A movie called WarGames that inspired a ten-year-old boy to become a hacker. A year spent backpacking around the world. A business that took eight years to get its data right. And a coworking space discovered thanks to a beer flat rate. At first glance, these might sound like completely unrelated stories. For Stefan Tzeggai, they’re all part of the same journey, one shaped by curiosity, unexpected decisions, a few setbacks, and a good sense of humor.
From Dreams of Hacking to the Real World
Stefan’s fascination with computers began when he was around ten years old. After watching WarGames, he decided that becoming a hacker sounded like a pretty good idea. He was particularly entertained by the character who hacked into his school’s computer to improve a girl’s grades, an idea that stuck with him long after the movie ended.
By the age of 15, Stefan was already earning money as a programmer, at a time when learning to code meant figuring things out without the internet. No online tutorials, no instant answers, and certainly no AI assistants. Instead, he relied on books from the library and his own curiosity to understand how computers worked.
But technology wasn’t his only interest. After finishing school, Stefan spent a year backpacking around the world. Together with friends, he found a way to share their adventures online: photographs travelled home on CDs, stories arrived by email, and a friend uploaded everything to a website. “We invented the blog, actually,” he jokes.
Those travels eventually inspired him to study geography, alongside statistics, ethnology, and computer science. Yet programming remained a constant throughout his education. As he puts it, “I was always a nerd. Just a nerd that started to study geography.”
And that combination of interests would eventually become the foundation of his career.
The Entrepreneurial Side of a Computer Nerd
Stefan’s first company grew out of an idea he genuinely believed in. Through Geopublisher and AtlasStyler, he developed open-source software that helped researchers share geographical information with communities around the world, even without an internet connection.
The tools were used internationally, including in Ecuador and Rwanda. But there was one challenge: the people and organizations that needed them often didn’t have the budget to pay for them. After several years of trying to make the business sustainable, Stefan faced a difficult decision. With a growing family and new responsibilities, he needed to move in a different direction.
“I moved to the dark side of the world, which is real estate,” he jokes.
His next venture, empirica-systeme GmbH, which he co-founded with two partners, brought together his experience in programming, geographical information, and data analysis. The idea was to build a reliable picture of the property market from real estate listings, using a small, representative sample rather than collecting everything, and to make that information useful for companies that needed to understand the market.
Stefan initially thought preparing the data would take two or three years. Instead, it took the founding team eight, and he estimates that he personally read around 40,000 property listings along the way.
What started as a difficult data problem became the foundation of a business that was later acquired and today operates as VALUE Marktdaten. Stefan leads IT there, where the team develops tools that help bank assess property values.
The Unexpected Road to Neckar Hub
In 2019, Stefan needed a change of scenery. Or, more precisely, his wife decided he needed one.
“My wife was annoyed of me working in the home office all the time,” he recalls. “So she pushed me out of the house.”
With colleagues already working from different cities across Germany, Stefan began looking for a coworking space in Tübingen. He wanted somewhere he could focus, meet people, and feel comfortable spending his working days. Then he discovered Neckar Hub, and the beer flat rate immediately caught his attention.
“I thought, that’s a cool idea.”
But what convinced him to stay was everything that came afterward. Stefan began with one of the smallest offices and gradually expanded his workspace as his team grew.
Neckar Hub gave him the flexibility to adapt without leaving the community he had become part of.
“With every new employee, I could just quickly grow here,” he explains.
Over the years, Neckar Hub became more than an office address. Stefan remembers the gatherings, conversations, and shared experiences that made the space feel lively. He even helped bring people together by offering to cook for community events.
For someone who had spent years working remotely, having a place to meet people while continuing to build his business made a difference. And that’s part of what makes coworking interesting: sometimes you arrive looking for an office and discover something more.
What’s Next for Someone Who Never Stops Experimenting?
If you imagine Stefan’s enthusiasm for technology might have slowed down after decades of programming, think again.
These days, one of his closest working companions is Claude, an AI coding assistant. His morning routine sometimes begins with coffee and a conversation with AI. A few hours later, he realizes the coffee is still there, untouched and cold.
Stefan is excited by the possibilities of artificial intelligence, but he also recognizes the challenges it creates, particularly for people beginning their careers in technology. For him, experience still matters. Knowing how to use a tool is one thing; knowing whether its results make sense is another.
And when the conversation turns to advice for younger generations, Stefan comes back to something that has shaped his own career: the courage to try. Not every project will succeed, and not every decision will lead where you expect. But that shouldn’t stop you from taking opportunities.
“In the end, we regret more the chances we didn’t take.”
It’s a fitting thought from someone whose career has been anything but predictable. And if there’s one last thing Stefan would like you to remember?
“Use Linux. Seriously.”
Yelinne C. Gonzales
Neckar Hub Junior Consultant > studies International Business and is interested in Marketing, Business Development and Innovation > enjoys dancing and travelling