Udo Kempen — First In. Still Here.

The Journey of a Digital Pioneer

I've always tried to be where the future happens — before it happens.

It started in 1983, in a suburb of Dortmund, Germany. While my peers were still figuring out what they wanted to be, I left school to open one of Germany's first video rental shops. Using a 300-baud acoustic coupler to sync my store's sales data, I was immediately hooked on the raw potential of electronic communication.

I already knew back then: William Gibson's Neuromancer would become reality. Electronic communication would change everything. And I intended to be there when it did.

Through the wild frontier days of Mailboxes, Datex-P, UUCP, BTX, and the birth of the World Wide Web — I didn't just witness the digital revolution. I built the infrastructure, invented the payment systems, hired the talent, and made the mistakes. Every single one of them worth it.

Mallorca, Spain

"Every pioneer carries scars from being too early, too bold, or too stubborn. The real mistake is to stop moving."

Udo Kempen

Four Decades, One Direction: Forward

Wins, Scars & Perfect Timing

1983 - 1986

The Video Store & the 300-Baud Moment

Founder · One of Germany's First Video Rentals

Left school to open one of Germany's first video rental shops in Dortmund. Right time, right place. Too much success, too soon for a 17 year old who was not yet legally allowed to enter his own shop. Used a 300-baud acoustic coupler to sync sales data — and knew instantly that electronic communication would reshape the world. Read Gibson's Neuromancer and saw not fiction, but a blueprint.

1986

Teledata BTX GmbH

Founder & Managing Director · 10 Employees · Dortmund

Built BTX (Bildschirmtext) and UUCP online services when most Germans hadn't heard of a modem. Pioneered some of Germany's earliest online commercial ventures in a landscape where digital commerce simply didn't exist yet. *timecd# was ahead of its time - as Amazon proved years later.

1997

Comtron Network Service GmbH

Founder & Managing Director · 25 Employees · Dortmund

Scaled a full Internet Service Provider from zero to 25 employees — the backbone of Dortmund's early internet infrastructure. Together with Toni Saretzki, co-invented the 0190-Dialer — Germany's first premium-rate micropayment system for the internet, which became the dominant billing method for digital content across German-speaking Europe. A legitimate payment innovation that later became widely abused by bad actors — a lesson in how tools outlive their creators' intentions. I still miss you Toni.

Late 90s

E-Sports & Tobias Lütke

E-Sports Pioneer · One of Europe's First Commercial Clans

Co-founded Ocrana — one of Europe's first commercial esports clans. Quake deathmatches, Ultima Online raids, and late-night coding sessions with a young German programmer named Tobias Lütke. It wasn't just gaming — I hired Tobi for his programming skills and watched in awe as he coded his very first online shop: a snowboard store. If you read this Tobi: Hail Vendor, buy, Guards! He left Comtron and went to Canada to found his own company and that shop would evolve into Shopify. Timing, talent, and a LAN cable — sometimes that's all it takes.

Late 90s

The Shop I Closed Too Early

A Lesson in Timing

I still ran an internet video and CD shop until German law punished me for selling a horror movie, and out of frustration, I shut it all down. Just in time to watch Jeff Bezos build exactly that business from a garage. One of my greatest mistakes — and I've made plenty. But every pioneer carries scars from being too early, too bold, or too stubborn. The real mistake would have been to stop.

2000

The Trading Years

Futures Trader · The Hardest Lesson

Walked away from the internet to become a futures trader. Lost a lot of money first. Then became financially successful — and lost everything that actually mattered. The emotional toll, addiction, a full-blown midlife crisis. No amount of technical skill prepares you for what markets do to your mind. Eventually I found my way back to the roots, to what I do best: building things online. Some chapters in your story exist not to teach you about business, but about yourself.

2007

wellenreiter consult GmbH

Managing Director & Digital Strategist · Dortmund

Brought digital marketing strategy to Germany's banking sector — SEO, email campaigns, and social media transformation for Sparkassen. Helped institutions that still relied on paper brochures navigate the shift to digital, long before "digital transformation" became a buzzword.

2014

The Quiet Life That Wasn't

Independent · Mallorca · WordPress · SEM · Linux · AI

Moved to Spain for a quieter life. Built WordPress sites, managed Linux servers, ran search campaigns. A deliberate retreat from the chaos — until AI arrived. Not as a surprise, but as the next chapter I'd been waiting for. Timing is essential. The time to use AI is now.

Core Expertise

001

Pattern Recognition & Timing

Four decades of technology cycles built an instinct no course can teach. I know what's hype and what's real — because I've been early, been late, and learned exactly when to move.

002

Digital Marketing

Two decades of SEO, SEM, and social media mastery. From banks to startups — strategies that move needles, not just metrics.

003

E-Commerce & Web

Custom web solutions built for performance. Technical depth meets user experience excellence.

004

Infrastructure & Ops

Linux server administration, NGINX, mail systems, databases. The invisible architecture that makes everything else possible.

005

Payment Systems & Monetization

From billing infrastructure to e-commerce funnels — I understand how digital products make money, not just how they work.

006

Multilingual Reach

Native German. Fluent English and Spanish. Operating across markets and cultures with the ease of someone who's been global since day one.

The Next Chapter

When AI emerged as the defining technology of our era, I didn't just adapt.
I was already there.

I've been too early. I've been too late. I shut down a business that Amazon would turn into a trillion-dollar empire. I watched a kid I hired code a snowboard shop that became Shopify. Four decades of hits and misses taught me the one thing that matters most: timing.

Not the technology itself — that's never the hard part. It's seeing what's next, reading the pattern, and moving before the crowd arrives. That skill doesn't come from courses or certifications. It comes from forty years of building at the bleeding edge.

The time to use AI is now. Not next quarter. Not when your competitors have already figured it out. I know, because I've spent a lifetime learning exactly when to move.

I work with ambitious clients worldwide who understand that the right strategy, executed with precision, is worth more than a thousand tools.

What I'm Building Now

Proving It Today

Legends are nice. Results are better. Here's where the decades of pattern recognition meet today's most powerful technology.

AI · Customer Support · GEO

TicketPay

Germany's leading ticketing platform. Exploring AI-driven customer support, intelligent web development workflows, and GEO optimization for SaaS — making their platform discoverable not just by humans, but by the AI systems that increasingly answer the questions.

AI Infrastructure · GDPR · Web Dev

CWS-Media

Building AI infrastructure that accelerates development of high-quality, data-protection-compliant websites for small businesses. The goal: enterprise-grade web presence at a fraction of the time and cost, fully conforming to German and EU privacy law.

Local · Mallorca · Digital Growth

Local Businesses

Working with select local companies and projects across Mallorca — bringing the same strategic thinking and AI-first approach to businesses that are ready to outpace their market. Global expertise, local impact.

First In. Still Here.