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.

Hast du das Gefühl, dass dein Wachstum zu stark an Google/Meta, einzelnen großen Partnern oder kurzfristigen Kampagnen hängt – und dass ROI/Planbarkeit dabei immer stärker unter Druck geraten?

Dann bist du nicht allein. Viele Teams skalieren Volumen – aber verlieren Inkrementalität, Profitabilität und Kontrolle aus dem Blick.

Ich bin Marcel Schöne, Gründer, Inhaber & Managing Director der uppr GmbH – der größten inhabergeführten Agentur für Affiliate-Marketing in DACH. Seit 2015 helfe ich gemeinsam mit meinem Team Advertisern und Publishern, Partnership Marketing als planbaren Wachstumskanal aufzubauen – messbar, steuerbar und erfolgsbasiert. Bekannt u.a. von Auftritten auf dem OMR Festival, Affiliate Tactixx, digital Bash.

Was du durch Zusammenarbeit mit uns typischerweise bekommst:
⚙️ Governance statt Wildwuchs: klare Regeln, Rollen, Incentives & Qualitätsstandards
📈 Inkrementalität statt “Bidding-Wettrüsten”: saubere Messlogik, die echte Zusatzwirkung sichtbar macht
💰 Profitabilität & Planbarkeit: Fokus auf Deckungsbeitrag, Effizienz und nachhaltige Skalierung
🤝 Kuratiertes Partnernetzwerk: strategische Kooperationen statt “irgendwo gelistet”
🔎 Transparenz & Kontrolle: KPI-Set, Reporting-Routinen und klare Steuerungshebel

So arbeite ich (bzw. uppr) mit Unternehmen:
🧭 Standortbestimmung (Setup, Partner-Portfolio, Risiken, Messbarkeit)
🧱 Strategie & Zielbild (Rolle von Partnerships im Marketing-Mix, Governance, KPI-Framework)
🚀 Umsetzung & Skalierung (Partneraufbau, Aktivierung, Optimierung, kontinuierliches Controlling)

Wenn du Partnership Marketing bei dir neu aufsetzen oder auf ein professionelles Steuerungsniveau heben willst: Schreib mir hier auf LinkedIn – gern mit ein paar Stichworten zu Branche, Ziel und aktuellem Setup.

Marcel Schöne

Viele reden über „People first“.
Für mich heißt das auch: Elternzeit ohne "Angst" – in der Geschäftsleitung.

Meine liebe Geschäftsleitungs-Kollegin Kristina Auster ist in Elternzeit gegangen. 🥰

Ich weiß noch genau, wie sie vor 6 Jahren bei uppr GmbH - PERFORMANCE PARTNERSHIPS gestartet ist. Ganz andere Rolle, ganz anderes Setup, viel kleineres Team.

Seitdem ist so viel passiert.

Ihre Aufgaben haben sich geändert.
Unsere Struktur hat sich geändert.
Unsere Agentur ist stark gewachsen.

Ohne sie und ohne Kristina Gärtner wären wir mit uppr heute nicht da, wo wir stehen. Punkt.

→ Beide haben Kund:innen begeistert
→ Prozesse aufgebaut
→ Verantwortung übernommen
→ unsere Kultur mitgeprägt

Dafür ein riesiges DANKE. 🙏 (Auch wenn ich das im Alltag viel zu selten so klar sage.)

Aus eigener Erfahrung weiß ich: Elternzeit ist das Beste, was man machen kann.
Diese Zeit kommt nicht zurück.

Und ja, für uns als Unternehmen heißt das auch: umbauen, umverteilen, umdenken.

Zum Glück sind wir so aufgestellt, dass das geht.
Unsere Kunden und Partner bekommen weiterhin:

→ 100 % Performance
→ 100 % Transparenz
→ 100 % Fairness

Das ist unser Anspruch – unabhängig davon, wer gerade im Büro ist und wer auf dem Spielplatz. 💡

Kristina, danke für deinen Weg bis hierhin.
Ich freue mich jetzt schon auf den Moment, wenn du wieder am Start bist – mit neuen Geschichten im Gepäck. 🚀

🤝 Partnership Marketing & Affiliate: Inkrementalität statt Bidding-Wettrüsten | 📈 Erfolgsbasiert skalieren | 🏆 Größte inhabergeführte Partnership- & Affiliate-Agentur | 👤 Inhaber & Geschäftsführer uppr | 🎙️ Speaker

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