Shows
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccStress-free productivity, The Bible of personal organisation, Productivity is directly proportional with the ability to relaxThis overview analyzes David Allen's "Getting Things Done" (GTD) methodology, a widely recognized system aimed at achieving stress-free productivity by externalizing mental clutter. The episode explains how GTD addresses cognitive overload and unmanaged commitments through a trusted external system, contrasting it briefly with other approaches like Alice Boyes' work. It details the five core stages of GTD—Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, and Engage—along with key techniques like the "Next Action" concept and the "Two-Minute Rule." While highlighting benefits such as reduced stress and increased clarity, the text also examines challenges and criticisms, including the sig...2025-05-0213 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccIoan Iacob - The meeting with Revolut that influenced the founding of FlowX, Raising Eur 30M led by Dawn Capital, Why the Ego is the enemy of the founderIoan Jacob is the CEO and Founder of FlowX.AI.The FlowX platform fundamentally changes how large banks build mission-critical products and modernize applications systems and infrastructure.They are the first-ever multi-agent AI platform bringing enterprise-grade AI that is robust and safe to use for large financial services organizations.Ioan has been working together with the same core team of founders and engineers for over a decade, having a previous successful exit together.In 2023 FlowX AI has raised the largest Series A globally in enterprise software, a 30M Eur round led...2025-04-3047 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/Acc2025 FinTech Trends: AI Agents, The $100T wealth transfer, Stablecoins and the resurgence of B2C FinTechFT Partners Research published a March 2025 report outlining key FinTech trends to anticipate in the coming year, alongside a recap of 2024 FinTech deal activity. The report offers insights on AI, crypto, and the IPO market. Key trends highlighted include the rise of AI agents, expanding crypto infrastructure, the resurgence of B2C FinTech, and increasing consolidation within the sector. The analysis also spotlights opportunities in emerging markets, the impact of the great wealth transfer on WealthTech, and the growing role of AI in insurance.2025-04-2524 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMastering the Inner Game for Peak Performance, Creating Harmony between Self 1 (Teller) and Self 2 (Doer)W. Timothy Gallwey's Inner Game framework distinguishes between the conscious "Self 1" that instructs and judges, and the unconscious "Self 2" that performs. The core argument is that internal interference, primarily from Self 1, hinders optimal performance by causing tension and self-doubt. The Inner Game methodology focuses on techniques to quiet Self 1 through non-judgmental awareness, focused attention, visualization, and trust in Self 2. Ultimately, the aim is to achieve harmony between these two selves to unlock potential, enhance learning, increase enjoyment, and redefine success beyond mere outcomes.2025-04-2316 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccDirk Sahlmer - Bootstrapped founders VS VC backed founders, Maximising your wealth when starting or selling your business, 3 mistakes founders make when sellingDirk Sahlmer - Head of origination at Saas.group.During this episode we discuss about how to prepare the exit of your company to get the best deal, how to focus on sustainable growth if you are a VC backed founder and you are considering an exit, and we cover top 3 mistakes founders make when selling their businessCiao!2025-04-2146 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccState of European Tech - Stats about the last decade and Hans Rosling, Mario Draghi Report, ASML and EU inc proposal and the Vision about the future of the regionTom Wehmeier - Partner and Head of Insights at Atomico the 1B Eur fund, founded by Niklas Zennstrom the famous founder of Skype, one of the first tech breakthroughs from Europe, and Yoram Wijngaarde - Founder and CEO of Dealroom - the source of record and insights on startups. During this episode we discuss how well did tech Europe do in the last 10 years and why so many people were bashing Europe despite positive facts and trends, we discuss what we did well and what we can do better, and the current mood shift a...2025-04-1058 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccDaria Saharova - Pairing the climate performance potential with the venture capital model, Raising Eur 300M the biggest first time fund in Germany, The importance of understanding the VC mechanicsDaria Saharova Founding partner at WorldFund.Worldfund is a 300M Eur leading European Climate tech fund investing in