Marcus Smolarek
Hi, I'm Marcus 👋🏼
I have been building software in Berlin since 2000. First for clients, then with co-founders, now as a product of my own too.
- Based in
- Berlin
- Work
- Software, AI, fintech
- Roles
- Owner, founder, CTO
Hi, I'm Marcus 👋🏼
I have been building software in Berlin since 2000. First for clients, then with co-founders, now as a product of my own too.
„We all have a preference for beautiful things that simply work.“
I started e-laborat in 2000 as a small Berlin web agency. It has since delivered more than 100 projects, for clients including Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the AMEDES Group and the German Federal Association of Detectives. Today the focus is custom software in Django and React, and getting companies ready to use AI.
From 2010 to 2016 I was co-founder and CTO of einfach machen lassen, which won the German e-commerce association's “Rising Star” award in 2014.
The agency also handed me the problem that turned into finban. Project work means paying out before you get paid: instalments, salaries, freelancers, subscriptions. So I built myself a spreadsheet — one sheet per year, months running left to right, income below, expenses below that, the total at the bottom. It grew, it got slow, and nothing on the market combined its strengths with the ones a SaaS product has. So in 2022 we built a prototype.
Three companies, one city
Founder & CEO
Cash-flow planning for small and mid-sized companies. Connect the bank accounts, play through the scenarios, and see tomorrow's balance instead of yesterday's.
finban.io
Owner
Owner-run Berlin agency for software development and AI transformation. Django on the back end, React on the front, and a developer rather than a salesperson in the first meeting.
e-laborat.de
Co-founder & CTO, until 2016
Berlin startup for household technology services. I ran the engineering side.
Out of 25 years of doing it, not out of a playbook
There is a quote, an architecture or a draft roadmap on the table and you want to know whether it holds up. I read it, ask the awkward questions, and tell you what I would do in your position.
Comes from
More than 100 projects at e-laborat since 2000, for clients including Humboldt-Universität, PIK Potsdam and AMEDES
Where AI actually earns its keep in your business, where it only looks expensive, and in what order to go about it. You leave with a clear answer — including when that answer is no.
Comes from
AI transformation at e-laborat: readiness audits, roadmaps, team enablement
You have solved a problem for yourself for so long that there is a product buried in it. We work out whether it holds, what the first version has to do, and what can safely wait.
Comes from
finban, from my own Excel sheet to a SaaS with a team, bank APIs and billing
Forecast instead of hindsight. How to model instalments, freelancers and subscriptions so you see a squeeze three months out rather than at the end of the month.
Comes from
finban, cash-flow planning for small and mid-sized companies
Engineering leadership until you have your own: building the team, making decisions that still make sense in three years, and handing over cleanly to whoever comes next.
Comes from
Six years as CTO of einfach machen lassen, agency owner since 2000
Thirty minutes, no strings. By the end you will know whether I am the right person — including if the answer is no.
Set up a callStudied at
University of Potsdam
Award
“Rising Star”, bvh, 2014
Writing
At work on a thriller, “Die Mine”
Sailing
SKS licence, German Sailing Association, 2023
For projects, questions, or half an hour on an idea you are weighing up — write to me.