Gernot Schwendtner

Fast, structured team building for scaling companies. I grew a team from 3 to 35 in 3 months at TravelBird, and have since built recruitment into Upvisor's Expansion Advisory, working with recruiters globally to fill vacancies. I advise CEOs and founders on senior hiring decisions and know the transformation points that matter: 3 to 15, 15 to 50, 50 to 200, each stage needs different structure, leadership, and process to keep the organisation performing.

I've reinvented my career many times: started in media, became a marketer, then an intrapreneur building a venture builder and launching new businesses. Joined a scaleup as Country Manager, rose to VP Marketing, then founded two expansion advisory companies. Now I mentor, sit on boards, and invest. People often ask me for advice and I have a structured approach for testing new career paths

International Expansion - The Upvisor Global GTM methodology takes founders from market insight to execution. It starts with structured market selection and validation, then builds a go-to-market strategy tailored to the target region, translates that into a concrete expansion plan, and drives hands-on execution: entry, hiring, partnerships, and scaling. Built on 15+ years of international expansion experience and tested and implemented by 2,500+ founders across Europe, LATAM, the US, and Asia.

I'm not a leadership coach, but I advise CEOs and founders on leadership as their companies scale: how decisions, roles, and communication need to change at each growth stage, from founder-led to structured teams. Crafting a clear vision, communicating it effectively, and transitioning from founder to leader as teams and companies grow.

I help founders validate and test product-market fit before they commit to a new market: testing demand, pricing, and positioning locally first, so expansion is built on evidence, not assumptions. De-risking with a structured test-approach.