Where Companies Are Built

Liquid Labs is an experimental organisation where ideas are tested, startups are built and innovation in FinTech & Financial Services moves forward.

‘‘If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.’’

Albert Einstein

Start-Up Laboratory

We are a small team building and launching products for the Otto Group. We’ve made a deliberate choice to build Liquid Labs as an independent platform where experimentation is welcome. We take the principles of venture capital combined with best practices from the startup world to further corporate innovation.

At the same time, we avoid chasing trends or reacting to hype and remain driven to create real value with our products from inception. We are not measured by financial return and instead strive to build sustainable businesses.

Focus

We focus on only one segment at this time and refer to it as FinTech. It is a combination of technical products and services in the financial industry. We either build digital products or offer services accessible online. It remains essential that we can quickly prototype and test products as well as achieve product / market fit in the near term. We plan on expanding the scope of Liquid Labs in the near future.

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Best of both worlds

We remain a partner to the existing investment ecosystems while allowing entrepreneurial minded people to learn how to build startups. Our managing directors are both former VC’s with many years of experience. They are on site and accessible to the teams. The opportunity to experience company building is what we offer without the risk of doing it alone. We accept that no matter how well executed products can be, sometimes they just don’t work. This is a part of our approach to innovation and we recover as well as refocus quickly when things don’t work out.

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Immediate path to market

We do not think about products and prepare slide presentations. We build products and services and scale companies around them. The Otto Group gives us access to know-how, marketing channels, capital and a constant feedback loop which is critical for success. If our product can’t quickly stand on its own legs, we’ll quickly move on to the next challenge.

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What we don't do

We are not a venture capital fund nor do we invest in external teams or companies. Liquid Labs is structured as a separate entity of the Otto Group and we are focused on building products for the group. We source our own ideas and this means we are attending industry events and speaking with our contacts to generate ideas.

Our team is made up of people with technical and business skill sets, located under one roof. Although our projects are independent businesses with their own teams, everyone is working for the benefit of Liquid Labs. Although we do have the ability to spin out projects and raise external venture capital, our priority remains to generate products for the Otto Group.

This is Liquid Labs

We're a small group of former entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and technologists building multiple businesses at a time. At Liquid Labs, we value diversity on an individual level. We’re dedicated to creating an environment where people can be their authentic selves and share their diverse backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and ideas. If you are passionate about startups and are looking for a great place to work, you should join us.

Join us

Our

Team

Paul Jozefak

Company Builder

Paul Jozefak

I'm a tech guy by day, gym rat by night. My career has been completely non-linear, so much so, that I actually can't remember what I wanted to be when I grew up. Somewhere along the way I wanted to be a veterinarian. I also studied genetics for a while but that didn't quite work out...... for the good of humanity! I've now been doing the VC thing for 10+ years in the hopes of figuring out if I'm good at it. I live in Germany, was born in Slovakia and grew up in the US. I usually say NY when talking to Europeans but in reality it was NJ, right across the GW bridge.

Michael Backes

Crazy Scientist

Michael Backes

I am a hockey-fan turned business builder. Right now I am building the coolest company in the world and having fun doing it. I am mixing years of experience building platforms and VC into answering one of the world's biggest questions: What will I be when I grow up? I am an American by birth, moved to Texas as soon as I could for the steaks, lived under sea level (you might know it better as Holland), and I just couldn't resist the beer and had to move to Germany.

Sebastian Sieber

The Executer

Sebastian Sieber

While at university, I decided I wanted to become an executive in a large corporation. After two years at a consumer goods company in Switzerland I realized that I wanted something a bit more entrepreneurial (i.e. less talking & more doing). I took my first steps building businesses for a German startup incubator in South East Asia. My role at Liquid Labs allows me to translate great technology into valuable businesses. I have a passion for football and ski just like every Austrian does! Further, having moved to Germany recently, I'm looked forward to time in the car on the Autobahn.