startups that decarbonise the global economy.They support startups from early to growth stage, focusing on Energy, Food and Agriculture, Manufacturing, Buildings, and Mobility.During this episode we discuss how Climate change isn't theoretical—it's already disrupting supply chains, insurance markets, and infrastructure and The cost of inaction is becoming far greater than the cost of investing in solutions, we also discuss how they asses the decarbonization potential of different technologies through the CCP - cl...2025-04-0328 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccChristian Rebernik - First accredited edtech scale-up in Europe, Challenging the status quo in education, Creating 1M change-makers and the Importance of purposeChristian Rebernik - co-founder and CEO of Tomorrow University.Tomorrow university is the first ed-tech scaleup to receive accreditation in Europe that offers bachelors, masters and MBA programs reimagining education starting from first principles.Previously, Christian was the CTO of several multibillion Euro companies like N26, Scout24 and Awin Global.During this episode we discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of building in regulated environments, how brand and positioning are paramount in education and the failed startup on meeting transcriptions that he never added on LinkedIn.Enjoy!2025-03-2645 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAnna Brandt - Learnings from acquiring talent at Uber, Zalando, Mollie and N26, Linking business strategy with Headcount Plan and the Trade-off between speed, quality and cost when recruitingAnna Brandt has close to 20 years experience in talent acquisition at some of the most iconic tech companies of our generation like Uber, Zalando, Mollie and N26 to name a few.She is the co-founder of Invested a consulting and investment firm and she is a Venture Partner with EQT Ventures, Insight Partners and Fidelity.During this episode we discuss about the importance of marrying business strategy with organisational design, why hiring A-players without context doesn't really work, and the tradeoff between speed, quality and cost when recruiting.Enjoy!2025-03-2043 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccWinston Churchill - Fifty Years HenceWinston Churchill's 1931 essay, "Fifty Years Hence," contemplates the rapid acceleration of human progress driven by science and technology. He notes the vast improvements in living standards and the potential for future scientific breakthroughs, particularly in energy. However, Churchill cautions that humanity's moral and spiritual development has not kept pace with its material advancements. He expresses concern about the immense power that future societies will wield and the potential for both utopian advancements and dystopian outcomes, including the manipulation of human nature. Ultimately, the essay questions whether material progress alone can fulfil humanity...2025-03-1612 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccTatiana Shalalvand - The capabilities as a multi-stage fund, Impressing founders with knowledge, Investing in Aira and TravelperkTatiana Shalalvand - Venture Investor at Kinnevik and leads the Nordic early-stage strategy.Kinnevik is a multi-billion-dollar investment firm writing checks from 5M to a 100M Euro, from early-stage to post-IPO, and even into the public markets. They invested in the likes of TravelPerk, Spring Health, Pleo, and Zalando to name a few.During this episode we discuss about Kinnevik's capabilities to invest from the early stages to post IPO, why a money is not enough for a VC to impress a founder and the importance of remaining curious and open minded as an investor....2025-03-1323 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccPär-Jörgen Pärson - Recognising Outliers, Good VCs VS Great VCs, Building Northzone, Changing the narrative for European tech, Giving back, Learning from heavy-metal to build customer and team lovePär-Jörgen Pärson - general partner at NorthZone, a 1B Eur multi-stage venture capital fund partnering with founders from Seed to Growth. Across Europe and the US.With more than 20 years of VC experience, PJ is a legend in the VC industry and has led the investments in some of the greatest startups coming out of Europe like Spotify, now listed on the NYSE and valued at $123B, the online classifieds giant Avito, sold to Naspers for $ 2.7 billion and the payments company iZettle, sold to PayPal for $ 2.2 billion among many other tech companies coming from Eur...2025-03-0644 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccVadim Fedotov - Hyper-personalised Supplements, Why Cristiano Ronaldo started using it in 2022 and then invested, Building a high-performing team, The future of personalised wellnessVadim Fedotov, co-founder and CEO of Bioniq. Having raised a total amount of over $30M with backers like HV Capital and Cristiano Ronaldo - Bioniq is changing the world of personalized health with a data-driven wellness platform that’s redefining how we approach our health.From playing professional basketball to leading one of the fastest-growing e-commerce giants, Groupon, across 48 countries, Vadim has never shied away from a challenge. In this episode, we’re going to explore Vadim’s journey—from the discipline of sports to the high-stakes world of business, his leadership philosophy, and how...2025-02-2736 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMachines of Loving Grace - Essay review of Dario's Amodei, CEO of AnthropicDario Amodei is the CEO of Anthropic.Valued at $60B, the company focuses on AI research and products that put safety at the frontier and it is the company behind Claude.Dario Amodei's essay, "Machines of Loving Grace," explores the potential positive impacts of advanced AI, despite the risks. He believes AI's upside is vastly underestimated and details how it could revolutionize biology, neuroscience, economic development, peace, and the nature of work. Amodei anticipates AI accelerating progress in healthcare, mental health, poverty reduction, and governance while improving the baseline of human experi...2025-02-2317 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMax Junestrand - Raising $35M in 6 months, Mapping pain points and using Aha! moments, Choosing Benchmark as a lead investor, Empowering LawyersMax Junestrand - CEO and co-founder of Legora.They recently raised $35M from investors including Benchmark and Redpoint to empower exceptional lawyers everywhere through collaborative AI.With a team of engineers and lawyers from Google, Microsoft, McKinsey, and top law firms, Legora curently serves several thousands users across 200 clients in 15 countries, including some of the world's largest and most prestigious law firms.The team has scaled from 10 to 60 in 9 months – and they have opened up new offices in London and NYC to complement the HQ in Stockholm.During this episode we di...2025-02-2131 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccDaniel Keiper-Knorr - Speed and direction, Gap and the growth stages, Working with weird and exceptional people, The need for specialisation when scaling and the magic slideDaniel Keiper-Knorr - one of the co-founders and Managing partners at SpeedInvest, a leading European early stage VC. Daniel role is capital formation, capital markets and investor relations.Starting in 2011 as an angel fund, today Speedinvest is a 1B euro European powerhouse investing in startups at the earliest phases.With 5 specialized investment teams with 40+ investment managers they offer founders a deep understanding of their space and a broad network in their target industries.Some of their flagship investments include wefox, schüttflix, goStudent, coachhub and primer.During this episode we...2025-02-2024 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccHow I Learned to Let My Workers Lead - A review about how Ralph Stayer changed the way he lead to empower workers and improve efficiencyRalph Stayer, CEO of Johnsonville Sausage, recounts his journey of transforming the company by empowering employees and distributing decision-making. Initially, Stayer felt burdened by the need to control every aspect of the business, leading to disengaged employees and missed opportunities. He recognized the need to shift from an authoritarian style to one where employees embraced responsibility. Stayer describes the challenges of implementing changes to the systems and structure within the company so that teams took over the function of many management roles. This included handing over quality control, personnel, and even stra...2025-02-1326 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccCasper Heningsen - Agentic AI for consumer research, Snuggle with the customer to reach $10M ARR, The need for domain mastery, Focus on the inputs and the outcome will followCasper Henningsen - co-founder and CEO of GetWhy - The Agentic AI for Consumer Research.
At GetWhy they obsess over finding the why and provide end-to-end consumer research for marketing and insights teams. They unlock empathy at scale to drive smarter, more precise decisions and transform insights from a bottleneck into an enterprise capability.
They recently raised $34M dollars Series A, one of the biggest series A in the Nordics to unlock growth.
During this episode we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current hype in AI, how they almost ran out...2025-02-0539 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJames Regan - Raising $35M to build Networks of AI chips with Photonic Integrated Circuits, Training LLMs 100x faster while reducing AI energy consumption, AI electricity demands by 2030James Regan, founder and CEO of Oriole Networks.
