Researcher & Founder · CEO, Airfy

Twenty years researching network technology.

I research how networks should work, then I found companies to build them. Hardware. Firmware. Cloud. AI. Always the same field, always going deeper. The result of two decades of research is the foundation everything new is built on.

Based · Austin, Texas
Born · East Germany, 1986
Family · Husband, father of two
Steffen Siewert
Why this work

The networks our children will inherit.

I am forty. Married for fifteen years. Two daughters who will grow up in a world that runs on networks I helped build.

My first computer arrived in 1995, at age nine. By twelve my bedroom was a small lab of stacked PCs and Ethernet cables, my first server running Linux next to a machine for testing rough websites. I have been at this for thirty-one years now. Networks have been the only thing I research.

Every router we ship, every line of firmware we commit, every customer we onboard answers the same question: will the infrastructure of the next decades be secure, sovereign, and made by people who care about who uses it?

That is the only thing I have worked on since I was eighteen. And it is the only thing I plan to work on for the rest of my career.

Steffen's bedroom lab in 1998, age twelve, multiple PCs and Linux server
1998 · Age 12 · The bedroom lab
How I work

Three principles. Twenty years.

01

Build hardware where it is used.

Made-in-Europe routers since 2006. US production added in 2025. Sovereignty is local, not global. The factory follows the customer, not politics.

02

Stay close to the code.

Founder still ships firmware. 1,500+ supported devices, 50,000+ lines of C, Rust rewrite in production. The code is the company.

03

Earn trust over decades, not quarters.

First bank network 2018. Today 1,000+ financial institutions. Bundeswehr partner since 2010. Customers stay because the system stays.

Research focus by period

Twenty years, five questions.

Every period has been organized around one open research question in network technology. Each answer became the foundation for the next question. The companies that grew out of that work are listed alongside, but the work is the research, not the brand.

2005 · 2011
Industrial mesh networking.
How can WiFi run reliably outside the office? Mining sites, emergency networks, armed forces operations. Built the first European WiFi factory to ship hardware that survives the field.
2012 · 2013
Connected cities at scale.
Can a small team network public infrastructure cheaper than the incumbents? Won the first Smart City contract networking every traffic light in a city for real-time research.
2014 · 2016
Cloud-managed WiFi.
What does WiFi look like when the controller lives in the cloud and the access point is plug-and-play? Three thousand small businesses became the answer.
2017 · 2023
Enterprise-grade sovereignty.
Can a Made-in-Europe platform earn the trust of regulated industries? Banks, public sector, manufacturing. Ten thousand locations later the answer is yes.
2024 · today
AI-native networking.
What changes when an LLM understands every device on the network and you can talk to it? Tactical comms, generative UI, sovereign AI on the edge. The current question.
20+ yrsOf research behind
10,000Locations deployed
1,000+Banks served
Since 2010Defense customer
USA + EUMade in
The networks I have built

Twenty years of customers.

A small selection of the organizations whose networks, locations, or partner programs run on technology I built or shipped. Banks, automotive, public sector, research, retail, defense.

Bundeswehr Sparkasse Volksbank Mercedes-Benz BMW Porsche Volkswagen MAN T-Systems Fraunhofer DLR Rohde & Schwarz Coca-Cola REWE ADAC Hilti Lenze Bosch Rexroth
Airfy is one of the sexiest Wi-Fi routers I have ever seen. It looks like a cross between an Art Deco lamp and a Legend of Zelda Rupee.
TechCrunch John Biggs, TechCrunch · December 2013
Career arc

Twenty years, four chapters.

2004 to 2011 · The hardware years

From workbench to factory.

Started at eighteen building WiFi accessory kits in Germany. By twenty, ran a 4,000 sqm router factory with 20 employees, self-financed with four million euros. Won the German armed forces as a customer in 2010 with a one-million-euro mesh deployment. Discovered the factory was too big without a sales engine. Shut it down at twenty-five. Kept the technology.

2012 to 2016 · The lean rebuild

Restart with a laptop.

Rebooted from scratch in Bavaria. Built Airberry, won a Smart City contract networking traffic lights, then moved to Berlin and launched Airfy as a cloud-managed WiFi platform for small businesses. Three thousand customers within two years. First daughter born 2015.

2017 to 2023 · The enterprise pivot

Built for institutions.

Moved to Switzerland. Partnered with a senior engineer and rebuilt the platform for enterprise from zero. Designed the first fully Made-in-Europe enterprise router. Closed the first 26-location German bank in 2018. Today, 1,000+ financial institutions and 10,000+ locations run on the platform.

2024 to today · The next chapter

US expansion.

Founded Airfy Inc. in Delaware. Production now in both Europe and the United States. Tactical networking for armed forces. AI-native networking platform shipping in 2026. Same mission, larger stage: secure, sovereign, manufacturer-owned WiFi infrastructure for the next twenty years.

Steffen and Mona Siewert
Family

Long timelines need good people.

Married since 2010. My wife Mona runs her own work and is my closest counsel. Two daughters, both German citizens, growing up between Europe and Texas.

Family is the reason the timeline is long, not short. Anything I build has to still make sense to my daughters when they are my age.

monasiewert.com →
Connect

Companies, links, contact.

Company Airfy AI-native enterprise WiFi. USA & global. Sister company AirZen Networks Made-in-Europe platform. EU & DACH. Tactical MeshNode 4G / 5G networking for armed forces. LinkedIn in/steffensiewert Career, posts, network. X @steffensiewert Short notes from the build. Direct steffen@airfy.com For founders, customers, partners.