill level.

Embley - Marketplace Automation Platform


Maison du Vélo aims at creating physical and digital spaces for cycling enthusiasts. We love to share our passion for cycling. We are the go-to place for all your cycling needs including bicycles (road, gravel, mountain bike, electric bike, kids), bike parts, apparel accessories, repairs, bike fitting and cycling experiences.

Investing

I believe in innovative entrepreneurs who master the magic mix of technology, branding and seamless go-to-market execution. Companies I support are deemed to have high growth potential. They disrupt through above-average customer experience and technology. They create new product categories. I invest as a business angel in start-ups early-stage during their pre-seed or seed phase.

USEcryption creates new opportunities to securely compute and share confidential data with full privacy and security.

Victo - My Putter is a fully-configurable putter with an innovative curved face that gets the ball rolling more smoothly with less sliding or skidding.

Marping Labs unlocks complex machine data to support vehicle and fleet systems.


Investing means believing in entrepreneurs but also taking a risk. Some say 9 out of 10 startups fail. Not all of my investments are successful. Take Roleshare as an example. Its vision was to become the world's leading job share platform but unfortunately had to close in autumn 2023.

Advisory &
Mentoring

As an entrepreneur, I understand what it means to invest time and money into a new venture. It means strategy, branding, go-to-market, ideal customer profile, sales & marketing, onboarding new staff and struggling with legal, HR, finance and technology at the same time. I like to help individuals and organisations reach their full potential as much as my peers help me grow my own start-ups.

I'm a mentor on the Red Bull Basement programme. I coach university students across the globe to improve their pitch, business model and future start-ups. As a mentor, my goal is to unlock the potential of the young generation of entrepreneurs.