Hi, I'm LX

(or Dr. Alexander Kihm – engineer, economist and serial entrepreneur)

My short background

I was born in Düsseldorf to two loving parents and grew up with two brilliant and crazy siblings, all of whom I am proud of every day.
It was my family's great entrepreneurial spirit that drove me to start my first company at the age of 18, and it exists until today as Germany's largest network of lawyers (Advo-Assist).
After high school my interest for engineering drew me to the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), where I finished my diploma/masters in Industrial Engineering summa cum laude. My studies also included a stint at the Université de La Réunion to learn French, Creole, environmental econonics and diving. My final thesis then brought me to Concepción in Chile, where I learnt as much Spanish as biogas engineering (both just enough let's say).
Afterwards I realized that I wasn't ready for a "normal job" (and I think by today it's clear I never will be) and I rather followed my dream of academics and teaching, writing my PhD thesis at the German Aerospace Center in cooperation with Jacobs University Bremen (now Constructor University). As the initial strategy of using neural networks heavily underperformed at the time, I instead developed a "classic" hypothesis-based regression model, which with its 85 predictors is still probably one of the largest ever built.
Towards the end I reckoned that I am not made for a classic academic career and instead grasped the opportunity to co-found Fairr (now Germany's leading online pension provider and part of Raisin).

Current focus

While still helping out remotely in both AdvoAssist and Raisin, I am exploring new endeavours, most prominently among them my incubator TIGON in Andorra, where I normally pass the winter. TIGON's main project and the focus of my attention is POMA, where we apply cutting-edge AI systems to actual domain-specific use.

Past / other projects

  • Advo-Assist: Germany's largest platform for lawyers replacing each other in court.

  • Volkswagen Golf GTE: the first real fun mass-market plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that we (at the German Aerospace Center) co-developed (and that I now privately drive as well).

  • wisch.me: online booking for house cleaners – and my first experience in orderly liquidating a business after too many loaded competitors enter the market…

  • Fairr: Germany's first online-only pension broker with custom-developed low-cost state-subsidized contracts for everyone. Now part of Raisin (see below).

  • car2ad: a brilliant concept (using roof ad displays to finance car sharing), leadership and technology – but still my first graceful write-off as a mentoring angel investor.

  • Raisin: well, no explanation needed.

  • Rubarb: my first conflict of interest and second write-off, but I still don't regret anything, had to back the promising team and concept.

  • Mika: once I had co-founded a solution for the most pressing under-addressed problem (old age provision), that left the question what can imperil you before. Enter mika.

  • BabelBox: the Covid lockdowns and Janoš Münker brought me this brilliant project to facilitate remote simultaneous interpretation with modern technology.

  • eaze: too many people (honestly including me) regularly have difficulties finding a good sleep with everything that is going on in our tumultuous lives. eaze fixes that with an innovative non-medical human-AI hybrid approach.

Contact

Just write me a good old email to
alex[-at-]kihm.cc
😎