Hi, I’m Nicolas
I bring ideas brands products businesses adventures apps communities to life
I bring ideas brands products businesses adventures apps communities to life
We just have one life on earth. Let’s do our best to leave it better than we found it and enjoy the ride.
Radical improvements come from having the courage to go new ways. I try to do that professionally and personally. Below are some examples. I work hard to add more chapters.
I moved to the US to work on a same-day delivery project for Google. As the team’s first marketing person I helped bringing the project to life. Eventually, we launched Google Express. I worked on product strategy, launch execution, growth hacking and customer engagement.
Fun fact: A week before launch a fellow marketing team member asked me if I would step-in as the delivery guy model. The results can be seen below.
While working at Google I was living in an RV for 8 months on the streets of San Francisco. It was an awesome experience. I had to get comfortable with being me, realized I can live a lot simpler, was more mindful with my time, saved some money, and last but not least have a good story to tell.
A very early project: I wanted to develop a platform that anybody can use to create personalized apps as gifts for the special people in their lives. I built I Apped You along with an Android app.
I have lived in 6 countries and visited 53 countries so far. I love traveling. Experiencing a new culture forces you to reflect on your own values and assumptions. You grow as a person and make so many wonderful memories along the way. I used to blog about my experiences in German at traveltricks.de. Get out and explore the world!
The goal was to bring awesome internet and energy access to everybody around the world. As the first marketing person in Google’s new organization, I have launched Google OnHub, Project Sunroof, and a few more.
A few years ago, on a trip through South-East Asia, I took part in a meditation session lead by a buddhist monk. I loved the experience but never found the time to make it part of my life. Together with some Googler colleges we founded gPause – a community of mindfulness practices for well-being change at Google – with now several thousand participants. I own branding, communication, naming, visual development and marketing campaigns. I myself have meditated over 100 hours by now.
I started skiing before I could walk. But it wasn’t until my best buddy took me to the local climbing crag that I discovered the thrill of going up the mountain as well. Being part of the elements, focusing on what is important, and competing against yourself are things that draw me to Yosemite whenever I have a chance and also inspired me to summit the highest peak of Africa: Mountain Kilimanjaro.
My first gig at Google was for Google Ads. From customer support, sales and acquisition marketing I have gotten to know world of search engine marketing (SEM) quite well. I owned customer acquisition marketing for Switzerland and Austria, and partly Germany and in this time launched AdWords for Agencies and significantly grew the advertiser revenue.
During my business school studies, I took a one-month opportunity to learn about another side of finance as a volunteer for micro-credit institute Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Grameen is founded by Nobel Peace Prize award winner Muhammad Yunus. The experience was both humbling and motivating, and it strengthened my commitment to do good with my work.
To help more people creating a regular meditation practice I founded WeSit: The mediation buddy matching service.
With the Gmail Label Toggler Chrome Extension you can hide and show your labels within Gmail. So you don't get distracted by unread emails.
My wife and I quit our jobs to live in Italy, Nepal, Australia and Germany for 1.5 months each. We kept a Tumblr profile during our journey.
To improve my coding skills I developed Minc, a communication tool for company-wide informal discussions, it was available on iOS, Android, and as Slack app.
Programming the Chrome extension Down the Donald to auto-downvote all Reddit posts and comments of the Donald Trump supporting sub-reddit r/The_Donald.
interviewing.io offers software engineers free, anonymous coding interview practice and, for the best ones, real (and still anonymous) job interviews with top employers. Through us engineers get hired independent of their backgrounds or resumes but purely based on their performance in rigorous technical interviews. I lead our Product Management and Marketing.
© 2019 Nicolas Ritz. All rights reserved.
