By Rainer Berak
Project A is not only about investing in bright minds and great innovative ideas. It’s also about helping those founders and ideas to thrive. That’s what our operational unit is there for. 140 great people who support our portfolio companies in all relevant areas: tech, data, growth, and people.
Today I am thrilled to announce that Thuy Ngan Trinh, Project A’s CMO, and Stephan Schulze, our CTO, have been promoted to managing directors of our services division. Together, we will form a new management team that will lead Project A’s functional team to the next level in close collaboration with the funds’ partners and the investment team.
A backend developer turned CTO and a true marketeer who has been running campaigns for years – I couldn’t think of anyone more suited to complement the management team of our operational services. Stephan and Thuy Ngan have been instrumental in making Project A “the operational VC.” Coming from different backgrounds, we share the same vision of providing our founders the best possible support and the same dedication to providing our team with a unique environment to thrive, learn and have fun. It’s all about operational excellence and execution: hard work, achievement, and taking this as an invaluable token for your future career.
So where did it all start? Thuy Ngan joined our marketing team in 2015, having previously been at Zalando and Bosch. After an intermezzo at Meta (formerly Facebook), where she was consulting, she returned to Project A to work even closer with our ventures, helping them scale their marketing. Since 2021 she has been leading marketing efforts as CMO for our portfolio companies, such as Trade Republic and Kry.
Stephan also joined Project A in 2015 and is responsible for supporting our ventures with software development, cloud infrastructure, and building scalable tech organizations. He actively contributed to the success of several of our portfolio companies like sennder, Trade Republic, Spryker, and Kry but also Lampenwelt, Gartenhaus, and Amann Girrbach. Stephan always dives in deep at startups and Private Equity Investments: As interim VP Engineering and in CTO roles, he helps founders and tech teams overcome the natural challenges of every tech company and delivers our Private Equity portfolio with strong support on their digital transformation and journey.
Well deserved both. Let’s do this!