As an entrepreneurial, innovative, and consultative professional, I possess 18+ years of startup and business management experience across a breadth of sectors – from consultancy through sales to information technology with my most recent venture at adstrong. 

I am widely regarded for my propensity to locate growth opportunities as well as pioneer business development initiatives. I have paved a history of influence and impact, directly cultivating company growth throughout my career trajectory. In doing so, I have continually met market demand with innovative, value-adding, and cutting-edge products and services.

My core body of professional specialties ranges from business leadership, operations management, and strategy development to optimization & sales strategies. My accountabilities have required me to leverage an entrepreneurial mindset, partnership building and negotiation, as well as strong business & financial acumen, systematic business management, and project governance to streamline end-to-end ops and maximize returns.  

As an entrepreneur who has pioneered numerous businesses, I understand the requirements of building a successful business, and honing a client-first mentality. I am adept at translating customer insights into progressive strategies, contributing to the success of various operations within a competitive environment and ensuring products/ services reach their maximum user-end value. 

As a venture capitalist, I am competent in extending approaches, spearheading development initiatives, overseeing sales operations, and identifying opportunities for process improvement to drive effectiveness.

Peers, mentors, and clients alike commend me as a reliable, down-to-earth, and continuously innovative change agent, growth advocate, and champion of effective, pragmatic action and leadership.

I welcome contacts from potential colleagues and clients, and other professionals in my space. Feel free to contact me through this profile if you wish to connect.

Ingmar Albert

When you start a company, the first few hires are the most dangerous decisions you will ever make.

In the beginning, you aren't just hiring for a "role." You are hiring the culture. If those first 5 people aren't aligned, the next 50 never will be. 

Starting at McKinsey to the startups I have founded and exited, I have learned that the best talent on paper is often the wrong talent for a scaling business. I have stopped looking for the most impressive CV and started looking for something much harder to find: High-trust alignment.

At adstrong, we have built a team that doesn't just work well together, but actually like hanging out together. To some, that sounds like a "nice to have." To me, it is a strategic requirement.

Here is why leveraging your network and hiring people you know deeply is the ultimate scale hack:

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁
When you hire from your network, you skip the "getting to know you" phase. You already know how they handle pressure and whether they will tell you the truth when things are going wrong. In a fast-growing company, that trust is the only thing that allows you to move at speed.

𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀
Every high-performer has weaknesses. The problem with hiring strangers is that it takes 6-12 months to find out what those weaknesses are. By then, the damage might be done. 

When you hire people you know well, you already have the full picture. You know their "blind spots" just as well as their "superpowers." This puts you in a position of strength as a CEO. You can strategically position them where they are guaranteed to succeed and build systems that cover their gaps. You aren't managing a CV; you are managing a known set of variables.

"𝗡𝗼-𝗖𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲" 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲
We spend more time with our colleagues than almost anyone else. If you are building a company where you dread the Monday morning meeting because of the personalities in the room, you have already lost. I want to be surrounded by people who challenge me, yes... but also people I would happily grab a beer with on a Friday.

𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁
The best people want to work with two things: big problems and great people. When you hire the "best of the best" from your network, they bring their own networks with them. It creates a virtuous cycle where high-performers want to join because they see the caliber of the people already in the room.

Building a team from zero isn't about filling seats. It is about curating a group of people who are as invested in the "why" as you are.

Ingmar V. Albert

The "Google Tax" is a choice, not a requirement.

When we were involved in the legal friction that forced the creation of the CSS program, the goal wasn't just to "add a link" to the bottom of an ad. It was to introduce actual auction competition into a space that had been a monopoly.

Years later, I'm still surprised by how many sophisticated brands treat the ~20% internal margin they pay to Google as a "cost of doing business." It isn't.

In an environment where CAC is rising and margins are being squeezed by global competition, that 20% isn't just a saving. It's a reinvestment fund. If your competitor is bidding 1€ through a CSS and you are bidding 1€ through Google Shopping, they are effectively outbidding you by about 20% before the auction even starts.

At adstrong, we now manage over 20% of all CSS Centers globally. We don't do this by selling a "discount." we do it by treating the Shopping auction as what it is: a game of marginal gains.

Whether it's using a Branded CSS to reclaim agency authority or leveraging Keyword CSS to occupy more than one spot in the carousel, the goal is the same: Min/Maxing the available real estate.

What worked to get you to 1 million often becomes the very thing that prevents you from getting to 10 million. I call this the "Complexity Tax."

As you scale, your overhead doesn't just grow: it compounds. Your decision-making slows down. You start optimizing for "not losing" instead of winning. But the most dangerous part of the Complexity Tax is that it is often invisible. It hides in your default settings, your legacy contracts, and your "standard" operational procedures.

The most successful CEOs I know aren't the ones who work the hardest. They are the ones who are ruthless about identifying these invisible taxes. 

