okayBeta (2021-?)

Since sending the first newsletter to a bunch of friends in April 2021, I’ve experimented with different ideas, frequencies and topics – and still am at the very beginning. What works best right now is a monthly edition with content dedicated to marketing, brand building and life hacks. I send this to interesting people I’ve connected with and friends I want to keep in touch with. Sign up here ⬇️

HAUSJUNGLE (2017-2021)

Second ecommerce and one of my favorite projects for two reasons: 1) started it together with my wife. 2) absolute loveable product: Japanese Kokedama. Plants (mostly succulents) with their roots wrapped in soil and coconut fiber. We called them Pflanzenbommel and sold the project to one of our B2B partners in late 2021.

Planbox (2018)

planbox combined cameras, sensors and city infrastructure – with a dash of computer vision and graphics. The core idea was something like Street View with more up to date photos. We built a small box that could be installed in urban vehicles like busses, trams or garbage trucks to measure all kinds of data within cities. There was a working prototype (installed on one of our bikes) and we could measure air quality, temperature, particulate matter, etc. and send those data points in near real time to a map. Even though we deployed a prototype, the project unfortunately died because of the individual circumstances and priorities of the team members. No hard feelings, and I like to see that other companies were more successful with basically the same approach.

MakerWeek (2017)

Within our environment – especially in large incumbent companies – there is too much talk and not enough action, prototyping and experimentation. At least that's what we thought, when we decided to create the first maker week in October 2017. To remain true to our own thought, we quickly designed a logo, found a location and several sponsors from the local maker scene who supplied us with hardware and launched the event within four weeks after the initial idea – budget used: 0 Euro.

The makerweek itself was a prototype and we were thrilled by the response and the feedback of our approximately 220 guests during the five days.

Pedestrian Zone in my neighbourhood (2016-17)

The trigger to get this project going was a book I read about urban planning during my stay in Copenhagen/Denmark – one of the cities upfront in the worldwide quality of living ranking. The book's title: Cities for People from Jan Gehl. The book focuses on the importance of human-centered design within urban planning. Inspired by the real life experience of it's best practices in Copenhagen, back in Germany, I started an initiative to converse a vivid street in the heart of the second largest neighbourhood of Bonn to a pedestrian zone. After one and a half years, the process is ongoing and a final decision is still pending, but we now have several hundred supporters and the local administration is starting to develop a concept for the pedestrian area.

T-Talk speaker series (2016)

In 2016, I initiated the T-Talk. It is a public TED-like speaker series that is held in the lobby of Deutsche Telekom's headquarters: external high-level experts discuss current topics with regards to innovation, culture and technology. So far we had three events. The T-Talks are very well perceived and bring together up to 300 regional technology-sector stakeholders. The idea behind the bottom-up approach of the T-Talk was to inspire co-workers through ideas worth being shared, even (and especially) if – at first sight – they are not connected to the telco core business. Guest speakers included researchers on innovation, urban planners, mathematicians, entrepreneurs and even biologists.

Whitespace Coffee (2018)

With Whitespace I want to create a product that is  worth holding in your hands (and with great taste). Since I love best customer experience, great coffee, extraordinary aesthetics and believe in technology, Whitespace is based on these four building blocks. Also, the name refers to another passion: typography. In addition, I would like to explore the interstitial territories – the "white spaces" – between the various disciplines involved in the production process of an allegedly basic product like coffee. Although the beta version (aka first roasted beans) of the product will be released in January 2018, I see it coming that this project will stay work in progress for quite some time...

Mykona | nomoresleep (2007-2012)

Mykona was founded in 2006. During my voluntary social year as a social worker at a high school in Captain Cook/USA, I also worked on a coffee farm nearby. After returning to Germany and moving to Berlin to study architecture, I founded a coffee brand. We were among the first in Germany to sell directly traded single origin coffee in a well designed packaging through our award-winning e-commerce as well as through most of Germany's major coffee online shops and our own coffee bar in Berlin-Mitte called NoMoreSleep. In 2012, we sold the brand to a coffee roaster – who has continued to roast and sell Mykona beans ever since.

Pførtner Project (2010)

This project dealt with the planning of a coffee bar from the development of a basic concept over architectural design up to detailing. I chose the gatehouse of the former Headquarters of the State Security Services of the GDR, which today serves as a memorial place, as the location. Apart from the installation of a coffee bar, bound to a specific purpose, the special location, i.e. the historically significant Stasi memorial and its not less significant entrance pavilion became the dominating theme of the design and also influenced the construction-side considerations on preserving parts of the historic small-scale architecture, integrating them in the new purpose of the building.

Artists that inspired me for the design of this project: Ulrich Rückriem, Edward Hopper and Alberto Giacometti.