Mario Behrends

AI Product & Operations · Commercial Growth

I turn customer problems into products and progress.

My background spans founder-led go-to-market, B2B partnerships, technical customer support, and hands-on automation. I move fast from an unclear problem to a working solution.

See my work ↓Open CV ↗

01 / What I deliver

From real problem to
working result.

A practical mix of product, commercial, and customer work.

Customer→Decision→Result

I stay close to the problem and carry the work far enough to see whether it actually helps.

01
Find the real problem
Talk to customers. Read behaviour. Separate a real blocker from a loud symptom.
Interviews · support · analytics
02
Choose what to build
Turn what you learned into a product decision, workflow, offer, or focused experiment.
Product · GTM · practical AI
03
Build and improve
Build, test, and improve with the people who will use, sell, support, and deliver it.
Ownership · teamwork · iteration

02 / Independent work

Three projects.
All built for real use.

Built independently across commercial operations, personal productivity, and customer-facing product work.

01Outreach & operations

End-to-end AI-led outreach system

Automates B2B outreach, contact research, and reply handling across multiple mailboxes.

Supports 100+ personalised B2B emails per weekday, including multi-mailbox reply routing and tested handoffs.

B2B outreachContact researchReply handlingSales operations

02Personal AI product

Personal AI agent and second brain

A private, local-first assistant that combines a knowledge base, retrieval, reasoning, and clear approval rules.

Runs real WhatsApp, mail, calendar, and knowledge workflows with approval and undo controls.

Local-firstKnowledge retrievalApproval rulesMultiple interfaces

03Product, brand & growth

AI-assisted website and brand relaunch

A full StudyfinderAI relaunch covering UI/UX, sales and marketing copy, search visibility, and brand communication. Built on a custom React and TypeScript codebase managed through Git.

A launch-ready site with separate journeys for universities, schools, and students.

UI/UXSales copySearch visibilityGit-based delivery

Private builds. Architecture and workflow walkthroughs are available during interviews.

03 / Skills built over time

How I built
my skills.

Enterprise quality
Customer work
Founder ownership
Applied AI

Mario Behrends at an event in a light suit — Quality to product ownership.

2015 · 2022

Aircraft Mechanic

Airbus

Quality that holds up over time

I learned to work precisely inside a large enterprise team, follow strict operations, and protect consistent quality over years, not days.

PrecisionTeam standardsQualityStrict operations

2022 · 2024

Founder

Creative Spirit Store

My first founder loop

I opened a business, wrote copy, found testers, ordered samples, tested products, iterated designs, and learned the basics of marketing and advertising.

Business setupCopyProduct testingDesign & marketing

2023 · 2024

Technical Support, DACH

Channable

Customer and SaaS operations

I troubleshot a software platform with clients and agencies, onboarded customers, and connected their feedback with Product, Dev, Sales, and Customer Success.

Customer contactTroubleshootingSaaSCross-functional handoffs

2024 · 2025

Founder's Associate

Dustlight

Data-led product improvement

I rewrote webshop copy, studied analytics and session behaviour, tested CTAs, and used evidence to improve mobile conversion, UI, and customer stories.

AnalyticsCTA testingUX improvementCustomer stories

Jul 2026 · 1 month

Frontier AI Specialist

Blockbrain

Business and AI combined

I combined business development and hands-on AI prototyping alongside engineering. The signed 40-hour / 10-hour StudyfinderAI split did not hold after one month, so I returned full focus to the venture.

Business developmentAI prototypingEngineeringFast research

2023 · Present

Co-Founder

StudyfinderAI

Resourceful product ownership

I ran 50+ institutional interviews and led three pilot rounds reaching 110 students. As a two-person founding team, we secured our first institutional partner and used the evidence to shape the product, partnerships, and AI workflows.

PartnershipsPilotsResearchAI workflows

AI Product & Operations

Utrecht & Amsterdam

Where I do my best work

My strongest fit is customer-facing work that connects Product, Sales, Customer Success, and Engineering. I turn real problems into shared progress.

I am looking for a committed four-day role. StudyfinderAI continues one day a week as my space to build, learn, and scale.

Customer-facing productCross-functional deliveryApplied AICommercial growth

04 / Background

The useful
details.

Education, languages, and focused learning. Easy to scan.

Education

B.A. Creative Business

Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, completed 2026

Exchange semester, University of Vienna, Spring 2025

Languages

German native

English fluent, written and spoken

Dutch basic, currently learning

Certifications

Applied learning

AI for Everyone, DeepLearning.AI

Entrepreneurial Finance, Duke University

Tools & platforms

Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Jira, Confluence, Git, Docker, terminal, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and local models. I pick the tool that fits the work.

05 / Outside work

How I spend
my time.

Strength training, motorcycles, books, new places, and the occasional late-night build. Usually with good coffee nearby.

Mario sitting with a coffee in a bright city workspace — **Good places**Strong coffee. Clear head.

TrainingStrength & calisthenics

Mario's red and white motorcycle during a ride — **Motorcycles**Movement & open roads

Three business books Mario is reading — **Keep learning**Books, ideas & building things

Available September 2026

Four days.
Ready to commit.

Looking for roles in Utrecht, Amsterdam, and nearby. Actively relocating to the Netherlands.

Best fit AI Product & Operations · Partnerships · Customer Growth

StudyfinderAI continues on one separate weekday. It is a real feedback loop for testing ideas and does not compete with the role.

Email Mario ↗LinkedIn ↗Open CV ↗Call Mario ↗