Venture Athlete & International Expansion Expert | Thriving as Generalist in a Specialized Economy

I’m Dominik, founder, athlete, & creator. A proud generalist. This is my story: 

For the last 7 years, I helped bootstrap one startup from 0 to 1M in revenue and built the international business from scratch for one of Europe’s fastest growing EdTech companies (50 -> 240 employees in my three years there).

All while competing at the highest level of the beautiful sport of Lacrosse, including an appearance for the German National Team at the 2022 World Games (the Olympics’ little brother).

While my professional achievements may seem more impressive on paper, representing Germany on an international stage is the feat that I’m most proud of.

I wasn’t very athletic up until my mid-twenties. Very little talent, but a lot of injuries to make up for it.

Until one day, I started working with a personal trainer. He helped me break down the fundamentals I needed to fix.

I worked hard, and I worked consistently. Showed up to every practice, every gym session. Did my recovery & mobility work daily.

4 years later, I made the national team roster.

The potential was in me. But it needed help unlocking.

Throughout my entire career, I’ve also helped humans unlock their potential, just in different ways:

- By teaching people in rural Rwanda and Brazilian homeless shelter how to make glasses for less than $1, and how to build a business around it
- By bringing unemployed nurses from Italy to Germany and teaching them German, opening a completely different career path for them
- By expanding the leading operating system for schools throughout Europe, so that education becomes more digital and thus accessible
- By writing about my experiences online and sharing them with the world

In late 2023, I made the decision to quit my cozy, well-paid, full-time job that fit my profile perfectly.

I'm on a mission to build my own portfolio career - and help others to unlock theirs. Join me on my journey towards building a portfolio of cashflow-positive, impact-driven businesses.

These businesses have one goal: help others unlock their potential. Just like my personal trainer did for me.

I wish that some of the best portfolio company owners turned creators had documented their journey from day 1, and not retrospectively.

So that’s what I’m doing.

I write for generalists like myself, who want to make a living in a specialized economy without specializing themselves. 

You can do more than one thing in your life. 
Let’s design that life together. 

Sign up for my newsletter here: www.dominiknitsch.com/newsletter

Dominik Nitsch

Over the past four weeks, I’ve received 93 applications to Generalyst. Here’s what to avoid if you’re currently applying to jobs: 

(1) Using ChatGPT-generated answers to free-text questions. 

We smell this from a mile away. It sounds good and professional, but tells me absolutely nothing about YOU. I want to see how you, not your AI, think and write. If you’re going to use AI, get so good at prompting that it doesn’t read like generic fluff. Don’t be a politician; be someone with edges. This ain't corporate. 

(2) Say: "I'm a results-driven professional with cross-functional expertise that spearheaded expansion". 

My brother in Christ, I have no idea what you're trying to tell me (besides that you're good at bullshit bingo). What's a "results-driven professional"? Like, would anyone ever describe themselves as an "activity-driven professional"? Why say "spearheading" when you could use a word that one actually uses in their day-to-day life? 

(3) Say: “I’m looking to do strategic work.” 

Instant no. In a startup, even the founder does like 97% operational work. Building a company is about, well, building. Not planning. In order to produce prime strategic work, you have to get your hands dirty first. (If you want to do strategic work, maybe strategy consultancies are your jam.) 

(4) Straight up lie in an interview. 

I never would’ve thought I’d have to say this, but this happened twice now: candidates claimed to have done something that was very easy to invalidate with a few Google searches. 

What else grinds your gears as hiring manager/recruiter?

Founder @ Generalyst | building talent infrastructure for early-stage startups | 1,022 generalists read my newsletter to future-proof their career

Our educational system is (still) broken. Because it conveys THIS as the perfect career: 

- pick a degree that you wanna specialize in
- get a master's that drives you further down specialization 
- start your first job 
- specialize further in one thing 
- do that thing for the next 40 years 

I have two problems with this. 

One, it's incredibly f**king boring. 
Two, it's a terrible way to prepare for the future. 

We don't know what the future holds. Had you told me six years ago that today that in 2025, I'd be able to run any research using a chat interface and get better results than most interns would produce within ten minutes at the price of $20/month, I'd have told you you're insane ... yet here we are. 

However, there's one skill I know is gonna be important: 

Adaptability. 

New technologies emerge daily. You can either fight them, or adapt to their existence, learn how to use them, and move forward. 

The best way to build out this skill: becoming a generalist. 

→ build out your set of meta skills
→ then, build a broad foundation in your field.
→ once you have this, go deeper on a few topics

I believe the future belongs to generalist. 
To the ones that adapt, learn new things, see intersections between different technologies. 

The days where being a "jack-of-all-trades" was a disadvantage are over.

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Applicants, I hate to break it to you, but: 

Nobody reads your CV in full. 

If you take a look at the number of applications for any given job here on LinkedIn, you get a feeling for how many CVs hiring managers sift through on a daily basis. 

Given that they also have other things to do, you can't assume they'll spend >5min reading your CV. So while it may be tempting to put EVERYTHING on there ... please don't. 

