So how did it all start?
When I was a teenager, I dreamt of working in the advertising industry. I loved the Coca-Cola spots in the 80ies and was dreaming of doing similar ads myself. So at 16, I started my first internship at an advertising agency in Cologne. I really liked the work there and decided I would enter this field after I finished school.
I wanted to become “a creative,” not knowing exactly what that meant in terms of titles or job descriptions. I didn’t have a portfolio, so I couldn’t become a graphic designer. But I was good at organizing. So maybe I could become a project manager?
I never wanted to go to university. I wanted to work. So in 1993, I got my high school diploma, started at an agency, and went to an evening school to get a degree in communication. In this school, a guy was sitting next to me. He imported donut machinesdonut machines from the US – and sold donuts on flea markets, skateboarding events, etc. One day he asked me if I would like to join him and his small company. My job at the agency had turned out to be quite dull, and I liked the idea of being on the road, so I said yes.
I spent 1994 traveling to music festivals and BMX or skateboarding events. I kept running into a guy who worked for EastpakEastpak since they sponsored many of these US-themed events. One day he asked me if I would like to visit him and his bosses in Hamburg – the company was growing, and they needed someone to help them build Germany’s marketing. Of course, I said yes, and a few days later, I traveled to Hamburg. Apparently, the meeting went well, as they offered me a job and I moved to Hamburg!
Backpacking around the world
Working for Eastpak was a ride of a lifetime. We grew the brand in Germany from 3 million Euro (back then 6 million Mark) to 30 million Euro. Everyone wanted backpacks from Eastpak. I was on the road 200 days a year, visited dozens of trade shows, talked to retailers, and saw so many events. Today I am still in touch with a lot of the great people I met in these years. Sadly the owner of Eastpak in the US sold the brand in 1998, and suddenly we had corporate people telling us what to do – although we were the biggest market in the world, more significant than the US market. So I decided to move on and remembered my dream of being “a creative” in an agency.
In Hamburg, the top two advertising agencies at the time were Springer & Jacoby and Jung von Matt. I landed a job at Jung von Matt in 1999. Initially, I took care of BMW’s global sales literature, and later I became responsible for the MINI account. In 2001 the “new MINI”“new MINI” was launched, and Jung von Matt did the global launch campaign. I was working with a fantastic team and some of the best creatives in the industry. The campaign helped lay the foundation for the success of the MINI in the years to come.
In 2002 Reinhard Springer called me. The co-founder of Springer & Jacoby was one of my idols, and I had always dreamed of working for him. He told me he was starting a new company. If Reinhard Springer calls you, you do a lot of things. But you don´t say no. So I started working at his new company and had some fun there for a few months. But I wanted to see more and decided to work as a freelancer. In the following years, I worked for some of the best creative agencies in Germany: KolleRebbe, Aimaq Rapp Stolle, Philip & Keuntje, DDB, and many others.
Smoothie Operator
In 2005 I felt the time had come to start something on my own. I had helped build and promote so many different brands, I thought it would be great to build a brand of my own for a change. I saw the smoothie brand “Innocent” take off in the UK and was surprised by their rapid growth. There was nothing like Innocent back then in Germany, and I thought: This is it. I will start a smoothie brandsmoothie brand. At the same time, I wanted to understand more about how to market products online. So I set up a blog and shared the development process of the brand. I also asked people to send in packaging designs – and a few actually did.
A few weeks later, I launched a smoothie brand called “Hello!” I had bought some fancy juicing equipment and produced the smoothies in my kitchen. I sold them to several lunch places in Hamburg, and soon I was producing 30-40 liters of smoothies a day. Unfortunately, I realized that while it was a lot of work, it was tough to make some money off it. Also, I couldn’t send my homemade smoothies to other cities, as they needed to stay chilled. One day a long fax crept out of my machine: some lawyers told me to stop my brand immediately – otherwise, they would sue me. Apparently, “Hello!”“Hello!” was too close to a company working in the drinks industry. So I renamed my smoothies to “Hej!” but in the end, I ran out of money and had to admit that I would never make any profit from it. The overall brand and the story were good – but I had no clue about manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and so on. So my understanding that it takes more than just a good idea was earned the hard way. But it helped me learn many new things and skills and brought some interesting new connections. The owners of Innocent flew me to London, as they liked what I did with my tiny brand. In the end, I never started working for them, but I helped them set up their first office in Hamburg. That everything happens for a reason and that even adverse events can have a positive side is one of my core beliefs until today.
