Jens Thiel

Owner

FLUX & FRIENDS · Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

Present

After a period of mourning and depression, I relaunched the FLUXBAG in 2021. Looking back, the gaps in the older product seem obvious. Now it works; ever better. Niche? Sure - but relevant and viable.

Owner

signal2noise - venture & innovationsmanagement · Berlin Area, Germany

Present

signal2noise is my little boutique consulting business. As of 2023, I help entities in the public sector to create and sell much-needed innovations in the cultural sector. Before, I successfully did strategy, pitches & and fundraising up to Series C for startups with an interesting angle on newly emerging market opportunities, largely industry agnostic.

Managing Partner

HILFE – Product & Innovation GmbH · Leipzig Area, Germany

HILFE Industries was conceived as a product generator but failed on the *systematic* product generation part. Yet, *one* brilliant first product emerged from the venture. Company dissolved. Could be much worse.

Project Manager & Curator

The Great Pyramid · Erfurt, Berlin, Dessau

The Great Pyramid project´s proposition was to offer contemporary, efficient and grand solutions for death and memorial in the 21st century: "A monument for all of us". Germany´s Federal Cultural Foundation gave us 90k €, and we started playing and working as if we could make it actually happen. We almost managed. Partners in crime: Ingo Niermann, Rem Koolhaas, Ai Weiwei, Miuccia Prada, Frauke Finsterwalde and many more.

City Co-Leader Berlin

First Tuesday · Berlin Area, Germany

First Tuesday, founded by Nick Denton (of later Gawker fame) and others in London, invented networking for the startup scene. With Axel Berg, I built the Berlin branch, where we had more than 1,000 visitors at our monthly events before the first online bubble burst.

Entrepreneur

venturepartner Innovationsmanagement GmbH · Berlin Area, Germany

venturepartner was Germany´s second venture catalyst/startup consultancy. Weirdest moment looking back: I sent the Zanox team home since they insisted not only to build Germany´s first affiliate marketing platform but also an office supplies e-commerce business at the same time.

Entrepreneur

idealo Internet GmbH · Berlin

Sometime in November 1999 my architect friend Martin Sinner fetched a draft business plan from the back of his old BMW on Oranienburger Strasse, that bore a vague resemblance to what would later become idealo. I took time during Christmas 1999 to reflect and rethink. Then I quite thoroughly (anyone remember "pool shopping"?) rewrote the plan, drank with and onboarded the crucial tech team that was hesitating, and got the initial investment on board. – Martin (and later Albrecht too) did an amazing job leading the actual company and building the business while I sold my shares to the seed investor I had acquired - the only investor the company ever needed. – Who would have thought?

Entrepreneur

Jens & Friends Sandwich & Coffee Bars AG

While finishing my diploma, we founded one of Germany´s very first coffee bars foodservice concepts at a time, when absolutely no one was sipping lattes in the streets of Berlin yet – and Starbucks hadn´t even made it into London. Two years and about half a million Deutschmarks later, we had learned why location in retail is paramount, and being very early in a later-to-be-huge consumer market demands *really* deep pockets ..

Summer Intern

McKinsey & Company · Frankfurt Am Main Area, Germany

Great experience. Great people. Great project, which culminated in a then Big Six-merger. – Truly loved McK's data-driven and meritocracy way of running things.