Who are the people behind Beyond?
moved to notion
Alex and Shane met 5 years ago when they both lived in Hamburg, down the street from each other. They were both volunteering for a workshop to teach programming to refugees, and remained friends since then. They bonded over their love of reading and building products, and now are turning that passion into Beyond. Katia was approached as a business angel and after a longer period of advising and collaborating, ended up joining Alex and Shane as a commercial co-founder.
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Shane Neubauer
I'm Shane, born and raised in Australia, but I'm also half Austrian. I moved to Europe in 2015, and have lived here ever since. I love tech, reading, and learning everything I can. I also love to exercise, eat good food, and stay healthy. I'm also a massive music lover — both listening and creating.
Australian living in Lisbon, Portugal
Eng Lead @ Google, Founder in Residence @ EF, Founder FruitDAO
Experience as an engineer, also building and leading large engineering teams.
Constantly reading and delving into many topics such as marketing, business, finance, startups, leadership.
I'm a college dropout, opting to take a less conventional route in my career.
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Alexander Hipp
I'm Alex, born and raised in Germany. I lived in a couple of places like Hawaii, Boston, London, Hamburg and some smaller places in South Germany. I'm a design and tech enthusiast building products for purpose and solving real problems. When I'm not working on Beyond, I love playing with our Australian Shepherd girl Rovi, going hiking and camping, and reading.
German living in Barcelona, Spain
Senior Product Manager @ N26, Product Manager @ XING, Founder of PM Library & Riptide
Experience with monetisation of B2C subscription & freemium products
My strength is to be able to switch fast between visual and analytical, as well as, visionary and detail-thinking to build a bold new product that surprises in the details.
Studied the psychological and educational aspects of how people learn with digital products in university.
Katia Yakovleva
I'm Katia, born in the USSR, raised in Kiev (Ukraine) , moved to Berlin (Germany) in the age of 15 because of my dad's job. I also lived in Madrid (Spain) for 5 years, where I studied and worked. I'm a passionate networker / connecter and I speak 4 languages fluently. I love learning new things and meeting new people, reading books, especially science fiction. I also love to travel, to surf and go to music festivals.
Ukrainian-Russian living in Berlin, Germany and seriously exploring options to move back to Southern Europe with my husband and a 5 year old daughter and join my co-founders in Lisbon or Barcelona
Sales Marketing Lead @Spotify, previously @Coca-Cola & @EMI Music Publishing.
Experience in marketing and sales, but also building and leading high performing teams.
I am driven by curiosity and working with people who challenge me and everything around them.
Proud podcast host of Female Business Angels Podcast, hence I'm very passionate about equal chances and female empowerment. Angel investor in 8 startups.