Thomas Grota
MSc from Cologne University, 7 years as VP/CTO at Pironet NDH AG, 7 months as Freelancer, 1 year as COO at Contentteam AG, 2.6 years as VP at Deutsche Telekom AG & Managing Consultant at Detecon Int'l, Presently at T-Venture Holding GmbH since Jul'09
| Headline: | Investor |
| Work status: | Employed Full-Time |
| Website: | http://www.t-venture.com |
| Industries: | Computing, Entertainment, Financial, Gaming, Information Technology, Internet, Media, Mobile, Travel |
| Skills: | Business, Design, Engineering, English, Entrepreneurship, French, German, Guerrilla marketing, Investment, Languages, Management, Marketing, Negotiation, Norwegian, Public Relations, Public speaking, Recruitment, Sales, Software Engineering, Viral marketing, Web design, Web Development, Windows, Windows applications |
| Location: | Bonn & Cologne |
| Interested in: | Advising startups, Career advice, Employment opportunities, Internships, Investing in projects, Joining a startup, Meeting new people, Mentoring, Offering Expertise, Professional opportunities, Providing services to startups, Recruiting, Supporting my investments, Trading services |
| Tags: | apprupt.com, browser games, deutsche telekom, Gaming, iptv, kayak.com, nosql, playnik.com, social gaming, sones.de, streaming music, swoodoo.com, t-mobile, t-venture, techcrunch |
| Schools: | University of Cologne |
FULL BIO
Thomas has been working in the converging ICT industry of IT and telecommunication for more then ten years. His work focuses on helping companies to establish their position in the marketplace regarding strategies and product development.
Today Thomas is Senior Investment Manager at T-Venture Holding, the corporate VC of Deutschte Telekom AG. With his entrepreneurial spirit he supports startups and new entrants to establish a successfull business and grow shareholder value. His main fields of investments are IPTV, social gaming and enabling software technologies. Additionaly Thomas is Mentor at Seedcamp, a programme created to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe.
During his time as CTO of an Enterprise Content Management vendor in Germany he established contacts with the main players in the IT industry and was successful in launching the company's IPO at the German stock market, where it is still well positioned.
After seven years of working in a start-up environment and getting a lot of experiences in this industry sector Thomas joined Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunication incumbent, to head the strategy department of the international wholesale unit. He got in contact with the most important players in this global market and within the strategy departments of DT.
Later on Thomas was member of the international consulting arm of Deutsche Telekom. He developed business models for media companies and the digital entertainment industry. His main field of interests were the next generation business architecture of Internet based television and its components for IPTV platforms. He was head of the Center of Excellence "New Media" at Detecon.
Overall his working years Thomas has been in contact with analysts to discuss the developments and outlooks for the future business opportunities and has build up a network of entrepreneurs to keep himself up to date regarding the newest technology trends across the industries.
Specialties:
International executive manager 10+ years of experiences in IT and Telecommunication market places strong background in strategic planning partnering - business development - product development professional services customer relationship - technology solutions - investor and analyst relations highly motivated and energetic team player proven ability to use expertise and creativity to find innovative solutions to the most complex challenges profit & loss oriented
WORK EXPERIENCE
| Employer: | T-Venture Holding GmbH |
| Position: | Senior Investment Manager |
| Time period: | July 2009 - Present |
| Description: | Responsible for acquisition, closing and managing portfolio companies in international markets in fields of Digital content sourcing, IPTV & WebTV, Social Gaming and technology enabling services,.
Member of supervisory board in own portfolio companies responsible for representing shareholder interests, hiring executive management, corporat strategy and budget approval. Additionally presenting T-Venture at panel discussions, mentor as entrepreneur and venture capital expert at Seedcamp (www.seedcamp.com). |
| Employer: | Contentteam AG |
| Position: | Interims Chief Operating Officer |
| Time period: | January 2006 - Present |
| Description: | Responsible for Professional Services. Resources Management of 30+ consultants,
Project management, sales and presales for large companies as Deutsche Telekom, QSC AG, Netcologne GmbH, Swisscom AG, Böhringer Ingelheim and BWM AG Coordinating partnering and alliances with EMC incl. their daughter companies Documentum, VMware, Legato, Captiva and Adobe Strategic business development of key accounts and new business opportunities for an IT Startup company in different areas of business. |
| Employer: | Detecon International |
| Position: | Managing Consultant |
| Time period: | January 2007 - June 2009 |
| Description: | Responsible for acquisition, delivery and stuffing of global customer projects for telecommunications and media industry in ICT strategy and alliance.
