Product and AI strategy in regulated markets
Almost twenty years in regulated life sciences, from lab instruments and bioprocess equipment to digital products, and on to product and AI strategy. I grow what I build, today through M&A, and before that as co-founder of my own company, through to its exit.
Where I started, what I built, and what I do today.
My path started hands-on, as a mechatronics technician. Through eleven years in service, sales and product management I grew into the digital side of life sciences and learned how a technical idea turns into a product with real value in the market.
In 2018 I turned that experience into a company of my own: the world's first voice- and AI-powered lab assistant. From the first concept to a team of more than 60 people, seven-figure annual revenue and a successful exit, I shaped it as co-founder, COO and interim CEO.
Today I work on strategy and M&A in a global life-science technology group, and I keep one foot firmly in the technology itself. What I care about sits where deep technology meets a regulated, certified reality. That is where most good ideas stall, and where strategy has to do real work.
The same path with dates, titles and the stops in between.
Eleven years from the lab floor to global software product management
The foundation of my life-science background, moving step by step through service, sales, product and marketing into software, where technical craft turned into strategic product thinking.
Co-Founder, COO and Interim CEO
The world's first voice- and AI-powered lab assistant. I turned my own idea into a company by convincing Sartorius and BCG Digital Ventures to invest and co-found LabTwin, then built and scaled it over seven years with end-to-end responsibility for operations, through to an exit in the merger with Labforward.
Strategy and M&A in the pharma business of the Körber Group
I drive strategic projects and M&A initiatives across the Körber Pharma Group in a newly created Strategy department, working directly with the Group CEO, from deal sourcing and valuation to due diligence and post-deal integration. I designed and applied the strategy project's agentic AI approach myself, to speed up research and market mapping.
What I founded, what I keep building, and what I do as a volunteer.
2018 - 2025
The world's first voice- and AI-powered lab assistant
My own idea, which I turned into a venture by convincing Sartorius and BCG Digital Ventures to co-found it. As co-founder, COO and interim CEO I built the product, the team and the business, up to seven-figure annual revenue and a successful exit.
Finding missing people from the air, and the software that makes it work
I volunteer with the Rettungshundestaffel Nordelbe and run the drone-based search for missing people. To make one drone useful to the whole team, I built the system behind it: a local, offline map that turns a thermal hit into a precise coordinate on every team's tablet, so the right team is on its way within seconds.
Running modern AI on my own infrastructure, in private
I run my own infrastructure to put modern AI through its paces: local language models and my own data, fully self-hosted and private. It is where I try things hands-on before I form an opinion on them, and it keeps me close to the technology I shape on the strategy side.
Daily routines, handled by agents
A small fleet of agents that quietly handles my daily routine: monitoring the news, keeping an eye on the markets and automating my inbox. Honestly, not because I need to, but because I like to build it and see what it can do. Under the hood, a main agent hands tasks to specialised sub-agents that reach my tools and data through different MCPs, with n8n for the glue and a mix of local and frontier models.
AI-assisted documentation of laboratory workflows
Named inventor on two patents covering a method that automatically documents lab workflows: AI models classify unstructured data such as measurements, spoken notes and device readings, and a human specialist reviews low-confidence cases to improve the system over time.
For founders in regulated, security-sensitive markets
Wherever startups and scaleups need expertise in regulated industries, digital products and ISMS frameworks, I step in as an advisor. It is the same ground I covered building and certifying my own company, from product strategy to ISO 27001, now put to work for other founders.
If you want to talk about something you are building, an advisory question, or just exchange ideas, write to me directly. I answer everything that arrives here.
me@steffen.build