Dirk Ahlborn

Dirk Ahlborn is the founder and CEO of JumpStarter Inc., a platform that utilizes crowdsourcing to develop ideas from inception to final product. Ahlborn is also the CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc., a pioneering company working on the world’s first hyperloop transportation system, employing the crowd collaboration concept popularized by JumpStartFund.

Ahlborn's professional experience spans multiple aspects of business, including management, product design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales. Before his current roles, he was involved with the Girvan Institute of Technology from 2009, where he played a significant role in the development of various startup companies. His earlier career was based in Germany and Italy, beginning in 1993 as an investment specialist at Bank Gesellschaft Berlin, AG. He founded Rika Italia in 1999 and Diva Srl in 2001, companies focused on energy-efficient heating appliances.

An accomplished public speaker, Ahlborn has delivered keynotes at over 80 international conferences, discussing topics such as innovation, the future of transport, and new business models influenced by technology including blockchain. His engagements have taken him to prominent venues like the World Economic Forum (WEF), South by Southwest (SXSW), Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and the Smart Mobility World Congress. His speech at the Nikkei Forum was notably well-received, and he has also inspired audiences at the Open Innovation Forum in Moscow.

Ahlborn is fluent in German and Italian, proficient in conversational Spanish, and holds credentials in banking and insurance from the Organization of German Industry and Commerce. He advocates for a focus on investing in people to foster successful entrepreneurial ventures, embodying this philosophy in his leadership at Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and JumpStarter Inc.