Freelancer profile translated to English.
Back to original languageAbout Jakob
I am Jakob Saalfrank, Co-Founder & CEO and freelance operations and strategy consultant for organizations with complex challenges (B2B industrial, logistics, and automation).
I built a deep-tech cargo drone company in Barcelona from concept, seeking two co-founders, creating, pivoting, and executing strategy, leading an interdisciplinary team, raising private capital and public funds, building a proof of concept, and generating a conditional pipeline of €40M+ through LOIs.
Previously, at SSI Schäfer, I was responsible for deliveries in automated warehouse projects and worked for startups in Germany, the UK, and Spain in sales and marketing.
How can I help you (mission examples):
- Strategy + GTM: customer discovery, value proposition, collaborations, letters of interest, MOUs, and stakeholder mapping, and roadmap.
- Operations and processes: process design, stakeholder workshops, implementation, and continuous improvement.
- Unit economics in logistics: economic modeling, scenarios, and actionable recommendations.
- PMO/Program Management: planning structure, risks, dependencies, reporting, and execution.
I work with a 100% results-oriented approach, clarity of communication, and concrete deliverables.
German
Native or bilingual
English
Native or bilingual
Spanish
Conversational
Can work on-site
Barcelona (up to 50km)
Experience
- Grasshopper Air MobilityFounder & CEOLOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAINFebruary 2023 - Today (3 years and 4 months)Barcelona, Spain
- Built and led a multidisciplinary team (engineering/design/business development/operations/finance); recruited and onboarded 2 co-founders and 5 senior advisors.
- Raised capital from angel investors + non-dilutive grants to fund PoC development and early validation activities.
- Secured letters of interest (LOI) totaling 85 units and signed 5 Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with strategic partners.
- Delivered 2 digital prototypes and completed a flight proof of concept in 8 weeks.
- Drove executive-level stakeholder engagement, including a PoC demonstration to the President of Spain in 2025.
- Led an extensive six-month analysis of drone logistics and economics with a Swedish express logistics company.
- Pivoted business strategy from passenger mobility to heavy cargo drones, towards a short-term focused product and roadmap, based on customer needs.
- Won Best Logistics Startup 2025 (CEL) and Best Aviation Startup 2024 (BNEW) awards; was a Top 15 finalist in the EU Startups Summit 2025 pitch competition.
- CPM InternationalTele-Operator Customer Service Agent German and EnglishHEALTH AND WELLNESSJuly 2022 - Today (3 years and 11 months)Barcelona, SpainImproved customer service operations: created over 150 templates and knowledge bases; managed over 5000 inquiries.
- Indra Sistemas S.A.QA ConsultantTRANSPORTATIONAugust 2022 - January 2023 (5 months)
- Developed QA flows in the Indra Transport division
- Introduced and implemented JIRA for software quality control testing in 1 SME and 1 corporate.
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Education
- Master Program in Digital Product ManagementNuclio Digital School2021Proyecto final: desarrolló una idea de producto, estableció una hoja de ruta del producto, construyó un MPV, recopiló comentarios del mercado, escribió un pitch deck y lo presentó a los inversores.
- B.A. International BusinessThe Berlin School of Economics and Law2017Doble titulación de la Universidad Anglia Ruskin (Cambridge, Reino Unido) y la Escuela de Economía y Derecho de Berlín (Alemania)