Valentin Schmid · My Red Thread

My Red Thread

Valentin Schmid · Stammheim, Switzerland

Valentin · Stammheim, CH

My Red Thread.

I don't believe in coincidences. Some things pull, and I notice them when I cut out the noise and listen inwards.
- Mechanic by training
- ~20 years in automotive
- COO, 6 → 60 people
- Now: AI, systems, and what's worth making
How does it work, and can I do it too?

Curiosity started early.

When something matters, I research like a maniac until I understand how it works and how it connects. Then I try it.
- Me at about two, Basel. Real photo, 1990.
- My wife says I compare products better than Stiftung Warentest.
- Probieren über studieren: at some point you have to act.
How does it work, and can I do it too?

Four exhausts.

At four I asked my mum why that Ferrari 512 TR had four exhaust pipes. She didn't know, and I've been finding out ever since.

Watch the film · 1:44
- My granddad drove amateur rallies.
- Formula One, every race, since I was 6.
- Die-hard LH44 fan since his first season.
How does it work, and can I do it too?

Hands inside the machine

Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star made it clear: I'm a builder. I need to understand a thing and build it, then I'm happy and walk on to the next.
- Automobil-Mechatroniker EFZ · Basel · 2011
- Once took an engine apart without labelling the screws. Paid for it later, in time.
How do the pieces fit together?

Systems thinking

In a new company I start with the bigger picture: the core processes and how the pieces move.
- Then I look for my blind spots and the people who can remove them, and for whoever I can learn from most.
- Piggy connects people and brands. I connect tools, processes and tech.
- The car on the wall is my second car: an S4 Avant in this dark blue, with these rims and mirrors. Should never have sold it.
How do the pieces fit together?

Inside the car company

In big companies the why behind the work, and the values, are often no longer clearly defined. I saw it in the car industry, and it isn't only there.
- Then you get companies stuck in old ways, afraid to commit even to what they believe in, with a shiny brand outside and little for the people inside, who should be its biggest ambassadors.
- Audi (AMAG) · 2011 to 2014 and 2017 to 2019 · customer relations, online, sales manager Basel
- Tesla · 2014 to 2017 · product specialist, sales advisor
- What I took from Tesla: everything is possible, and nothing has to be done the way it always was. Do it first, perfect it later.
How do the pieces fit together?

Building the machine: 6 → 60

When the machine got stuck, I took a breath and a step back. Then I looked at the pieces, what happened to them and why, and what I could change myself.
- The market will never be perfect for you, and neither will geopolitics.
- gowago · 2019 to Feb 2026 · head of sales and operations, COO from Nov 2023
- Then I left. From the outside that made no sense, and I just knew: this is not what I'm here to give.
What is actually worth making?

Anyone can make anything now.

What gets my time has to be honest and worth someone's time, and it has to interest me. Money can't be the main reason.
- Malojapass, 1 am. Camera on top, shutter open for about 20 minutes.
- Ran to the car, drove the pass up and down as often as I could, ran back up to look.
- The lights are me. The third time was the charm.
- Once committed: a bit crazy.
What is actually worth making?

Killed within a week.

SINCE was a merch brand I launched within 24 hours, with its own Shopify store and brand.
- Winning a customer cost more than a customer was worth, unless I played the acquisition game or took the slow influencer lane.
- Not worth my time and not what I'm here to do, so I killed it within a week.
What is actually worth making?

UNHOMOLOGATED

What if BMW had actually built its GT1? What if Renault had worked with Hartley and made the R5 revival a V12 instead of an EV?
- AI makes the images. Consistency, coherence and taste decide which ones survive, and that still needs your eye: proportions, memory, that one detail on a particular car.
- Instagram · TikTok · [link]
What is actually worth making?

Worth a Shot Club

Visual stories that stay coherent across every frame, not just one lucky image.
- Instagram carousels
- [link]
Who do I make it with?

1 + 1 > 2

Good things come from people who think differently, working together. That only works with the truth, said early, because anything else is energy in the wrong direction.
- Electric Now, 2019: Robin and me. I was the builder and the calm organiser, he was the flamboyant, charismatic salesman, and it worked great.
- My rule: everything before the "but" is horseshit.
One life. Am I living it?

One life.

Life is fucking beautiful if you let it. Do what you love and do it often, and if you don't like something, change it: we are the creators of our own story.
- The Holstee Manifesto has hung on my wall for ages; my mom gave it to me over ten years ago.
- It makes complicated things simple and makes me grateful not to waste the time I've been given.
One life. Am I living it?

Where the tarmac ends

Off grid I find a primal connection to the landscape and the animals, to roughness and the imperfection in perfection. It leaves a very quiet, peaceful energy in me.
- Staring into a fire with my dog on my legs can make me cry, out of joy and out of fear, realising how gifted we are and how brittle it is.
- Jeep Gladiator · Jeep XJ, restoring it myself
- Our build on Instagram: @jt_barden
- Also: e-MTB, offset smoker.
What's next?

What would we make together?

I don't have a finished word for it yet. Something very human, made with new technology, that moves people.
- Something that makes this place a tiny bit better.
- valentin@onceicommit.com
- linkedin.com/in/davidvalentinschmid
- Stammheim, Switzerland