From Refurbished iPhones to European Venture Capital

He grew up near Tübingen in southern Germany, later attending a high-school exchange in upstate New York, interning in New York, and studying in Germany and Singapore. During his studies, he began selling refurbished and unlocked iPhones, describing that venture as his first small internet business.

Around 2010, he cold-emailed a Berlin incubator and joined its approximately €6 million investment fund instead of taking a consulting job that would have paid twice as much. He said choosing the startup opportunity was an important decision and that it gave him a path into venture capital.

The fund later spun out as Point Nine, where he worked for five years on early-stage enterprise software and SaaS investments, including Zendesk and later Loom. Point Nine used what he called a “remote VC” model to search globally for companies fitting its investment thesis. In 2016, Insight Partners recruited him, and he moved to New York; he characterized his entry into European venture as partly a matter of lucky timing.