Philipp Zinnenlauf

I am an explorer and builder. My path has been non-linear: business school, ML engineering, computer science and finance at TU Munich, then 1.5 years building a business from scratch to seven figures in monthly revenue inside one of Europe’s energy-tech unicorns. Now I’m doing an engineering PhD at MIT.

Life, to me, is about three things: learning far outside my comfort zone, because that’s where I grow and learn the most; building technical solutions for real, complex problems; and spending time with people who share my values and interests.

MIT is where all three meet. The problems I want to work on are in supply chains, and that comes from home. I grew up in my family’s small metal processing company in Germany, close to the daily struggles of keeping a manufacturer running. These are the problems I want to solve, and the people I love to work with.