About

 

 

...a team of experienced and enthusiastic entrepreneurs and investors

We are a team of experienced technology and business people who are building a unique, high quality, full stack R&D hub and community of creators and entrepreneurs around it. Our vision is to support SaaS startups and growing businesses around the world to make their ideas run. How to make that? Our recipe is very simple: Gather best engineers, build and provide the best possible environment at work, have full focus on SaaS and DevOps, be fully dedicated to partners and foster a growth culture in teams.

We all met at Hybris, a successful and legendary ecommerce software vendor, that some of us started 20 years ago and later sold to SAP. Over many years we worked closely together and built great friendships and trustful relationships. You could absolutely say, we are what you call a winning team :-)
Gliwice has been a key location for Hybris – and still is for SAP today – and that is why we want to start our first co.brick office in Gliwice.

Rafał Bałaga
Co-Founder and CEO

Rafał is a leader, engineer, mentor and successful entrepreneur with 20+ years of experiences in the technology business, passionate about new technologies, lean management, startups. Experienced manager who built and run teams of professionals in a global environment. Engaged with local communities and social activities.
Read more about Rafał on his linkedIn Profile.

Carsten Thoma
Co-Founder

Carsten Thoma is an investor and entrepreneur who has repeatedly proven his instinct and talent for identifying, founding, and funding promising start-ups. Recognized as one of the most innovative thought leaders in the industry, Carsten co-founded hybris Software as a student in Munich, Germany in 1997. In 2013, the company was acquired by SAP for an undisclosed sum, making it at the time the highest value paid for a private technology acquisition. Carsten is active as an investor and mentor of several emerging global start-ups.
Read more about Carsten on his linkedIn Profile.

Dirk Ahlrichs
Co-Founder

Dirk has been pioneering e-commerce the internet since more than two decades. Before he decided to travel the world for a full year, he was active as CTO of Hybris. Today he is investing and mentoring promising tech startups in the experience and commerce industry.
Read more about Dirk on his linkedIn Profile.

Andreas Bucksteeg
Co-Founder

Early on Andreas was interested in the architecture of distributed systems. While studying computer science at the Technical University in Munich, he co-founded hybris Software in 1997 where he acted as Lead Architect and VP of Technology. Recently he has focused on building solutions for extending IT landscapes utilizing cloud native technologies like Kubernetes, Istio and KNative. He led the development of two Open Source projects (Kyma & Luigi) which are foundational for the SAP Cloud Platform Extension Factory.

Read more about Andreas on his linkedIn Profile.

Christian Flaccus
Co-Founder

Christian started exploring digital design and the internet as a teenager, long before the internet became a home standard. In 1997 he co-founded e-commerce market leader hybris software and developed and managed the brand until the SAP acquisition in 2013. Besides that he co-founded digital agency SNK (schoene neue kinder) in 2003 and is now focussing on helping companies with digital transformation, marketing and brand projects.
Read more about Christian on his linkedIn Profile.