About
Tillman Schulz is a German entrepreneur who turned a third‑generation family food business into a springboard for television success. Born on 10 September 1989 in Dortmund, he now runs MDS Holding, a group that supplies delicatessen products across Europe, and appears as an investor (“Löwe”) on the VOX startup show “Die Höhle der Löwen.” His calm style, quick number‑crunching, and friendly humor have helped him become one of the most recognisable new faces in German business television.
From spring 2023 onward, Schulz has evaluated founders’ pitches alongside seasoned personalities such as Dagmar Wöhrl and Carsten Maschmeyer. He also crossed borders in 2024, serving as a guest “shark” on Shark Tank Vietnam, where he looked for promising food‑and‑beverage startups with export potential.
Before Fame
Schulz grew up in Dortmund in a family where dinner‑table talk often revolved around logistics, fish imports, and margin calculations. After finishing the German Abitur, he completed a bank‑clerk apprenticeship, sharpening his finance skills before joining the family firm in 2012.
Two years later he co‑founded Motido, the group’s trading arm that handles specialty oils, fish, and gourmet items. By 2020 he had taken over as managing director of the entire MDS Holding group, leading roughly 300 employees and steering the company toward sustainable sourcing. His blend of tradition and innovation later caught the eye of TV producers hunting for a fresh, analytically minded investor.
Trivia
- Youngest Lion: When he joined “Die Höhle der Löwen,” Schulz became the youngest permanent investor in the show’s history, edging out previous record‑holder Nico Rosberg.
- Dance‑floor Detour: In early 2024 he laced up ballroom shoes for the 17th season of RTL’s “Let’s Dance,” proving that a spreadsheet whiz can also brave the cha‑cha‑cha.
- Household Shock: A 2025 episode made headlines when he admitted on air that he rarely uses a vacuum cleaner, sparking playful ribbing from fellow investors and social‑media memes galore.
- Startup Superfan: In 2023 he and four co‑investors jointly committed €600k to Zeedz, a gaming project that blends ecology and NFTs—one of the few times all “lions” pounced together.
Family Life
Schulz is married to Cosima, whom he first spotted in an Italian restaurant and later connected with on Facebook back in 2010. He promptly booked a flight to Munich for their first dinner—an early sign of the decisive mindset founders now admire on the show.
The couple share two children and still carve out quiet weekends away from cameras, often retreating to the countryside near Dortmund. Family remains central to his identity; he once said that business negotiations can wait, but bedtime stories cannot.
An interesting twist: his sister Franziska is married to former Borussia Dortmund star Lars Ricken. Schulz refers to the ex‑footballer as “almost a brother,” and the two families holiday together every summer—sometimes exchanging pitch decks for penalty kicks.
Associated With
On‑screen, Schulz shares the investor panel with names such as Carsten Maschmeyer, Nils Glagau, Ralf Dümmel, Dagmar Wöhrl, and fellow newcomer Janna Ensthaler. Off‑screen, he networks with startup founders across Europe and Southeast Asia, building bridges between the German “Mittelstand” and fast‑growing consumer‑goods ventures abroad. Whether swapping strategy tips with Maschmeyer or comparing sustainable‑packaging ideas with Vietnamese entrepreneurs, Schulz keeps the conversation light, numbers‑driven, and refreshingly jargon‑free—just the way modern founders like it.
