“Product market fit, product market fit, and product market fit,” Thomas Kiessling says when asked what advice he gives founders. “That’s it. There’s no magic. It’s customers. Are you solving a problem? Are you creating value? Do you really make a difference? Is that difference big enough?”
This relentless focus on fundamentals comes from someone who’s built companies from the ground up and scaled existing firms to massive exits. He co-founded Amply Power, which was acquired by BP and led Securitas Direct as CTO to a $5 billion acquisition by Hellman & Friedman.
Currently consulting various climate tech companies, including Siemens Smart Infrastructure on their AI strategy, Thomas is also a co-founder and investor in multiple clean tech companies like Peachtree Infrastructure LLC and Aigen.ai, respectively.
Thomas’s expertise isn’t limited to one sector—he’s led successful ventures in telecommunications, travel, gaming, and financial technology. Previously as COO at Symphony.com, he grew the valuation from $600 million to $1.4 billion while securing $460 million in funding from Google, Goldman Sachs, and other top-tier investors. At Deutsche Telekom, he led a $1B revenue digital business unit. This cross-industry perspective allows him to identify best practices and patterns of success that transcend specific markets.
“The most exciting part is cross-connecting what’s happening across agriculture, industry, energy networks, buildings, and transport,” he says. “They’re all at different stages of maturity, but the fundamental challenge is the same—how do we make these assets more autonomous and sustainable?”
As a Venture Advisor at AI Fund, Thomas brings his unique blend of corporate leadership and startup experience to help founders navigate the critical early stages of building AI-powered companies with a focus on industrial applications, clean tech, and infrastructure transformation.
Thomas holds a PhD in operations research and has served as a Research Fellow at Harvard University. Based in Palo Alto, he’s fluent in five languages, including German, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
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