Co-founding and building a physical and tech driven circular fashion service from scratch to launch and beyond in Berlin

POOL is a circular fashion service that lets users have access to clothes like they stream music on Spotify. Founded in Berlin, POOL has gone from being an idea on a napkin to raising 4 rounds of international venture capital and being physically present in the heart of Berlin. Serving thousands of Berliners using fashion in a new sustainable way, POOL consists of a physical store/showroom with satellite locations at B2B partners like adidas. POOL has built a proprietary tech platform that enables a circular business model with including ERP/CRM and PoS with Stripe payments integrations along with an end-user app.

MY ROLE

As a co-founder I have also co-defined the strategy and business model and raised investments. Being a startup means doing everything with all hats on while getting a team established. A part of the early days was to design not only brand identity but also digital and physical circular user journeys, product flows, operational swimlanes and the digital interfaces for end-users as well as operational staff interfaces. Very complex and very exciting.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Successfully designing, launching and operating an impact circular business model from scratch in Germany
• Raising 4 rounds of international investment, including negotiating with and navigating VCs, angel investors and grants givers with vast amounts of hands-on legal work.
• Building and leading a team of 15 in an highly international environment with mixed cultures and local regulations
• Closing, scoping and running B2B partnerships with international clients like adidas, FREITAG and Comme des Garçons
• Hands-on UX/UI Design, prototyping, wire-framing, personal, user journeys, flow diagrams etc. with heavy use of UX tools like Figma and Adobe CC
• Designing and creating a low-code ecosystem to test early stage operations, becoming expert in tools like Google Workspace, Sheets w/ JavaScript, Zapier, TypeForm, Stripe and Bubble
• Successfully Product Owning the UX, design and development of our proprietary circular ERP/CRM/PoS backend built with React.js, Kotlin, AWS, Jira
• Successfully Product Owning the UX, design and development of our cross platform end user app built cross-platform with Flutter, Jira
• Building a hyped brand with a strong and loyal local community
• Recognitions: Awarded TOP 100 Vogue Business Innovators and featured in: Monocle, Wired, Vogue, Der Spiegel, HighSnobiety, Berliner Morgenpost, Tagesspiegel, Berliner Zeitung and more