One More Thing
To make some money, I picked up my freelance job again. A few of the Eastpak guys had started working for DickiesDickies. The Dickies brand needed a relaunch, and they asked me if I would support them in terms of marketing. I said yes. A year later, I started working full-time for Dickies and became responsible for design, manufacturing, and marketing for Europe. I traveled the world, from Seoul to San Francisco. I learned a lot about manufacturing and distribution. I met people all over the world and worked with agencies from Stockholm to London. Since I was also responsible for global collaborations, I had the chance to work with the most inspiring and influential people and brands in the streetwear business: Michael Kopelman, Marshall Taylor, Jeff Staple, Joshy D, Mike Giant, Benny Gold, Alife, Stussy, Palace Skateboards and a few more. This was a fascinating time for me.
In 2007 the iPhone was launched. Ever since I had packed up my smoothie-making equipment, I had dreamt of having my own brand again. I knew the iPhone would be huge, and I had a manufacturer in China who knew how to produce iPhone cases and laptop sleeves. I didn’t want to repeat my mistakes and never wanted to be in trouble again because of name rights, so I named my new brand after me – minus an E: “alkr.” I purchased the alkr.com domain and set up an online store. A few stores were carrying our items, and I had a partner for shipping the product. As I was still working full-time for Dickies, “alkr”“alkr” was just a side project. But at least a profitable one.
Around the end of 2009, I became aware that Dickies might shut down their office in Hamburg and move it to the UK. I knew I wanted to stay in Hamburg and so had to ask myself: What’s next? Working in advertising again felt like moving a step back. So I needed to find something else. In January 2010, I watched the Apple keynote together with a friend of mine. On that keynote, Steve Jobs showed the iPad for the first time to the public. I immediately said to my friend: We need to get on this. This is something so new. No one has a clue how it will turn out. But if we are the first ones, we will always be ahead of all the others that follow later. In the days after the keynote, we developed the idea of a mobile app agency called “Swipe.”“Swipe.” At the end of 2010 Dickies closed their office in Hamburg, and we went all-in on “Swipe.” We found our first clients: BMW, Harrods, and IWC. We hired our first employees and quickly grew to 20 people.
Swipe Up and To The Right
In 2015 we felt that everything digital would soon be mobile and that the classical digital agencies would catch up. Three to five years down the road, probably nobody would need a specific mobile agency anymore. So we started talking to different people in the industry about working together. This resulted in selling Swipe to SinnerSchrader, one of Germany’s most prominent digital agencies with more than 500 people at the time. I became part of the board of SinnerSchraderSinnerSchrader, and my partner kept building Swipe (till today) – and it became SinnerSchrader Swipe. Today, more than 60 people are working for SinnerSchrader Swipe in Hamburg, Berlin, and Zurich.
In 2017 I was part of the discussions with AccentureAccenture for SinnerSchrader to join them and build Accenture Interactive in Germany. We negotiated and worked out a plan with Accenture for a few months in secrecy, and in March 2017, SinnerSchrader became part of Accenture. In 2018 I became a Managing Director at Accenture. Between 2017 and 2021, I helped build Accenture Interactive, working on the post-merger integration and building teams for clients across all different kinds of acquisitions. This was an unbelievable ride. But after a few years, I once more felt the need to start something new, something fresh.
Getting lost in ”the new”.
I bought my first Bitcoin in 2013 and sold it with a loss in 2014. But the idea behind crypto excited me the first time I heard about NFTs in 2018. Crypto Kitties was the first NFT project I looked at – and I did not understand what this was all about. Who shall buy JPGs? What is the reason for that? It does not make any sense.
In early 2021, I spent more time with NFTsNFTs and the underlying technology. And finally, it all made sense! NFTs are so much more than JPGs. They are art. Community. Games. Streetwear. Special Access. Media Companies. They are all of the above and much more. Since then, I dived deep into the scene and got lost in the rabbit hole.
The world keeps moving quickly, and I am intrigued by ”emerging technologies””emerging technologies” an “emerging technologies” like Web3, Generative AI, and Spacial Computing. I am excited about how they will influence our world and how we build brands and companies.
Today, I do talks on small and big stages, and I am an advisor for brands. I have a newsletter called “Constantly Curious” where I write about what I see and think.
