Management consulting and leading an evaluation process of a suitable nearshore software development partner for a Swiss technology company. The job consists of managing stakeholder expectations, alignment of strategic directions, defining selection constraints, finding potential locations/cities, researching potential providers, verifying must-have criteria, NDA signing, conducting RFI phase, evaluation of all answers, conducting RFP phase including on-site visits, negotiation of terms, and signing of the contract.

I have established Ciklum's presence in the DACH region, initially in Switzerland, later in Germany. Started 2009 greenfield, acquired clients, managed engagements, and nurtured an ever-growing customer base. Built and led a strong sales, account management, and marketing team. Today, 60+ clients in the DACH region use Ciklum's innovative engagement models and technological capabilities on an ongoing basis, contributing significant revenue figures and annual growth rates.

Ideation and development of a novel team collaboration software solution. Visionary product manager and CTO. As co-founder, I prepared business plans, formed the initial team, pitched to investors and closed many seed rounds. I managed engineering teams in Ukraine and Bulgaria and worked for two years in Palo Alto and San Francisco. Our vision was way too ambitious, over-engineered with too many features. The funds were never sufficient. We had to pull the plug and sold the shell.

Note: Some information can still be found on the German Wikipedia.

Stabilized and professionalized the production teams of a well-established web agency. The company had a cluster risk around "simple website design & hosting" services, and when the Dotcom crisis hit, they felt the pain. We partnered with a leading Enterprise CMS company, Obtree (later acquired by IXOS / OpenText), and began to up-sell ECMS services to existing clients and bidding for and winning new customers. The situation improved, and the Founder & CEO eventually sold his business to a larger IT company.

I developed a technical concept and systems architecture for a "virtual Business Objects Broker" (vBOB) subsystem. This up-and-coming ERP company's vision was to establish a global marketplace on which all their ERP clients, ERP consulting companies, and ERP partners could place, exchange, and license extensions to the core platform. The task included significant requirements engineering work with partners, management, and development teams. 

Jointly with two other co-founders, we launched this startup. The vision was to develop a highly sophisticated "Information-model based websites generator" specifically for Swiss municipalities. I stayed involved for about six months during this inception phase, managing promotion workshops for prospective clients, developing requirements with pilot customers, and defining the initial go-to-market approach. Today, Innovative Web AG is one of the leading e-Government providers in Switzerland, with over 800 customers. 

In 2001 I co-authored a master thesis that researched the "digital capital" inherent in business "webs" or relationship networks and how it could be managed and harnessed in practical use cases. At the time, services like LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, etc. didn't exist yet. One of the chapters even covered "Social Network Relationships" (= Family, Friends, and Business Contacts). We somehow knew we were onto something big here, but we didn't see the enormous potential of launching a web service for this.

Before setting up Dal Molin Consulting GmbH in 1999, I had started my first company five years earlier: Object Solutions GmbH. It was a highly specialized firm focused on object-oriented programming and tools. We offered consulting services, training courses, and development tools (DIGITALK, IBM VisualAge, GemStone Systems, Objectory etc). After four years in business and with ten employees, I eventually exited my first venture by selling it to GFT Technologies SE. This prominent German IT services group wanted to kick-start their presence in Switzerland.