01
Program design
I design innovation programs that survive contact with reality. Clear problem statements, a short list of startups worth meeting, and a decision at the end instead of another workshop.
Hey,I'mMax
Ibuildecosystems,buildwithAIandbringpeopletogether.
Hey,I'mMax
Ibuildecosystems,buildwithAIandbringpeopletogether.
Open Innovation at Plug and Play. Based in Abu Dhabi, usually somewhere else.
What I do
I sit between corporates and startups, and try to make that useful.
Open innovation at Plug and Play. That means connecting large companies with startups, then designing and running the programs that turn those meetings into something real. I have done this across Europe, the Middle East, West Africa and the Caucasus.
02
Startup scouting
I find the companies that actually fit the problem, not the ones with the best landing page. Mostly deep sourcing, founder calls, and saying no a lot.
03
Workshops and trainings
Sessions that get corporate teams and founders in the same room speaking the same language. Short, hands on, and built around one real decision.
04
Ecosystem assessments
Where is the talent, the capital and the policy going in a given market, and what should you do about it. I have run this across Europe, the Middle East, West Africa and the Caucasus.
Who I work with
Everyone it takes to make innovation happen.Click a word.
Tools
What I build with.
Where I work
Fifteen countries, one job: make startups and big organizations useful to each other.
A snapshot of some of the projects, not all of them. Click a pin for what I actually did there. No client names, ever.
AI incubator, current base ยท United Arab Emirates
Abu Dhabi
Capital moves quickly when the mandate is clear.
- Running a 10-week AI incubator for early-stage founders
- Built the AI track: six hands-on sprints on the AI toolstack
- Corporate immersions plus investor and government introductions
Building
I automate most of my own work and build small tools with AI.
Nothing here is a company. Each one started because something kept eating my time.
Max Control
An AI agent that works like a secretary: handles my scheduling, runs tasks for me automatically and tells me what to focus on.
Lumen
Takes the raw data from my Fitbit, reinterprets it in a design I actually want to look at, syncs it to the cloud and runs real analytics on it for training, recovery and general health.
Automations for recurring work
Interview write-ups, outreach lists, weekly reports.
Code and experiments live onGitHub.
Games
Small browser games, classics with one thing changed.
No account, no ads, nothing to install. They run in a tab.
About
How I got here.
Finance, then consulting, then startups. The short version.
Now
Plug and Play (Open Innovation, global team)
Valencia, now Abu Dhabi - Innovation programs, startup scouting and ecosystem work.
Before
Founder's Associate, Gaidnts
Early team, a bit of everything.
Before
M&A at Accuracy, consulting at Eurogroup Consulting
Transactions and projects with large organizations.
Studied
CEMS MIM (Bocconi, Rotterdam School of Management), UC Berkeley Haas, BSc Maastricht
Contact
Say hello.
Open to talking about startups, innovation programs and AI builds.
The fastest way to reach me is email. I read everything, I answer most things.