Oriole Networks solves AI’s biggest challenges – speed, latency and sustainability.
They use light, via advanced photonics technology, to create networks of AI chips and combine their processing power.
With this novel approach, LLMs can be trained up to a 100x faster, whilst consuming a fraction of power, allowing algorithms to run with much lower latency.
Oriole’s technology dramatically reduces the energy consumption of AI data centres which is putting a huge strain on energy grids and it is predicted to account for 15-2...2025-01-2233 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJohn Rush - $400k ARR with 6 projects while bootstrapping, Going out of cash with a VC-backed startup and pivoting, Moving to a tax friendly country, The sovereign individualJohn Rush - Bootstrapper of more than 20 projects with 6 of them with $400k ARR and previously a co-founder and CTO of the VC-backed company Filmgrail.
After following the investor advice to raise a Series A and expand the market, they almost ran out of cash and went bankrupt. They had to give up the unicorn dream and pivot into a regular midsize profitable business.
After this learning John is a strong advocate of bootstrapping having currently more than 20 projects while enjoying more free time for his hobbies and family. You can check his projects at...2025-01-1544 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccThomas von der Ohe - Bridging the gap to full autonomy, Quitting a cushy job to start a startup, Embodied learning, The market opportunities in the more than $1T self-driving car industryVay is one of Europe’s best funded startups in the mobility industry with almost $150M raised to date, from top tier investors like Atomico, Creandum and Kinnevik among others and Thomas the co-founder and CEO is here with us today, tuning in from Las Vegas to tell us more about his journey.
Vay pursues a different approach to the likes of Waymo, which is “remote driving”.
Remote driving is the most affordable door-to-door mobility service and you will learn why and how it works during the episode.
Prior to founding Vay, Thomas spent...2024-12-1940 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAnton Osika - Idea to app in seconds, The last piece of software, The YC hype, How to have a successful fundraise, Machine intelligence becomes more capable than human intelligenceAnton Osika - co-founder and CEO of Lovable.
With Lovable you can go from an Idea to app in seconds. It functions like your superhuman full stack engineer.
Anton has a remarkable story in the startup world. He was the a founding member of several multimillion dollar startups.
One, Sana Labs that recently raised $55m lead by NEA bringing the total raise to ~$130m, he was also a founding engineer of Depict which raised ~$20m and now his latest venture - Lovable where they raised ~$7m pre-seed round in October this year.
2024-12-1029 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccWalter Ballheimer - Sending satellites into space, The CubeSats revolution, Different types of satellites, The space-tech marketWalter Ballheimer - founder and CEO of Reflex Aerospace. The first venture backed satellite manufacturer in Europe.
They have raised ~15m Euros to design and build mass customised satellites to send into space.
Prior to founding Reflex Space he founded Germany’s first CubeSat Start-Up – “German Orbital Systems”. To date, the company has built and launched more than eleven satellites.
During this episode we discuss about the different types of satellites, the space tech market and and the split on value capture between upstream and downstream.
Enjoy!2024-11-2932 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccChristian Vollmann - Building the first of a kind green methanol plant, Learnings from building and selling multiple digital businesses and the importance of Mental Health for entrepreneursChristian Vollmann - founder and CEO of Carbon One. Founded in 2022 they have raised approximately $14M to date with the mission to lower the green premium on green methanol and thus reduce the world’s dependency on oil, gas and coal.
Their aim is to establish circular carbon economies in three hard-to-abate industries: container shipping, aviation and chemical production.
Prior to founding Carbon One, Christian has built, sold and IPO-ed multiple business.
First one, called iLove for his mentor Oliver Samwer where he built the business from scratch, up to Eur 25M Revenue while forgetting...2024-11-0639 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccColin Hanna - Competing as a team, Being adaptable, Time at Soundcloud, Getting in to the zone, Meditation, Assessing founders and investments, The partnership between an investor and a founderColin Hanna - Partner at Balderton Capital.
