JOIN CAPITAL - Key Persons
A Founding Partner at Join, Jan captains the ins and outs of the team with his extensive experience in law, digital transformation and entrepreneurship. His unique perspective and authority has pushed Join ahead of the pack since its formation in 2014.
Jan studied Law & Business Administration, graduating in 1999 from the University of Münster and in 2000 from EADA in Barcelona. After his studies, he built sekretaria.media - a digital publisher that he eventually sold to Haufe Lexware in 2003. In 2004, he built digital education company Cologne Publishing.
Stepping from publishing into digital transformation projects, Jan began to gather ideas and insights for what would eventually become Join Capital. In 2006, he was recruited into Bertelsmann's Entrepreneurs program. In 2007, he became Principal at Bertelsmann's Corporate Venture arm, and from 2009 onwards served as its Head of European Ventures. Finally, at the end of 2014, Jan returned to his entrepreneurial roots once more when he left Bertelsmann together with Tobias Schirmer to begin Join Capital.
Jan is currently based in both Cologne and Berlin. He likes to see things grow and prosper - both in the portfolio and also in his garden, where (to the detriment of his wife) he spends a lot of time in the spring. In the summer, you might spot him on the Berliner Wannsee; in winter, he's known to get into his fair share of Cold War spy stories - ideally set in Berlin - while enjoying a glass of red wine.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant, Events & Social Media
Juli joined our team in summer 2023 as an Executive Assistant to the three founding partners and the main organizer of our events such as the annual Investor's & Portfolio Day, VC Party and internal events. For the past few years, she has been working as a freelance social media manager, supporting solo entrepreneurs with different backgrounds and working as a personal development coach as well. "I come from a corporate VC (hub:ram and Microsoft Ventures) and am very excited to work with JOIN.CAPITAL now," she says. Although she grew up in Berlin, Juli and her husband and two children escape to the sea as often as they can, because her great passion, besides other sports like Thai boxing or beach volleyball, is kitesurfing.
Luisa joined our team as an Analyst in the spring of 2022 after completing extensive studies and work experience in both business analytics and international management. Her experience, passion and outgoing nature bring unique value to Join, helping the team push further in our mission to grow the next wave of global industrial giants.
Luisa first came to Join in 2020 as a Visiting Analyst during a gap year in her studies - just after earning a double Bachelor's degree in Business and International Management. Her passion for business and technology led her to pursue numerous opportunities in consulting and working in both the German and Israeli startup ecosystems, as well as an MSc in Business Analytics at Nova SBE. While earning her Master's, she worked as a Financial Analyst in Lisbon with Join portfolio company Prodsmart, and shortly after joined a Berlin-based FinTech company as a Business Intelligence Analyst.
With a hands-on approach, a doer mentality and a deep understanding of startup business models, Luisa found a true passion in working on the venture capital side of the tech ecosystem. She now brings the Join team an enhanced focus on data and analytics, and aims to improve the dealflow process by implementing data driven sourcing practices and automation.
In her free time, Luisa enjoys exploring Berlin's gastronomy scene and getting out into nature for hiking, cycling and beach volleyball.
Tom joined the team as a Principal in November 2023 bringing a decade of experience across finance, entrepreneurship, sales and early stage investing. Having always been a curious person who loves to dig deep and understand how things work and what drives people, venture investing was a natural fit.
After graduating from Exeter University in 2013 (having also spent an Erasmus year in France at Grenoble Business School), Tom started his career in corporate banking at Kas (now Credit Agricole) where he worked in risk products for institutional funds and became a CFA charterholder. This was followed by a move into entrepreneurship as the founder of ClaritEx, a SaaS tool for institutional fund cost analytics, which was acquired by Nasdaq as part of a larger group transaction. This then led him to a role as Finbourne's first BD/Sales hire, where he spent 2 years helping the SaaS fintech grow from pre-revenue to over £10m ARR. More recently, Tom has spent the past 3 years leading the first cheque fund at Fuel Ventures completing over 30 transactions in enterprise B2B SaaS businesses.
Tom's experience as an investor in and adviser to European software businesses, as well as his time as a founder and in enterprise sales roles make him an asset to the Join team. A deep thinker and continuous learner, he loves sharing experiences and knowledge with ambitious founders.
Away from work, Tom is a sports lover who when not playing for his local tennis club or running, can be found spending time with friends, his young family or diving into a book.