From Consultant to Founder: We are founding Entropy Data

From Idea to Founding

The INNOQ Employee Innovation Program enables employees and INNOQ to jointly invest in an idea, conduct a market-oriented evaluation, utilize existing operational infrastructure, and have financial security.

Dr. Simon Harrer and Jochen Christ seized this opportunity. As internationally recognized experts for Data Mesh and Data Products, they have accompanied over 20 companies in implementing modern data architectures since 2021, identifying key success factors such as Data Contracts and Data Governance. They have published their experiences on www.datamesh-architecture.com, developed the Data Product Canvas as a consulting tool, translated Zhamak Dehghani’s Data Mesh book from English to German, and created the popular open-source tool Data Contract CLI. Additionally, they drive open standards such as the Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS) and the Open Data Product Standard (ODPS) as members of the Technical Steering Committee of Bitol at the Linux Foundation.

In several customer projects, it became clear: companies need a reliable tool for managing their data products and associated metadata – such as responsibilities, service level agreements, and terms of use. Instead of developing individual solutions, Simon and Jochen decided to create a standardized product together with their customers: the Data Mesh Manager.

This product marks not only the start of a technical solution but also the beginning of an independent business idea. Within the framework of the INNOQ Employee Innovation Program the journey began in 2022 with clear framework conditions and the option of a spin-off.

Because data products with clear responsibilities are now the foundation of modern data architectures. In combination with Data Contracts, datasets can be described structurally and semantically, usage conditions and service levels can be defined, and data quality can be automatically verified.

In the future, this metadata will become even more relevant: it forms the foundation for AI applications to correctly interpret domain-specific datasets while complying with data governance regulations.

Why Now?

The Data Mesh Manager has been in productive use for over two years – at leading companies from industries such as logistics, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and energy. The feedback from practice is consistently positive: the need is real, demand is high, and the product clearly strikes a nerve in the market. The product-market fit has been found.

But the market continues to develop rapidly and doesn’t rest. To remain relevant and expand our lead, now is the right time to further develop the product, build a strong partner network, and scale internationally. The founding of Entropy Data is intended to provide the necessary speed, focus – and entrepreneurial freedom.

The Name and Logo

The term entropy originally comes from physics but was reinterpreted by Claude Shannon in information theory: there, entropy describes the information content and degree of disorder of a message.

Applied to data, this means: the more unstructured and less predictable a dataset is, the higher its entropy. This is exactly where we come in: we want to help organize data – through clearly defined data products and data contracts.

That’s why we believe the company name Entropy Data is perfect.

We put similar thought into the logo. We see the suggested hexagon – a symbol often used for data products. Additionally, we want to bring order to data, so we see a letter organizer with three compartments. If you look very closely, you can see an inverted «M» in the top left – a homage to the «M» in «Data Mesh Manager».

Collaboration with INNOQ

Entropy Data remains closely connected to INNOQ – not only because INNOQ is involved as a shareholder in the spin-off, but also through trustful day-to-day collaboration. The division of roles is clear: while Entropy Data focuses entirely on further developing and operating the product, INNOQ continues to provide consulting, integration, and project support upon request.

At the same time, we remain in professional exchange – particularly in the exciting topic area around Data & AI, which connects both companies in terms of content. This creates a partnership that sensibly combines product focus and consulting expertise – to the benefit of our customers.

Looking to the Future

It remains exciting: the AI megatrend makes metadata even more important. With the Model Context Protocol (MCP), we can link AI tools and domain-specific data products so that AI agents can answer domain-specific questions while observing data governance requirements. The Data Mesh Manager can deliver exactly this metadata. The open-source tool Data Product MCP connects AI agents with the Data Mesh Manager and monitors compliance with data governance.

In the short term, we’re focusing on growth, expanding the team, and building strong sales partnerships. The long-term goal is clear: internationalization. We want to make our solutions and ideas available internationally – and support organizations worldwide in making their data products future-proof.

We’re Excited

We’re very excited about the founding of Entropy Data. It shows how innovation can emerge – when people with an idea, entrepreneurial spirit, and real customer need meet an environment that supports them. This is exactly how we want to work at INNOQ: together, responsibly, and with room for innovation.

👉 Check out the product: Data Mesh Manager
👉 Follow Entropy Data and INNOQ on LinkedIn for current news and insights