Head of Center of Excellence “New Media” to establish cross division proposition in Detecon for NewTV, WebTV and Value added services for IPTV. Developing innovation strategies and product marketing concepts for fixed mobile convergence in European and developing markets of MENA and Asia Pacific region. Managing projects for Deutsche Telekom, Shanghai Telecom and VNPT in the area of IPTV technical solution strategies, CRM strategies, solution architecture (BSS/OSS/SOA) and program management. Developing customer base in international telecoms markets to expand global reach of Detecon International business in Europe, MENA and Asia through international network of telecoms executives. |
| Employer: | Deutsche Telekom AG |
| Position: | Vice President Market Analysis & Strategy |
| Time period: | September 2003 - January 2006 |
| Description: |
Heading a market research department based in London, Singapore, Paris, New York and Budapest for the international carrier business of Deutsche Telekom AG Business planning of new infrastructure investments, e.g. voice and IP networks, partnering concepts and alliance management with global and regional carriers Business development with innovative new entrants in the telecommunication markets such as Skype, Vonage, Vanco and Ipass Supporting internal sales projects with members of the Deutsche Telekom AG such as T-Mobile, T-Online and T-COM and establishing business cases from a customer perspective Financial and marketing approach planning for new solutions and portfolio offerings of the carrier arm and its subsidiaries like WLAN, WiFi, WiMax and VoIP Analyst relations with leading IT and TC analysts, e.g. Ovum, Forrester, Gartner, Yankee Group, Frost & Sullivan, Analysys and Telegeography. Budgeting and order management within Deutsche Telekom AG purchasing departments for analyst contracts on behalf of T-Systems business units |
| Employer: | Pironet NDH AG |
| Position: | Vice President Product Development & CTO |
| Time period: | March 1996 - January 2003 |
| Description: | Responsible for up to 60 employees in nine departments and a single-digit million Euro budget in research and development
Supervised product development, product management, support, quality management and partner professional services Profit & lost responsible for partner professional services group and support helpdesk. Developing pricing model for helpdesk organization and maintenance contracts based on treatment levels and SLAs VIP circle for key accounts (Metro Group, Axa, Merck et.all.) to integrate customer project planning into the software development process. Ensuring product roadmap matches customer milestone planning for their internal projects. Establishing a close relationship with customer development and product design Project Manager for critical projects of key accounts such as campaign management of Social Democratic Party during German election in 1999 in cooperation with T-Systems, Metro Groups Intranet my.metro based on SAP Portal, launch of Sony International first global product database during IFA (International Broadcast Fair) 1997 and launch of AXA Germany website after its integration in the French group in 1998 Briefed IT and financial analysts regarding product strategies and technology partnerships, e.g. Gartner Group, Forrester, Ovum and Frost & Sullivan. Directed technology partnerships with global software vendors and IT service organizations, e.g. IBM Corp., Oracle, Sun Microsystems, SAP AG, Hewlett Packard, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Verity and Deutsche Telekom AG Management Meetings with key accounts, e.g. AXA, Ericsson, Social Democratic Party, Freudenberg, Metro Group, The Future Store Initiative, Merck - USA, Bank Austria/HVB Austria, Lufthansa, Sony Deutschland, Thyssen, Basell – USA and others Responsible for defining new features and project planning of the enterprise content management system based on Internet technology, Java programming and database systems |
EDUCATION
| University: | University of Cologne |
| Time period: | 1992 - 1996 |
| Degree: | Masters in Physics and Mathematics |
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YouNoodle
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Thomas' Contacts (7)
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Tamas Gabor
Business Administration graduate from Budapest Business School, with MBA from CEU Business School. Last worked as CEO/Retail Operations Director at MOL NyRT / Tifon d.o.o. Zagreb, Croatia.
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Jeff Goddard
Owner of EMEA IT technology strategic alliances and channel development consulting company, plus an online psychometric personality testing solution, plus Sales & Marketing Director for Diamonds Software
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Paul Heydon
investment banker, digital media