Frank Thelen

Frank Thelen (born 10 October 1975) is a German businessman, investor and author based in Bonn. He is best known as a former investor in the TV series Die Höhle der Löwen, the German version of Shark Tank.

Life

Frank Thelen first attended the Pädagogium Bad Godesberg and then the Carl-Schurz-Realschule in Bonn.

Before turning to software engineering, Thelen's youth was primarily dominated by skateboarding and snowboarding. He still supports projects in this field today, such as "Skate-Aid" by Titus Dittman. Thelen later began studying computer science at the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, but dropped out to build his first company. Today, he is active as an investor, entrepreneur, and author.

Thelen lives in Bonn and is married to orthodontist Nathalie Thelen-Sattler.

Career

According to his own autobiography, Thelen founds his first company, Solter Solutions Media, in 1994. The company developed a platform for the production of multimedia CD-ROMs and merged with another company in 1996, resulting in Twisd AG, for which Thelen receives 1.4 million DM in venture capital in 1997. The company developed and sold a Linux-based router that connected local networks to the Internet and enabled management via a web application. In 1999, the company prepared for an IPO, but then had to file for bankruptcy in the wake of the bursting of the dot-com bubble.