Hi, I'm Jannis Dust.

Founder, Engineer, Triathlete. I spent 3,5 years building software - now I'm figuring out what to build in DeepTech/Climate. I'm obsessed with physical problems to solve, which is why I decided to work on that from now on.I also started to write on HEY World about all things related to my journey. Please don't hesitate to message me on jannis@hey.com. Moreover, you can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Currently: Deep Tech/ Climate Tech

I was always more than interested in science and especially physics. During the last years, I figured out that the combination of science and business may be one thing I could really shine at. So, after epap's acquisition failed, I noticed somewhat fast that I wanted to go back to my obsession with these physical questions and challenges. Since then, I worked on figuring out what my next venture could be.
Hardware is obviously new to me, but I think trying to solve the fundamental questions of our generation, is one of the most important things to do and one, in which I can really use my specific abilities the best. Being obsessed with physics and learning new things obviously helped.Thus, I ideated through fusion, aviation, hydrogen, semiconductors, synthetics, and more. If done right by me, you can read more about that in my small blog entries.

Co-Founder of epap

The first real company I started was epap when I was 19. We started the journey while barely even knowing each other and to be honest, we actually were just three random people meeting at a networking event and thought about starting a company together (the smallest common denominator).
Fast forward several months, it somehow did work and epap became a market research company focused on analysing everyday receipts of customers in brick-and-mortar retail stores. With our app, users could upload their receipts to earn money and see their spending behaviour. With their consent, we used own models to analyse the shopping behaviour and enable FMCG-brands to understand their customers better. Win:Win for both sides.Four months in, we raised our first pre-seed investment which then resulted in a total funding of 1.3€ million in two seed rounds. As the CMO/CRO, I played a key role in scaling our software to over 100,000 users resulting in ~150.000 receipts per month, contributing to a somewhat substantial revenue over 3.5 years. The project came to an end in 2023 with our acquisition failing a few weeks before signing, which led us to be out of runway (follow-up financing also failed because of lack of time).

Engineer & Student

When I was in school, I always wanted to study physics to learn as much about the universe as possible. Space was one of my key interests. Around the age of 16, I noticed that I can leverage my potential/ impact even more when starting my own business in the future. Therefore I was looking into studying something that combines both science & economics to make me some kind of generalist. Back then, the best compromise for me was studying Industrial engineering, which I started by the age of 17, first at a university for applied science, whilst being employed and trying to start my first own businesses.I made my first business experiences by:
... launching a D2C brand with 18 (failed), and
... building websites and webapps as a freelancer (considered as failed as well)I didn't like the focus of the applied degree program, so I decided to quit and study at a common university in 2019 to focus more on the theoretical part - the year I also started epap.I wasn't a very good student in the conventional sense, because I literally just took the exams twice a year, learned everything by myself after work, and skipped the lectures almost entirely. However, I finished in 2023, specialising on product engineering and writing my thesis about "Sustainable and Energy-efficient Aviation: Physically Feasible and Economically Viable Technologies" (grade: 1.3)

Triathlete & Ultra Running

At some point in the last few years I decided that I want to finish an Ironman asap. So, in January 2022, I started training for my first triathlon, which I soon finished the same year.Turns out I really like going to the edge of my capability and fighting myself, because in that year I actually did my first 5 races up to the olympic distance, which is 1.5km swimming, 40km bike, and 10km running.In 2023, I did not only run my first 5k race, my first 10k, my first half marathon race, my first marathon, my first ultra marathon, but also my first triathlon middle distance (1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run).After doing my first middle distance, I am now training to achieve my goal: In 2024, I'll become an Ironman in Frankfurt. And I'll continue to start for a triathlon team in the 4th German league.