The 1stMOVER-Team
Dr.-Ing. Klemens Gaida
Klemens Gaida is an ICT engineer specializing in semiconductor technology and holds a doctorate in Telecom System & Service Design.
After working as a consultant and most recently as a partner at the ICT management consultancy Eutelis Consult from 1993 to 2001, Klemens was responsible for the development and international roll-out of new service platforms and products as Executive Innovation Manager at the mobile communications group Vodafone from 2001 to 2009.
He then founded the start-up incubator and open innovation consultancy 1stMOVER in Düsseldorf. From 2009 to 2019, several start-ups were developed from the incubator, most recently the B2B SaaS Trusted References. As an open innovation consultancy for companies and business development agencies, 1stMOVER specializes in technology business development, open innovation hubs and the development of start-ups & spin-offs in the digital, new energies and high-tech sectors.
From 2016 to 2023, Klemens Gaida was also Managing Director of the Digital Innovation Hub Düsseldorf/Rhineland - a regional Open Innovation Center & Accelerator for startups, SMEs, large companies, universities and investors. From 2021 to 2023, Klemens Gaida headed the top funding program Scale-up.NRW for particularly high-growth tech startups from NRW.
At the beginning of 2024, Klemens joined one of the most promising NRW scale-ups combining DeepTech and B2B SaaS for six months: IANUS Simulation. There he worked as Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer, which included the areas of Corporate Strategy, Platform & Portfolio Management, New Product & Market Development, Internationalization and Growth Financing.
Klemens has been back at 1stMOVER as a full-time managing director since July 2024 and continues to expand the consulting business there: with new products on the topics of product-market fit, venture clienting and AI agents as well as new open innovation initiatives for vertical startup hubs and an innovation lab network.
- +49 172 2430321
- xing.com/profile/klemens_gaida
- linkedin.com/in/klemensgaida/de
- Member of Deutsche Digitale Beiräte
