A11 × BÖLLHOFF

Böllhoff didn't wait to get disrupted. They built the disruptor themselves, in 4 months.

Böllhoff has spent 149 years building connection technology for a €750M industry. Rather than wait for a leaner competitor to out-innovate them, A11 helped Böllhoff build an independent, AI-native speedboat business alongside the core, ran the first market test ourselves to prove it, and is now training Böllhoff's own team to scale it toward €100M in sales by 2030.

A 149-year-old family business that refused to wait for disruption.

THE CHALLENGE

Böllhoff has been in the connection technology business since 1877, four generations of the same family, and is now a leading global provider of fasteners and joining technology for industry and automotive, with annual sales of around €750 million.

Alongside the digital transformation of that core business, Böllhoff wanted something else: a genuinely new, independent business, built without the legacy systems and legacy processes that come with running a company for a century and a half. In practice, that meant building the kind of leaner, faster competitor that might otherwise have shown up on its own, on Böllhoff's own terms.

That's the problem A11 was brought in to solve.

Recubation

THE METHODOLOGY

Building your own worst competitor, on purpose. A second, independent business, run like a speedboat alongside the core, powered by AI, first-party data and agile units freed from legacy process, so an established company can disrupt itself before someone else does.

THREE ENGINES, ONE RECUBATION

AI-Native Venture Design

We used AI to rapidly test which adjacent markets Böllhoff's connection-technology expertise could disrupt, unconstrained by the core business's existing tooling or sales motion.

Data-Driven Market Testing

Every early customer conversation, pricing test and pilot order fed a live dataset that told us within weeks, not years, whether the concept had real commercial pull.

Agile, Legacy-Free Units

The new venture was structured as its own unit, with its own decision rights and its own pace, so it could move at start-up speed while the 149-year-old core business kept running undisturbed.

IN THEIR WORDS

The A11 team was exactly the right partner to support the build-up of our technology-driven new business based on AI and automation.

Wilhelm Alexander Böllhoff
Wilhelm Alexander Böllhoff
Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter, Böllhoff Gruppe
HOW A11 DELIVERED IT

We run it.

A11 ran the first market test: pricing, customers, deliveries, generating sales before asking Böllhoff's own team to bet their time on the model. Proof, not promises.

We teach it.

Once the speedboat had real traction, we handed over the venture's operating model, commercial playbook and go-to-market motion, coaching Böllhoff's own team until they could run and scale it independently toward the 2030 target.

THE RESULTS

Numbers a legacy org chart couldn't have produced.

in annual core business revenue that the new venture was built to sit alongside, not cannibalize.

sales target set for the new venture by 2030, in a traditionally slow-moving market.

to stand up the fully operating new venture, start to finish.

in offer volume already reached before the venture's official launch.

THE ENGAGEMENT

One speedboat, four phases, zero legacy baggage.

Diagnose

Build

Pilot

Transfer

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

We don't leave a task force. We leave a business Böllhoff owns outright.

Most consultancies win by making themselves indispensable. A11 wins by making itself unnecessary. Every model, playbook and decision rule we built for the speedboat was documented, taught and handed over, so Böllhoff's own team could run it solo well before our contract ended.

Codified venture playbook

Every pricing, sourcing and go-to-market decision written down as a repeatable, ownable process.

Shadow-then-solo operators

Böllhoff's own commercial and product leads ran the venture beside us before running it alone.

Owned tech & data

The full stack and live venture telemetry live in Böllhoff's own systems. No black boxes, no lock-in.

THE TEAM

The operators who sat in the seat.

Rainer Berak

Rainer Berak

Managing Director
Korbinian Richter

Korbinian Richter

Associate Partner
IN THE MEDIA

Hear it straight from the operators.

The Podcast

The podcast: Markt und Mittelstand with Korbinian (A11) on the methodology behind Recubation.

Live from the Stage

Live from the Stage: Keynote by Rainer (A11) and Kevin (Get Special Fasteners) at Transform 2026.

The Article

The Article: FUTUN Article by Korbinian (A11) on the value of Recubation for Family Businesses.

YOUR SPEEDBOAT IS WAITING

Let's build your speedboat, then hand you the wheel.

Imagine what we'll build alongside your core business. Let's talk about your fastest path to an independent, self-funding venture in the first 30 minutes.

Talk to Korbinian