So how did it all start?
When I was a teenager, I dreamt of working in the advertising industry. I loved the Coca-Cola spots in the 80ies and was dreaming of doing similar ads myself. So at 16, I started my first internship at an advertising agency in Cologne. I really liked the work there and decided I would enter this field after I finished school.
I wanted to become “a creative,” not knowing exactly what that meant in terms of titles or job descriptions. I didn’t have a portfolio, so I couldn’t become a graphic designer. But I was good at organizing. So maybe I could become a project manager?
I never wanted to go to university. I wanted to work. So in 1993, I got my high school diploma, started at an agency, and went to an evening school to get a degree in communication. In this school, a guy was sitting next to me. He imported donut machinesdonut machines from the US – and sold donuts on flea markets, skateboarding events, etc. One day he asked me if I would like to join him and his small company. My job at the agency had turned out to be quite dull, and I liked the idea of being on the road, so I said yes.
I spent 1994 traveling to music festivals and BMX or skateboarding events. I kept running into a guy who worked for EastpakEastpak since they sponsored many of these US-themed events. One day he asked me if I would like to visit him and his bosses in Hamburg – the company was growing, and they needed someone to help them build Germany’s marketing. Of course, I said yes, and a few days later, I traveled to Hamburg. Apparently, the meeting went well, as they offered me a job and I moved to Hamburg!
Backpacking around the world
Working for Eastpak was a ride of a lifetime. We grew the brand in Germany from 3 million Euro (back then 6 million Mark) to 30 million Euro. Everyone wanted backpacks from Eastpak. I was on the road 200 days a year, visited dozens of trade shows, talked to retailers, and saw so many events. Today I am still in touch with a lot of the great people I met in these years. Sadly the owner of Eastpak in the US sold the brand in 1998, and suddenly we had corporate people telling us what to do – although we were the biggest market in the world, more significant than the US market. So I decided to move on and remembered my dream of being “a creative” in an agency.
In Hamburg, the top two advertising agencies at the time were Springer & Jacoby and Jung von Matt. I landed a job at Jung von Matt in 1999. Initially, I took care of BMW’s global sales literature, and later I became responsible for the MINI account. In 2001 the “new MINI”“new MINI” was launched, and Jung von Matt did the global launch campaign. I was working with a fantastic team and some of the best creatives in the industry. The campaign helped lay the foundation for the success of the MINI in the years to come.
In 2002 Reinhard Springer called me. The co-founder of Springer & Jacoby was one of my idols, and I had always dreamed of working for him. He told me he was starting a new company. If Reinhard Springer calls you, you do a lot of things. But you don´t say no. So I started working at his new company and had some fun there for a few months. But I wanted to see more and decided to work as a freelancer. In the following years, I worked for some of the best creative agencies in Germany: KolleRebbe, Aimaq Rapp Stolle, Philip & Keuntje, DDB, and many others.
Smoothie Operator
In 2005 I felt the time had come to start something on my own. I had helped build and promote so many different brands, I thought it would be great to build a brand of my own for a change. I saw the smoothie brand “Innocent” take off in the UK and was surprised by their rapid growth. There was nothing like Innocent back then in Germany, and I thought: This is it. I will start a smoothie brandsmoothie brand. At the same time, I wanted to understand more about how to market products online. So I set up a blog and shared the development process of the brand. I also asked people to send in packaging designs – and a few actually did.
A few weeks later, I launched a smoothie brand called “Hello!” I had bought some fancy juicing equipment and produced the smoothies in my kitchen. I sold them to several lunch places in Hamburg, and soon I was producing 30-40 liters of smoothies a day. Unfortunately, I realized that while it was a lot of work, it was tough to make some money off it. Also, I couldn’t send my homemade smoothies to other cities, as they needed to stay chilled. One day a long fax crept out of my machine: some lawyers told me to stop my brand immediately – otherwise, they would sue me. Apparently, “Hello!”“Hello!” was too close to a company working in the drinks industry. So I renamed my smoothies to “Hej!” but in the end, I ran out of money and had to admit that I would never make any profit from it. The overall brand and the story were good – but I had no clue about manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and so on. So my understanding that it takes more than just a good idea was earned the hard way. But it helped me learn many new things and skills and brought some interesting new connections. The owners of Innocent flew me to London, as they liked what I did with my tiny brand. In the end, I never started working for them, but I helped them set up their first office in Hamburg. That everything happens for a reason and that even adverse events can have a positive side is one of my core beliefs until today.
