Fact sheet
Facts about Max.
Everything journalists, organisers and partners may quote: short bios to copy, numbers with dates, awards, projects, stages and press. Where there is no public source, it says own statement.
Short bios to copy
Three lengths for programmes, organiser pages and moderator cards. You may use them as they are.
Maximilian Lehmann is founder and managing director of fainin GmbH in Hamburg, a marketplace for lending and renting with mandatory ID and insurance. He has used AI systems since November 2022 and Claude Code since its launch. He gives keynotes and workshops and advises founders and companies on AI agent systems.
Maximilian Lehmann is founder and managing director of fainin GmbH in Hamburg. fainin is a marketplace for lending and renting with mandatory ID and insurance of up to EUR 15,000 per transaction. With 2-SHARE it also offers closed sharing communities for companies and universities. 2-SHARE won the German Sustainability Award 2026 in the category Products. At fainin, four people and ten AI agents work together. Lehmann has used AI systems since November 2022 and Claude Code since its launch. He speaks at events such as InTent at Davos, runs workshops for founders and advises companies on getting started with AI agent systems.
Maximilian Lehmann is founder and managing director of fainin GmbH in Hamburg. He grew up in the countryside and rented out party equipment for pocket money as a teenager. In 2019 he started fainin with his bachelor thesis. Today fainin is a marketplace for lending and renting with mandatory ID and insurance of up to EUR 15,000 per transaction and more than 22,000 registered profiles. With 2-SHARE, fainin offers closed sharing communities for companies and universities, including BASF Coatings, Tchibo, Sopra Steria, the University of Hamburg and FU Berlin.
2-SHARE won the German Sustainability Award 2026 in the category Products. The team also won the final of the UNPRME Students Innovation Studio in Cairo. When fundraising became harder, fainin reduced the team. Today four people and ten AI agents work together. Lehmann has used AI systems since ChatGPT was released in November 2022 and Claude Code since its launch. He took part in InTent at Davos 2026 as participant, panellist and impulse-giver, runs workshops for founders and teams and advises companies on building AI agent systems.
Four questions, four answers
The questions founder programmes and investors ask most often, with my answers. Sources are in the sections below.
Tell us about a time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system to your advantage.
Competitions and grants. I treat them not as luck but as a system with a scoring rubric. For every application I collect evidence per criterion, find out what each juror rewards, check every number against the documents the jury already has, and reuse the material for the next application. This brought fainin more than EUR 300k in non-dilutive funding and grants and several competition wins, among them the German Sustainability Award 2026 and a win at the United Nations Global Compact’s UNPRME program in Cairo (final of the Students Innovation Studio). Applications that used to take a day now take only a few hours, and my chances of winning have subjectively improved.
What is the most impressive thing other than this startup that you have built or achieved?
We run fainin as agentically and automatically as possible: reactivation engines for customers and for the two-sided marketplace, and a fainin brain that lets everyone collaborate across departments. This keeps us lean and more independent.
Tell us about things you have built before.
- fainin.com: marketplace for lending and renting (I led product and company, our CTO is responsible for the core technology)
- 2-share.de: closed sharing communities for companies and universities
- mietly.io: comparison portal for renting tech
- krempel.vercel.app: scan a room, prepare listings (developed and designed entirely on my own, connected to the fainin and nebenan.de systems)
- tymbo.vercel.app: test page for an ice-bathing community in Berlin
- github.com/15i1i-s7v/mega.talk: observability layer for outbound sales, created at Megathon 2026
- anbiss.com: what Mega.Talk evolved into (call evaluation with a weekly report). I was involved as non-technical co-founder in planning, sales and customer-centred development
- maximilianlehmann.pro: this site with its own build
- … and many more digital projects for corporates, startups and NGOs
Which competitions or awards have you won, which papers have you published?
- German Sustainability Award 2026, category Products, for 2-SHARE (ceremony on 5 December 2025)
- Awarded by United Nations Global Compact in their Innovation Studio (UNPRME), winner of the final in Cairo (June 2026), with a USD 15,000 seed grant
- Make-It-Lean Contest 2021 (HWR Berlin) & ISM Startup Competition (2021), both 1st place
- Since 2023: THE MERCEDES-BENZ FELLOWSHIP by beVisioneers
- Publication: bachelor thesis “Die perfekte Value Proposition einer Plattform zum sicheren Leihen und Verleihen” (the perfect value proposition of a platform for safe lending and renting), International School of Management
Numbers at a glance
All numbers are rounded and dated. Where there is no public source, it says own statement.
| Number | Meaning | Date and source |
|---|---|---|
| 22,000+ | registered profiles on fainin | October 2026, own analysis (shown on fainin.com) |
| +42% | growth in rentals year on year, mainly carried by the agentic team | Twelve months to September 2026, own analysis |
| 4 and 10 | four people and ten AI agents at fainin | October 2026, own statement |
| EUR 15,000 | insurance cover per transaction, with mandatory ID | According to fainin.com |
| EUR 300k+ | non-dilutive funding and grants | Own statement, see section Awards |
| about EUR 500k | raised in total as pre-seed | Own statement |
| since 2019 | fainin, started with the bachelor thesis | Own statement |
| since 11/2022 | AI systems in use, since ChatGPT was released | Own statement |
Customers and communities at fainin: BASF Coatings, Tchibo, Sopra Steria, Bioscientia, Eine Welt Netz NRW, University of Hamburg, FU Berlin, CAU Kiel, ISM Hamburg and Impact Hub Hamburg.
