Career stages

I have worked in IT and media for more than twenty years, as an employee and as a consultant. From the ground up, I learned how to deal with hardware and software. Setting up servers and building applications myself taught me how the parts of a system depend on each other. Interaction design and conversion optimization are part of that experience. My knowledge in IT, media and marketing is combined with many years of work in finance, e-commerce and real estate.

Today I use AI agents across the full stack for most of my work. My industry knowledge and more than twenty years of experience in software, hardware, media and marketing are now combined with my knowledge of AI.

Right now: Senior Consultant at Gateflow

I advise companies in finance on digital assets, blockchain and AI, and I build what comes out of the advice: websites, API architectures, AI-based workflows, automation, prototypes and production-ready applications. The consulting part covers business development and the go-to-market in Germany for finance and fintech companies. My work relies heavily on AI systems like Claude, Codex and open-source AI agents.

Since April 2026 I have helped a client transform a platform by breaking up its monolithic application with Claude and Codex. We have created more than 300 RESTful API endpoints and made more than 8,000 commits. The project also included highly optimizing the website for conversions, agent-readiness and SEO.

Michael Wutzke at an AWS conference

2022: Head of DeFi and Node Operations, 2023 and 2024 Chief Information Officer, at Blocksize Capital

I joined the Frankfurt-based company Blocksize Capital at the start of 2022 as Head of Decentralized Finance and Node Operations and became Chief Information Officer in January 2023. I ran the node operations for an oracle network and moved them from Azure to another cloud with failover. In summer 2022 I created, with colleagues, a product for real-time market data on digital assets over WebSocket and RPC. I received procuration in May 2023. Today I take on interim CIO engagements with the same scope.

2016 to December 2021: Project Manager and Web Developer at Policen Direkt

Policen Direkt works in the German secondary market for life insurance. I planned and built the web portals of the group and ran their conversion optimization. From 2018 I hosted them on AWS in the regions Frankfurt and London. For a contract management portal I programmed the front end in Angular, designed the interfaces and connected an existing CRM system. I worked with Scrum and Jira and managed more than 100 top-level domains in those years. The job went beyond programming: it included interaction design, project management and the provision of web content.

2011 to 2016: Project Lead and Developer at Valentins (Burda Digital)

Valentins was fully owned by Burda Digital at the time. I led projects and programmed front ends and back ends for at least five e-commerce sites between 2011 and 2016, among them shops for Lidl and REWE. I also ran the conversion optimization of these shops.

2004 to 2010: Founder and Managing Director of Emporis, a global real estate database

I founded the company in 2004 and built it as web developer, managing director and chief technology officer. KfW and the venture capital investor Neuhaus Partners funded it with several million euros during those years. I sold my shares in 2010.

1998 to 2003: Freelancer for a design agency

I planned, designed and programmed websites, among them sites for banks, and I took part in the production of annual reports. The print work of my agency years includes annual reports for Deutsche Bank.

1997: Founder of the media agency Starconcept

Starconcept built websites, print projects and applications on CD-ROM. The agency also designed and ran exhibitions and produced books for companies.

1996: IT Consultant at an IT support company

This is where I learned to plan and program websites and databases. For banks I did service work on HP, Sun and Oracle systems. That was my first contact with server systems.

Before 1996

I have worked intensively with computer technology since I was a teenager. My working life began at a real estate developer and in property management. After that I worked for an engineering office in network technology. I did internships at Escom Computer AG and at Dresdner Bank.

Work that ran across stations

Two more projects have their own pages: near-real-time search with Elasticsearch for a real estate database and a community platform with load balancing across its own servers. Across these stations I also took part in due diligences and contract work. I drafted legal terms, worked through the technical aspects and adapted the contract material to them. In recent years this work came up especially in my leadership roles. For several years I have also published articles in German, among them in Der Bank Blog and in the IHK-Magazin.