They ask questions that others find uncomfortable:
1. Is this "industry standard" actually efficient, or is it just what everyone else is doing?
2. Are we building our own infrastructure, or are we just renting someone else's?
3. If we had to start from zero today, would we choose the partners we have now?

Scaling a business isn't about doing more of the same. It is about constantly auditing the foundations you are standing on. If you aren't willing to break your own processes to find a more efficient path, the market will eventually break them for you.

Leadership isn't just about vision. It is about the discipline to keep the "Complexity Tax" from eating your future.

I am tired of hearing about the "grind."

I have been in McKinsey boardrooms and the trenches of my own startups. If there is one thing I have learned, it is this: If you are relying on your team to "push harder" just to hit your numbers, you have hit a ceiling that effort alone won't break.

"Grinding" is often just a symptom of a system that is working against you.

Most CEOs think they can outwork a bad setup. But you can't out-hustle a 20% disadvantage in a Google auction, just like you can't out-hustle a flawed strategy. You are just asking your people to work twice as hard for the same result.

At adstrong, we didn't just build another tool. We fixed the math of the game. We removed the friction so our clients could win without having to redline their teams.

I don't want to be the guy who works the most hours. I want to be the guy who builds the best machine.

Growth shouldn't be a test of endurance. It should be a result of better architecture. If you find yourself stuck, stop looking at the clock and start looking at the pipes.

Stop trying to out-hustle the auction. Start fixing the machine.

Hi, I’m Sander—Managing Director at SCALIVO. We help Europe’s top e-commerce brands reduce customer service costs without compromising quality.

At SCALIVO, my co-founder Stephen Delisle and I lead a skilled team that delivers multilingual, 24/7 written support. We focus on cutting costs, improving efficiency, and building customer loyalty by combining smart tools with human expertise. The result? Exceptional customer experiences at a fraction of the usual cost.

Our transparent, per-ticket pricing ensures predictable costs and consistent quality across European languages. With scalable, modern solutions, we replace outdated customer service models, enabling businesses to grow without being tied to long-term contracts. Our remote-first team, based mainly in Ukraine, operates efficiently and ethically to deliver real results.

I thrive on driving growth, solving complex problems, and helping businesses achieve operational excellence.

Outside of work, I’m a proud partner of my girlfriend and father of our son. I’m also fly fishing enthusiast. When I don't work or spend time with my family, I am likely wading through a trout stream, ideally somewhere high up in the Alps! I’m equally passionate about electronic music production and release from time to time techno tracks on obscure labels.

Other notable work related highlights:

★ Played an integral role, as a Sales leader, in helping several companies to achieve significant growth.
★ Designed and implemented successful sales strategies for several bootsstrapped startups.
★ Hired many top performers in various roles over the years.
★ Established long lasting partnerships with various enterprises and thousands of SMBs over the years.

I love meeting people and learning new things so feel free to send me an invitation to connect.

Let's connect! → scalivo.co / sander@scalivo.co / +49 160 946 964 00

Sander Bohlen

What if you paid your operations team like salespeople?
And held them to the same standards?

I spent years in sales leadership wondering: 
Could the high-pay, high-accountability model work outside of sales? Would people feel better or burn out?

Now we have the answer. We run our entire operations team like a sales floor. 
You know, the results surprised me.
We offer excellent pay.
We can attract the best talent available in Ukraine by just outpaying everyone.
That part is actually easy.

But we also have an attrition like a Sales team: 35 - 50% don’t make it through the first month. 
We are not a charity, and 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: If you don’t hit the high target, you are out. It is tough.

The interesting part: 
• Zero turnover among top performers in 2025 - not a single person who hit target has left
• Every payday, we get thank-you messages from our team.
• Our best people stay with us, because we give our best.
• Our clients notice the outstanding quality (at a great price) and we constantly grow

In sales, generous compensation is easy to justify - the ROI is obvious. In operations, you're expected to cut costs, not increase them. 

The only way to pay great in Operations is by having the workforce outside of the EU high-cost market. 

Yes, we could find good people for half the price. But we chose to work with the best instead.  And the best team delivers an output at a quality so much higher than what good teams can achieve.

And maybe interesting to know: you could have these extremely capable people working for you as well.

Immediate Ops Relief | Ops-as-a-Service | Managing Director at SCALIVO

Accounting Alert: During our recruiting process for another client we talked to a very senior profile. Too senior for this client short term. Let’s see if the network effect is happening:

CFO with +20 years experience. Worked in international settings. Has passed Big 4 audits very regularly. Ready to do whatever work you need in accounting. Top motivated. Excellent English, no German. Available short term. And a very nice person to talk to, that’s why I spread it here.

Cost: 25% of what you expect. 14 days Free Trial. Monthly contract.

DM me if interesting. Thank you!

Customer Service That Cuts Costs, Not Quality | Managing Director at SCALIVO

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