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Summary
Type
VC-backed Startup
My Role
Founder / CEO
Business Model
B2B
Location
Berlin
Engagement
2 years
Core Brief
Build a new venture
In 2018, I co-founded Magic Sandbox (MSB) out of Entrepreneur First (joinef.com), Europe’s leading startup accelerator. Following demo day, we raised $1.2M in seed funding and set out to build an in-browser, hands-on Kubernetes learning tool for software developers. The product stood out by offering real infrastructure — not simulations — where developers could learn through immersive, scenario-based challenges. Our Magic Dashboard visualized container orchestration in a way that helped developers “see” what was happening in their clusters — solving one of Kubernetes’ biggest barriers: its abstraction.
Go-to-market
Our GTM strategy was a blend of community engagement, founder-led outbound, and viral moments. We targeted DevOps communities, Slack groups, and startup CTO circles. Our breakout moment came when we hit #1 on HackerNews, generating significant inbound interest. We also leveraged our VC network to gain intros into tech teams and ran cold outbound to learning & development leaders at fast-growing engineering orgs. Early traction came from self-serve accounts and individual developers swiping company cards to upskill.
Product & Design
I played a hands-on role in designing the product’s core UI — especially the Magic Dashboard, which translated backend orchestration into a visual, intuitive system. The experience was built to feel like debugging a real incident or launching a real deployment — each lesson mirrored live workflows used by DevOps teams. I also created pitch decks, demo flows, and marketing collateral to support sales and fundraising. We built the tool with an emphasis on realism, immediacy, and “aha” moments, knowing we were teaching a notoriously difficult concept.
Lessons & Resources
One of the hardest challenges was tying our product’s value to a recurring budget. Developers loved the experience and would often expense it through HR or L&D, but once they upskilled, there was little incentive to renew. This highlighted a deeper lesson about developer tools: delight and impact don’t always convert to long-term revenue unless the product is embedded into workflow or team-wide training infrastructure. Despite strong product feedback, monetization proved difficult to scale.
