Manuel Koelman 🏴☠️ — CEO
🏴☠️ Serial Entrepreneur, 🖤 PIRATE at heart, 🙏 Leadership Whisperer, 💡 Keynote Speaker Topics that I read, debate, and speak about (a lot of buzzwords, I know): 🔥 Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Transformation, Change 🔥 Making Business More Human 🔥 AI-first Organizations 🔥 Mindfulness, Self-Reflection, Meditation 🔥 Vibe Coding 🔥 Startups, Internet Business, Innovation 🔥 Memorable Events, Community --- How did I get here? My entrepreneurial journey started in earnest in the summer of 2003. I was a student and had just come back from one year studying in Barcelona. That summer, I started my first business with a friend. We were naive. To put it mildly. We had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into and what it meant to run a business. To the outside world, we could show some decent successes. After all, we had some paying clients and earned a fair amount of money. On the inside, we felt lost and overwhelmed. There was the constant feeling that we were way above our heads. The journey of 20 years of entrepreneurship that followed was a constant roller coaster ride. I have hired and fired. I have acquired and exited. I have invested and lost it all. I had to accept failure and had to shut down multiple products or even close companies. Sometimes, when giving up wasn’t an option, I worked tirelessly to avoid bankruptcy. More than once. That’s what factually happened. There is plenty to learn from this. Tactics, methods, how-tos. What to look for before you invest, the tax impact of selling your product unit, the best interview questions, how to structure a deal, how to fire someone, etc. That’s useful information, but it’s not what I get excited about. Exciting are the things happening under the surface. You might call it the human factor of running a business. It’s often overlooked or hard to grasp. It’s certainly hard to manage. What we often forget is that businesses don’t interact with businesses. Instead, humans interact with humans. Running a business intrinsically requires human skills. I've always built my businesses with that perspective in mind. PIRATE.global, my current - and probably last - company, is built as a training ground for aspiring entrepreneurs. Great if people join and then - when they are ready - leave to start something of their own. I share some of my observations, experiences, and learnings in "Making Business More Human" (https://www.arrr.co/) and here on LinkedIn. From my own experience running multiple businesses, but also from working with others that do. I hope you find it useful. 🙏
Stackforce AI infers this person is a seasoned entrepreneur and leader in the Event Management and AI sectors.
Experience: 22 yrs 3 mos
Skills
- Entrepreneurship
- Venture Building
- Event Management
- Leadership
- Experience Design
- Artificial Intelligence (ai)
- Business Strategy
- Lead Generation
- Storytelling
- Leadership Development
- Coaching
- Sustainability
- Marketing Strategy
Career Highlights
- 20 years of entrepreneurial experience across multiple startups.
- Expert in making business more human through leadership.
- Keynote speaker on AI-first organizations and transformation.
Work Experience
FunnelIn
Partner (1 yr 3 mos)
AtlasZero
Partner (1 yr 11 mos)
BEEZ Games
Partner (1 yr 11 mos)
NoCode.ONE
Partner (4 yrs 4 mos)
VisualMakers
Partner (4 yrs 10 mos)
PIRATEx
CEO (7 yrs 3 mos)
division5
Partner (7 yrs 3 mos)
PIRATE.coach
Sparring Partner to Entrepreneurs (9 yrs 3 mos)
Startup SAFARI
Chairman (3 yrs 2 mos)
OMClub
Producer (6 yrs 8 mos)
Douglas Cosmetics/ Parfumerie Douglas
Head of Product Management & Innovations (a.I.) (1 yr 8 mos)
getContext
Managing Partner (6 yrs)
PIRATE.global
CEO (15 yrs 5 mos)
Neckermann.com
Manager Online Sales & Web Development (a.I.) (8 mos)
Talential.com
Managing Director (4 yrs)
Kienbaum Management Consultants GmbH
Senior Consultant (2 yrs 3 mos)
Farbquadrat
Managing Director (2 yrs)
Education
Diplom-Kaufmann at University of Mannheim
Business Administration at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona