Founders Associate

Hey, I’m Dan

I thrive in the unique energy of startups, where momentum, ambiguity, and creative chaos aren’t just accepted—they’re required: You need to operate at full speed, fail fast, and keep your cool.
‍
I’m a highly driven individual, coming straight from the founder's role, one month after exiting the company I cofounded (€2.5M revenue, 1,100 clients, 14 employees)—I know firsthand what it means to juggle shifting priorities, set up new departments, and constantly adapt—and I love it.

Automating operations with AI was one of my core responsibilities at my previous company. It makes a huge change in how companies run, by making them hundreds of times more efficient—like the industrial revolution, this is one too.
‍
With my recent exit, I will add value as a Founder Associate from the day one—no extensive onboarding needed. I’m used to wearing multiple hats, building processes from scratch. I want to help build out Beam’s platform, get my hands dirty on both the tech and the user side, and be part of the team shaping the future of work.

Watch Intro Loom video

Dan Kort

Let‘s Organise, Shape & Scale

With 10 years of experience in Germany and the UK, I’ve founded businesses, led teams, and delivered results in product development, project management and execution, and market expansion. My hands-on, entrepreneurial mindset drives vision and execution

Key Strengths

  • Built and scaled a startup from zero to €2.4M/year as founder—full ownership of product, ops, and strategy
  • AI-native—use AI tools daily to automate work, increase productivity, and get fast answers
  • Built dashboards and reports that update daily to enable better, faster decision-making
  • Created and automated CRM structures using native and external tools, ensuring clean, uptodate data
  • 10+ years as a designer—clear communicator, persuasive slide decks, experienced in pitching (including to investors), Adobe Certified
  • Spot opportunities others overlook by always digging deeper
  • Organized freelancing events in London (60+ participants), comfortable coordinating meetings and workshops
  • Scaled onboarding, hiring, and ops using Zapier, Make, and managing external devs for custom solutions
  • Lived in 4 countries, speak 3 languages made me thrive in ambiguity

Operating Style

  • Tool mastery over hustle: know your shortcuts and tools—this is where speed comes from
  • Always dig deeper, find options and solutions others miss, means faster, better results
  • Build structure from scratch: develop, document and automate workflows, then teach and delegate to empower teams
  • Optimize and automate repeating tasks
  • Prefer solid first drafts to perfect plans to move fast, learn, and improve
  • Rather do it right the first time (not perfect) than redo sloppy work
  • Frequent feedback loops with the team and users to keep us all aligned

Interests

  • AI, automation, and future-of-work tools
  • Startup, Entrepreneurial literature (see below)
  • Testing new tech stacks and productivity hacks
  • Creating and optimizing workflows
  • Product design (UI/UX, process, and comms)
  • Testing user acquisition funnels
  • Cold email and outreach experiments
  • Purpose-driven work
  • Rapid prototyping, market validation
  • meetups, connecting with new communities
  • Business building, Entrepreneurship
  • Continuous learning, self-improvement

Relevant Work Experience

Cofounder & Joint CEO: SEO Marketplace & Agency: Linkbroker.io

03/2023 - 06/2025
Bonn, Germany
  • Cofounded and built Linkbroker.io from "0 to 1" €2.5M revenue, 1,100 clients, and 14 employees, owning product vision and execution at every stage.
  • Turned real user pain points into MVPs and top-selling products (23% of total sales)—managed UI/UX, led dev, fulfillment, and delivery.
  • Ran in-depth market and user research to spot opportunities, validate features, and drive fast iterations—guided teams to execute on what mattered most.
  • Created and managed detailed product roadmaps and launches, often under intense time pressure.
  • Built and maintained dynamic pricing (automated, algorithmic)—boosted margins 17% and enabled quick responses to market shifts.
  • Built real-time financial dashboards and reporting for key business decisions—saved 45 min/day, increased clarity for team and investors.
  • Designed, documented and scaled workflows and SOPs from scratch, then trained teams (Ops, CRM, Customer Success) to delegate incl. onboarding and execution.
  • Automated key processes (onboarding, hiring, fulfillment, CRM), cutting manual work, improving customer satisfaction, and scaling efficiently.
  • Heavy user of no-code/automation tools (Zapier, Make, Gumloop), managed external devs for tailored solutions.

