The story of Daniel
A late start in speech and an early drive to create
Daniel was slow to begin speaking as a child while growing up around several languages, then became highly verbal once speech arrived. His parents paired strong belief in his potential with an equally strong warning against self-importance. Their support was practical rather than merely verbal. At 14, he and friends built and tried to sell their own longboards, losing money but gaining an early experience of creating something for others.
He kept returning to entrepreneurial projects because creation gave direction to an internal drive he could not satisfy through status alone. The same upbringing made humility an operating principle. Daniel learned that looking inexperienced, asking basic questions, and risking visible failure are often necessary parts of developing real competence.
A rejected central bank idea and a mentor found through initiative
Daniel's work at the European Central Bank brought him close to debates about central bank digital currencies, privacy, and financial control. He proposed a decentralized direction that did not match the institution's plans, and the failure pushed him toward the Web3 alternative. Rather than wait for a standard application route, he spent days crafting an email to SwissBorg co-founder Anthony Lesoismier and found a working address himself.
The outreach led to conversations, a product role, and eventually senior product responsibility. Daniel entered expecting a junior position and was initially mistaken for an intern, but he treated the gap as room to learn. At SwissBorg, he built a mentorship by asking questions, receiving difficult feedback without retreating, and separating useful criticism from the ego response that might otherwise reject it.
Turning consumption into ownership through NOMU
NOMU applies an onchain ownership model to commerce and crowdfunding. A customer can pre-buy a product, help finance its first production run, and receive a share of later revenue instead of only a thank-you reward. Daniel describes the idea as a version of Kickstarter in which early customers gain genuine participation in the upside they helped create.
The platform begins with personally vetted companies and plans clearer risk categories, identity checks, track records, and reputation signals as it grows. Its initial launch includes a group of signed companies and an early community asset tied to revenue from in-house products. The broader aim is to shift shopping away from short-lived price and dopamine incentives toward products whose future value a customer understands, supports, and can partially own.