Balderton is multi-stage venture firm with over twenty years of expertise in aiding European founders from the initial seed stage through to IPO. According to Dealroom they have invested in over 30 companies valued at over a billion euros - among them Revolut, Sinch and Waye among many others.
Recently they’ve raised $1.3 billion, divided into a $615 million early-stage fund and a $685 million growth fund for more mature companies. The capital will be used to support emerging technology companies across Europe.
At Balderton, Colin invests in purpose-driven, pr...2024-10-2225 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccGeorge Henry - Most successful investor in unicorns at seed stage, Learning velocity, Having a compelling vision, Taking more risksGeorge Henry - General Partner at LocalGlobe - the seed fund which is according to Dealroom figures, EMEA’s most successful investor in unicorns at seed stage.
LocalGlobe invests across Europe and some of its notable investments include Wise, Improbable, Motorway, Tide and Automata. George himself focuses on finding the next generation of industry-transforming businesses to serve two over-looked sectors: the creative economy and SMEs. His investments range across several sectors and include some of Europe’s fastest growing companies - Qogita, Rekki, Sorare, Taster and Travelperk.
During this episode we discuss about learning velocity, the...2024-10-0834 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccLukas Saari - AI copilot for healthcare practitioners, Raising $10M seed round in 8 months, The administrative burden and the future of HealthcareLukas Saari - CEO and Co-founder of Tandem Health.
Tandem is building an AI co-pilot for healthcare practitioners. Their first product is an ambient scribe that listens during the patient-doctor consultation, transcribes the conversation and generates the draft of the medical note.
They were founded only 1 year ago, and recently closed a ~$10M seed round, led by Northzone, to accelerate their expansion from Sweden to across Europe.
Before Tandem, Lukas has worked at Spotify with machine learning and has been the leader of McKinsey's Healthcare Analytics practice in the Nordics.
During...2024-09-2535 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccFlorian Brand - MDMA and DMT trials, Raising $400M from Peter Thiel and other investors, Difficulties of bringing a drug to market, The journey of increasing self-awarenessFlorian Brand co-founder and Co-CEO of ATAI Life Sciences.
ATAI was founded in 2018 and is a global, listed, biopharma company with the vision to heal mental health disorders so that everyone, everywhere can live a more fulfilled life.
They were one of the pioneers to use psilocybin in treating mental health and they have raised around $400M equity and debt from Petter Thiel and other investors to build a portfolio of compounds like MDMA, DMT and others, to go through clinical trials and bring them to market.
During this episode we discuss about...2024-09-1728 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMichael Lazarenko - 350 meetings to raise pre-seed round, The effects of the war in Ukraine, Gearing to raise Seed, The importance of Storytelling, The $140B electronics R&D marketMichael Lazarenko, founder and CEO of Embedd.
With Embedd they provide a unified framework so that all the components coming from tens of different manufacturers can communicate with each other on the circuit board.
They raised $1.2M Eur pre-seed round led by Cocoa in May last year and now they are ready and gearing up to raise their seed round.
During this episode we discuss how they took 350 meetings to raise the pressed, the importance of storytelling when of explaining something complex to investors and how the war in Ukraine has built more...2024-09-1122 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAlexandre Momeni - Investing in founders with a sense of urgency, The future of brain machine interface, Paris VS London, Product Market Fit as a spectrum, Opportunities in healthcare in EuropeAlexandre Momeni - Partner at General Catalyst.
Alex specialises in healthcare and AI and has been instrumental in bringing some of Europe’s biggest AI deals to General Catlayst’s door.
For background General Catalyst, has $28bn assets under management and is one of the world’s best known VC firms.
They backed some of greatest businesses that you probably are familiar with including Airbnb, Stripe, Discord and Snap and in Europe they have made more than 20 investments in companies like the AI superstar - Mistral, the defense company - Helsing and the new co...2024-08-2130 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccRobert Jäckle - Finding and investing in talent, The path to €600M AuM in 5 years, The correlation between risk and success, Surrounding yourself with driven and ambitious peopleRobert Jäkle is a Partner at Visionaries Club.
