KobeWhy we're building Kobe
The three of us were all unobvious hires. Not one of us would have passed a standard CV screen for the roles we ended up excelling in. But as we started hiring ourselves, we realized the system fails from both sides. The only signal that predicts success — whether someone has solved similar challenges before — is buried in the tools we use every day, not on a CV.
Three founders. Three times the traditional process failed. Three times actual performance told a completely different story.
We wanted to build a tool that makes real work visible. We realized the best way to do that was by reading the tools where work actually happens — Slack, Notion, meeting notes. That's how Kobe was born.
With Kobe, hiring finally measures what actually matters.
The minds behind the mission
Kobe was born in Berlin. We're a small, technical founding team with a shared history of building products and scaling companies together. We've worked side by side for years — through a company acquisition, hiring at scale, and now building the system we wish had existed.
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CEO & Co-founder
Co-founded Explo, a travel app that scaled to 150k users before pivoting to B2B and being acquired by HUP GmbH in 2025. Led NeoTaste’s London launch and restructured their growth team after taking over the Head of Marketing role from Careem’s ex-CMO — at 25. Runs Kobe’s strategy, fundraising, and go-to-market.
CPO & Co-founder
Co-founded Explo alongside Nils. After the acquisition, applied to Google, Facebook, and Notion — didn’t get a single interview. Then Toggl’s performance-based process revealed the truth: top quantile test week scores, promoted within one month, eventually leading 3 product teams. Convinced Plug & Play Accelerator to accept their first non-profit. Runs Kobe’s product and design.
CTO & Co-founder
Worked as a freelance engineer at Explo, then got rejected from Terramate through their standard application. Went to their public GitHub, fixed their open bug tickets, and booked a call with the CEO. Hired on the spot to work alongside ex-FAANG engineers — without a CS degree. Studies computer science at HPI, Germany’s #1 ranked CS university. Runs Kobe’s engineering and infrastructure.
CVs are dead. We're building what comes next.
If this resonates, we'd love to hear from you.