About us
Our mission
think-cell is the de facto standard when it comes to professional presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint. With our lean structure as well as above-average levels of automation and profitability, we can fully concentrate on improving our existing software and innovating new products.
To continuously meet the demands of our customers with a product that is expertly tailored to their needs, we make no compromises with regard to code quality. Our software developers are accomplished experts in their field. We give them room for cutting-edge ideas and solutions, and we only release our software once it is ready.
Our Management
CEO
With over 15 years of experience in sales, management consulting, and entrepreneurship, Alexander is responsible for think-cell's overall success through delivering growth, innovation, and customer value. His expertise lies in leading international teams, strategic planning, business development, and enterprise sales. He studied business administration & management and holds a master’s degree in finance & strategic management from HHL Leipzig School of Management.
CTO
Christian is responsible for the development of all our software products. He leads our R&D department as well as our quality assurance and customer support teams. Christian studied Physics and received his doctorate at the Free University of Berlin.
CFO & COO
Adam is responsible for the financial and operational management of the company. He has a strong track record in private equity-backed software and services businesses, where he scaled finance and operations functions to support double-digit growth. Adam holds an MBA from Mannheim Business School and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
Founder & Chairman
Markus oversees think-cell's strategic development from a board perspective and advises the company on various business aspects. Before founding think-cell, Markus was a project manager at Fraunhofer. He studied computer science and business and holds a doctoral degree from TU Berlin with a specialization in artificial intelligence.
Founder & Technical advisor
Arno advises the company on various technology aspects. Before founding think-cell, Arno worked at Microsoft Research and McKinsey. Arno studied computer science and management and holds a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech with a specialization in computer graphics.
Our story
Here is how think-cell came to be:
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Problem identified During his PhD studies in Computer Graphics at Georgia Institute of Technology Arno Schödl spends some time at Microsoft Research and McKinsey. There he faces the problem of slide production from both sides of the coin: as a software engineer and as an expert user. |
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September 2001 |
Schoolmates reunited Arno contacts Markus Hannebauer – a former schoolmate and Artificial Intelligence researcher at Fraunhofer – with the idea to join forces and apply their research findings to make slide production more efficient. |
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April 2002 |
Company built Within a few weeks, Markus raises money from private and public sources to cover the development costs for the first product and think-cell comes to life. StartUp 2002 think-cell wins the 2002 Berlin StartUp award by Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband, McKinsey, Stern and ZDF. |
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July 2003 |
1st German lead customer think-cell quickly develops the charting package think-cell chart. The German branch of a leading strategy consulting firm becomes our first customer and is still an important mentor today. |
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Early 2005 |
Internationalization starts Revenues keep growing in 2004, but the real break-through is in 2005, when several consulting firms become customers and internationalization takes place. Also, client organizations pick up the best practices from their consultants and order larger numbers of licenses themselves. |
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November 2005 |
think-cell 4 released |
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February 2006 |
15,000+ paying users |
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June 2006 |
think-cell 4.2 released |
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September 2006 |
20,000+ paying users |
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March 2007 |
think-cell 4.3 released |
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June 2007 |
30,000+ paying users |
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October 2007 |
think-cell 5.0 released Deloitte Rising Star Without much marketing effort, news about the benefits of our software spread by word-of-mouth. According to Deloitte, think-cell becomes one of the fastest growing software companies in Germany and takes 1st place in the Rising Star awards. |
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April 2008 |
50,000+ paying users |
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May 2009 |
think-cell 5.1 released |
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October 2009 |
Deloitte Fast 50 A five-year revenue growth of 3,154% makes think-cell number four in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Germany. |
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April 2010 |
100,000+ paying users |
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January 2011 |
think-cell 5.2 released |
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April 2012 |
200,000+ paying users think-cell's 10th anniversary |
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December 2012 |
think-cell 5.3 released |
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February 2013 |
think-cell joins C++ ISO committee We start funding and participating in the standardization of our preferred programming language. |
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December 2013 |
think-cell 6 released |
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March 2014 |
300,000+ paying users |
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September 2014 |
Meeting C++ We become the key sponsor of Meeting C++ – Europe's largest C++ conference – and invite 50 students to join free of charge. |
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August 2015 |
400,000+ paying users |
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January 2016 |
think-cell 7 released |
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August 2016 |
think-cell 8 released |
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October 2016 |
500,000+ paying users |
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December 2017 |
600,000+ paying users Standard C++ Foundation We become a sponsor of the Standard C++ Foundation – the world's leading not-for-profit C++ community. |
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June 2018 |
think-cell 9 released |
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February 2019 |
700,000+ paying users |
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May 2019 |
think-cell 10 supports macOS |
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October 2019 |
750,000+ paying users |
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September 2020 |
800,000+ paying users |
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December 2020 |
think-cell 11 supports powerful integrations |
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May 2021 |
850,000+ paying users |
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November 2021 |
900,000+ paying users |
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950,000+ paying users |