When I screen CVs for Generalyst, I look at it for 20-30 secs before forming a snap judgment. Pretty sure others operate similarly. 

Use this to your advantage: 
→ make your CV as short and concise as possible, less is more
→ outline the most important factors that make you stand out
→ write a brief 2-3 sentence summary (and for the love of God, DON'T let AI write it)

The job of a CV isn't to get you a job, it's to get you a first interview.

I'm currently building my second service business. Success comes down to 3 things (imo): 

Strong branding, relentless execution, and aligned incentives. 

A brand only becomes strong when external perception matches internal intention. If at Generalyst, we say we have top candidates for early-stage startups, but founders disagree, the brand breaks. When founders consistently confirm that our candidates are exceptional, the brand compounds.

That external pressure forces us to deliver every time.

I learned this during my first startup, Linguedo. We taught Italian nurses German in-house and put in far more effort than was strictly necessary. The course was so intense it would've become prohibitively expensive for most people. 

Once they passed their German exam, we placed them in local hospitals. 

The result: every single hospital was a (or at least, wanted to) become a repeat customers. Turns out, we did a much better job teaching German than any other language school. 

Underneath it all is one principle: value creation and value capture must live in the same place.

- We only earn money when a candidate signs.
- Candidates never pay.
- Companies pay for a successful hire.

Everyone wins when the match is right.

Building a great service business isn’t art. It’s just a craft. 

Do the basics better than most, do them longer than most, and let people talk about it.
That's it.

One hour from now, my 100th newsletter is gonna go out to 1,031 subscribers. Inside: 

→ how a single email I sent out on Dec 31st, 2022 lead to a fledgling portfolio career
→ how I'm currently designing said portfolio career
→ what the plan for the future is 

You can still subscribe to get those insights delivered into your inbox. Click the link below my name and it's gonna take you there. :)

(and to everyone reading all these newsletters – thank you!)

No one: 

People on LinkedIn: "after raising 120M, finally got that corner office" 

(just kidding, this is a WeWork - views are nice though)

A misconception that drives me nuts: young employees work harder than old employees. 

Dude yeah, of course a 20-year old needs to work harder than a 40-year old:
- they haven't figured out yet how to be ridiculously productive
- they lack the experience to understand what's important 
- they don't have the tools yet to get stuff done quickly 

I'm 100% convinced that: the candidate with ten years of experience will generate more output in six hours than the recent graduate will in twelve. 

Case in point: the most productive people I've ever seen are parents with several children. 

If they gotta go pick up the kids at 15:00, you can rest assured that whatever they needed to get done WILL be done by 15:00. They might say no to useless meetings, maybe skip lunch break, not respond to low-priority emails. 

But they will get it done. 

And isn't that what you want in an employee? 

We don't need more "productivity porn" where people simply sit at their desk all day. 

Output is what matters.

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity isn’t in the spectacular moments but rather in avoiding critical errors.” — Shane Parrish

Warren Buffett's first rule of investing? Never lose money. His second rule? Never forget rule one. 

This isn't clever wordplay - it's the mathematics of success. A 50% loss demands a 100% gain to break even. Or look at elite athletes: while average quarterbacks mix brilliant throws with costly interceptions, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes protect the ball first.

For Lacrosse defenders, fans look for the hard hits, fancy takeaway checks, and high-risk double teams. 

Coaches look for: 
→ accurate positioning
→ loud, constant communication
→ rock-solid footwork 
→ proper passing & groundball technique 

The best defense is the one that makes no critical mistakes, not the one that makes fancy plays. 

In business, most people look for high funding rounds, quick hacks, and eccentric founders.

Whereas most successful businesses have: 
→ solid profit margins
→ a legitimate problem that they solve well 
→ people who genuinely enjoy going to work 
→ a hiring process that avoids mis-hires 

Let’s wrap it up with another quote from Shane: 

“Excellence isn’t about occasional brilliance – it’s about consistent execution.”

Photo cred: Rebecca Fällenbacher

The Demotivational industry with pragmatic questions

Chief Marketing of Respect for Foreign Markets

UnTitled...

PTSD recovery from workplace hazard
Pivoted from "Chief executive" to "chief marketing" - Who knows the difference in job descriptions anyway? 😉

Sadly it took a long time to recover my sense of humour and process grief (WIP) while also showing my journey - transparency - shame is a complicated problem.

I try everyday to share knowledge so people don't suffer from gaslighting as I did. Building supportive communities and hopefully repurposing the status quo use cases of "social media" with no accountability of outcomes or duty of care. - Workplace

IMO we don't need more published research. We need to have the courage to tell our stories without fearing intimidation and retaliation - supportive cultures and communities - not for fame but for people to know how to recognise it and not endorse it, act.

Titles and ranking are a problem for dignity and respect. Renaming something does not imply "respect" in practice sadly. 

