Johann Laeschke · Berlin

Commercial leadership for creative and tech businesses.

Companies bring me in as interim or fractional MD, COO or CMO when something needs fixing or building. I’ve worked on the commercial side of creative and tech businesses for 25 years, in Germany, the UK and the US.

Get in touch

Selected results

Loss-making to profitable in 12 months, at €5M revenue

Koto Berlin, as Managing Director. We started from a €250k annual loss. I rebuilt new business around a VC-referral funnel, and the team grew from 5 to 20.

35M+ free LABS downloads turned into a paid subscription

Spitfire Audio, London, as CMO. I owned the brand, the subscription model, the launch and the growth engine. Splice later bought Spitfire for a reported $50M.

1M+ YouTube Music subscriptions in Germany, at 31% trial‑to‑paid conversion

Launch for Google at B-Reel, as Managing Director. The category benchmark was 25%.

Gross profit on the Google partnership tripled in one year

B-Reel, as Global Client Partner for Google. I ran the business across Mountain View, London and Berlin.

What I do

Interim and fractional leadership

I take the MD, COO or CMO seat for a set period, full time or on fixed days each week. That includes the P&L, the team and the structure.

Turnarounds

Offices and business units that lose money. I find out where, then rebuild the commercial engine and the cost base.

Launches and subscriptions

Naming, business model, pricing and go-to-market for new products and subscription services.

AI operations

I build working automations for resourcing, CRM, finance and project setup, and hand them over running.

Background

I started in digital marketing at EMI in 2001, then moved into product at Viacom/MTV and account leadership at AKQA. In 2008 I co-founded Gustini, an Italian-food e‑commerce business, and stayed a shareholder until the exit in 2017.

Since 2015 I’ve mostly run agency offices: B-Reel, VICE’s Virtue, Koto and, most recently, Mother in Berlin. In between I was CMO at Spitfire Audio in London.

My order of work is product and customer first, brand as the through-line, marketing on top. I work hands-on, from the P&L to the contracts.

In their words

“Johann is a data-led strategic leader, and champion of customer value. He has a passionate energy, thinks critically, and challenges norms.”

Paul Gathercole, SVP Engineering at Splice. Worked with Johann at Spitfire Audio.

“He is able to create data-driven strategies for campaigns that genuinely feel cool and unique.”

Allison Lyons, reported to Johann at Spitfire Audio.

“He can add value to a project at any stage with provocative insights and clear direction.”

Ivar Eden, reported to Johann at Virtue.

“I was super impressed with your guys’ work and keep thinking back.”

Paul Scherer, Passionfroot.

Clients and brands

Google · Amazon · Uber Eats · NBA · Nike · BMW · Mercedes‑Benz · Volkswagen · LVMH · Richemont · Montblanc · Zalando · Henkel (Loctite and Pattex) · iShares (BlackRock) · Native Instruments

Across agency and in-house roles.

Contact

If something needs fixing or building, write to me.

[email protected]
LinkedIn Berlin, Germany