Bianca Steinke

The Tomboy

Bianca Steinke

You'll hear me often say "been there, done that" as I've switched positions and industries regularly in the past. I have worked in market research, at Internet agencies and managed technical product and projects at Yahoo, Kabel Deutschland and blau Mobilfunk. I don't add much to the femininity of the team as when I am not working or at the gym I am most likely watching soccer. I know more about soccer and play better than most guys I know and am absolutely devoted to the HSV so don't even bother to try to contact me during their matches.

Christoph Schepan

The Hybrid

Christoph Schepan

Having worked at a lot of different jobs in the past, I'm either an engineer, design geek or business wonk depending on time of day. From running server cluster to selling software for IBM, it's been a great learning experience. I'm fascinated by internet startups and admit to being a Silicon Valley groupie somehow. When I'm not coding in Ruby, you'll probably find me playing games with my Playstation 3.

Nik Frank

In-house Hipster

Nik Frank

After living in Stockholm, Shanghai and Amsterdam I have settled down in my hometown of Hamburg. I'm here mostly for the weather! Yearning for fame and glory, I joined Liquid Labs to submit myself to any and all tasks thrown my way, supporting the whole team. With a degree in business psychology and work experience in online marketing & sales, I always saw myself in marketing. However, lately I've come to appreciate the technology side of things.

Esteban Uscanga

Software Engineer

Esteban Uscanga

"The Internet? We are not interested in it." - Bill Gates, 1993. Seriously? Not in my world. When I was 13 years old my passion for software engineering kicked in. I'm still trying every day to improve my skill set to offer solutions to daily problems via software. Originally from Mexico, I thought I would dive into another geography to also get as much intercultural exposure as possible. Software development sees no borders and I see myself as a global citizen. For me, the code is my weapon!

Bella

Security

Bella

Hailing from the badlands of Münster, Germany I was recruited at a young age into a secret society of security dogs known as the KWP ("Kampf-Whippet-Project"). Agile and highly efficient, the animal in me hides behind a facade of cuteness. Although you may think I'm sleeping for 18 hours of the day, I'm ready to take you out at a moment's notice.

Roberto Valerio

Product Mafioso & Managing Director – Device Ident

Liquid Labs Alumni

Roberto Valerio

Tech addict with business skills. Geek life started at age 11 with a C64, continued thereafter with 68k assembler code on an Amiga 500, Mac LC and eventually even the Palm V. First modem was a USR Dual Standard. Saw my first bash command line prompt on Harvard's HUSC servers in 1992. Lived through the whole startup cycle twice: Idea, Business Plan, Financing, Team, Product, Launch. Optimizing my execution at this point.

Vitalii Lysov

Senior Developer – Device Ident

Liquid Labs Alumni

Vitalii Lysov

Web development truly has become my passion. After discovering it at school, I never stopped pursuing it. Working both at start-ups directly and as a freelancer in the past has allowed me to get a ton of hands-on experience. In addition to having studied "Economic Cybernetics" I'm continually increasing my knowledge in web development as well as the business world.

Fabian Besch

Sales Consultant – Device Ident

Liquid Labs Alumni

Fabian Besch

Joined Liquid Labs as an intern during my studies (Computer Science & Business Management) within the Otto Group. At that time I worked already for 8 different companies finishing projects IT and business related. At Liquid Labs I helped growing Device Ident from the beginning and exited with them after I finished my studies. As a hybrid I can get all the business related work done but in case I could change to ninja mode and write code too! As a result I am working right now at Device Ident as a Sales Consultant being the point of contact between our sales guys, customers and developers.

Portfolio

At Liquid Labs we are passionate about building new products and companies. This section will give you an overview of our portfolio companies.

Device Ident provides a sophisticated anti-fraud solution for any type of online transaction. It identifies and evaluates devices interacting with a customers’ online services and analyzes history and behavior of the visiting device to prevent fraud and misuse for all our customers in real time.

