Last week, I shared my admiration for KEIT Berlin and its creators.

And yesterday, I had a chance to chat with Kolja, Keit’s co-founder, and learn about his journey first-hand. Having read my post, Kolja kindly reached out and offered to meet for a coffee.

We talked for almost two hours, and I learned so much more about Keit’s story — and how two managers, Kolja and Thanos, left successful corporate careers behind to start… baking bread.

What struck me was their super lean, step-by-step approach.

✅ Before even launching anything, they interviewed dozens people on the streets about bread. I believe the total number was around 70 “respondents.”
✅ Then they rented some space in an existing bakery and sold their bread on the markets. Just one type of bread, just one stand (which still looked cool and stood out).
✅ Having gained some proof-of-concept with their “MVP,” they opened a permanent shop and moved production to another rented bakery. At first, they were selling bread for only a few days — and only in the afternoon. Why afternoon? Because the production facility was only available after 8am — normal bakeries make their product at night and finish in the morning. That’s when the Keit team came in to make their own bread!

Only after this initial success did they finally invest in their own bakery / production place.

There is more.

Part of the vision was making bread from local ingredients — no farther than 100 kilometers from hashtag#Berlin. But nobody was growing good-enough grain in the area. So they found a farmer who believed in their vision and agreed to grow the right wheat just for them. Over the years, it’s grown into a sizable operation.

It’s just mind-blowing how still a relatively small bakery could pull it off.

But this shows their dedication to quality.

And the punchline: Kolja isn’t a professional baker — he just baked bread at home as a hobby. Lots of things he did flew in the face of traditions and how things were typically done in the industry.

Passion trumps formal education.

As we’re preparing to launch Piecraft, this resonates greatly. We aren’t professional bakers or cafe operators either. On top of that, Kolja was kind enough to share his advice on how we could improve the Piecraft concept. I left the meeting full of new ideas, with lots of new action items on my to do list.

This was one of the most inspiring and insightful conversations I’ve had in years.

And it happened only because I made a quick post on LinkedIn. Dope, right? April 2025, it looked like it was finally happening. We even drew up a floor plan and started talking construction. But then we were forced by the city to cancel the contract. The place apparently wasn’t suitable for foodservice.

It was tough.

At first, we soldiered on, and I kept pushing for another six months, looking for a new spot.

But while all this was happening, our personal circumstances changed. Drastically. Health-wise, family-wise…

We realized we couldn’t commit to this business 24/7 anymore. And without such a commitment, we wouldn’t succeed.

You cannot launch a foodservice company without being ‘all-in.’ In this business, margins are thin. Most operators barely maintain it as self-employment. Turning a food concept into a real, profitable business in Europe, and especially in Germany, requires a massive effort — and a lot of luck. You have to be on top of your game.

We had to accept the reality of our age, of our health, of our new family situation. And we had to shut the whole thing down.

My wife (and my partner in crime) is devastated. She sees it as her failure most of all — and takes it rather personally.

I think failures are part of the game.

Behind every entrepreneur I know — even the most successful ones — is a graveyard of failed projects.

Just like behind every writer is a pile of unfinished drafts and failed novels. It’s part of life. Part of trying and aspiring. Only a fraction of your effort will pay off.

These realizations helped. But not much, to be honest.

It’s still hard to let go of a dream. Of having your own place in Berlin. Of making your vision a reality… Especially when your vision feels so powerful. So empowering.

But you gotta do what you gotta do.

Leaving a few photos here, just for the record.

Many thanks to everyone who supported us.

What’s next?

Well… You don’t think I’ve given up on making something cool, do you?