Solo Entrepreneur, Freelance Designer: Designdan.london

05/2016 - Present
London, UK & Bonn, Germany
  • Project ownership: Delivered 175+ strategic design solutions for B2B clients—ideating, pitching, executing, and launching projects solo, end-to-end.
  • Built structure and clarity in fast-moving, remote settings—made key decisions quickly and executed hands-on with a founder’s mindset.
  • Maintained a relentless commitment to high standards, improving designs and processes to deliver measurable client results.
  • Clear communication of complex ideas: Developed and presented solutions to diverse stakeholders—translating complexity into actionable steps.

Campaign Producer at DigitalVoices London

07/2022 - 11/2022
London, UK
  • Managed and executed YouTube brand campaigns, sourcing and negotiating with creators, to test their channels and track results to decide upon further collaboratio
  • Used data-driven tools for data based creator sourcing and campaign optimization

Deputy Team Lead at REWE Group (part-time)

08/2013 – 12/2015
Bonn, Germany

Managed shift planning, supervised teams, ensured quality control, and served as the primary contact for a staff of 10+.

Software & Tools

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Workspace
  • Meta Business Manager
  • Ahrefs
  • YouTube Studio
  • Pipedrive CRM
  • Klaviyo
  • Instantly.ai
  • ClickUp / Asana
  • Zapier / Gumloop / Make
  • Apify
  • Microsoft Office
  • Apple Keynote
  • Canva
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Premiere
  • Figma
  • CapCut
  • WordPress
  • Webflow
  • CSS & HTML

Language Skills

  • Englisch – bilingual
  • Deutsch – bilingual
  • Polish – bilingual

Education

BA (Hons) Advertising, UAL - University of the Arts London

08/2019 - 06/2022
London, UK
  • Conducted countless interviews to gain insights about the target audience
  • Writing press releases and finding media contacts
  • Responding with a creative idea and strategy to client briefs
  • Shooting and producing content for print, TV, radio etc.
  • Taking part in plenty of collaborative projects
  • Researching, creating and writing numerous strategic briefs

A-levels/German Abitur with focus on media design

09/2018 - 04/2019
Bonn, Germany

Media Design College

07/2022 - 11/2022
Bonn, Germany
  • Design & visual communication (print & digital)
  • Concept development & presentation
  • Fundamentals of graphic design (theory & practice)

Woodland Hills Academy, Middle school, Los Angeles, USA

09/2007 - 06/2009
Los Angeles, USA

Elementary School, Poland

09/2004 - 08/2007
Swidnica, Poland

Diverse Experience

  • International experience: Lived in 4 countries, culturally open, values diversity and highly adaptable
  • MeetUps & Events: Organised freelancing events with over 60 participants
  • Languages: German (A-levels/Abitur), English (bilingual, 1.5 years US, 5 years England), Polish (bilingual)

"Daniel was responsible for projects—from market and competitor research to product development and automation, all the way through to successful rollouts; [...] His client focus was outstanding: he identified problems directly, developed innovative solutions, and incorporated feedback into further development; The internationalization and communication infrastructure were his responsibility—everything was set up to be scalable and multilingual;  [...]  From product ideation, through design and testing, to continuous improvement, Daniel independently managed the entire product development process;  [...]  He led development teams, delegated tasks, and set priorities to ensure efficient and successful releases;  [...]  Daniel always thinks strategically, acts hands-on, and works across departments;  [...] I can recommend him to any founder or managing director looking for a true co-creator for demanding projects."

Julian Kirfel
Linkbroker Shareholder,
Former CEO of ISC AG

Linkbroker.io has 90 Reviews and a TrustScore of 4.8—5 of 5 stars

Trustpilot Reviews
Trustpilot

Daniel has 59 Reviews and an average score of 5.0

Freelance Reviews
Fiverr

Bookshelf

Let’s work on this together.
Reach out today!

E-Mail meSchedule a meeting