Our team

Denis founded his first company in 2003, the software agency tyclispo.net. In 2009 he started to develop Startnext together with Tino and in 2010 the company was founded. Denis is a trained photographer and co-founder of the Entrepreneurs Pledge.

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.

Ricarda holds everything together, is responsible for organizing our events and for the team development. She studied Cultural Work and Arts Management and co-founded the non-profit organization Kultür Potsdam.

Faridah has worked at Airbnb, Google and PayPal in Dublin and now brings her experience to our community management. She has studied American Studies, Philosophy, Theatre Studies and International Human Rights.

Shai has already successfully funded several projects on Startnext like the Karma Classics or the Democracy Bus. He shares his knowledge in project advising, in our webinars, workshops or lectures. Shai studied business administration.

Melissa will make sure that you have all the information you need to make your campaign a success! Previously she worked in her hometown Hamburg as a change manager and can now live out her enthusiasm for change with us.

Michael originally comes from Erlangen, the "smallest big city in Germany", as he says. Before he came to Startnext, he studied film and lost his heart to documentaries - and since they can be financed very well by crowdfunding, he is exactly right with us!

Lisa makes sure that all Startnext starters are verified and that the payment processes run smoothly. She also deals with numbers in her business studies, which she is currently completing.

Markus started as a project advisor at Startnext and is now responsible for the realization of our cooperations and contests. Prior to Startnext, Markus worked for the Suhrkamp Verlag. He studied culture and technology as well as literature.

Anna joined Startnext in 2010 and is responsible for communication. Previously she worked at DOK Leipzig, the International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film. Anna studied Communication Sciences and Media Studies.

Aileen takes care of our online communication and social media so that as many of you as possible get to know your good ideas! Previously, she helped artists and creative people realize their dream of starting their own label at the online marketplace DaWanda.

Benjamin leads our IT and DevOps field - he makes sure that our servers run stable and prepares the basis for your projects to be financed successfully! Before that he studied media informatics in Dresden.

Lilli is responsible for process design at our company. She balances the balance between software development and the wishes of our community. She studied internal and external corporate communications.  

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.    

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.