Jakob Fricke

I help founders and executive teams build and scale products that matter. Over the past two decades, I've worked across the full spectrum (product, design, engineering, and business) taking products from zero to scale in consumer tech, mobility, and enterprise SaaS.

Some highlights:

  • Grew Germany's largest music video portal to 4M monthly active users at tape.tv (2013–2016)
  • Launched new services at Mercedes-Benz (e.g. Bertha) and built two delivery hubs (Berlin, Lisbon) that became Mercedes-Benz.io with hundreds of engineers (2016–2018)
  • Led product, design, and engineering at door2door, a SaaS platform for on-demand public transport, driving EV fleet integration and autonomous shuttle UX (2020–2023)
  • Supported Samsung's corporate venture arm (Samsung NEXT), evaluating investments and leading thematic research in areas like synthetic media (now GenAI) (2018–2020)

More recently, I've worked with startups and mid-sized companies in interim product roles, establishing product operating models, running structured discovery, and helping teams ship faster with more clarity.

Learning by building

I learn best by making things. Over the years I've built:

  • generatedpaper.com: Customizable PDF template generator (2010–today)
  • Picpack: Photo-to-magnet printing service (launched 2012)
  • Inspiratio: Minimalist iOS reader for newsletters (2018, now offline)
  • MOY: Organic food-in-bulk subscription store (2019, discontinued)
  • pactum.ink: Lightweight SaaS for managing shareholder votes in pooled investment structures (launched 2025)

Learning by investing

I've co-founded Cash & Carry, a 130+ member pan-European angel syndicate investing in early-stage consumer and tech companies. I've backed a dozen+ startups and learned a lot about what separates the ones that scale from the ones that don't.

Learning by bringing people together

Some of the best insights come from conversations with people who see the world differently. I organize events like Building Products in the Age of AI and Bildungsbrunch to create spaces where founders, operators, and investors can share what's actually working. I've also published occasionally e.g. in Sifted, the VC Platform Field Guide, or regularly on the Cash & Carry blog to crystallize what I'm learning and share it more widely.

I'm always happy to chat about product, startups, or investing. Reach out via email or connect on LinkedIn.