Jakob Saalfrank · builder, Barcelona

I build hard things.

Co-founder and CEO of Grasshopper Air Mobility: cargo drones, designed and built in Barcelona. On the side I ship AI products with Claude Code and Codex. Right now the capital side of deep tech has my attention.

Thinking about mobility, robotics, physical AI, bioscience, decarbonisation, and investing.

Now · July 2026

Exploring the investment side of deep tech. Building Hairdresser AI. Fresh from Draper University in Silicon Valley, five days of survival training included.

The short version

It started with a question in 2018: why don't flying cars exist yet?

Finding out cost me a corporate job and a move to Barcelona. Grasshopper is the answer so far, pivots and one crash included. Along the way I started shipping my own tools with Claude Code and Codex: research, financial models, whole products.

Now I'm curious about the other side of the table, where the capital comes from. This site is where the work lives, in public.

What I'm building

Co-founder & CEO · Barcelona · now flying

Grasshopper Air Mobility

Cargo drones for B2B logistics: autonomous vehicles that fly and drive, built with a small team. We are flying the proof of concept and iterating.

Jakob pitching Grasshopper on stage at the Draper University demo day, May 2026. Watch me pitch it →
Side project · live · built nights + weekends

Hairdresser AI

An AI try-on for hair salons: see the cut before you commit. Designed, built and shipped end to end with Claude Code.

  • Jakob pitching on stage at the InMerge Innovation Summit, June 2026.
    pitching at InMerge, Berlin, June 2026
  • Jakob pitching Grasshopper on stage at the Draper University demo day, May 2026.
    can I convince Tim Draper? demo day at Draper University, May 2026
  • Jakob speaking into a microphone at a startup event during MWC week in Barcelona, March 2026.
    pitching at the Glovo headquarters, Barcelona, March 2026
  • Jakob sitting at the edge of a rooftop pool in front of a We-love-Barcelona mosaic, March 2026.
    BCN Entrepreneurs pitch at La Fabrica, March 2026
  • Jakob at the Grasshopper stand at the Smart City Expo World Congress, next to the proof-of-concept drone, November 2025.
    booth duty at Smart City Expo, Nov 2025
  • Jakob pitching in front of European and Spanish flags at the Clean Cities ClimAccelerator demo day in Madrid, October 2025.
    Clean Cities ClimAccelerator demo day in Madrid, Oct 2025
  • Jakob carrying the Grasshopper proof-of-concept drone across a field on maiden-flight day, September 2025.
    carrying the bird to its first flight at the BCN Drone Center, Sep 2025
  • Jakob explaining the Grasshopper drone to Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, September 2025.
    explaining the drone to the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at BNEW, Sep 2025
  • Jakob pitching to fellow passengers on board the Renfe pitch train, September 2025.
    pitching on a moving train - The TrenLab (Renfe) Pitch Train from Madrid to Sevilla, Sep 2025
  • Jakob speaking at a roundtable at the Cámara de Comercio de España, July 2025.
    roundtable at the Cámara de Comercio, Madrid, July 2025
  • Jakob speaking on a panel at the SIL logistics fair in Barcelona, June 2025.
    speaking at the drone panel at SIL Barcelona, June 2025
  • Team selfie outside the exhibition halls at the Paris Air Show, June 2025.
    teamwork makes the dream work at the Paris Air Show, June 2025
  • Selfie with the Grasshopper interns in the office, May 2025.
    the grasshopper summer with 11 interns, May 2025
  • Jakob pitching with a microphone at the EU-Startups Summit pitch finals in Malta, April 2025.
    a heartracing pitch final at the EU Startups Summit in Malta, April 2025
  • Jakob pitching at 4YFN during MWC Barcelona, March 2025.
    pitching to enter netmentora at 4YFN, March 2025
  • Jakob demonstrating a scale model of the Grasshopper drone at the S2Xpeed Industrial Startups Day in La Llotja, Barcelona, December 2024.
    showcasing our 3D-printed scale drone model at S2XPEED's Industrial Startups Day in La Llotja, Dec 2024
  • The three Grasshopper co-founders in front of the Logistics 4.0 Incubator wall in Barcelona, June 2024.
    moving into the incubator with my cofounders Miguel and Brian, June 2024
See the whole gallery