I recently quit my day job to focus exclusively on entrepreneurship again. In order to find a co-founder, funding and mentors I applied to three different company incubators: Entrepreneur First, Antler VC, and Reaktor Berlin. During all three application processes I got asked thought-provoking questions about my personality and my project. In line with my commitment to full transparency and „building in public“ I am publishing all the answers:

Entrepreneur First

What is the most impressive thing that you have achieved in the last 2 years?

I taught myself to code at a professional level.

I don’t have a computer science background, but around 4 years ago, at the age of 27, I realised that my passion lies in software entrepreneurship. In my first projects I worked exclusively on the ideation and business, leaving the technical execution to more experienced software developers that I recruited for my teams. However, my ideas were too stupid, exotic and/or risky so those developers never stayed for long.

I knew that if I wanted to make my visions come true I had to learn software engineering myself. I took on a gruelling schedule of Udemy courses and continued building passion projects until I landed a full-stack developer job at Daimler/Mercedes-Benz. Here, I took on the full technical responsibility for a business critical fleet management tool. Along the way, I was able to learn from some of the world’s best software engineers and architects. This is also why I feel ready now to create my own software product.

Provide an example of something you have done, built or created that demonstrates your unique skill or ability (something that most people could not, or would not have done).

In my late 20s I was still unsure about what I wanted to do with my life. I was a PhD candidate at one of the world’s most prestigious universities but I knew that I could not spend the rest of my life intellectualizing away. I wanted to create something. I just had to figure out what. So I decided to go on a world tour and observe the pressing issues of our time. I took my video camera along and captured all my realisations in a series of short arthouse films (https://achillrudolph.com/film). At the end it was clear that helping humans find compatible partners for romantic love was the challenge I wanted to take on.

Give an example of a time you have persuaded someone senior to you or a time you have brought people together to work towards a common goal.

The first time I got in touch with software entrepreneurship was through a hackathon. I had 0 technical skills but a friend convinced me to tag along and pitch an idea I had. A few hours later I found myself with a team of 5 experienced software engineers and designers who were excited to build it out over the weekend. I became addicted to hackathons, repeating this scheme and winning some of them. With one of those teams I received the Berliner Startup Stipendium and built an actual company, even though the idea was immature. I was stunned that I could convince people to follow me even into dead ends – and have since become more careful with this super-power.

In which industry are you best positioned to build a company? Why?

Dating and personal development. During my 20s I obsessed over the self-help literature in this field and after mastering it I started coaching younger people for success in their dating lives. I observed that most people prefer meeting romantic partners in the real world but don’t have the courage to approach strangers. I started building a smartphone app that helps with the process of overcoming these social fears. Here is the current MVP: https://nogame.app (and a pitch presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K79-k0RnQsDlccllagJ8sUkI8czw4BmLKM_Jr24rmxA/edit?usp=sharing) – it’s live and has around 15 active users every day.

What do you believe will be different in that industry in 5 years‘ time?

People will be much more rational and intentional with respect to their dating decisions. They will realise that just like a business you can optimise your dating success with the help of data-driven insights and smart software tools. Also I believe that many will turn away from online dating for its toxic tendencies and re-discover the art of getting to know people in the real world. Lastly, I believe that sexual liberalisation and the sexual liberation of women will continue and lead to people having more relationships and casual sex before deciding on a long-term partner.

Provide an example of a time you have used technology to solve a problem.

As an adolescent boy I was socially anxious and sexually repressed because of severe acne and a highly conservative upbringing. I was intimidated by women and never had a girlfriend. In my twenties I decided to do something about it. I discovered the self-help literature and started following a behavioural therapy process to improve my dating and social skills. It involved approaching and talking to thousands of women without ever getting a number, let alone a date. It was frustrating – but it worked. To keep me motivated I built a simple software to keep track of my interactions and measure my slow progress. I noticed that many people were struggling with similar issues and thus https://nogame.app was born.

Are you currently working on your own startup or side-project?

I am building NoGame – a software tool that helps people overcome their social anxiety in the dating context. I am seeing huge potential and early traction with a small but loyal and excited user base. Therefore I’m going all-in.

Antler VC

Please tell us about something you have built that you are really proud of. This may be a software or hardware product, a team, a company or any other achievement. Please describe as well your role in building it.

I built NoGame (https://nogame.app) – a smartphone application that helps shy people develop the confidence to meet and get to know attractive strangers in the real world.

