Meet The EMBA Class Of Entrepreneurs: Executives Today, Founders Tomorrow 

Martin Bittner
The Wharton School 

Venture name: Redouble AI, Inc.
Date of founding: 2024 Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania 
Program: Wharton MBA for Executives 

 Tell us about your career background: For the past 8 years I have been a full-time founder-CEO at the intersection of technology and regulated industries. I built my first company in pharma workflow automation in the UK, and am now building my second company in agentic AI in the US. My original training though is as a physician-scientist; I completed my MD at the University of Freiburg in Germany, and my PhD at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.  

 What is your business/venture? Redouble AI is a YC-backed enterprise AI company. We have developed an agentic operating system that enables enterprise engineers to seamlessly embed agentic automation inside their existing tech stack. The way I like to describe it is that the current technology setup inside any large enterprise is like a huge and intricate landscape built out of Lego bricks, and what we provide is AI enablement in the same shape and form – agentic Lego bricks if you will. That means enterprise engineers can natively add agentic capabilities to their existing setup, with the same language, same security setup, same permissions, etc. and without the need to expose their inner workings to external tools or platforms which they don’t know and can’t control.  

 What inspired you to found this business? My career as an entrepreneur revolves around leveraging technology to improve and augment mission-critical workflows across industries. My first company was inspired by my own experiences in drug discovery, seeing the need and the potential to use technology in an industry so central to human health first-hand. Throughout my six years as CEO, I built the company from an idea to millions in enterprise deals – but also developed a fascination with how timing shapes opportunities. Having spent all this time in workflow automation, I saw that the emergence of generative and agentic AI is a unique, generational opportunity to be part of and shape a new paradigm of how technology can improve and augment workflows at an unprecedented scale. That is how I decided to start my second company.  

 Why did you enrol on the EMBA? When I started my first company, right out of my PhD, I went through a very steep learning curve. Being a founder means drinking from the firehose, and without previous business education, I had to learn a tremendous amount across fundraising, leadership, finance, sales, marketing, legal, negotiation, etc etc. Fortunately I had great advisors and mentors who taught me a lot, and I made many mistakes that I learned from. But I also realized that there was a lot more to learn to become a better founder and leader. At the same time, I was planning my move to the US, and I wanted to strengthen my network which till then had been more focused on Europe.  

 How was the EMBA helped you/your business? Completing the Wharton MBA for Executives has been an incredible experience, and its impact on me as a founder and my company has been immediate and lasting in three distinct ways: 1) Learnings: being a founder teaches you a lot, but I never had any systematic instruction in all of the core disciplines that make up a company. The MBA changed that, with courses covering everything from accounting via finance, operations, marketing, and strategy all the way to negotiation, leadership, and communication. 2) Network: I have met the most amazing people throughout my program – professors and classmates who have become friends, advisors, investors and partners to my company. 3) New skills and insights: completing a rigorous and time-intensive executive program on top of being a full-time founder is an intense experience – but it also sharpens your time management and prioritization skills! 

 What’s the one thing about the EMBA that you think is undervalued? Often, the main focus when thinking about the value of an EMBA is on either the network or the actual classroom learnings. I think there’s another aspect worth highlighting, which is the self-reflection that you go through as you complete the program. Many of my classmates, and I myself, have started looking at their careers, options, and opportunities with different eyes, becoming more conscious and more thoughtful about their choices, due to exposure to new ideas, new concepts, new role models, new peers. That to me is just as important as the network and the traditional classroom learnings.  

 What’s next for your business? I am incredibly proud and grateful to be part of a technological revolution which is now starting to impact and improve real-world workflows in the enterprise. For my co-founder and myself, it’s an amazing opportunity to play our part in shaping how that will happen – where seeing more and more enterprises adopt our solution is incredibly inspiring. And we are only getting started!  

 Would you recommend the EMBA to other entrepreneurs? If yes, why?  100%. You will learn a million things you didn’t even know you should know about building and running a business, you will meet an incredible cohort of people from many different sectors, industries, countries, and career paths, who will inspire you, cheer you on, and become lifelong friends, and you will reflect what it means to be a founder and build a career in entrepreneurship, becoming a more well-rounded and thoughtful leader for your current and any future venture.  

 NEXT PAGE: Franc Bogovic & Moustafa El-Baqqaly, Oxford Saïd Business School 

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