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

Scope Merge

Scope Merge helps German companies hire skilled remote engineers from Tunisia, faster and more affordably, with no administrative overhead

Founder & CEO

MOTOR Ai

Led company operations at a fast-growing autonomous driving startup. Oversaw HR, procurement, and directly managed the Safety and Type Approval team. Supported client engagement and provided operational support for technical development. Built systems, workflows, and teams that enabled growth, regulatory compliance, and execution of a complex, cross-functional activities. Led the conception and launch of a multimillion-Euro project in Level 4 autonomous driving and vehicle safety compliance.

Head of Operations

PwC Deutschland

Led AI certification, compliance, and technical audits for autonomous systems and startups, with a focus on safety, robustness, and regulatory alignment

Senior Associate

- Advised clients on AI strategy, governance, and product development, bridging tech, legal, and business across high-stakes projects
- Drove go-to-market initiatives with leading AI startups and built tools to ensure trust, scalability, and adoption of responsible AI

Associate

Characterization of Adversarial Examples Phenomenon and Development of a Defense System

Master Thesis

BMW Group

Intern

Polymath Ventures

- Helped create the new B2B branch of a venture
- Performed a data analysis of B2B sales
- Created a new model of incentives for employees
- Implemented new technologies into products

Infineon Technologies

- Creation of quantitative reports for sales and marketing
- Support in target setting process for  sales
- Support the introduction of innovations and the implementation of sales and marketing processes
- Data analysis of customer sales, projects and plannings

Working Student

2nd Level Support center of Infineon Worldwide. 
- Handling of customer inquiries
- Creation and optimization of the knowledge management procedures and processes of the call center      
- Independent maintenance of the location directory & distributors list on the Infineon website using "OPEN -CMS "
- Extension of the symbols in the" Block Diagram Builder "(XML based for MS Draw)
- Creation of the annual static report of all services in the support center
- Organizational implementation of the mystery calls for the quality control / improvement of the call center agents

- 77 GHz Automotive FMCW MIMO Radar examination and simulation on Matlab 
- Microcontroller programming
- Sensors integration and implementation with Robot Operating System (ROS)

Internship

perisens GmbH

Enhancement of the performance of a SAR (Synthetic aperture radar) system in the close up range.

Bachelor's Thesis

Technische Universität München

Working at eCARus, a hands-on Project of the TUM Department of Energy Conversion Technology, in which Students build an electric car with the team “on-board power supply and car body”, a first task was the design and installation of a new WLAN Box. The second Task was the whole conception and design of the new throttle on the tech stand. All with the 3D-CAD software Autodesk Inventor.

Analysis of human movement in field of Autonomous Robot Navigation in Urban Environment. Working with Qualisys a motion capture system and Matlab at the TUM Chair of Automatic Control Engineering

Research Internship

I’m Youssef, founder of Scope Merge. 

I was born and raised in Tunisia and moved to Germany to study engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

My career took me from AI consulting at PwC to becoming Head of Operations at a Berlin startup building autonomous driving technology.

Across these roles, I hired dozens of people and led hundreds of interviews. And in every role, one challenge kept surfacing: hiring the right people, fast.

I saw talented companies drowning in recruitment processes, missing deadlines, and losing momentum. Not because the talent didn’t exist, but because it was out of reach or simply too expensive.

At the same time, I knew what Tunisia had to offer. Thousands of highly skilled, multilingual professionals - software engineers, data analysts, product managers, QA testers, designers, and more - eager to contribute and hungry to grow.

The issue wasn’t talent. It was access.

That’s why I started Scope Merge.

We believe Tunisia is Europe’s secret advantage. Close in culture, rich in skills, and still untapped by most competitors.

We connect companies with exceptional remote talent. We act as the legal employer in Tunisia so our clients don't have to set up a local entity. But our work goes far beyond compliance. We are not just a service provider. We are a growth partner.

We deliver talent that matches the quality companies expect, often at up to 50 percent lower cost than hiring locally.

This is not about cutting corners. It is about creating win-win outcomes. Our Tunisian professionals earn excellent salaries. Companies regain budget flexibility. And teams grow faster, with less friction.

I created Scope Merge because I have lived both sides. I have felt the pain of hiring inside fast-growing companies and I have seen the talent overlooked simply because it was a few borders away.

This is not outsourcing. It is unlocking potential.

We build bridges, not just contracts.
We focus on attitude, not just location.
We make remote excellence feel local and seamless from day one.

Youssef Hedhili

€37,850 for one engineer in Germany.


His competitor hired 4 engineers in Tunisia for the same budget.

Month 1: Posted the job. 247 applications. 3 qualified candidates.
Month 2-3: Interviews. Salary negotiations. "I need to think about it."
Month 4: Counter-offers from their current employer. Ghosting. Starting over.
Month 5-6: Finally hired someone. They quit after 60 days.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.
The actual costs:

Recruiter fees: €10,000
His time interviewing (100+ hours): €6,000
Salary premium to win them: €9,000 (budgeted €65K, paid €74K)
Second recruitment cycle: €12,850

That's €37,850 before payroll or benefits.

