More than 100 exhibitors and 1,500 guests attended distributor Api’s in-house trade show last Friday. Founder Achim Heyne, once less at home on stage, now appears all the more engaged with videos and networking. In his two new projects, he is relying on the power of community.

Main stage: Api founder Achim Heyne presented his new projects at the 30th anniversary celebration

Whenever Api called for a trade fair, the distributor could always rely on two things: numerous manufacturers would be on site showcasing their products, and large numbers of resellers would attend as well. At CeBIT, in what was then the reseller forum Planet Reseller, Api consistently had one of the largest booths with its subletting concept and hosted a spectacular party every year. It became legendary not least because the free beer only stopped flowing when the exhibition hall’s closing time was enforced. Of course, there was nothing like that at the 30th anniversary celebration in Bochum. And in many other respects, Api’s in-house exhibition has changed significantly, just as the market itself has. The event felt more like a congress, featuring keynote topics and several talks on current challenges. Discussions focused on the currently difficult IT market and on entrepreneurship.

Coach Slatco Sterzenbach, psychologist Laura Klimecki, consultant Fabiénne Niehues, and Tim Cortinovis, an internationally renowned keynote speaker, shared their expertise. The most prominent among them was Frank Thelen, serial founder, technology investor, and widely known from television as a startup juror on the investor show Die Höhle der Löwen. What can one learn from Thelen? Entrepreneurship, of course.

And also that while prominence and expert status are excellent drivers for marketing his TEQ fund (formerly 10xDNA), any losses in value are borne by private investors — as with any investment that comes with the promise of high returns.

Frank Thelen was the most prominent speaker at Api

There is no wealth creation without risk. Api CEO Achim Heyne is living proof of that, because when he began selling hardware from his student apartment 30 years ago, he took considerable risks by the standards of the time. In the mid-1990s, he invested not only money, but also almost all of his time into purchasing, sales, logistics and warehousing, pricing, marketing, and everything else that needs to be done when starting a business on one’s own.

Now, at the age of 56, distribution entrepreneur Heyne could sit back, pause, and reflect on what he has built: an established distributor with annual revenue of EUR 1.4 billion and more than 900 employees. Yet he feels compelled to pursue new projects. He is still — or rather, more than ever — enthusiastic about the opportunities offered by digitalization.

A plug for cross-website networking

As one of the first distributors, Api recently integrated the plugilo plug beneath every product in its reseller shop (as reported by CRN). The idea behind it is that Api customers can archive all information about a product they find at Api and on other websites featuring the plug, in the form of playing cards, which they can later review and order through plugilo. plugilo acts as a kind of temporary storage; Heyne, ever the businessman, calls it a “shopping cart.” Normally, an online shop is almost off-limits to third-party plugins — apart from payment providers — because they tend to distract from the purchase. Heyne sees it differently, because he considers digital networking to be of tremendous value. Ever since discovering the power of moving images for his business and for himself, he seems transformed: no stage is now too big for him, whereas he used to avoid them.

New networking platforms Ultraview and Non Plus Ultra

This is exactly where his two new projects, which he presented last Friday at Api’s anniversary celebration, come in: Ultraview and Non Plus Ultra. The former is a platform for business videos; the latter is an exclusive business network for professional connections — a kind of LinkedIn, only without what has become that platform’s increasingly intrusive takeover by salespeople, coaches, and other business agents.

Heyne explained, in both an informative and entertaining way, that networking among people who share the same values creates mutual trust, and that this forms the perfect basis for long-term business prospects. Across industries, the Non Plus Ultra network is intended to become a community in which “entrepreneurs and employees are passionately committed to the goal of maximizing their personal and professional potential together.” Delivering valuable content through video, building valuable connections, freed from cat pictures and annoying advertising pitches — that is what Ultraview and Non Plus Ultra stand for, and what Api CEO Achim Heyne is passionate about — alongside his distribution business, of course.