As an adolescent boy I was socially anxious and sexually repressed because of severe acne and a highly conservative upbringing. In my twenties I decided to do something about it. I discovered the self-help literature and started following a process to improve my dating and social skills. At the same time, I also taught myself to code and developed a software that guided and supported me on this personal development journey.

It actually worked and transformed me into a completely new person with extreme social confidence. I realised that the same process could benefit millions of others who are struggling with social anxiety and low confidence. So I developed NoGame into an extended prototype which currently has around 600 signed up users in total and 15 daily active users. Except for minor contributions from friends, I created the entire project on my own including idea, marketing and code.

Is there a specific problem you want to solve? If so – describe the problem/idea, and why you are the best person to solve it.

In modern cities we are constantly surrounded by interesting people who could potentially add value to our lives. Nevertheless, it is extremely hard to start an interaction with a stranger in the real world. This holds especially true when romantic interests are involved. You don’t know much about the other person, there is low trust and starting a conversation is scary because it entails the risk of getting rejected.

I have spent my youth observing and studying this problem and discovered that there is only one solution: If you want to learn how to have great interactions with strangers, you have to do it over and over again and keep improving based on the feedback you get. It is like going to the gym and building muscle: It’s uncomfortable and no one can do the work for you, but once you make progress it is fun. Software can support this process. Just like a fitness app, NoGame gives you guidance and visualises your progress to keep you motivated on your path to social mastery.

What is a unique insight that you have (about the problem you want to solve, or something completely different) that other people don’t have?

Today’s youth has largely abandoned the hope of meeting romantic partners randomly in real life in favor of online dating apps. However, dating apps don’t work well for everyone because they place a lot of emphasis on looks. If looks are not your strong suit you can actually get better dating results by meeting strangers offline where personality matters more and you are not limited by an algorithm. The coming generations are increasingly aware of such problems with digital technology. Nevertheless, approaching and meeting people offline is uncomfortable and requires a specific skill set that is hard to master. There is no digital tool yet to support and guide that process. NoGame wants to fill this gap.

What is the toughest challenge you have faced or your biggest achievement?

When I started my entrepreneurial journey around 2017 I had a lot of ideas but zero technical skills. I thought I could just find people who would do the execution – like Steve Jobbs! I went to a string of hackathons and worked with dozens of developers sometimes winning with great ideas and good teams. But the engineers I worked with were never quite as passionate about the idea as me (and my ideas were always crazy enough to require a lot of passion). So I decided that I had to learn software development myself. It sounded unrealistic but I threw myself into Udemy tutorials and found a mentor. Within a year I landed a freelance job as a smart contracts engineer building the Ethereum token of a blockchain startup. A few months later I was hired as a software engineer by Daimler and started playing with the big guys. Today, every software engineering and architecture challenge excites me and I know how to go about finding the solution.

Reaktor Berlin

Reaktor.Berlin aims at supporting startups that provide solutions to solve the great challengesof our societies such as climate change and environmental resilience, digitization of work, gender inequality, aging of the population, housing, education, sustainable agriculture and food, accessible and efficient health care system …

Does your project address one of these challenges ? If yes, what impact challenge does your project address?

My project helps counteract the aging of our population: It helps people find compatible partners for long-term relationships which makes it more likely that they will have healthy families with children.

The project also addresses another great challenge of our time that you might have forgotten to include in your list: the decline in mental and emotional health caused by digital technology. NoGame helps people build confidence, overcome social anxiety and connect with others in the real world rather than only in the commercialized metaverse.

Could you describe in few words your project as an „elevator pitch“ (max. 150 words) ?

NoGame solves a problem that around a billion people – the unmarried adult population of the world – have every day: You walk around in your city and you see someone super attractive – and you think: „Wow – I would love to get to know that person!“ Most people would never dare to walk over, start a conversation and ask that person out on a date. (That’s why we have online dating!)

But what if you could change that? What if you could increase your social confidence and get better at talking to attractive strangers in real life? It turns out that this is actually possible. And people who are tired of online dating pay millions of dollars every year to so called dating coaches to learn this exact skill.

NoGame is the digital equivalent of a personal dating coach. It gamifies the process of overcoming your social fears in the dating context and makes the knowledge accessible to a broader audience.

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As you might have guessed, my application at Reaktor Berlin was unsuccessful – I didn’t even get an interview there. Antler and EF on the other hand gave me several challenging interview rounds and both ended up offering me a place in their cohorts. Antler was very clear, however, that they would not support my current project and instead encouraged me to work on something else. Entrepreneur First was much more supportive of my current ideas and since it is also the more experienced and renowned incubator, the decision was quite easy.