You're not paying for talent. You're paying because everyone's competing for the same 100 people in Berlin.

His competitor took a different approach. Same budget. Built a team of 4 engineers in Tunisia. Same time zone. Same work hours. They had the capacity to execute faster.

The problem isn't talent. Germany has excellent engineers. But when you're competing with Google, SAP, and every funded startup for the same candidates, you either lose or overpay.

Real example from a company I work with:

Germany: 4 engineers = €300K/year
Tunisia: 4 engineers = €134K/year

Same quality. Better economics. 

They're able to win projects they wouldn't have won otherwise.

If you're tired of 6-month hiring timelines, €10K+ per hire, or budget constraints killing your roadmap, let's talk.

Founder & CEO at Scope Merge | Building engineering teams for European tech companies in Tunisia

"We need to move closer to home. The far east worked for decades, but the risks don't make sense anymore."

Heard this from multiple people at the 60th Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e.V. (BME) Symposium und Logistik in Berlin last week.

North Africa keeps coming up in these procurement and supply chain conversations. Whether it's sourcing materials or building teams.

Good to connect with German-Tunisian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, AHK Marocco, and AHK Algeria. Thanks to Amine Bouguerra for making it happen.

𝗪𝗲'𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿 (𝗟𝗟𝗠 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀)

Looking for a Senior AI Engineer to join one of our European clients building AI and LLM solutions across multiple industries.

You'll research and build real solutions – from PoC to production.

Work on everything from RAG to multi-agent systems and define tech stacks.

5+ years experience. Based in Tunisia. Above-market salary. International teams.

If this sounds like you, let's talk. Link in comments 👇

#Hiring #AI #LLM #Tunisia #TechJobs

Yesterday's webinar confirmed something: most German companies are confused about the exact same thing.

Who has the contract with whom when you hire remote teams abroad?

I got this question like four different ways. So here's how it actually works with Employer of Record (EOR) models. Basically a company that legally employs people on your behalf in another country:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁:
The employee in Tunisia (or wherever) signs an employment contract with the EOR. Real employment contract with social security, paid leave, all the local protections.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁:
The EOR has a Dienstleistungsvertrag with your company in Germany. You pay the EOR, the EOR handles payroll and pays the employee locally.

𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴:
Even though the EOR is technically the employer, the person works exclusively for YOUR company. You manage them directly. They're on your team, just employed through a local entity abroad.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀:
Classic outsourcing is about deliverables. You tell them what you need, they figure out who does it and how. Consultants get shuffled between clients and projects.

This model? You're building your own dedicated team. They don't rotate. You own the roadmap, the culture, how things get done. Long-term team building, not project-based consulting.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗲𝘁:
You build a real team without setting up a foreign entity. The employees get job security with one stable company. You manage them like your own team. Legal employment handled through local law.

Basically: your team, just employed somewhere else, no admin nightmare on your end.

If you're exploring this and the legal pieces still don't add up, just ask below.

Germany's immigration system worked when it was fast and reliable.

It's neither anymore.

36% of companies report talent shortages.
Visa processing: 2 to 6 months.
26% of immigrants consider leaving.

The companies that will win aren't waiting for reform.

If immigration can't scale, what's the alternative?

Germany's Talent Crisis: Beyond Immigration

𝗘𝘀 𝗴𝗶𝗯𝘁 𝘇𝘄𝗲𝗶 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘃𝗼𝗻 𝗡𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗶𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝘂𝗳𝗯𝗮𝘂𝗲𝗻. 𝗪𝗶𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗻𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝘁𝘇𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀.

Was viele Dienstleister machen:
Sie vermitteln Freelancer auf Projektbasis. Läuft das Projekt aus, rotiert die Person zum nächsten Kunden. Kurze Einsätze, keine Bindung.

Was wir bei Scope Merge machen:
Wir rekrutieren Ingenieure in Tunesien gezielt für EIN Unternehmen. Diese arbeiten ausschließlich für dieses Team - vollständig integriert in Prozesse und Kultur.

Das bedeutet:

 • Festanstellung in Tunesien (CNSS, Urlaub, Gehalt in Dinar)
 • Durchschnittlich 1-2 Jahre Zusammenarbeit
 • Danach oft Direktanstellung beim deutschen Unternehmen
 • Keine Rotation. Keine Bench. Keine "Ressourcen"

Unsere Ingenieure wechseln nicht zum nächsten Projekt. Sie wachsen mit IHREM Team.

Manche übernehmen nach einem Jahr die technische Leitung. Andere ziehen nach Deutschland und werden direkt angestellt. 
Das ist kein Bug - es ist ein Feature.

𝗪𝗶𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝘂𝗲𝗻 𝗸𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗽𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀.
𝗪𝗶𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝘂𝗲𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻 - 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵-𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀.

Wer hat ähnliche Erfahrungen mit echtem Team-Building über Grenzen hinweg gemacht?

𝗣𝗦: 𝗔𝗺 𝟭𝟭.𝟭𝟭. 𝘇𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝟯𝟬 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗸𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗘𝗢𝗥- 𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴-𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘇𝗲𝘀𝘀. 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗶𝗺 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹.

#TechTalent #Nearshoring #Engineering

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The Battle

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