Philipp Herkelmann

Co-Initiator | Tech Policy & Ventures (Part-Time)

2024

Co-Leading a pan-European policy initiative focused on strengthening Europe's competitiveness and tech sovereignty through modern entrepreneurial ecosystems. - Frequent keynote speaker on innovation, tech policy, and DeepTech commercialization (e.g. DLD, UnternehmerTUM Forum, ETH DeepTech Summit) - Collaborate with legal scholars, industry associations, and EU policymakers to craft actionable proposals for the European Commission and national governments - Focus areas include AI and DeepTech industrial policy, founder talent pathways, and capital market reform for scaleups

Founder | Venture & Growth Advisor (Fractional & Consulting)

2023

Advisory and freelance roles in growth stage technology & AI companies, based in Europe and Israel. - GTM advisor for an enterprise generative AI platform, focused on ontology systems around LLMs. - Fund advisor for an early-stage fund with programmatic investment elements. - Strategic advisor supporting of C-Suite of a global Fintech SaaS for organisational alignment. - Program advisory for a global climate talent-enablement program (non-profit) - Short-term advisory support for autonomous drone monitoring system in Amazonas --- Entreprenurial Ventures: Doyen.one: Co-built an AI-driven scenario planning tool for procurement, validated with 100+ customers. Made initial revenue but sunsetted the project. Product is still operating on ERPnext

Partner & General Manager

2021 - 2023

Led Entrepreneur First’s operations in Germany, overseeing venture building and investments in 35+ DeepTech startups across AI, BioTech, SaaS, and Hardware. - Leadership & Culture: Managed and restructured a team of 14, achieving a Leadership NPS of 95 (Top 5% globally) during a high-pressure turnaround. - Investment & Growth: Enabled portfolio companies to secure $100M+ in follow-on funding from top-tier VCs and contributed to Entrepreneur First’s Series D at a $560M valuation. - Operational Efficiency: Drove a 100% improvement in NPS and 2x improvement in capital efficiency by increasing mark-up rate through strategic restructuring.

Country Director - Germany

2020 - 2023

P&L / Country Leadership / Pre-Seed & Seed Investments / Venture Building

Global Industry Manager - Enterprise Sales for Media & Advertising | Sports & Athletic Wear

2019 - 2020

- Led $MMM+ in annual revenue growth across USA, SEA, and EMEA, driving 30%+ YoY growth in the sports sector (adidas, Under Armour, Puma, FC Bayern, etc.). - Led project or account based cross-functional teams (up to 20 people) to develop and execute global digital revenue growth and sales strategies. - Executive Leadership: Acted as key liaison between Google Global and Country Leadership (Sundar Pichai, Philip Schindler, Philipp Justus) and DAX 30 executives (Kaspar Rorstedt, Eric Liedtke), launching strategic initiatives such as Digital Expansion, AI lighthouse projects as Visual Coach)

Program Lead (Chorus / Scout Project) - on Rotation

2018 - 2019

- Led the first commercial pilot (M$) for Chorus (formerly Project Scout), transitioning it from an R&D concept to industrial deployment across 15 US states. - Managed product integration, regulatory approvals, operations.

Global Account Executive - Sports & Sportswear

2016 - 2018

Drove 8-digit revenue at 20%+ growth globally through sales consulting and advanced analytics.

EMEA Industry Manager (Retail)

2015 - 2016

Online Sales Manager (Travel)

2013 - 2015

Owned multi-million-dollar accounts of leading enterprises in travel (Flights, Hotels, Rail, Packages) across France & DACH, leading revenue and sub-vertical expansion and digital transformation initiatives.

Advisor & Investor

2018 - 2018

Cloud Manufacturing

Founder & CEO

2011 - 2013

Built & successfully fundraised a VC seed for the first crowd funding-service on facebook to collect money for group gifts and causes.

Technical Product Manager

2012 - 2013

Rocket Internet Development of shop-features and End User products incl. Wireframes, technical specifications, Q&A. Mainly responsible for the launch of the wedding ring category and configurator.

Alumni

2011 - 2011

Fundraising and business development for GiftMe.