Shared accountability

" Chief Marketing " of recovering from being bullied (Health break)

Sprinklr

Storyteller ❤️Marketing

B2B2C 


Designed and deployed a bidirectional modern channels CRM escalation framework for Microsoft, Salesforce and Zendesk connectors by incorporating data minimization and lawful basis for processing under GDPR


Culture (People) first: Growth
Learning and Empowered teams : 
Diverse and inclusive non-negotiable personal operating principle. 

GTM leader for CRM connectors. ( Zendesk , Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce )
Blueprints designer. 

There is no point in research, if we cannot practically test our assumptions, learn and grow.

Integrity is not negotiable.
Transparency is how I build trust.
Consultative and challenger leadership style
Marketing is a competency NOT a department 
Giving people opportunity is what brings me joy and satisfaction


- Product marketing
- Service Design
- Operational Design
- Systems Thinking
- Technology/ Business Translator
- Scrum Master
- Platform Architect
- Digital Business Consultant
- Digital product management
- Contract negotiation
- Global rollout proposals and execution
- Consultancy and solutions for department cross-functional unification
- Revenue generation exploration and new business models
- Benchmarking - Competitive analysis
- Crisis management design
- Influencer marketing and UGC consultancy and design
- Distribution strategy
- Workshop and learning and development facilitation 
- Integrations and GTM track record of scaling products globally 
- User research
- Track record of discovery, designing and implementing revenue generation solutions with AI
- Track record of discovery, designing and implementing digital-first risk management programs at scale across EMEA
- Identified audit and role definition gaps across CRM connector lifecycle, contributing to information security readiness strategies.
- Developed product lifecycle and compliance workflows mapped to ISO Annex A controls (incident management, human resources security)

Technical Programme Manager

JeffreyM Consulting

Digital Marketing Services Lead Consultant - Software Implementation Services

Team Lead Digital Marketing Services

Led the service design and implementation of a high-stakes ESG compliance programme for Uber EMEA, focused on real-time escalation of safety incidents to Uber leadership to be reported to law enforcement or mitigated via company policies for consumer protection. 
Integrated operational controls aligned with Programme requirements ISO/IEC 27001 A.16 (Information Security Incident Management) and A.18.1.4 (Protection of Personally Identifiable Information), ensuring legal reporting obligations were met across multiple jurisdictions. 
Positioned the initiative as a model for global Business Continuity Management (BCM) scalability.

Digital Marketing Services Consultant - Managed Services

Spredfast

International Enablement Onboarding and Education

EMEA Senior Customer Support and Success

EMEA Customer Support and Success

Oracle

- PMK
- Supported portfolio of Marketing content/references/ PR/ Events for Taleo (Recruitment - Talent acquisition) and all Oracle Managed Services value proposition

Goal: Develop marketing assets from existing customers to drive sales

Product Marketing Specialist

Roche

Diagnostics section - Diabetes care
Preventive marketing campaigns
Diagnostics medical tech and supportive services for critical patience (children and elderly)

Marketing and Product Service Assistant

Intell Psy Group

Front desk officer

Johnson & Johnson

Operations specialist

Customer Technical Support Agent

"Style is the answer to everything
Fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing
To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without style
To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art" - Charles Bukowski – Style

Holistic cross-disciplinary experience design : digital & analogue 

Accessibility advocate through engagement


All my posts, communication are:

A experimental style of conversational and engagement portfolio

Hypo: 
- support understanding of the candidate outside of the possibly gamified standard candidate user journey (signalling) 
- limited time to assess a candidate/partnership

An invitation for candidates to feel comfortable with who they are, their manner of speaking, their preferences. 

A celebration of self expression we should feel more comfortable with. 

A way to show how a candidate thinks. 

A style to have the courage to be wrong publicly.

A style showing how Linkedin engagement and conversation can be a new way to learn from a wide variety of communities: dialogue, questions, diverse creative references, essays of posts, refinement of market research with industry communities. 

Not limited to Conways Law to communicate and learn or express to colleagues/ other communities. 

Micro-learning:  test how we learn every day from people around us; should not be limited to learn only from companies we were fortunate or unfortunate  to work for. 

Emergence can happen in many contexts. We can learn from some of our favourite authors through dialogue.


 My profile :

- A reflection of my personal professional interests

- exploration of how people react or behave on social networks (especially a professional one)

- complementing practical know-how for domain expertise developed since 2015 for modern social channels and background studies on Foreign Commercial Economic affairs

Interests: 

Design Driven Development, MedTech, EdTech, Tech sector, business models, scalability, ecosystems, business development through crowdsourcing, changing the recruitment and operational design of enterprises.

Life-long learner

Use of language

Arts and sciences need each other. 

Consulted on social media strategies, internal operational design for multinationals  since 2015 in a wide variety of verticals and geographies. 

- sales growth-oriented
- sustainability
- learning and playing
- social anthropology
- behavioural economics
- policies at scale and pilots
- black markets , distributed systems
- experimental educational styles
- cross-domain integration, 
- platforms 
- philosophy
- market research




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🐈‍⬛ Ana Mariș

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Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dominik Nitsch's LinkedIn Performance

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