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Named #1 of NextBerlin 100 List – and hope that it helps filling 100 open positions!

Friday, April 12th, 2013

Yesterday NextBerlin Conference Jury & Audience Voting named me #1 out of  100 (pre-nominated!) European Digital Influencers.

Thanks to everybody who contributed – I hope the nice visibility helps finding more top talent for 100+ attractive openings at HitFox Group, SponsorPay, Madvertise & Absolventa!

Have a look at the career sections below and help me spreading the word :)

http://www.hitfoxgroup.com/english/career/open-positions
http://www.sponsorpay.com/careers/jobs/
http://madvertise.com/career
http://www.absolventa.de/arbeiten-bei-absolventa

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship | No Comments »

Angela Merkel visits the Start-up scene

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Yesterday I and several other German Entrepreneurs got the seldom opportunity to meet Angela Merkel at a Start-up Event!

(Thanks for organizing this cool event to Lars Hinrichs as well Florian Noell and Thomas Bachem from DeutscheStart-ups.org.)

I was very positively surprised by her Charisma and she hold a smart and entertaining speech about how she`d like to support Internet Entrepreneurship in Germany.

Afterwards she took about 45 minutes to discuss and listen to our ideas.

It`s a smart strategic move from her (definitely inspired by Philip Roesler) to affiliate herself with the Internet & Start-up scene.

The is were the sustainable growth is and it will also benefit her public image – just 6 months ahead of the upcoming elections…

I hope (& believe) her interest in the Internet Start-up scene will continue afterwards!

at a start-up event in Berlin...

 

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship, Germany | 2 Comments »

HitFox Group expanding into Asia with local presence in Korea

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

Today we announced HitFox Group`s expansion into Asia and the appointment of Ludolf Ebner-Chung as General Manager!

3 out of our 4 portfolio companies (Ad2Games, AppLift, & GameFinder) are growing fast in Europe and US, now working together with 150+ Mobile & Online Game Publishers.

Our whole group now consists of 70 awesome professionals with the large majority being based in Berlin – some other exciting locations tba soon…

I`m at this moment in Busan/Korea for G-Star Conference and excited to be first time ever in Korea…

Looking forward for a lot of good meetings & new partnerships at G-Star and some quality time & partying with Ludolf, Ruben (Haas), Janis Zech & Michael (Liebe) in Seoul this weekend!

Posted in China / Asia, Entrepreneurship | No Comments »

HitFox Game Ventures launches AppLift & GameFinder

Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

Today we announced foundation & 7-figure € funding of our 2 Mobile Game Marketing Start-ups AppLift & GameFinder.

As Techcrunch put it right HitFox Game Ventures started and funded them pretty hands-on in the “German Style Incubator model”.

However with Kaya Taner (AppLift MD) & Xavier Rezgui (GameFinder MD) we have 2 strong co-founders on board.

Both have before been outstanding team members at HitFox.

I like this way of picking Co-Founders particularly for 2 reasons:

1. Both parties know each other before and have adequate expectations.

2. It is motivating your existing team and also attracts further top talents.

Did I mention that we have 30+ open positions at the moment? ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship, Games, investments, Mobile Advertising | No Comments »

HitFox Game Ventures: The world`s first Game Distribution Incubator

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

Since it`s start in 2008 I`ve been founding companies together with my friends and close business partners from incubator Team Europe.

Most recently we`ve started together HitFox - a Game Distribution Company.

Now we are proud to announce the next evolution step HitFox Game Ventures – the world`s first incubator focussed on Game Distribution. 

We are now a team of 55 and just moved into our new HQ at Rosenstr. 16-17 – the former office of Groupon. 

The first 2 start-ups besides HitFox and Ad2Games (which we aquired in February 2012) are progressing fast and will be announced soon…

 

 

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship, Germany, investments, Online Games | No Comments »

Gruenderszene.de steadily grows – next big milestone: Heureka Conference at May 7th

Monday, April 9th, 2012

5 years after my own involvement at Gruenderszene.de I`m very happy to follow that Gruenderszene.de is growing steadily.

Within the last 6 months they`ve successfully established VentureVillage.eu - I already love it for the unique, entertaining style to report about our scene!

Recently the Gruenderszene.de team around Mark, Joel, Nora & Marguerite expanded into Start-up Events.

I`m sure they`ll be able to leverage their reach, brand and execution power to be successful.

I very much enjoyed their latest “Spätschicht”-Event.

Now they work on a much bigger event with the upcoming “Heureka-Conference” on May 7th (during Berlin Webweek):

40 prominent national and international speakers are covering hot topics like Incubation, Internationalization & Mobile.

About 500 guests are expected – I`m already looking forward to it and hope to see you there!

