Before I advised anyone, I ran my own businesses for twenty-two years.
This is the long version. If you want to know what my recommendations are built on, here are the positions, the numbers and the companies behind them, including the years when payroll, utilisation and cash flow were my daily work.
At a glance
The record in numbers
| Figure | What it refers to |
|---|---|
| 2004 | Year of my first own company. Self-employed without interruption ever since. |
| 8 | Companies founded as founder or co-founder. |
| 4 | Offices under my own management responsibility: Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Los Angeles. |
| 70 | Employees at the peak of the agency group. |
| 4 | Shareholdings in third-party companies, partly divested. |
| 3 | Apprentices guided through to their final examination as a certified trainer (IHK). |
Career
Positions
Edura Akademie GmbH — Managing Director
Since January 2025
I turned Granny Hamburg GmbH, a company I had previously run as Managing Director, into an educational institute: an accredited provider under the German AZAV framework, focused on AI and IT training for medium-sized enterprises.1 I am responsible for the accreditation and its annual audits, build the instructor team, plan the programmes and write the curricula myself. Sole management, sole accountability for results.
HBC Hohn Business Consulting UG (haftungsbeschränkt) — Managing Director
Since August 2024
Founded as an advisory firm for online marketing and business operations, today focused squarely on deploying artificial intelligence in the day-to-day operations of medium-sized companies. The digital agency Goldvale Studios operates as an HBC brand.
WIN Creating Images — Interim COO
April 2024 – February 2025 (11 months)
Eleven-month mandate as Interim Chief Operating Officer for the packaging and design agency group with over 100 specialists (locations in Aachen, Cologne, Berlin, and Zug). Guided operational alignment, resource management, and workflow design for scalable agency operations.
The Lakeside Loft / Bahlburg & Hohn GbR — Co-Founder
Since April 2020
Acquisition and conversion of a luxury houseboat on Lake Tegel, since rented out for events, photo shoots and overnight stays.2 Selected clients: Daniel Brühl, Matthias Schweighöfer, Kevin Prince Boateng, Deloitte Consulting, Katjes, Storck, Yves Saint Laurent, TAG Heuer. A small company, but one with fixed costs, seasonality and utilisation risk. The same arithmetic as everywhere else, at a different scale.
Granny Agency Group — Co-Founder, Managing Director & COO
December 2016 – March 2025
Founded with Saghar Munz and Moritz Preißer. What started as a Berlin newcomer became an internationally active social media marketing group with offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Los Angeles, and up to 70 employees.
I was responsible for operations, the pitch teams and key accounts including Spotify and Netflix Global. Managing Director of the Hamburg entity and the US arm; from October 2019 also Managing Director of Great-Granny Holding, and from July 2021 of the acquired production company Suburban Productions.
In February 2024 the founding team handed day-to-day management to a new leadership duo; in March 2025 I exited entirely.
Clients during this period: Netflix, Spotify, Sky, Flixbus, Meta, Google, Warner Bros., Disney, N26, RBB.
WE’RE ALL IN — Co-Founder & Managing Director
July 2016 – January 2017
Built and ran a creative agency network with its own coworking space in Berlin-Mitte, together with Moritz Preißer and Matthias Lorenz-Meyer. Clients included ASOS, Zalando and Netflix. The business still operates today under the name Gate Two GmbH. Granny emerged directly out of this constellation.
apparent media — Founder & Owner
October 2007 – February 2016
Web and app development agency, at times with fifteen engineers. Development of award-winning iPhone, Android and tablet applications for Triumph AG, Axel Springer AG, Ball Packaging, Strenesse, T-Systems, TU Darmstadt and the Fraunhofer ICT Association.
Nine years of building software on my own account is the reason I still build the systems I talk about with my own hands, and why I can judge what a project will actually cost.
xeta — Co-Founder & Co-Owner
August 2004 – September 2007
My first own company. An IT agency covering requirements management, IT service and maintenance, and web development. Clients included DaimlerChrysler and several medium-sized enterprises. In 2007 the company was split into Requisis GmbH (requirements management) and apparent media (app and web development), each continued independently by the founders.
Holdings
Shareholdings and exits
| Company | Stake | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Termio UG (haftungsbeschränkt) | 100 % | Online appointment scheduling for hairdressers, physiotherapists and doctors. Used by Berlin’s largest association of urologists to coordinate MRI capacity. |
| WeLove Promo UG (haftungsbeschränkt) | 50 % | Booking database for promoters and trade fair hosts with more than 13,000 registered staff, including job processing, timesheets and false self-employment alerts. |
| Anypetz GmbH (Vetfinder) | 29.9 % | Veterinary care app built around the world’s most extensive veterinarian database, with pet insurance products available in-app. |
| Celapp Media GmbH | 6.16 % | Celebrity endorsement app: retailers booked celebrities and influencers to shop in their stores, whose fans then received time-limited vouchers. |
What follows from it
Why this matters for the advisory work
I have paid salaries when clients did not pay. I have built teams up and scaled teams back down. I have built software, sold it, and switched it off again. I have opened offices and handed offices over.
That is why my recommendations rarely start with a tool. Once you have watched a technically flawless project fail over an unclear responsibility, a works council, or simply the absence of time in daily operations, you check the process and the people first, and the technology second.
It is also why I do not recommend anything that has not run in one of my own companies first.
A small example: the holiday apartments in Tolo, Greece, largely run themselves. Enquiries, guest communication, occupancy and the Greek reporting and tax obligations are handled without me. The same approach, with more transactions and more people involved, is what I set up for medium-sized businesses.
Initial consultation, complimentary
Contact
Tell me what you are looking to achieve. A short paragraph is all it takes to get started. hohn@hbc-berlin.com
1 Accredited under the German Accreditation and Licensing Ordinance for Employment Promotion (AZAV). Funding eligibility is determined by the responsible public agency on a case-by-case basis.
2 Operated as Bahlburg & Hohn GbR.