Through Cointelegraph Innovation Circle, Wolfgang Rückerl helps simplify complex crypto concepts

In the beginning of his career, Wolfgang Rückerl spent almost ten years in sales and business development at a German company that specialized in video surveillance technology. And then he had the opportunity to work at Honeywell as a security consultant. “I thought, ‘why not join a bigger company,’” recalls Rückerl. Why not, indeed. 

He quickly realized that big company bureaucracy can slow things down. Selling a project internally was harder than selling to a client. “I’m more solution-thinking and the company was revenue-thinking,” he says. “That’s not my world.” 

So Rückerl moved back to the startup world, spending short stints at two growth companies that had developed facial recognition technology. And in 2020, he partnered with a former colleague to start his own company, Istari Vision.

His partner, Christian Grenz, had met Lucian Mincu, the founder of the MultiversX blockchain and the partners became intrigued about the potential of blockchain technology and crypto. “Christian and I decided we wanted to support Lucian and that’s the main reason why we started Istari Vision,” says Rückerl. 

The company is a proof of stake network and one of the largest validators on the MultiversX blockchain. “We have great engagement with users and are helping to grow the community, explaining to them what the technology is about, what you can do with it and why it’s interesting for businesses,” he says.

In addition to providing a staking infrastructure, Istari Vision is also an incubator. Companies that are not in the crypto space come to Istari for education on blockchain and for help with moving their businesses into crypto. “​​We are actually an all- inclusive provider for a startup, no matter if it's a startup with ten people and just having a cool idea for a product or even an established company,” says Rückerl. “If they have needs for marketing, design, communication, legal advice, token metrics, financial models, they come to Istari Vision to get the necessary support. They can focus on their product, and everything, and we actually do the rest.”

For example, the first project that Istari incubated was an Audi spinoff called Holoride. The company has a virtual reality product that enables a backseat passenger wearing a virtual reality headset to play games that move in the same direction and at the same speed as the car. In addition to alleviating the boredom of being a back-seat passenger, Rückerl says the technology also helps with motion sickness. 

With more and more companies approaching Istari for advice, the partners found that their resources were stretched. They decided they needed to build a launchpad for companies that were ready to graduate from Istari’s incubator and go to market with their products. So they started Entity in 2022.

“We connect the project that we're launching with investors in other projects to find synergies where they can work together,” says Rückerl. Entity specializes in sectors such as DeFi, GameFi, NFTs and real-world blockchain applications.

Rückerl joined Cointelegraph Innovation Circle because “we always try to spread the word and do something good for our ecosystem,” he says. “We want to help people understand the technology and the big picture.” 

For example, one of his recent by-lined articles provided guidance for metaverse Game-Fi builders. Within the blockchain and crypto ecosystems, there are an endless number of common buzzwords that often interfere with true understanding of the industry, Rückerl notes.

Through articles and Expert Panel participation, he hopes to simplify and demystify that language. “Through Expert Panels, we try to make things clear and to explain concepts in a very easy manner. We believe we can share knowledge within the community and engage with other experts to spread the word about things that are actually happening in this space.”