Tickets & info:

www.heureka-conference.com

 

 

 

 

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship | No Comments »

Exciting new Start-up: HitFox soon launching with a mid 7-digit invest from 4 strong VCs

Friday, August 12th, 2011

Since April this year I have been founding together with Tim Koschella and Team Europe a very ambitious Start-up:

HitFox is very soon offering Deals on Games and Game Equipment.

I`m really proud of the very strong team: 25 people based in Berlin that we handpicked after a heavy screening of more than 250 applicants.

Besides I`m happy to cooperate again closely with Team Europe – the incubator where I have been Venture Partner before and with that I co-founded SponsorPay and Madvertise together.

We recently got pre-launch a medium 7-figure investment from Holtzbrinck Ventures, Hasso Plattner Ventures, Tengelmann Group and Kite Ventures – I`ve been personally co-investing a medium 6-figure amount.

We launch with the first Deal in Germany during Gamescom and will quickly internationalize to other European and american countries afterwards.

Exciting times ahead :)

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship | No Comments »

Business Update – A new venture ahead and some good investments behind me

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

After not having published anything since almost 9 months it`s time for a short business update:

1. I left SponsorPay Management after 15 months of rapid growth. (Not really “news” for my close contacts ;) )

- In July 2010 I left SponsorPay to take a sabbatical after I had built up the company for 15 months. My original contract as Interim Managing Director had been designed for 6-12 months. We later extended it to have me building up our USA Operations before I leave the company.

2. SponsorPay continued to grow and got new investors on board.

- SponsorPay continued the growth path under my successor Janis Zech and CEO Andreas Bodczek. (Now about 75 employees and growing further.) Most recently Nokia Growth Partners invested about $5 Mio alongside existing investors. I`ve been selling a part of my SponsorPay shares in that transaction.

3. I made several new pre IPO investments:

- Facebook.com (Bought employee shares in several transactions since june 2010.)

- Linkedin.com (Bought employee shares in one transaction in October 2010.)

- Slightly increased my position in a new financing round for SaaS-for-Lawyers company GoClio.com.

- Invested alongside my Team Europe Ventures partners in online food delivery platform Lieferheld.de. (big news ahead :) )

I`ve invested medium 5 to medium 6 digits amounts / in all companies. This is also the size I am looking for new investment opportunities.

4. My other major portfolio companies have been growing nicely as well:

- Madvertise.de profited from the strong growing mobile market and serves now 700 Mio Page Impressions per Month after 60 Mio one year before.

- Absolventa.de also developed very well and has now more than 1200 companies using their recruiting service.

5. I`m soon starting an exciting new company together with my partners from Team Europe Ventures…

6. I have an exciting opportunity for one or two very analytical future entrepreneurs !

This a big chance to develop everything that it needs to become an internet entrepreneur (know-how, network, reputation, access to capital and talents) within 1-3 years of very close collaboration with me and Team Europe Ventures. I also look for an entrepreneurial intern.

Please contact me already if you are interested. More TBA soon…

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship, investments, Silicon Valley | 3 Comments »

Madvertise: Series A Round with Early Bird and Team Europe Ventures

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

I am happy that Madvertise today announced a Series A Round with Early Bird and Team Europe Ventures invested a medium 7-figures amount in Madvertise Series A round.

Madvertise is a quickly-growing Mobile Advertising Start-up that I co-founded as Venture Partner with Team Europe in September 2008.

Since then the strong operational founder team around Carsten Frien has reached good initial traction in the young but very fast growing mobile advertising market in Europe.

Recent US-based Mobile Advertising acquisitions of Admob (750million $ from Google) and Quattro Wireless (300million $ from Apple) give a good direction for the exit :)

More info:

Techcrunch: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/mobile-ad-network-madvertise-secures-series-a-round/

Handelsblatt: http://blog.handelsblatt.com/webwatcher/2010/03/30/madvertise-sichert-fianzierungsrunde/

Gründerszene: http://www.gruenderszene.de/news/earlybird-und-team-europe-ventures-investieren-siebenstelligen-betrag-in-madvertise/

Posted in Berlin, Entrepreneurship, Europe, Germany, investments, Mobile Advertising | No Comments »

Personal Brands4Friends Exit – Tengelmann buys 10% from existing investors

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Large (offline)-merchant Tengelmann bought 10% of Brands4Friends from existing investors around Team Europe Ventures and including me.

Thanks to the invitation from non-executive co-founder Lukasz Gadowski I had invested a small amount during the seed round in summer 2007.

Even though no transaction details are public it is no secret that all seed-investors made a fantastic multiple ;-)

The private shopping club made already 80m € revenue in 2009 – just 2 years after the company had been founded.

Congratulation and thank you to the founders and management and I wish you all the best for the future and further growth of Brands4Friends!

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Europe, investments | No Comments »

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