Valentin Schmid · My Red Thread

My Red Thread

Valentin Schmid · Stammheim, Switzerland

1988 – still going

This is my red thread.

Born in 1988 and raised in Switzerland by a creative father and a loving mother. I don't believe in coincidences: some things pull, and I notice them when I cut out the noise and listen.
- Mechanic by trade
- 20+ years in automotive
- Ex Tesla, ex COO
- Now: AI, systems and what's worth making
How does it work, and can I do it too?

My curiosity started early.

When something matters, I research like a maniac until I understand how it works and how it connects. Then I go and try it.
- Me at about two, 1990.
- Probieren geht über Studieren: trying, failing and learning get you there wiser and faster than planning it all out first.
How does it work, and can I do it too?

Four exhausts.

At four I asked my mum why that Ferrari 512 TR had four exhaust pipes. She didn't know, and I've been finding out ever since.

Watch the film · 1:44
- My granddad drove amateur rallies.
- Formula One since I was 6. I did the math: 618 races, 37,821 laps, roughly 987 hours or 41 days of my life. Worth it.
- Die-hard LH44 fan since his first race with McLaren.
How does it work, and can I do it too?

Hands inside the machine.

Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star put words to what I always knew: I'm a builder. I'm good at building foundations that work, and polishing one thing for years isn't for me.
- Automobil-Mechatroniker EFZ, 2011. To this day it pays off: I understand mechanics and electronics, whether I'm fixing a broken connector out on the trail or building my own furniture.
- Once took an engine apart without labelling the screws. Paid for it later, in time.
How do the pieces fit together?

We are a system.

Everything is a piece of a bigger system. Thinking in systems shows what specialists miss: how a change over here plays out over there. Most problems need a systematic approach.
- Piggy connects people and brands. I connect tools, processes and tech.
- Wherever I arrive, I look for where it might break, and for the tools, knowledge or people who close my blind spots.
- The Audi B5 S4 Avant on the wall is the second car I ever bought. Should have kept it.
How do the pieces fit together?

Inside the company.

I've seen from the inside what happens when a company forgets its why: the values blur, and people stop committing to what they believe in. That's why honesty is at the core of who I am.
- I can't stand disconnected values, or behaviour that isn't in line with them, so I had to learn to live and work differently.
- What I took from Tesla is the opposite: everything is possible, nothing has to be done the way it always was, and you do it before you perfect it.
- Audi and Tesla, 2011 to 2019
How do the pieces fit together?

Building systems?

When I get stuck, I take a breath and a step back and try to understand what happened and why. Then I ask what I can improve myself, before I ask others to.
- The market will never be perfect for you, and neither will geopolitics.
- gowago, 2019 to Feb 2026: head of sales and operations, COO from Nov 2023.
- Then I left, to start my own thing and to explore. From the outside that made no sense, and yet I just knew: this is not what I'm here to give.
What is actually worth making?

Anyone (who wants to) can make anything now.

My question is shifting from "Can I?" to "Should I?". When the barrier to building is gone, the challenge shifts to values, ethics and taste. Is what I make worth someone else's time, and mine?
- Malojapass, 1 am. While running the Tesla pop-up store in St. Moritz I got bored one evening and wanted to try light-streak photography.
- Tripod strapped to a tree with a ratchet, because it was windy as hell.
- No traffic on a weeknight, so I had a choice: give up or start driving myself. The shot is my answer.
What is actually worth making?

Knowing when to stop.

Honesty comes with consequences: staying honest teaches you what to stop, start or continue, whether it's a business idea, a relationship or anything else.
- SINCE was a merch brand: launched within 24 hours, with its own Shopify store, and killed within a week.
- Winning a customer cost more than they would ever spend with us. Not worth my time, and not what I'm here to do.
What is actually worth making?

What if?

To me, unhomologated is alternative realities. What if BMW had actually built its GT1? What if Renault had worked with Hartley and made the R5 revival a V12 instead of an EV?
- Some physicists think parallel universes are real, so who knows.
- The tools are tools: Magnific, Higgsfield, Blender or whatever comes next. What decides is consistency, coherence and taste, and your eye for that one detail on a particular car.
- Instagram: @unhomologated, unhomologated.com
What is actually worth making?

Worth a Shot Club

Worth a Shot Club brings together people who want to take their own shot, in whatever form, because your life is worth taking shots.
- We follow AI for what's worth your attention, try the claims on real work and share the tools to build with yourself, in a community that supports each other.
- Instagram: @worthashot.club
Who do I make it with?

1 + 1 > 2

We're human, social beings: great things always come from people working together. It works when people who think differently say the truth early.
- Listen more than you talk.
- Let others finish first.
- Try to understand before you try to be understood.
- Listen. Process. Talk if necessary.
- Everything before the "but" is horseshit.
One life. Am I living it?

We have one life.

Life is fucking beautiful if you let it. Do what you love and do it often, and if you don't like something, change it: we are the creators of our own story.
- The Holstee Manifesto has hung on my wall for ages. My mom gave it to me over ten years ago, and I still stop to reread it from time to time.
- It makes complicated things simple and makes me cautious not to waste the time I've been given.
One life. Am I living it?

Where the tarmac ends.

Off grid I find a primal connection to the landscape and the animals, to roughness and the imperfection in perfection. It leaves a quiet, peaceful energy in me. Touching grass comes close.
- Staring into a fire with my dog's head on my lap can make me cry. When I cut out the noise, I understand that loving and being loved is all that counts, and that life is a fragile thing worth living.
- A Jeep Gladiator, and a Jeep XJ I'm restoring myself.
- Our build on Instagram: @jt_barden
What's next?

What will we make together?

I don't have a finished word for it yet: something very human, made with new technology that moves people. There are infinite possibilities, so let's find the one worth building.
- Something that makes this place a tiny bit better.
- valentin@onceicommit.com
- linkedin.com/in/davidvalentinschmid
- Zurich, Switzerland