How do you define yourself? To make it really short: hands-on. Why do you mentor tech start-ups? At the end of day it is actually selfish: it simply makes me happy to see that I can help. It makes me happy to see new entrepreneurs not making the same mistakes that I’ve made in the past. Starting my own business was the best decision in my life and I’m convinced the more people do that, the better for the world. Why did you become part of the Young Innovators Competition? I didn’t know about the Young Innovators Competition when I was young enough to apply. So basically it’s now the opportunity that I’ve missed in the past to contribute a little bit to the great inspiration of the whole Young Innovators Programme. Benjamin Thym is the founder and CEO of barcoo. Following the completion of his studies in Business Informatics, Benjamin worked at the Boston Consulting Group as an IT consultant. When he came up with the concept for barcoo, he moved to Berlin to develop barcoo’s mobile shopping and information service. He is responsible for Communications, Product and Sales. The number of the app’s end-users has already reached more than 11 million, and Apple has just declared barcoo to be one of the most downloaded apps of all times in Germany. Benjamin Thym Mentor InnovationSpace: Young Innovators 51