Awards and funding
Prizes and competitions won
| Year | Award | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 / 26 | German Sustainability Award 2026, category Products, awarded to 2-SHARE by fainin (ceremony in Hamburg on 5 December 2025) | nachhaltigkeitspreis.de |
| 2026 | UNPRME Students Innovation Studio, awarded by the United Nations Global Compact in its Innovation Studio (UNPRME): winner of the final in Cairo (June 2026), with a USD 15,000 seed grant | Own statement, source on request |
| 2021 | Make-It-Lean Contest (HWR Berlin), 1st place with fainin | Own statement, source on request |
| 2021 | Startup Competition of the International School of Management, 1st place with fainin | Press release (pressetext, German) |
| since 2023 | THE MERCEDES-BENZ FELLOWSHIP by beVisioneers, fellowship | Own statement, source on request |
By its own count, the team has won 9+ startup competitions in total. The entries in the table are the ones named and documented.
Non-dilutive funding
- BMBF, Social Innovations: project “2-share: sharing platforms for organisations”, 2024 to 2025.
- DBU Green Start-up Programme: funding and accreditation for fainin, 2021 to 2022 (DBU project page, German).
- Crowdfunding via Startnext and a grant from the University of Hamburg (data literacy).
Together, these grants, the fellowship and the seed grant add up to more than EUR 300k. I deliberately do not list single amounts here.
What I have built
You can open every project. At fainin I led the product and the company, and our CTO is responsible for the core technology. I developed Krempel entirely on my own and built smaller products with Claude Code. At Anbiss I was involved as non-technical co-founder.
| Project | What it is | Link |
|---|---|---|
| fainin | Marketplace for lending and renting, mandatory ID, insurance of up to EUR 15,000 per transaction | fainin.com |
| 2-SHARE | Closed sharing communities for companies and universities | 2-share.de |
| mietly.io | Comparison portal for renting tech | mietly.io |
| Krempel | Scan a room, find what can be rented out, prepare the listings. Developed and designed entirely on my own, connected to the fainin and nebenan.de systems | krempel.vercel.app |
| TYMBO | Test page for an ice-bathing community in Berlin, example in the workshop | tymbo.vercel.app |
| Mega.Talk | Observability layer for outbound sales, created at Megathon 2026 | github.com/15i1i-s7v/mega.talk |
| Anbiss | What Mega.Talk evolved into: evaluates every call and delivers the report on Fridays. I was involved as non-technical co-founder in planning, sales and customer-centred development | anbiss.com |
| and more | Many more digital projects for corporates, startups and NGOs | Expert profile |
| maximilianlehmann.pro | This site, with its own build and four in-depth guides (in German) | Wissen |
Publications
- Bachelor thesis: “Die perfekte Value Proposition einer Plattform zum sicheren Leihen und Verleihen” (in English: the perfect value proposition of a platform for safe lending and renting), International School of Management. fainin grew out of it.
- LinkedIn article: “Wie du dir ein Nebeneinkommen aufbaust” (March 2024, in German).
- Guides on this site: four in-depth guides on Claude Code and AI agents (in German).
Stages and press
Selected appearances
- InTent at Davos, January 2026: participant, panellist and impulse-giver in the Nature Room
- Techchill Riga 2025
- The Founder Summit 2026
- Megathon 2026
- The Green Deal Show 2026
- VDI
- Impact Hub Hamburg (workshops)
Press about fainin (mostly German)
- Galileo (ProSieben): renting and lending instead of buying, rental apps tested
- NDR Hamburg Journal: sharing instead of buying new with fainin
- RTL+ podcast “Willkommen im Circular Valley”: episode with Maximilian Lehmann
- Forbes Austria
- Hamburger Abendblatt
- Die Welt (Gründerszene)
- Business Insider (Gründerszene)
- StartUp Valley: fainin at The Green Deal Show
Education
| Period | Station |
|---|---|
| 2020 to 2025 | M.Sc. Business Informatics (not completed), University of Hamburg, ended in favour of fainin |
| 2017 to 2020 | B.Sc. International Management, International School of Management |
| 2019 | Semester abroad at Bilgi University, Istanbul |
| 2017 | Abitur, Herzog-Johann-Gymnasium (exchange year at Johnson Central High School, USA, 2014 to 2015) |
Downloads and contact
- Press photo (JPG, 866 × 1100 pixels)
- CV (PDF, English) and Lebenslauf (PDF, Deutsch)
- Speaker kit (PDF, German)
For press requests, events and interviews: max@fainin.com or WhatsApp +49 175 3477656.
Contact
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