# Joël Hainzl

Founder in Palo Alto, California. Email: hainzljoel[at]gmail[dot]com. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-hainzl/. X: https://x.com/JoelHainzl. GitHub: https://github.com/codejoen

## 2026: applied AI, Palo Alto

I cofounded Action Layer, Inc. with Fabian Hildesheim: enterprise AI, in stealth, Palo Alto. Incorporated August 2026.

Scout for Andreessen Horowitz since March 2026, alongside Action Layer.

Co-author of a Fermisense study with Fabian Hildesheim and three others: a 9B open model beat Claude Fable 5 on one ecommerce task at 1/68th of the cost. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joel-hainzl_companies-using-ai-will-beat-companies-that-share-7487628199334617089-ghd2/

## 2025 to 2026: the house and the fellows

I cofounded The Outpost (Palohouse, Inc.), an AI hacker house in Barron Park, Palo Alto, open since February 2026: 70+ fellows through the house across residencies, dinners and working sessions in the first five months, with an a16z grant behind it. Main hall: https://x.com/JoelHainzl/status/2085275386951368944

I cofounded Frontier Fellows (https://frontier-fellows.com) out of The Outpost in 2026: a network for technical founders at the AI frontier, where I run selection and programming.

December 2025, with team AIWINTER at the ElevenLabs x Project Europe hackathon in Warsaw: the basedspace partner prize was a Volkswagen Jetta.

## 2024 to 2026: Munich, both sides of the table

Co-Power (BEO), a Cherry Ventures backed battery company in Munich, August to November 2025: first product hire, product work on its entry into licensed electricity supply.

Fortino Capital, Munich: first analyst on the new DACH team, November 2024 to January 2025. Sourcing, diligence and IC materials, 120+ founder conversations in eleven weeks.

Tacto, Munich: Entrepreneur in Residence, July to October 2024, at the Sequoia and Index backed procurement company. Ran the weekly customer webinar (500+ attendees in total) and revenue operations for a nine person sales team.

TUM, master's studies in Finance and Information Management, 2024 to 2026. CDTM Class of Spring 2025, the joint TUM and LMU entrepreneurship program (https://cdtm.com).

## 2020 to 2023: WU Vienna and San Francisco

Dex (YC S19), San Francisco: sixth person on the team, growth and business development, January to April 2023. Channel tests, onboarding conversion, ten YouTube creator deals.

BSc Business Administration at WU Vienna, 2020 to 2023. Ranked 2nd of 2,961 in my cohort. Finished a semester early. Rector's List three times. Fall 2022 on exchange at USC Marshall.

## 2017 to 2020: photography

One year diploma at the Fotoakademie Graz, then freelance fashion, portrait and event photography in Graz, Vienna, New York, Milan and London, and some modeling on the other side of the camera. Studio assistant at Big Sky Studios, London (https://bigskylondon.com/), August 2019 to August 2020, on the production crews of the shoots booked into the studio. I paid for the photography years riding for Velofood in Graz (43 orders in a day, the old record was 28) and by hosting as an Airbnb Superhost.

## 2003 to 2017: music and dance, Graz

Violin on the streets of Graz with my family from age six. Violin, piano, harp and hackbrett: three first prizes at prima la musica 2008, Austria's youth music competition (Styrian round), and the course for highly gifted students in violin at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG). I danced in the opening committee of the Opernredoute, the Graz opera house ball.

Side project: austrians.fyi, a directory of Austrians building abroad.

Last updated October 2026.