zenos career spotlight
meet the team

Introduction & The Role: The 360-Degree Discipline

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Please introduce yourself and provide a brief overview of the scope of your role as COO here at Zenos.

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I’m Christoph Ortlepp, COO and co-founder of Zenos. The role really started to shape around how Tim (CEO & Co-founder) and I split the tasks and responsibilities, based on our strengths and backgrounds. Since Tim focuses on design, development, and architecting, I basically take care of everything else, which includes building the company structure, legal, budgets, financial considerations, HR, operational topics, and business development.

Readers' insight: Christoph views the founding of a company as the "ultimate challenge" because it is a "360-degree discipline". His role is defined by wearing many hats and managing this vast, diverse portfolio, ensuring the organisational structure supports the highly specialised and technical work of the development team.

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Your portfolio as COO is very diverse. How do you balance managing the company's structure and finances with the innovative demands of a technology-focused organisation like Zenos?

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My approach involves prioritising based on a decision matrix of importance versus urgency. You have to be realistic about priorities because the to-do list is always longer than what can be done. However, sometimes lower-priority items must be addressed quickly if a team member is blocked by them, to avoid bottlenecks and prevent the company from becoming slow.

Readers' insight: This rapid decision-making ability is not a superpower but a core skill required at a high management function. It is critical in a fast-paced environment where the team relies on clear priorities to sustain speed and innovation.

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Zenos's vision is to "Lead a new era of broadcast technology". How do your day-to-day responsibilities directly support the achievement of this vision?

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My day-to-day supports this by adapting the strategy and course based on market reality, such as shifting from a virtual reality stadium to a player form factor stream on web browsers. Success requires partnerships with IP holders and platforms, so ensuring these entities are aware, excited, and see commercial benefit is a core function in supporting the mission.

Readers' insight: This strategic adaptation is key to long-term success. Christoph works to "translate what Zenos wants to do and make sure that it is synergetic with what other people in the industry want to do," such as publishers and event partners, ensuring Zenos's innovation enhances their product rather than derailing their plans.

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The Journey: Investor to Founder

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You began your career as an investor. What was the turning point that made you decide to transition from investing in ventures to taking the leap to build Virtex (now Zenos) from the ground up?

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It wasn't a turning point but a seed planted during university. Founding a company felt like the ultimate challenge and a 360-degree discipline. I was intrigued by the challenge of creating a sustainable business and building a team from scratch, rather than specialising in only one thing or one function for decades. If life were a game, this would be the ultimate kind of game: building your own studio.

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Can you describe the moment Tim showed you the early prototype for what would become Zenos, and what convinced you immediately that this was a concept worth founding a company around?

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I met Tim in 2019 at a VR league event. What convinced me was realising that when there is a new medium and platform shift, the way content is created, delivered, and consumed changes. Video in a 3D space is just a 2D plane, and that doesn't make sense. Tim was solving a problem for himself, based on personal frustration with the current market offering, and that is the best motivation. The real lightbulb moment was when Tim proved that you could bring 3D content over and have it recreated; that’s where the Game Twin logic was born.

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Zenos is pioneering Game Twin technology that brings 3D game data to life. How has your perspective on the delivery of this tech evolved, and how are we making this groundbreaking experience accessible to fans?

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Our journey has always been about the next frontier of content consumption. While we initially saw XR headsets as the primary gateway, we’ve realised that the true power of our Game Twin technology lies in its platform-agnostic nature. We’ve shifted our focus toward making this high-fidelity experience available directly in web browsers. This is a massive win for accessibility, it removes the hardware barrier and allows anyone to take control of the camera and 'Change the Meta' of how they watch esports.

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The Zenos Vision & Culture

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When you are pitching Zenos to investors and partners, what key piece of the company's technology or vision gets the most exciting response?

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The most exciting response comes when we show early demos because Zenos is a 'show not tell' type product. Demos encourage others to ideate on what is possible. Using content or data that people recognise, like sports data, is also helpful for understanding the concept. This showcasing approach is key to getting a big response from potential partners and investors.

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Zenos operates with a strong value of "Win together". As a remote-first company, what practical steps do you take to foster collaboration and ensure no one is left behind?

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Fostering collaboration is our single biggest challenge, and we are still a work in progress. Key steps include daily/weekly virtual standups, all-hands meetings, and dedicated efforts for more frequent in-person meetups when budget allows. In an office, there are unavoidable social interactions like running into a colleague at the coffee machine. On Slack, these are avoidable, so everyone has to make a conscious effort every day or every week to build connections and trust.

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You mentioned that you believe in the importance of failing often at a small percentage of your work to ensure a high learning rate. Can you share a recent professional "fail and learn" moment that led to a positive change in how Zenos operates today?

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I account for that in our commercial efforts. The amount of conversations we actually have is not reflective of the number of outreaches that I try to initiate but fail to initiate. Furthermore, we continuously have to review our presentation materials and adjust how we pitch and enter conversations. Unlike code, the feedback you get is rarely binary. You rarely get a clear 'yes' or a clear 'no', so you are always working on that blurry line. Until a deal is closed, which can take months or years, it often feels like you are failing most of the time.

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Personal Insights: The Consistency to Change the Meta

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What is the biggest life lesson you’ve taken from adventurous endurance challenges, like bikepacking across Europe, and applied to the fast-paced world of tech?

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Consistency is key. When you're consistent, it's just slightly easier than when you have to restart after a break, which is hard for everyone. Accepting that work is involved and that gratification may be delayed helps train the brain to control the desire for instant gratification. You have to put the work in first.

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What’s a piece of advice you wish you had received earlier in your career?

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I wish I had received advice to give myself more time for the initial excitement to subside before reviewing a situation with a fresh view. This practice is equally applicable to both exciting news and bad news. As the saying goes, citing the German proverb; Nothing gets eaten as hot as it's cooked.

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Finally, if you had to pick one of the company's values, Empower communities, Win together, or Change the meta, which one resonates most with your personal journey at Zenos, and why?

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I’d say 'Change the meta'. Although it is the least social value, it stands out because it is the key driver for introducing something new and disruptive. That is what makes our work challenging but also unique, and it’s why industry seniors sometimes recognise our idea as 'kind of crazy'.