Volker Eloesser built a startup in North Korea. He had previously only heard crazy things about the country in the press, so he wanted to form his own opinion.
A conversation with Volker Eloesser is like reading an exciting book that takes a surprising turn every few pages. Eloesser is an entrepreneur – but could also be an adventurer. Eloesser has been building companies since the 1980s, has made millions, was in North Korea for several years and is an exceptional programmer who has renovated old houses in his free time or assembled a real airplane in order to then fly it. He admits that the plane thing was “crazy”.
For a few years now, Eloesser’s life has been a little less crazy: he runs a successful niche online shop for historical door fittings. But next it could also be something with artificial intelligence (AI).
The serial entrepreneur built his first business at 17. In 1987 he sold computer hardware, and later wrote computer code on behalf of customers – including for games. “The word startup didn’t even exist back then,” says Eloesser. It was the time when people got the first fax machines and when invoices were written using typewriters. And when he had to teach himself to code by copying lines from printed newspapers, as he says in the Gründerszene podcast “This is how startups work”.
He got his first big code deal by transferring code in machine language from an Amiga to another system while completing his high school diploma. Machine language: This is what only those programmers who should be at the top of your payroll know these days.
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The tendency to do things that others consider impossible
At the time, Eloesser wrote code for computer games, but was not at all interested in the games themselves. “I did that because I was looking for a challenge,” says Eloesser. “I’m trying something that is considered very complicated and actually almost impossible. And I get my confirmation and motivation from the fact that I can do it after all. No matter what industry, no matter what position.”
The dotcom bubble around the year 2000 hit his company hard after most of his major clients went bankrupt. “I then closed the shop without going bankrupt. But only because I earned well before,” he says. He doesn’t know exactly how much he earned back then. But then, among other things, he was able to afford a manor that needed renovation for more than 200,000 German marks.
Volker Eloesser built his own airplane in the early 2000s. And then it flies. A friend once caused an accident with it, but nothing happened. Volker Eloesser
Back then, he saved most of the money through a frugal lifestyle. He lived in a small house and shoveled the coal himself. “I hate the people who spend their money lavishly,” says Eloesser. And adds: “I always spent my money on what I wanted to do. I built an airplane in between.” There was an aircraft factory in Romania that sold kits for real small airplanes. He then put it together. “I had no idea, I had two left hands. When it was finished, I flew around with it for years.”
He builds an airplane and buys a manor
After the plane comes the manor: a large house with rotten beams and a huge overgrown garden, says Eloeser. “It sat empty for a very long time and all the real estate experts ran away screaming. I did it because it was considered insoluble.” He also lived in the half-finished ruins. And programmed in parallel. “And since I got a relatively large renovation budget from the bank as a loan, I was also able to use it to buy something to eat.”
In 2004, one of the world‘s first augmented reality games emerged from the house ruins: the cell phone camera displayed digital content in addition to the image. In the case of Eloesser’s game, these were viruses that the user could shoot. The model came from Siemens, which is said to have worked on something similar two and a half years earlier with a budget of millions and 20 people, according to Eloesser. But he was faster. It only took him six weeks. “They were pissed,” he says.
Volker Eloesser sells company to Jamba for millions
He sold the game to Jamba, which everyone knew about in the early 2000s – because of the overpriced ringtones. And because of the Crazy Frog. Jamba later bought the entire company from Eloesser for millions because he had built software with which Jamba could easily bring its own software to different cell phones in order to appeal to more customers.
Volker Eloesser is not allowed to talk about exactly how high the exit was. NDA. But he was able to buy a few houses with it.
He only got to know Oliver Samwer, who ran Jamba at the time and later founded Rocket Internet. “He bought us and sold Jamba at the same time,” says Eloesser. The US company Verisign then bought Jamba and also concluded the exit agreement with Elocom, which was the name of Eloesser’s company at the time. Verisign itself then quickly sold Jamba to News Corp.
“We were on a merry-go-round, with a completely unfamiliar American corporate culture.” Shortly before the purchase by News Corp, there were many new hires. After the purchase, people were laid off again. “It didn’t matter that it was about people and fate,” says Eloesser. “It was an absolute nightmare.” After two and a half years, Eloesser’s department was closed.
North Korea: “Because I wasn’t in the mood for Americans anymore”
“I had earned a decent amount of money and received a decent severance package. I then sat in the garden and read the newspaper. But you can only do that for one summer.” So Eloesser looked for a new challenge: “I then went to North Korea because I wasn’t in the mood for Americans anymore.”
That was in 2008. At the time, Kim Jong-Il, the now deceased father of the current ruler Kim Jong-Un, was in power. The father was called “The Madman with the Bomb” in the West, who was responsible, among other things, for millions of North Koreans starving to death. That didn’t deter Eloesser at the time. North Korea was a “blank spot on the map. Nobody really knew anything about it, except that they had heard about the craziness in the press. I wanted to know: How crazy is this really?”
He was invited through an entrepreneur friend, drove through the country with a deputy minister and a secret service agent and saw a lot. “Much more unfiltered than on a tourist trip,” says Eloesser.
And he founded another IT company there: “I found it incredibly fascinating, it was completely different from what I knew at home. And of course there were possibilities: Kim Jong-Il had proclaimed that IT was the future. So the state was very interested in pushing IT forward. There were a lot of young people who wanted to achieve something.”
His North Korean employees had no internet. His own was so slow that you couldn’t even access websites with it.
A part of the population was suffering, he himself was doing business: he had already had the discussion several times. He tried to “create a change for the better through mutual rapprochement.” At least the Internet has gotten better since then. At the time, Westerners only had modem internet, which was too slow to access websites, says Eloesser. The normal employees did not have and were not allowed to have internet. Today at least some people there have access to the Internet.
Volker Eloesser had to appear in films for Kim Jong-Il
In 2011 he moved back to Germany because of the birth of his child, he says. If the child had been born in North Korea, “the child would have become a media star,” said Eloesser. He added that he was one himself.
“The Koreans have actually cast me as an actor in several films. At some point, Kim Jon-Il gave the order that I had to appear in these films,” says Eloesser. “My employees then explained to me that it wasn’t an order, but rather tried to motivate me so that I would enjoy doing it. Which I did. I couldn’t have said no, but I didn’t say no either.”
Back in Germany, he first bought a new apartment, then the house that went with it. This was also not in good condition and needs to be renovated. Out of self-interest, Eloesser set up a window business to import the heavy products from Europe. The North Korean company programmed the online shop for this at the time. Because of the difficult returns, Eloesser then gave up the business. “It was a nice business because we had nice products. But it was too difficult for me physically, so it was a stupid business.”
Back in Germany, Volker Eloesser founded the niche online shop Ventano: It sells historical door fittings and tiles.
Smart cat flap
In parallel to the windows, he also imported door handles and window handles from India. He had a pallet sent to him for testing and expected that instead of the desired handles, scrap or a pallet full of stones would arrive. But he was lucky: “You have to try things out, you can’t be afraid. You have to do it first and then have concerns. Otherwise you never get started and then you never achieve anything.” This is how his current business came about: Ventano. He sells historical fittings for doors and windows, as well as cement tiles. According to our own statements, it is very successful and continues to grow.
At the same time, for personal reasons, he is also working on a new idea: a cat flap with artificial intelligence. So that the flap only opens when the cat doesn’t bring a mouse into the house. The model comes from Switzerland and is called Kittyflap, but according to Eloesser it is still under development. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we finished it quicker.” And if that works? “Maybe I’ll make autonomous combine harvesters, or what I know,” says Eloesser and laughs.