Business building
New product creation, subsidiary responsibility, P&L ownership, and commercial leadership across mid-sized and corporate settings.Sebastian Schaefer | Strategy & Business Development | Business Building | Technical Markets
Business builder for technical and digital markets, turning new product and market opportunities into operating models, growth, and execution.
Experience across new product creation, subsidiary building, go-to-market, commercial leadership, digital business models, and cross-functional execution in mid-sized and international environments.
Now focused on roles where strategy, business development, market learning, partnerships, and technological fluency need to work together in a faster environment.
Current focus
Open to strategy and business development roles in technical markets, especially where adoption depends on translating complex infrastructure into commercial opportunities and execution.
Market expansion
Go-to-market execution, market entry, digital channels, e-commerce, and product-led commercial models.Cross-functional execution
Operating-model change, KPI-led steering, and transformation from concept into adoption.Technical practice
Hands-on work with self-hosting, infrastructure, automation, remote sensing, and AI-supported systems as a bridge into technical markets.01
Core Competencies
Core competencies for strategy, business development, and technical market adoption.
Structured for roles that need market analysis, business building, partnerships, cross-functional execution, and enough technical fluency to work close to product and engineering.
P&L Responsibility
Commercial Leadership
Strategic Business Development & Business Building
New Product Development & Market Entry
Go-to-Market & Partnership Development
Business Transformation
Cross-Functional Execution
Market & Competitive Analysis
Digital Business Models & E-Commerce
Technical Fluency & Self-Hosted Infrastructure
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What Sets This Profile Apart
A profile for moving from proven business building into onchain finance.
The transition is intentional: proven commercial judgment, learning speed, and technical curiosity applied to a faster infrastructure market where adoption, trust, partnerships, and execution matter.
New markets can be learned and made operational
My strongest pattern is entering complex markets, understanding the system, and turning that understanding into products, operating models, partnerships, and execution.
Business building beyond existing channels
The record combines zero-to-one business building and scaled digital execution: at Tetenal I helped turn a new product concept into a dedicated subsidiary; at Philips I later scaled digital commercial models.
Ready for faster, more technical markets
The next move should be into a faster environment where strategic thinking, technical curiosity, and commercial execution can compound instead of being slowed by corporate gravity.
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Selected Technical Practice
Technical practice that makes the crossover credible.
This is practical technical depth that supports the ability to learn technical markets, work with specialists, and translate infrastructure into business decisions.
I stay close enough to technology to understand the substance, test assumptions, and work credibly with specialists. For a market like DeFi, that matters because commercial adoption and technical infrastructure cannot be separated cleanly.
My interest in technology did not begin recently. Early on, it was about understanding computers, not just using them.
Today I run my own rack at home with Fujitsu servers, virtualised environments, and a range of self-hosted services.
Proxmox, open-source migration, infrastructure, automation, smart home systems, ESPHome, Frigate, and LoRaWAN are part of that day-to-day practice.
AI is part of it as well, for example in object detection within self-built surveillance systems and in practical build workflows where it genuinely helps.
That does not make me a pure IT specialist. It means I can move more comfortably between business, digital, and technical questions than many purely commercial profiles, and it gives me a credible base for moving into infrastructure-heavy markets such as onchain finance.
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Professional Path
The path shows a repeated pattern: learn the system, build the vehicle, and drive adoption.
That pattern is the basis for the current move toward strategy and business development in onchain finance.
Commercial foundation, later extended academically
The foundation was clearly business-oriented: industrial management training, followed by a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and later a Master's degree in Marketing and Communication. The pattern was always commercial, analytical, and market-facing.
Grew early into digital business
Digital exposure became central relatively early, especially in e-commerce and digital marketing. It was a first shift from traditional commercial work into markets shaped by platforms, data, customer behaviour, and execution speed.
Built a new product into a dedicated business vehicle
At Tetenal, responsibility included designing a new product, turning it into a dedicated subsidiary, and carrying P&L and cross-functional leadership. That is the core zero-to-one evidence in the profile.
Scaled digital models in a larger corporate environment
At Philips, the same pattern continued at larger scale through digital business models, regional responsibility, larger budgets, KPI-led operating models, and cross-functional execution.
Also taught e-commerce at NORDAKADEMIE in Elmshorn
For several years, I also taught e-commerce at NORDAKADEMIE in Elmshorn. That sharpened the ability to structure new domains, explain market mechanics clearly, and connect theory with execution.
The next step should be faster and more technical
I am looking for a market where experienced commercial judgment can meet genuine learning. Onchain finance is interesting because adoption depends on strategy, partnerships, product understanding, trust, and execution, not just terminology.
Technical depth broadens the range
Alongside the professional path, technical curiosity developed into practical depth. Today it helps me learn complex systems faster, ask better questions, understand implementation realities, and work more effectively with technical stakeholders.
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Further Detail
The evidence sits in both formal business roles and practical technical work.
The CV shows new-product, go-to-market, P&L, leadership, and scaling evidence. The project page shows the technical curiosity and builder mindset behind the crossover.
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Career CV
Formal evidence: product creation, subsidiary building, P&L, go-to-market, transformation, and scaling.
Open Page02Selected Technical Practice
Concrete technical work across self-hosted infrastructure, field hardware, AI-supported systems, remote sensing, dashboards, and practical system building.
Open Page06
How I Think, Learn, And Work
The recurring pattern: enter complexity, learn fast, build practically, and take responsibility.
That pattern matters for a market transition: it shows how quickly complex systems become workable when learning is disciplined, practical, and applied.
Workshop, technology, understanding
One grandfather was an electrician with his own workshop. That was a place for trying, building, taking things apart, and understanding how they worked. It shaped the instinct to make, fix, and understand.
Business, responsibility, entrepreneurship
The other grandfather was an entrepreneur and businessman. The evening round across the yard before locking up stood for responsibility, order, closure, and commercial thinking.
The same mindset shows up outside work as well: depth over surface, learning through practice, long-term thinking, and strong personal agency. Technology stands on its own. Everything else supports the same deeper structure.
Structured learning with standards
Sport is not just a leisure topic for me. Coaching qualifications reflect a broader pattern: when something matters, I tend to go deeper, learn systematically, and take standards seriously.
Build, repair, improve
From a Range Rover restoration project to houses, furniture, devices, and multiple trades, the same pattern shows up again and again: understand the system, take ownership, and improve it in a practical way.
Responsibility over time
I am based in both Germany and Spain and have worked across different countries. That has reinforced a broader orientation toward openness, continuity, and perspective beyond narrow borders.
I want to understand systems before changing them.
I prefer learning through practice and build judgment through real application.
I am comfortable across strategic, operational, and technical contexts.
I can speak the language of business and technology without flattening either one.
I prefer real responsibility over symbolic status.
I care more about substance than self-presentation.
Next Step
Interested in strategy and business development roles where complex technical infrastructure needs to become adoption, partnerships, and market expansion.
Especially relevant are fast-moving environments in digital assets, fintech, infrastructure, and other technical markets where commercial judgment, structured learning, stakeholder work, and execution discipline all matter.