Portrait of Matthias

matthias

leyendecker

Building high-impact products and the organisations that run them.

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From launching a fintech platform in twelve months to establishing product organisations from scratch to scaling remote teams across five time zones – I’ve shipped at every stage, from corporate to co-founder. Here’s how I can work with you:

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I’ve spent over fifteen years at the intersection of product, engineering, and business – mostly in fintech, mostly in Europe, part of that as a founder and entrepreneur. I was lucky enough to work alongside incredibly talented people and transform platforms and organisations along the way.

A handful of things I’ve learned:

  • Humans do their best work without fear of failure.
  • Architecture decisions have the longest consequences.
  • There’s no universal product playbook – context is everything.
  • Being a jack of all trades can make you a master of many.
  • Velocity beats precision – always.

Outside of work, I have a rotating cast of hyper-focus obsessions – heavy or ambient music, photography, pen & paper RPGs, reviving old computers, coding side projects – and a fixed cast of humans I do life with: my partner Sophie and our two kids, near the Black Forest in southern Germany. My e-reader never leaves my side – you can see my current reading list below.

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I’m fairly easy to reach – and I actually respond. LinkedIn works, though DMs there tend to get buried. Email or a DM on Bluesky is the safest bet, and if you need a more private channel, we can always exchange Signal usernames. Happy to connect and chat.