 
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Kreddible is the new modern way for companies to purchase goods online with instant working capital. With our financing partner WCF Finetrading GmbH, Kreddible enables it’s customers to receive a purchase line of up to €10.000 to finance transactions on partner platforms, such as zentrada.de.

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Reskribe is the easy solution for automated subscription billing. It manages monthly payments, credit card errors or declines as well as customer up and downgrades, communication and retention management.

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Innovation as a Service

As an innovation lab we work closely together with our corporate partners, offering the flexibility of a startup environment. We avoid corporate bureaucracy as well as restrictions and enable our business partners to create new product innovations.

Together with our partners, we take ideas from the financial technology sector and turn them into products. Liquid Labs consists of small, international teams with different characters, personalities and backgrounds. Once we have identified a new opportunity, a team within Liquid Labs will work on transforming the idea into a viable product to be launched into the market.

Usually there are three or four products being built at Liquid Labs in parallel. Our teams work independently on agile product development, using lean startup principles. A team usually consists of at least a product and tech lead that work in conjunction with internal and external staff to push for quick market entrance. We force quick development cycles and believe that you should “fail fast”. This allows us to test our ideas in the market and enables us to build products that solve actual problems and needs. It also allows us to quickly refocus our resources when something doesn’t work out.

After success in the market, a product and its team are spun-off from Liquid Labs to become an external, separate company or part of an existing organization.

Careers at Liquid Labs

Tech Lead (m/w)

Liquid Labs is always looking to hire tech experts to support and evolve our software products and services. If you're passionate about development and are looking for an opportunity to be part of a growing organization in a startup environment, let us know. You'll be working closely with development teams, product managers and operations to help build products and get them to market.

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Ruby on Rails Developer (Reskribe) (m/w)

We are looking for a passionate and experienced Ruby on Rails Developer for our portfolio company Reskribe, which automates recurring billing for SaaS and subscription businesses. We are looking for a sophisticated software developer (m/w) that is keen to build Reskribe further as a part of our team. You should have fun with agile development practices and would like to work in an challenging and inspiring environment.

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Business Development Manager (Reskribe) (m/w)

We are looking for a highly skilled and motivated Business Development Manager (m/f) to join our team. In this role, you will have the exciting opportunity to help us grow and shape the future of recurring billing.

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Product Lead (m/w)

Liquid Labs Product Managers work with teams of engineers and designers to build products. We are looking for extremely entrepreneurial Product Managers to help innovate and execute product initiatives across the company.

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What we offer

We offer you a chance to learn how to build businesses, drive innovation and work independently without constant supervision. We want self-starters who have already proven some degree of competence in previous roles who can be given independent projects to run.

Working in a matrix structure with external development groups involved in the process, you have to be able to communicate openly and clearly with multiple people, work closely in a team environment and be detail-oriented when under pressure. We offer competitive compensation and an opportunity to ultimately become the C-Level manager of a brand new start-up.

Working conditions

You will be expected to work independently and without constant input from management. There will always be people in the office but you won’t necessarily always have access directly to the people whom you need to interact with.

Hence you need to feel comfortable working in both an office and a virtual environment with a lot of interaction via phone and Internet. Due to the nature of our innovative environment, we are a diverse mix of people and personalities.

Further, because of the startup environment, it gets chaotic at times but we refer to this as “creative chaos”! If this is something for you and you are looking for a fun place to work in a challenging job with interesting responsibilities, let us know.

Open positions at LiquidLabs

We would like to hear from you

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to learn more about Liquid Labs or just want to get in touch.

Wandsbeker Zollstraße 13, Hamburg, Germany
+49 40 20932697
info@liquidlabs.de

Say hello

We always welcome guests, however due to our tight timetable please schedule a meeting with us before you drop by.

Direct contact

Address: Wandsbeker Zollstraße 13, Hamburg, Germany

+49 40 20932697

Social contact