Jan Kaiser

Who are you?

My name is Jan Kaiser, 23, born in Konstanz, Germany, and graduated from both school and university in Konstanz. During my school education and 1 year afterwards I worked in the video game industry for 2 years. There I played both years contractually under different organizations (EURONICS Gaming - Hitpoint Esports Entertainment UG ; Prismatic Gaming e.V.) the game Hearthstone internationally. In the second year I took over the management of the player team (PR, tournament organization, coaching) besides a reduced gaming workload.

Afterward I studied Applied Computer Science B.Sc. in Konstanz. For 4 semesters I tutored in various modules, in the practical semester I worked 50% as an IT consultant (external, e-commerce, SAP Hybris) and 50% on internal research projects at Sybit GmbH. I had a working student position for 7 months at wirsindhandwerk GmbH as a data engineer for geodata (Openstreetmap) and finally, I wrote my bachelor thesis at Vetter Pharma-Fertigung GmbH & Co. KG in Ravensburg in the field of AI-based & conventional image processing.

Another year after graduation, I continued to work at Vetter as a Data Scientist with a wide range of responsibilities as the team was being built(marketing, strategy, in-house consulting, technical implementation, thesis supervision, HR). I took this experience with me to support devs group GmbH in Kreuzlingen for 4 months in building up the startup, before I decided to found Xanevo GmbH myself - together with Jeffrey & Timo. I am doing a Master's degree part-time at AKAD Stuttgart with expected graduation in Dec. 2022.‍

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How did it come to founding Xanevo?

In my time as a Data Scientist at Vetter, I was particularly concerned with the following things in the consulting & technical implementation of projects: - the technical feasibility to the state of the art of the company - the business case So it was not about creating incredibly "crass" solutions that use cutting-edge AI, but to come to a resource-efficient, sustainable & maintainable IT solution that creates temporary or long-term remedy/support for data-driven problems. In the course of this, I looked into Natural Language Generation (NLG), among other things, which gave me a good overview of common techniques, open-source solutions, closed source providers (SaaS providers), and common use cases as well as their profitability. So I saw a business opportunity and decided to pursue it on freelance & part-time basis. In doing so, I took over the technical implementation of NLG projects from my partner company at the time, AX Semantics, with whom I had established good relationships. That started in January 2021, Jeffrey - one of my co-founders - was already on board there as support in projects. In April we were joined by Niklas & Julius, who then started supporting us as freelance developers on projects that were getting bigger. Shortly after that we made the decision to found a company because our economic situation was good and the potential was definitely there. This was followed by Timo joining the company as a shareholder, who complements our competencies well.

What are your tasks at Xanevo?

My main tasks focus on the implementation of customer projects. This involves the project management and thus the management of the technical implementation by our reliable developers. Otherwise, I am heavily involved in the design of legal & insurance with us. Less involved, but always involved, I am in Marketing & Sales where I always try to provide my input from a technical perspective so Jeffrey & Timo can deliver their best.

What makes working at Xanevo special?

We are: young, open - don't beat around the bush, always motivated and inquisitive and 100% remote. This gives us the flexibility to pay reasonable salaries early on and recruit a large number of employees, all without outside capital. No paper processes, everything digital, flexible hours, exactly what you want during or after Covid. We try to take advantage of the pandemic to our benefit and compensate disadvantages as much as possible with team events and more personal digital encounters.

What do you think sets the company apart?

We place a high priority on the quality & maintainability of our software solutions. This is distinguished by: - We have strong software partners as well as open source expertise within the language generation and data processing domain. Our engagement in continuous learning within an ever quickly developing space far exceeds the drive of many companies I know.

What do you like to do outside of work? Hobbies?

I like to do sports very much. Among them are regular bouldering & jogging, phase-wise martial arts as well as joint ventures, such as various water sports, but also joint training sessions in the fresh air at street workout places. In addition, I like to read up on other areas, both outside of my field of expertise and in line with what I've learned. Personally, I also like to compete in various sports - currently I'm competing in national Taekwondo competitions.