From TheAppGuys to DIVISIO

A few years ago I announced the start of my new company TheAppGuys, which I founded together with my friend and business partner Marko Nußbaum. Unsurprisingly, it has gotten pretty quiet on this blog since then. (Who could have known that starting your own company is so much work…)

Five years later, TheAppGuys is thriving, growing organically (we managed to build everything by bootstrapping and our own initial investment) and heading for greater things. I however was not thriving anymore, the years had taken their toll. While I learned a lot (!), both technically and regarding business, I am a bit out of ideas on where to head as a mobile agency. Luckily, Marko sees things quite differently and has a very concrete and motivated idea on where to take the company, so he has agreed to be the sole CEO of TheAppGuys. I will continue to support TheAppGuys in a consulting position as Software Architect from time to time but Marko will call the shots.

So where are things going from here? One of the areas of CS that always fascinated me most has been AI, ever since learning about classical Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Vision in university, where I also first came into contact with Machine Learning (ML). Luckily we had some projects in the area of Machine Learning back at TheAppGuys, so I never lost touch with the topic.

After some much needed time out, I am now free to reorient myself. I have decided to focus fully on AI, currently of course mainly on ML. So I am now working again as a Freelance Consultant doing ML gigs, with a focus on real world projects, i.e. actually getting a working system to the end customer. This is where I (hopefully) can bring in my experience as a server and middleware developer, and of course my mobile know-how.

To document and support my ML work, I started DIVSIO, my ML / AI brand, where I plan to blog hopefully useful explanations about all things AI and maybe other interesting algorithmic questions. Maybe a new company will spring from that, maybe not, we will see. But it will for the time being the focus of my new business endeavors. In case you are wondering where the cool DIVISIO design comes from: It is by MOMOS design, a new TheAppGuys brand. (Momos or Momus is the Greek god of sharp-tongued and petty criticism)

I will continue to blog occasional interesting stuff on henkelmann.eu that I deem somehow interesting or useful, but I will keep it more private and non-business oriented (maybe some cactus content, we’ll see)