Visionaries is a leading European early-stage VC fund with offices in London and Berlin. The fund is backed by over 30 unicorn founders - such as the founders of UiPath, Flixbus, Miro and Skype - as well as leading European family business entrepreneurs.
Bobby joined the fund on day one and has helped build it over the past five years. He now co-leads the firm's seed fund and has made several investments in Fintech, Compliance, HR, and Automation in the past years in the likes of Apron P...2024-08-1434 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAleksander Larsen - $1.3B revenue, North Korean hack, From the hottest company in web3 to being called a scam, Building digital nations, Competing with VisaAleksander Larsen is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and COO of Sky Mavis, the company behind the popular crypto game Axie Infinity and the Ronin Network.
SkyMavis is the breakout company at the intersection of gaming and blockchain, they’ve raised around 300 million dollars according to Dealroom and Crunchbase from top investors like a16z, Accel and Paradigm.
During this episode we discuss about Aleksnaders’s move to Vietnam to pursue the opportunity at the intersection of gaming and blockchain, the North Korean hack, that compromised $600m of players and companies tokens and the vision of financial incl...2024-08-0732 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAnnie Duke - Decision Science, Frameworks for entrepreneurs on how to decide, Mental time travel, The monkey on the pedestal, Decision quality VS Outcome quality, Thinking in BetsAnnie Duke is a Special Partner focused on Decision Science at First Round Capital Partners, a seed stage venture fund.
Annie is a prolific author in the decision making space having written "Thinking in Bets" - a national bestseller, "How to decide: Simple tools for making better choices” and the latest book “Quit - the power of knowing when to walk away”.
As a former professional poker player, she has won more than 4 million dollars, won a World Series of Poker bracelet and is the only woman to have won the World Series of Poker Tourna...2024-05-2144 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccOliver Holle - From an angel fund to 1B AuM, Building specialized teams to support founders, Starting a company in the 90s VS todayOliver Holle - co-founder, CEO and Managing Partner at SpeedInvest, a leading European early-stage VC.
Starting in 2011 as an angel fund, today Speedinvest became a 1B Eur European powerhouse investing in startups at the earliest phases. With their sector focused teams across Deeptech, Fintech, Marketplace and Consumer among others and operational teams, they deeply support founders in their journey.
During this episode we discuss about the similarities between the AI wave with the iPhone moment, how quitting sometimes is the best decision and the need to have a chip on the shoulder and intrinsically motivation...2024-05-1428 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccCarmen Alfonso Rico - Investing in killers with a heart, The right to a secret, Co-founder relationships, Finding your superpower and win-win situationsCarmen Alfonso Rico - founder and GP of Cocoa VC.
Cocoa is a VC fund investing between $250k-$500k angel checks at pre-seed/seed and how they like to say it “they don’t give a damn about ownership stake”.
In less than 3 years she invested in some of the most talented founders from Arcane, Twirl and Plumery just to name a few, co-investing with some of the best investors in Europe and globally.
During this episode we talk about why they can win competitive deals and be on the same side of the ta...2024-05-0751 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccBernt Bornich - Androids for the worlds labor demands, Raising > Eur 100M from EQT and OpenAI fund, Building softness in robots, Embodied learning and AGIBernt Øivind Børnich - co-founder and CEO of 1X, an AI and robotics company producing androids to benefit society and meet the world’s labor demand.
One of the most exciting companies in Europe that stands at the forefront of AI robotics. Their mission is to create androids that work among people and have a new approach to embodied learning for data collection.
They recently raised over 100 million euros from EQT Ventures, Sam Altmans' Open AI fund and other notable global investors to bring to market its second generation android called, NEO.
