Simon Sommer
Venture Architect | AI Expert
Experience
May 2023 - Present
1 year 10 months Munich, Germany
CEO and Co-Founder
DISO Ventures
- Set up DISO Ventures as an "AI Builder", leveraging corporate venture building expertise and generative AI capabilities.
- Business development, acquisition, and project management with multiple clients as well as key account & senior stakeholder management.
- Delivered several projects from German Mittelstand up to DAX 40.
- Developed proof of concept for an AI sales solution for a company in the pharmaceutical industry.
Nov 2021 - Apr 2023
1 year 6 months Munich, Germany
COO
Hypercampus
- Leading the operations for an investor-funded education startup offering advanced training online for future IT System Administrators specifically for the healthcare industry.
- Optimized business crucial KPIs continuously by introducing new software systems and automations that e.g. led to a significant sales efficiency increase per day per employee by decreasing the time spent through automations.
- Responsible for Product, Teaching, Customer Success, IT & Quality Management and grew the company from 19 to ca. 40 employees.
Management of several teams with >25 people in the intersection field of IT-education and healthcare with >200 apprentices placed in advanced education courses while providing full profitability (7-figure revenues in 2nd year)
Oct 2018 - Sep 2021
3 years Munich, Germany
Venture Architect & Interim-CEO for corporate ventures
Stryber
- Established stand-alone Innovation Unit for one of the biggest retailers in Switzerland - from Innovation Strategy to MVP Phase, M&A Consulting
- Led Start-ups as interim CEO / COO – responsibility: business building, operations, product, legal, budget and stakeholder management.
- Conducted several VC investment theses – e.g. Banking and Insure and Ecommerce
- Validated over 20 business models - incl. customer interviews and research
- Evaluated new expansion opportunities for a leading VC-funded Swiss Start-up - Stakeholder: VC
- 4 ventures built (FinTech, E-Commerce, Logistics) - Stakeholders: CEOs
- Managed full venture teams of up to 5 people (Growth Marketer, Product Owner, Designer)
- VC Investment Thesis for one of the retailer's portfolio companies, incl. M&A strategies - Stakeholder: Investment Team
Leading full venture teams, incl. Growth Marketers, Product Owners, and Designers
May 2018 - Sep 2018
5 months Hamburg, Germany
Financial Services Technology Consulting
PwC
- Support in the areas of Test Management and Project Management Office in the subproject "Bank Control": Post Merger Integration (PMI) of two financial institutions; creation and preparation of bi-weekly testing status reports for management - stakeholders: middle management of Bank
- Central support of the test management software SAP Solution Manager - incl. creation of test plans, test packages and test cases
- Technical test execution within the scope of a test project for the connection of the credits from SAP CML to the market risk systems on a Linux server and data evaluation with Microsoft Access - Stakeholders: IT managers of Bank
- Development of a project controlling tool in Microsoft Excel and Python incl. connection to the customer-specific project management tool
- Support and independent execution of customer meetings in the work modules Finance, Risk Controlling and Liquidity Risk including preparation and post-processing.
Apr 2016 - Mar 2019
3 years Augsburg, Germany
CEO and Co-Founder
Consult&
- Business development, Acquisition, and execution of multiple consulting projects with full P&L responsibility - 226 paid consulting days.
Aug 2015 - May 2018
2 years 10 months Augsburg, Germany
Independent Business Analyst
Stryber
- Several analyses conducted supporting the acquisition and elaboration of digital strategy for Stryber's first company building client.
- Conducted research and analysis contributing to the project success of several (digital) consulting projects.
May 2015 - Sep 2016
1 year 5 months Augsburg, Germany
Student Research Assistant
Research Center Finance & Information Management (FIM)
- System administration and responsibility of IT infrastructure and cloud strategy of FIM – incl. Administration of Office 365 System.
Apr 2015 - Jun 2016
1 year 3 months Augsburg, Germany
Board Member
JMS Augsburg e.V.
- Co-led a team of 60 student consultants, ensuring acquisition and seamless execution of client projects - acquired 120 paid consulting days.
Summary
Extensive experience in leading projects, teams and managing senior stakeholders. Involved in setting up an innovation unit for one of the largest corporations in Switzerland, managed operations for an investor-funded startup, and founded two companies. Strong acumen for data-driven work, optimizing processes with digital tools, KPI-driven controlling, and bachelor's degree in business informatics.
Languages
German
Native
English
Advanced
Education
Oct 2014 - Aug 2018