Building the commercial path
for new systems
Many technically strong systems fail not because the technology is weak, but because the commercial path does not yet exist. I work where the product is real but the route to institutional adoption is not yet clear.
The Gap
Institutions need more than technology. They need trusted counterparties, governance structures, distribution channels, and clear economic incentives. Until those elements are in place, adoption stalls even when the underlying system works.
Enterprise sales organisations require a repeatable playbook: defined buyer personas, qualification frameworks, coverage models, instrumented funnels. That machinery is essential for scaling revenue after product-market fit.
But someone has to build the conditions that make that playbook possible. In new markets, the category does not yet exist in the buyer's vocabulary. The decision-maker has not been identified. The first lighthouse deals have not been closed.
My work sits in that gap: defining the market, proving the buyer exists, closing the first institutional deals, and delivering a company that is ready to build a repeatable sales process on proven foundations.
Endaoment
When I joined, the platform had processed about $25M in assets during the 2021 crypto cycle but growth had stalled. The product worked technically but lacked a clear distribution path to institutional buyers.
Commercial Diagnosis
The platform was positioned at retail crypto donors. The real buyer was the wealth advisor who needed to retain AUM while offering clients a tax-efficient crypto philanthropy path.
What I Built
Repositioned the platform's value proposition around the advisor relationship. Developed co-branded collateral for advisor-client conversations. Built a referral architecture through donor-advised fund custodians. Established the first partnership pipeline targeting RIAs and multi-family offices. Advisors were prioritised by crypto AUM concentration and existing DAF utilisation — focusing outreach where the product solved an immediate retention problem.
Outcome
Assets processed grew significantly. The distribution model became the basis for the company's ongoing advisor-facing sales motion.
$25M → $130MKlimaDAO
During the emergence of tokenised carbon markets I led partnerships and growth.
Commercial Diagnosis
Blockchain-based carbon credits had no institutional vocabulary. Compliance buyers and voluntary offset purchasers had no mental model for on-chain environmental assets. The category needed to be named and defined before any sales process could exist.
What I Built
Coined the term 'digital carbon' in our whitepaper. Developed the institutional narrative through direct market education, conference positioning, and ecosystem partnerships with carbon registries and offset brokers. Led the partnership architecture connecting on-chain supply to institutional demand, including the commercial relationships that preceded the launch of Carbonmark, the first on-chain carbon marketplace. Early institutional deals were structured to generate public reference value — giving subsequent buyers the validation signal they needed to engage with an unfamiliar asset class.
Outcome
The ecosystem captured significant market share and trading volume during the period.
~4% of global voluntary carbon market · $4B+ trading volumeKnotel
As the first employee in Germany I entered a broker-controlled commercial real estate market where flexible workspace for corporates was still a new category locally.
Commercial Diagnosis
The German CRE market ran through entrenched broker networks. Direct enterprise sales would not work. The distribution path required converting intermediaries from gatekeepers into a channel.
What I Built
A broker referral and co-brokerage model that aligned incentives for intermediaries to bring corporate occupier demand into the Knotel product. Simultaneously built the supply side through developer partnerships for flexible lease structures.
Outcome
Rapid revenue growth in the first year of operations.
€6M ARR in year oneWikiRate
I founded WikiRate to open corporate ESG data for public comparison and analysis at a time when comparable sustainability data was locked behind $10k/year Bloomberg terminals.
Commercial Diagnosis
The institutional buyer for open ESG data did not exist. Universities, NGOs, and multilateral institutions had the need but no procurement framework for collaborative data infrastructure.
What I Built
Built the platform, assembled the team, and developed institutional partnerships that established WikiRate as public ESG data infrastructure. Created a hybrid model: open access for researchers and civil society, commercial access for institutional users.
Outcome
The platform became a reference source for ESG research, adopted by major institutions.
6M datapoints · 145k companies · UN & European Commission adoption