Duri...2024-04-3040 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccKaushik Subramanian - Learnings from building products at Meta and Stripe, Extreme focus on the user problem, User first mentality, Choosing your design partnersOur guest today is Kaushik Subramanian, partner at EQT Ventures, investing primarily in product-led technology businesses.
From offices in Stockholm, London, Berlin, Paris and New York, EQT invests in and supports entrepreneurs building the next-generation of global winners from a 1.1B Euro fund.
Prior to joining EQT, Kaushik was at Stripe and Meta where he built and scaled several products to global reach and generating billions.
During this episode we discuss how to choose your design partners when building the early version of the product, why he decided to join EQT ventures and...2024-04-2334 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJulius Bachmann - Coaching entrepreneurs, The ups and downs of entrepreneurship and the importance of finding a support systemJulius is a certified coach and has coached over 150 entrepreneurs backed by Atomico, a16z and Creandum among others, has trained over 100 venture investors and just recently released his first single on Spotify.
During this episode we discuss about the moment he decided to become a coach, the learnings along the coaching journey and what are the most common challenges founders and investors have, when they reach out to him.
Wanna join a peer-support community for founders? Join us at uTopic. :)2024-04-1138 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccNicole Paulk - The evolution of modern medicine, 4h sleep cycle, Tackling cancer with gene therapy, Leaving academia and starting a business, Programming cellsDr. Nicole Paulk is the CEO and founder of the viral gene therapy startup Siren Biotechnology.
Prior to being a founder she was a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF in San Francisco, California where her lab worked at the forefront of developing and engineering enabling technologies to make viruses better medicines.
During this episode we discuss the evolution of modern medicine from ingesting medicinal leaves to gene therapy, we also discuss how she plans to use viruses to treat cancer and therapies for sleeping only 4h are closer than you...2024-03-1937 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccBharat Vasan - Consumer Tech, Ozempic - the miracle drug, Assessing founders for grit bias to action and the ability to tell a storyBharat Vasan, Partner and COO at The Production Board.
Bharat is overseeing the consumer technology portfolio and actively invests in, advises and serves on the boards of early-stage businesses.
He is one of Silicon Valley’s most battle-tested and proven CEOs and operators, with multiple successful exits and over $500M dollars raised.
During this episode we discuss about some trends in consumer tech around AI and food, how they asses founders when investing and how he struggled with weight loss and how Ozempic, the miracle drug made by Novo Nordisk changed his mind, bo...2024-03-0447 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccBjarne Kveim Lie - The status at growth stage, Eur 5B committed, 140 investments, Growth > FCF, Dr Alban and the asymmetric risk-reward ratioBjarne Kveim Lie - Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Verdane.
Verdane invests in technology companies with equity tickets between 8 and 150m Euro, they have Eur 5B of committed capital and over 140 investments since 2003. They have a flexible mandate and can make both minority and majority investments. In addition to making individual investments they also act as a solution provider for GPs that seek liquidity and have completed over 50 so called ‘secondary directs’ over the years.
They have been named Best European PE Growth Fund all the years between 2019 and 2023 and Best European mid-market PE f...2024-02-1533 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJames Currier - Built and sold $10B worth of companies between NfX founders, Being a 5x Founder and 2 key elements for success, Designing for the white-hot center, Choosing a life partnerJames Currier - Founding Partner at NfX.
James is a five-time Founder, an angel investor in DoorDash, Lyft, and Patreon, and a Founding Partner at the venture capital firm, NfX.
Before becoming an investor, James was the co-founder and CEO of Tickle, one of the internet’s first successful user-generated-content companies. Tickle grew to the 18th largest website in the world with over 150 million registered users — before they were acquired in 2004 by Monster for $110 million. It was during this time that James realized the power of network effects as the core growth driver of both B2B...2024-01-1832 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccZeynep Yavuz - From ideation to IPO, Thematic Investor, Assessing first time entrepreneurs, Fintech and CryptoZeynep Yavuz - Partner at General Catalyst.
