Benjamin Bommhardt
Founder of pruve GmbH · 9+ years as an operator in tech startups
Before pruve, I co-founded draglet GmbH — built it to 120 employees and second place globally in crypto trading infrastructure. The company went into insolvency in 2019, which meant I got to experience the entire startup lifecycle firsthand: you spend years traveling the world on a shoestring, until customers start arriving by private jet. A year later, the insolvency administrator shows up. And then you buy the assets back and make the whole thing profitable again.
The common thread
We were among the first in our neighbourhood to have an internet connection — before most people even knew what it meant to be 'online'. This access to technology, combined with my neurodivergence, has drawn me deeply into digital systems.
My competitive drive pushed me into online gaming — team-based titles like Quake and Counter-Strike. I won most local LAN parties and placed 5th in the official German CS national tournament in 2002. Strategy games (browser-based) were a similar pull — I had a lot of fun playing in the top 0.1%.
But the more telling part: in every system, I looked for ways to push the optimization further and unlock the potential underneath. When Blizzard launched the Diablo 3 auction house, I traded in-game items, competing directly against the so-called "gold farmer" operations out of China. That pattern — spot the inefficiency, build the system, move before the window closes — runs through everything since.
After my apprenticeship at Siemens, it became clear that a higher level of education and professional grounding was needed for what I wanted to do. Studying Business Informatics and International Business and Enterprise gave me both the theoretical foundation and the international network needed to grow companies.
Startup Timeline
Key points and milestones of my startup journey
draglet GmbH
Co-founder of a blockchain exchange software company, when most people could not yet explain what Bitcoin is. Built up to 120 employees and ranked 2nd in the global market for crypto trading infrastructure. Gave talks at conferences in Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dubai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Queenstown. The company failed — a combination of growing pains, internal attacks, and market conditions that no execution could have mitigated. Filed for insolvency in 2019.
skalex GmbH
I didn't walk away. Navigated debtor-in-possession proceedings, secured €500,000 in investment, closed the asset deal with the insolvency administrator. Over the 24 months that followed, I rebuilt skalex from the ground up — contracts, pricing, time-to-market for deploying new exchange instances. The result: monthly revenue tripled, fixed costs cut by 60%. Then COVID hit and business came to a standstill.
AI+MUNICH/SCE
Over 500 startups evaluated. 45+ selected and coached. 1 million euros of BMWK funding used. Two years of real selection decisions with real money — which builds a specific kind of pattern recognition for what early-stage companies actually need.
pruve GmbH
The vehicle for what comes next. Incorporated August 2024, originally for data analytics. Repositioned to hold equity in pruvable technology companies — starting with Zearchi.
About failure
The reason insolvency is also discussed on this page is that it is part of the maturation process and belongs to it. This understanding has already been established in other countries but needs to be addressed again in the German-speaking area.
Building a company with 120 people and then watching it go under teaches lessons that cannot be learned in any other way. Rebuilding it within a skalex has taught me even more. The scar tissue is present — and it is part of how pruve is structured: no fund cycle, no exit pressure, no growth at any cost. Only profitable companies that build on each other and retain their value.