Thomas Bachem (born November 14, 1985) is a German entrepreneur,

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, Computer programming, programming, software documentation, documenting, software testing, testing, and Software bugs, bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applic ...

and investor. He is founder and chancellor of the CODE University of Applied Sciences in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Career

Bachem grew up in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

and taught himself

computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as ana ...

at the age of 12 years. As a teenager, he ran an online portal for

software development Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invol ...

and developed websites for corporate customers. Parallel to his studies at

Cologne Business School The CBS International Business School (CBS) is a state-recognised, private business school which emerged in 2020 from the individual brands Cologne Business School (CBS) and European Management School (EMS). At its locations in Cologne, Mainz, ...

, he developed the video-sharing website

sevenload Sevenload was a German-based video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos. Since its founding in April 2006, the platform emerged on international markets to become a Social Media Network for photos, videos and web TV c ...

in 2005, which acquired more than €25 million in

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

while he was still a student and was sold to

Hubert Burda Media Hubert Burda Media Holding is a German media group with headquarters in Offenburg. It originated as a small printing business, founded by Franz Burda Snr in Philippsburg, in 1903. In 1986, the corporate group was divided up between Franz Jnr, ...

in 2010. Immediately thereafter he founded United Prototype, which developed the social game Fliplife and was acquired in 2012 by German-Turkish gaming company Kaisergames. In his spare time, Bachem developed Lebenslauf.com (engl. ''Resume.com''), an online CV editor which he sold to publicly traded

XING AG XING is a Hamburg-based career-oriented social networking site, operated by New Work SE (until mid-2019 ''XING SE''). The site is primarily focused on the German-speaking market, alongside XING Spain, and competes with the American platform Li ...

in 2014. In 2016, Bachem founded the CODE University of Applied Sciences in Berlin in an effort to improve the education of software developers since existing

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

courses appeared outdated and too theoretical to him. The accredited

private university Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grant (money ...

was granted state recognition by the state of Berlin in July 2017 and commenced its English-language studies in October 2017. Bachem is the youngest university chancellor in Germany. In addition to its own entrepreneurial activities Bachem supports young startup companies as an

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

Voluntary Commitment

In 2012, Bachem, together with other internet entrepreneurs, founded the German Startups Association as a political voice for startups in Germany. He serves as its Vice Chairman ever since. Bachem also initiated the non-profit Code+Design Initiative and is a senator of the

German Academy of Science and Engineering Acatech (styled ''acatech),'' founded in 2002 and established as the German Academy of Science and Engineering (german: Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften) on 1 January 2008, represents the interests of Germany, German technical sciences ...

. He is a long-time member of the

Entrepreneurs' Organization Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) is a global non-profit organization formerly known as Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO). The organization was founded in 1987. History In 1987, 22 young entrepreneurs created an organization and what was ...

and for many years served as a regional board chair.

Awards

Germany's leading business newspaper

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Du ...

named Bachem "Founder of the Year 2017". German magazine

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

honored him in the same year as "Young Elite - Top 40 under 40" in the Society and Science category. In December 2017, the magazine Business Punk named him one of "100 Rising Stars" in its "Watchlist 2018". In August 2019, he received the " Innovators Under 35" award of the German issue of MIT Technology Review and was named "Social Innovator of the Year". Previously, Bachem was already named as a "famous German founder" in 2010 by business magazine WirtschaftsWoche and in 2014 as one of 25 "notorious founders - Germany's pioneers." In 2019, the university he founded was awarded the "German Excellence Prize" as well as honored as an "Excellent Place" in the annual "Land of Ideas" competition.

References

External links

Thomas Bachem's Personal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bachem, Thomas 1985 births Living people Businesspeople from Cologne German computer programmers German company founders 21st-century German businesspeople