One More Thing
To make some money, I picked up my freelance job again. A few of the Eastpak guys had started working for DickiesDickies. The Dickies brand needed a relaunch, and they asked me if I would support them in terms of marketing. I said yes. A year later, I started working full-time for Dickies and became responsible for design, manufacturing, and marketing for Europe. I traveled the world, from Seoul to San Francisco. I learned a lot about manufacturing and distribution. I met people all over the world and worked with agencies from Stockholm to London. Since I was also responsible for global collaborations, I had the chance to work with the most inspiring and influential people and brands in the streetwear business: Michael Kopelman, Marshall Taylor, Jeff Staple, Joshy D, Mike Giant, Benny Gold, Alife, Stussy, Palace Skateboards and a few more. This was a fascinating time for me.
In 2007 the iPhone was launched. Ever since I had packed up my smoothie-making equipment, I had dreamt of having my own brand again. I knew the iPhone would be huge, and I had a manufacturer in China who knew how to produce iPhone cases and laptop sleeves. I didn’t want to repeat my mistakes and never wanted to be in trouble again because of name rights, so I named my new brand after me – minus an E: “alkr.” I purchased the alkr.com domain and set up an online store. A few stores were carrying our items, and I had a partner for shipping the product. As I was still working full-time for Dickies, “alkr”“alkr” was just a side project. But at least a profitable one.
Around the end of 2009, I became aware that Dickies might shut down their office in Hamburg and move it to the UK. I knew I wanted to stay in Hamburg and so had to ask myself: What’s next? Working in advertising again felt like moving a step back. So I needed to find something else. In January 2010, I watched the Apple keynote together with a friend of mine. On that keynote, Steve Jobs showed the iPad for the first time to the public. I immediately said to my friend: We need to get on this. This is something so new. No one has a clue how it will turn out. But if we are the first ones, we will always be ahead of all the others that follow later. In the days after the keynote, we developed the idea of a mobile app agency called “Swipe.”“Swipe.” At the end of 2010 Dickies closed their office in Hamburg, and we went all-in on “Swipe.” We found our first clients: BMW, Harrods, and IWC. We hired our first employees and quickly grew to 20 people.
Swipe Up and To The Right
In 2015 we felt that everything digital would soon be mobile and that the classical digital agencies would catch up. Three to five years down the road, probably nobody would need a specific mobile agency anymore. So we started talking to different people in the industry about working together. This resulted in selling Swipe to SinnerSchrader, one of Germany’s most prominent digital agencies with more than 500 people at the time. I became part of the board of SinnerSchraderSinnerSchrader, and my partner kept building Swipe (till today) – and it became SinnerSchrader Swipe. Today, more than 60 people are working for SinnerSchrader Swipe in Hamburg, Berlin, and Zurich.
In 2017 I was part of the discussions with AccentureAccenture for SinnerSchrader to join them and build Accenture Interactive in Germany. We negotiated and worked out a plan with Accenture for a few months in secrecy, and in March 2017, SinnerSchrader became part of Accenture. In 2018 I became a Managing Director at Accenture. Between 2017 and 2021, I helped build Accenture Interactive, working on the post-merger integration and building teams for clients across all different kinds of acquisitions. This was an unbelievable ride. But after a few years, I once more felt the need to start something new, something fresh.
Getting lost in ”the new”.
I bought my first Bitcoin in 2013 and sold it with a loss in 2014. But the idea behind crypto excited me the first time I heard about NFTs in 2018. Crypto Kitties was the first NFT project I looked at – and I did not understand what this was all about. Who shall buy JPGs? What is the reason for that? It does not make any sense.
In early 2021, I spent more time with NFTsNFTs and the underlying technology. And finally, it all made sense! NFTs are so much more than JPGs. They are art. Community. Games. Streetwear. Special Access. Media Companies. They are all of the above and much more. Since then, I dived deep into the scene and got lost in the rabbit hole.
The world keeps moving quickly, and I am intrigued by ”emerging technologies””emerging technologies” an “emerging technologies” like Web3, Generative AI, and Spacial Computing. I am excited about how they will influence our world and how we build brands and companies.
Today, I do talks on small and big stages, and I am an advisor for brands. I have a newsletter called “Constantly Curious” where I write about what I see and think.