Crowdfunding since 2010

Our team in order of appearance and stay.

Over the years, many people have already accompanied and enriched Startnext. The organizational structure and cooperation is to be understood organically, where hierarchies hardly play a role. That's why you can see the team here in chronological order.

Our teams are represented by colors:

  • Yellow - Business Management
  • Blue - Platform Development
  • Orange - Community
  • Pink - Public Relations
  • Green - Cooperations

Denis Bartel - Chief Executive Officer (Founder)

Denis founded his first company in 2003, Tyclipso GmbH. In 2009 he started to develop the project Startnext together with Tino and in 2010 the company was founded. Denis is a professional photographer and co-founder of the Entrepreneurs Pledge.

Tino Kressner - Cooperation Manager (Founder)

During his studies in media technology and communication sciences Tino founded his first company together with friends - an agency for film productions. For Startnext he is on the road a lot and continues to expand our network.

Cathleen Knohf
CTO 

Cathleen has been on board as backend developer for Startnext since the beginning and takes care that all functions run on Startnext. Before that she studied media production in Dresden.
Portrait von Ricarda Delock

Ricarda Delock
Management Assistant

Ricarda holds all the strings together for us and is responsible for the topic of personnel. She studied cultural work and founded the non-profit initiative Kultür Potsdam on the side.

Amos Bühler
Frontend Developer

Amos develops and optimizes Startnext so that you can use our platform on all devices and in all browsers. He has studied media and information science.    

High Priest of Datafiction

Matthias is a passionate Product, Brand, and UX/UI Designer with a keen eye for aesthetics and functionality. He has founded his own startup and successfully launched a crowdfunding campaign. With a deep understanding of user needs and brand transformation, Matthias brings innovative ideas to Startnext.

Cheyenne Lindemann - Strat. Team Lead Community / BI

Chey came to the world of social entrepreneurship through the On Purpose program and now leads the Community team. With us, she also transforms data into information and creates new knowledge from it.

Joy Lange
Project Consultant

You will meet Joy in the project consulting and in the Startnext Office Hour. In her free time she likes to pursue creative projects like music, macramé or jewelry making and is on fire for topics around Black Culture, Womanism, LGBTQIA+ and many more due to her personal context as a queer Afro-German woman.

David Warmbold
Showmaster 

David guides through our Launch Day Show. As a multimedia mediator, he uses his skills to let the starters shine in the best possible light.

Thekla Wilkeling
Chief Comm. Officer

Thekla has experienced it herself: crowdfunding can change lives! In 2014, she founded Kleiderei and was successful with it on Startnext. Since then, she has been committed to sustainable startups because she is convinced that they bring the necessary impetus to shape the world in a positive way. At Startnext, she is responsible for the communication strategy.

Friederike Lindner
Product Lead

Friederike coordinates, prioritizes and ultimately ensures that all valuable requirements, wishes and ideas on the Startnext platform become a technical reality. In her free time, she is very active in the electronic (sub)culture and is committed to awareness, education and addiction prevention.

Elias Grösel
Frontend Developer

Together with Amos, Elias takes care of optimizing the presentation of Startnext and implementing new designs and usage concepts. Elias has already shown that he can turn ideas into reality with his own startup: In 2019, he launched the sustainable coffee brand PURPLE BIKE COFFEE.

Sophie Gnest
Project Consultant

After Sophie launched her own crowdfunding campaign with pack&satt 2021, she now spreads the Startnext spirit as a project consultant and at events. As a communication designer, she loves getting into different heads and providing motivation for future ideas. In her free time, she dances her way through a wide variety of styles.

Lena Janik
Social Media Expert

Lena lives in Düsseldorf and works as a freelance Social Media Manager and Academy Coach for Startnext. She has launched several crowdfunding campaigns, most recently for her project “Dus ist Liebe” with WohnZ1immer. Additionally, she established Rausgegangen in Düsseldorf.

Arifur Rahman
Junior Backend Developer 

Arifur is from Bangladesh and earned his Master’s degree in Automotive Software Engineering in Chemnitz. Now, he brings his expertise to our team in Dresden. Together with the platform team, he develops innovative features and ensures our technology stays up to date.

Maximilian Rosch
Community Manager 

As a Community Manager, Max supports project starters with a particular focus on social innovations and purpose-driven enterprises. He brings experience from the nonprofit media sector. One of his passion projects was the curation platform piqd. Max studied communication science in Münster and Leipzig.

Florence Michel
Social Media Manager

Florence lives in Berlin and has gained experience in e-commerce and the agency world. She was part of the Mit Vergnügen bubble, which also includes the podcast Hotel Matze. Today, she supports social media efforts to make crowdfunding projects and the passion of the people behind them visible. In her free time, she organizes feminist networking events.

High Priest of Datafiction

Martin joined the Startnext team in May 2025 as Communication Manager and Agile Coach. He brings experience from nine years at a greentech company. In addition to his work, Martin is an enthusiastic musician, is committed to sustainability and loves cycling.

High Priest of Datafiction

Paula strengthens the brand and community at Startnext with strategic clarity and a heart for meaningful communication. After working for Airbnb, among others, she has been accompanying change in PR, impact and purpose consulting for fifteen years. She is also a certified systemic coach, yoga teacher and racing bike enthusiast - with a penchant for empathy, focus and real transformation.

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