Heiko Hubertz – Oxolo’s CEO – on tough pivots and strategic AI integration

Hello, Heiko! Great to have you with us. Let’s start with how you’re changing direction with Oxolo—where are you at right now, and what has that process been like?

Heiko Hubertz: It’s been a challenge. We raised our Series A in the late summer of 2023, and at that time, we had just launched our AI-to-video product. The idea was that you could enter a text prompt or URL, we would scrape all the data, and within minutes, a video would be generated from that content. The unique part was the avatar—a real human that, through AI-driven lip-syncing, could say whatever you wanted. You could have a virtual product presenter or an educational guide explaining things, which was really cool. We saw a great initial response, with thousands of new users signing up every day to test the product. But as time went on, we ran into challenges with scaling.

If you want to compete in the AI market, especially in Europe, GDPR is a huge factor. You don’t get access to the right training data to optimize AI models, and companies have concerns about transferring their data to a third-party platform to generate videos. On top of that, major tech companies like Google, which have much larger funding or don’t need external funding, were developing similar products. Competing with them would be extremely difficult.

So, by summer 2024—roughly a year after our financing round—we made a big decision: we had to take a completely different path. The first hard step was deciding that we would no longer focus on video. That meant that every employee working solely on video had to leave. The second decision was that we didn’t want to focus on enterprise customers or rely on a traditional sales-heavy approach anymore. Instead, we wanted to shift to a consumer and prosumer marketing model.

That’s a major shift. How did you decide what to focus on next?

Everyone on the sales team and those focused on enterprise also had to leave. With the remaining team, we started evaluating what we could build using the technology and expertise we already had. In the end, we landed on something completely new, which we’re set to launch at the end of Q1—a human-like AI assistant. Now, instead of generating videos, our AI connects with all your data sources, understands your information, and proactively helps you manage it.

For example, if you ask, “Who am I meeting today?” the AI provides a full breakdown—not just names and times, but deeper background information about each person, their role, company, past interactions, job changes, birthdays, or anything else relevant. It prepares you for meetings with useful context, so you’re better informed. That’s just one example, but the key point is that our AI helps people deal with the overwhelming amount of data they interact with daily. It’s not just answering questions—it’s proactively supporting users.

Did you find that the enterprise space was too competitive? Is that why you're now focusing more on B2C?

Yeah, competitiveness is definitely one part. The other part is access to data. If you go to a bigger company—even those that aren’t fully enterprise yet but have a few hundred employees—there are so many decision-makers involved. Whether it's for video or our assistant solution, we always need access to data to create something new.

With smaller companies, it's much simpler. If you talk to a business with five, ten, or twenty people, they have fewer concerns. The managing director can just decide, "Okay, this helps us be more productive, let's use it." But with larger companies, there are so many layers, and so many policies to navigate before they even agree to test the product. That’s exactly what we wanted to avoid. Instead of going after a handful of massive clients, we’re looking at a broad mass-market approach.

Let’s talk about AI innovation which is moving incredibly fast right now. You mentioned earlier that keeping up can be difficult. What do you think the US is doing differently compared to Europe?

It’s not just the US, China and other regions are also moving much faster. One big reason is that they don’t focus as much on data protection. That’s a major hurdle in Europe. But beyond that, I think mindset plays a huge role.

In the US, people are more open to testing new technologies, sharing data, and focusing on the benefits. In Europe, the conversation almost always starts with regulation, protection, and concerns. I’m not saying that’s necessarily bad—it’s good to have safeguards—but it slows down innovation. It also discourages investors from backing European AI companies. That’s why you see massive funding rounds happening outside of Europe instead. That being said, there’s still a strong opportunity for European companies in AI. We can build great applications using open-source models and deliver them to a global market. That’s exactly what we’re focusing on.

You’ve mentioned before that you specifically sought out a co-founder this time around. How did you and former Oxoloo co-founder Elizabeth connect?

We met through a mutual friend—we didn’t know each other before. I told this friend that I wanted to start something new in AI, but I didn’t want to do it alone. In all my previous companies, I was a solo founder and this time I wanted a different dynamic.

I was also looking for a female co-founder to bring a fresh perspective. I’m more of a tech and product guy, more behind the scenes. I wanted someone who was more sales-oriented, someone outgoing, and who enjoyed representing the company to the world. My friend introduced us and said, "I know someone—she's working at another company right now, but you two should meet." So we did. And right away, we felt like it could work. We’re totally different personalities, but that’s a strength. We knew we could create something greater together.

When it came to the decision to pivot, were you both aligned from the start? Or was that a difficult process?

Let’s say it was a process. But Elisabeth is a very positive person - she kept saying, "We’ll find a way, we’ll figure it out." But I was more skeptical. After a few months, I realized we had to make a hard decision.

I saw that we still had a lot of cash in the bank, and I thought, "Let’s invest that in something new rather than spending another year or two fighting a battle we know we’re going to lose."

As we started discussing the new direction—moving fully into a consumer-driven approach—it became clear that the company was evolving in a way that wasn’t necessarily the right fit for her anymore. So we decided that she would step back from day-to-day operations. She’s still connected to the company and supports us, but she’s no longer involved in the daily business.

Making such a major pivot after raising funds can’t have been easy. How did your investors react to the change in direction?

They invested, and 12 months later, we made a 100% pivot. That’s not what investors are looking for. But at the same time, I also had a clear view of what was happening outside the company—the market, and the regulations. So it wasn’t a long process to convince them to go in this new direction. They were 100% supportive.

Even though they initially invested in a different vision, they helped us during the ideation phase—offering ideas, sharing trends they had seen, and helping us evaluate potential markets. The hardest part wasn’t convincing them to pivot. The real challenge was those two or three months of figuring out what to do next. But I’ve always been a big believer in transparency, and that’s exactly how we handled this. We were fully open about the ideas we were exploring, the capabilities of our team, and where we believed we had a strong chance to win. That period of ideation was very well managed, both internally and with our investors.

