Co-founded a PropTech startup for mid-term accommodation in Australia, aimed at making the rental market more accessible for new arrivals. I ran the customer interviews, built the business model and took it through the Curtin Ignition and CERI accelerators. We won a Malka Foundation Grant, and I vibe-coded the MVP myself, my first self-built website.

After almost two years of studying entrepreneurship, I wanted to build something myself. Settlr set out to close a gap in the mid-term accommodation market: the hundreds of thousands of people who arrive in Australia every year, or move across it, and need somewhere to live for a few months before they can sign a normal lease. I ran the customer interviews, built the business model and refined it through the Curtin Ignition and CERI accelerators. We won a Malka Foundation Grant. Then I vibe-coded the working MVP myself.

This two-year, practice-focused programme deepened my understanding of business models, commercialisation and innovation. It gave me hands-on business analytics skills, covered intrapreneurship and innovation inside larger organisations, and taught me to ask the right questions as a founder.

Moving to Perth for at least two years was a big decision in 2024. It meant giving up a safe job, familiar surroundings and the comfort of home. But I wanted a new challenge, and I had been playing with the thought for a while. The first time, Covid had other plans. In 2024 it was time. I moved to Perth for a master's in innovation and entrepreneurship, a degree that gave me the best of several worlds: it extended my product experience with what I need to start something myself, and it covered innovation and intrapreneurship for when I work inside a larger company. Business model development, commercialisation, UX design and hands-on business analytics were the core of it. It was also my entry point into innovation and entrepreneurship outside the classroom, and to people from very different backgrounds who all shared one thing: wanting to build and own a product of their own.

Went back to product as a consultant at Tagueri, a German consultancy sitting between German industry and tech. I co-developed the Product Management as a Service offering from scratch and then went out on the projects myself. I was Product Owner for a premium car brand's digital sales journey, spent six months prioritising a heat pump roadmap with a climate solutions manufacturer, and sized European heating markets for an AI-based optimisation device. Many clients had the same challenge: how do we make the digital experience as good as the hardware?

It was time to go back to product. The task was ambitious: build a Product Management as a Service offering from scratch for Tagueri's industrial client base. Many of those clients were going through the same transformation. Their products were traditionally analogue and industrial, and the digital experience around them was becoming a defining factor in the customer journey: Heaters, heat pumps, buying a car.

We built the offering, from the messaging and personas to the pitch, and it won more than five engagements. Then I went out on the projects myself. I was Product Owner for a premium car brand's digital sales journey, bringing configuration, financing and insurance into one flow. I sat next to a heat pump product manager for six months and helped him decide what to build next, based on what was actually selling. I sized European heating markets for an AI-based heater optimisation device with very little data to go on. Clients came from automotive, automotive finance and energy, and every one of them had the same question: how do we make the digital experience as good as the hardware?

Took my product obsession to the sales front line at a Berlin real estate group. I guided buyers from first enquiry to notary, closing more than €4 million across 10+ transactions in the first year. I also used buyer feedback to improve the journey, for example by introducing virtual 3D tours.

I didn't want to build good experiences from behind a desk. I wanted to be in the room. So I went into property sales in Berlin, an industry with a reputation for the exact opposite of what I stood for. Customers face to face, from the first call to the signature, and the phone on around the clock in between. I closed over €4 million in deals across 10+ transactions in the first year and sat in developer meetings on large acquisitions, which is where I learnt how a project has to pencil before anyone pours concrete.

Joined BMW in Munich as a product management intern and took on Product Owner responsibilities for the digital product portfolio. I mapped and optimised customer journeys across connected vehicle services, designed and rolled out a new sales process across engineering, marketing and international subsidiaries, and wrote the business reviews and steering committee papers for the business line.

Peak Covid and time to move to Munich. At BMW I was a product management intern, but I took on the Product Owner work for expanding the digital product portfolio around connected vehicle services. I mapped end-to-end customer journeys and identified the parts that did not work. I designed a new sales process and onboarded engineering, marketing and the international subsidiaries to it. I benchmarked competitors to guide where the portfolio should grow and wrote the business reviews and steering committee papers for the business line. It was one of the most exciting experiences I have had, working directly on features that went into production and are now on the road, like the BMW Theatre Screen. Working on products that were genuinely leading their class gave me an obsession with great customer experiences, and an unhealthy frustration with bad ones.

Started my career as a product management intern at Continental Tires in Kuala Lumpur. I coordinated the tyre portfolio steering process between commercial, engineering and legal across the key APAC markets. Built a VBA form that cut manual input and error rates in the product request form markets send to release a new tyre. My first job, my first time living in Asia, and where I learned how to manage a multi-market regulated product.

Continental was an opportunity, and I took it. I saw the job in a Facebook group, applied, and a week later I knew I was going to Kuala Lumpur. I moved out of my flat, sorted everything and left. The internship was squeezed in right before my semester abroad, so I flew from KL straight to Belgium afterwards. But it was well worth it. The job itself was product management for tyres in the APAC markets, coordinating the portfolio steering process between commercial, engineering and legal. Mostly it meant getting three departments to agree on what a tyre should be before anyone built it or released it into a new market. Every release started with a product request form that the markets filled in by hand, and the errors in those forms cost everyone time downstream. So I built a VBA form that did the manual parts for them, which cut both the input work and the error rate. Overall, the learnings from coordinating such different stakeholders in a foreign environment are valuable to this day.

Studied International Business Administration at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), specialising in economics, management and marketing. My thesis covered Logistics 4.0 and how robotics, blockchain and autonomous driving change supply chains. Alongside the degree I was a student ambassador, running careers workshops in schools across Germany.

After my work and travel year in Australia I wanted to stay in an international environment, so I picked an international university. Viadrina sits right on the Polish border in Frankfurt (Oder), and the students come from all over the country and the world. I studied International Business Administration and specialised in economics, management and marketing. I was fascinated by how an economy makes sense once you understand the mechanics behind it. My thesis was on Logistics 4.0: what robotics, blockchain and autonomous driving would do to supply chains. It was the first time I wrote about industry going digital. Alongside the degree I co-founded GWC Consult, my first go at consulting, and worked as a student ambassador, travelling to schools across Germany to run careers workshops.