Born in Frankfurt, Germany 1985, Marcus is a university dropout and founded his first company, www.rebuy.com, at 17. Rebuy became one of Germany’s leading circular economy retailers, raised +50M$ in venture capital, is employing over 700 employees, and has annual revenues exceeding 250M$. Besides rebuy, Marcus has co-created and invested in over 70 venture capital-backed companies from many industries, such as social impact, e-commerce, insurance, food delivery, SaaS, aviation, fintech, health tech, marketplaces, and ad tech. He is the founder of www.optiopay.com, a Berlin-based technology company serving large enterprise clients in the financial industry. Today he serves as a Founding Partner of www.aqvc.com, a fund of funds specialized in Venture Capital funds and software for capital formation. Marcus is a member of the German FinTechRat and, in this role, advises the German Federal Ministry of Finance. In addition, he serves on the board of RUCK Foundation which is dedicated to the education of children and fostering social engagement. Marcus is an obsessive adventure traveller, skier, wake- & kite-surfer, author, and culture sponsor in his spare time. Marcus has dedicated a large portion of his private life to the teachings of happiness. Starting in Sep. 2013, Marcus traveled around the world for an entire year, interviewing over 100 people about personal happiness (countries such as North Korea, Bhutan, Nepal, China, Myanmar, Mongolia, Tanzania, and a dozen more). Based on his research, Marcus has co-founded hapily.de. Hapily has developed digital surveys to measure personal happiness and offers happiness teachings based on online courses, coaching, and workshops. Most recently he has co-founded www.imacthero.com, a company dedicated to reducing carbon emissions through the natural power of trees and providing a positive impact on the SDGs.