What were some of the biggest operational challenges that came with this pivot?

The biggest challenge we had—and still have—is being a remote company. We started the company in the early days of COVID, so at that time, it was clear that we couldn’t meet in person. We couldn’t bring people into an office, so I decided to turn that disadvantage into an advantage and build a remote-first company. That allowed us to hire the best people globally, without being restricted to a single city or location. And in that sense, it worked really well—we were able to bring in some incredibly talented people.

On the other hand, by not sitting together every day, you lose a lot of the spontaneous communication, creativity, and control that comes from working in the same space. I tell everyone now that I would never start a fully remote company again. While I enjoy remote work, I can see how much time and creativity get lost when you don’t have those in-person moments. Now, we’ve shifted to a hybrid model. I’m currently in our office in Hamburg, where we have nine of our remaining 20 team members. The rest are still spread across Europe.

Looking ahead, what are your biggest goals for 2025?

Exactly. The most important thing is launching the new product and finding product-market fit. That’s what we’re working on right now. We don’t want our new product to be too broad. If you call it an AI assistant, it could do everything and nothing at the same time. So it’s really about identifying the right use case, focusing on that, working towards product-market fit, and then moving on to go-to-market and scaling.

We have ambitious goals in terms of revenue and user numbers, but the most important thing right now—and what I tell everyone—is that we need to build a very strong, highly focused product. Once we’ve done that, it will be much easier to scale and generate strong, sustainable revenue.

The good and bad part is that we’re not training our own AI models. We’re using other models, so as I mentioned, we’re building an application on top of an AI. But even though we’re not training AI ourselves, inference—actually running AI models for users—still requires a lot of computing power.

AI models can take a huge amount of energy to run. How are you dealing with this issue?

Using AI consumes a lot of energy. Training AI models requires even more, but inference—especially when you have a large number of users—also uses significant server resources.

Right now, we’re relying on the major hyperscalers that are available on the market—AWS, Google, and Microsoft—because they provide the best infrastructure and surrounding software solutions for building AI applications. That’s why we’re using what’s already available.

In the long run, we’ll need to evaluate whether we should build our own private cloud or set up our own server solutions, and then energy consumption will become something we have to think about. But at this stage, using hyperscalers is definitely the best solution, and energy isn’t a major concern for us.

Okay, cool. Let’s shift gears a little and talk about you. You’ve founded four companies. What is it about building and growing a company that excites you the most?

I always compare it to playing on a sports team. Every season, a team starts fresh, wanting to win the championship. That’s exactly how I feel about startups. I want to build something, and we want to win in the market. That doesn’t necessarily mean we need to be the global market leader, but it means we want to win in our specific niche—whether that’s a particular territory, target group, or use case. We want to build something we can be proud of. At the end of the day, week, month, year, or even at the end of the company, we should all be able to sit down and say, "That was a cool experience. We built something meaningful. Customers are using it, and they’re willing to pay for it."

That’s what excites me—launching a product and checking the stats every morning. How many new users did we get overnight? How much revenue did we generate? What’s our App Store rating? Seeing that growth and success is what keeps me motivated. Of course, startups are a rollercoaster. There are ups and downs. You might go through a period where you feel like you have a huge problem and don’t know how to solve it. But then you do, and that rush of energy and excitement is incredible. That’s what makes me happy.

I could never imagine working for or being part of a big enterprise. You don’t get that same rollercoaster. You don’t get that excitement of building something from scratch and being proud of what you’ve accomplished as a team. That’s what I really love about startups.

That's a good answer. And how do you build resilience within your team? It's such an important skill.

Do you play any sports yourself?

Yeah. Not everyone is built for that kind of pressure. I play golf, and that also gives me a sense of excitement—every time you hit a ball, you just hope it goes the right way and doesn’t land in the water or stray too far off course.

So you enjoy the roller coaster, the challenge of going for the win in whatever space you're in. How do you balance that fast-paced founder life with your personal life?

In the early days, when I first started my 4 companies, it was all about the business. The roller coaster was just part of it, and I didn’t think much about balance. But that was in my early 20s, which was a completely different time.

Now, in my late 40s, my family—my daughter, and my girlfriend—play a much bigger role in my life. They take care of me, and I make sure to take time for them. Golf is also an important part of how I balance things. It’s a completely different kind of challenge, where my only focus is on hitting that tiny ball the right way. When I'm on the course, I’m outside, getting fresh air, and I can’t think about the company or any of the things that usually worry me. That really helps me to reset.

That being said, I still love the roller coaster. The process of building something from scratch, putting in the effort, and seeing it grow—that’s what I enjoy. I wouldn’t be happy running a company with hundreds or thousands of employees where my role is just to manage things. I like the early days when there were big swings and a lot to figure out. Once a company reaches scale, I think other people should take over because it becomes a different kind of challenge. The ups and downs become much smaller, and that’s less exciting for me.

What would you like to do more of in your life? Do you see yourself mentoring or working with founders more?

No, I don’t think so. For a while, I was a business angel and invested in a lot of startups, but I realized that’s not what excites me. I wouldn’t say I was a bad investor, but I like being in the driver’s seat. As a founder, you’re the one making the decisions every day, and you’re responsible for the outcome. That’s what I love.

I’m in my late 40s now, but maybe even in my late 50s, I’ll start another company. If I do, it will be with a different mindset, a different energy, and maybe a different financial background.

You build differently when you’ve been through it before. But I know that being a founder and building startups is something I’ll do for the rest of my life.

That’s great. Thank you so much for your time and your honesty.

Thank you very much.