General Catalyst, has $28bn assets under management and is one of the world’s best known VC firms. They backed some of greatest businesses that you probably are very familiar with including Airbnb, Stripe, Discord and Snap among many many others others.
Prior to joining GC, Zeynep worked as an operator focused on strategy and product at World Remit and invested at growth stages at TA Associates. At GC she focuses on fintech and crypto.
During this episode we discuss about her career trajectory from working in...2024-01-1134 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccChris Smith - The state of Pre-seed investing, Fundraising process, Intuition VS Investment Memo, The importance of hard workChris Smith - Managing Partner of Playfair. (brought to you by Seedrs)
Playfair is a generalist fund with a contrarian approach to pre-seed technology investing. Based in London, Playfair invests across the UK and Europe with an intentionally high conviction, low volume approach: making 6-8 investments a year and preserving time, capital and resources to help companies post-investment.
Playfair has backed more than 70 companies across two funds including Thought Machine, Andela, Mapillary, Recycleye and Orca AI among others.
During this episode we discuss how they asses investment opportunities at such an early stage, the number one mista...2023-12-1436 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccRex Woodbury - Consumer behaviour and techtonic shifts, Social Media 3.0, Pre-seed investing and being true to yourselfRex Woodbury - founder and Managing Partner of Daybreak, an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City. (brought to you by Seedrs)
Before founding Daybreak, Rex was a Partner at Index Ventures the premier venture capital firm that invested in Adyen, Revolut, Roblox, Discord, and Figma among others.
Rex focuses on the application layer of technology, often investing in internet, software, and marketplace businesses with the potential for viral adoption.
He also writes Digital Native, a publication about people and technology that reaches 50,000 weekly readers which i highly recommend.
During this epis...2023-12-0535 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccKirsty Grant - £2.6B through Crowdfunding, The new equity market, End-to-end infrastructure to fundraise for investors and founders across stagesKirsty Grant - Managing Director at Seedrs - Europe’s leading private investing platform.
Under her leadership, Seedrs has become the most active investor in early stage private companies in the UK, funding over 2,000 deals and participating in rounds totalling over £2.6 billion to date.
This year, she played an instrumental role in launching Seedrs' EU regulated entity.
During this episode we discuss the past and future of crowdfunding, how companies like Revolut and investors like Seedcamp used Seedrs to raise funds and why we need more founders in Europe.
Enjoy!2023-11-1428 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMark Kugel - Winning contracts with NASA, Creating biotech assets in space, The CDTM effect, Germany's PR problemMark Kugel - co-founder and co-CEO of Yuri. (brought to you by Seedrs)
At Yuri they are sending payloads to space to take advantage of micro-gravity so they can build higher quality molecules and other useful biotech assets. Did you know that it is easier to print a heart in space as it has no gravity?
During this episode we discuss how the CDTM (Center for Digital Technology and Management) cohort from 2014 produced more than Eur 15B from 24 students, including Hanno of Personio and Thomas of Trade Republic among other, we discuss Germany’s PR problem an...2023-10-2435 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccFrancesco Sciortino - Making fusion a reality, The promise of the Stellarator, The competitive advantage of EuropeCiao ragazzi e ragazze, I am here with Francesco Sciortino - co-founder and CEO of Proxima Fusion (brought to you by Seedrs)
Originally from Italy, his passion for physics and plasma, took him across the world from Imperial College London for undergrad, to EPFL in Switzerland for his masters, before moving to MIT in Boston for his PhD.
Beginning of 2023, Francesco raised a 7.5M Euro pre-seed round from Plural, UVC Partners and High-Tech Grunderfonds, and co-founded Proxima Fusion a Munich-based startup that aims to develop robust, high-performance, and steady-state fusion power plants.
Proxima is t...2023-10-1739 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMikkel Skarnager - ~50m Eur exit to Trulioo, Building the next company, Advice for first time entrepreneurs, Normalizing the ups and downsMikkel Skarnager - co-founder and CEO of the stealth startup Spektr. (brought to you by Brevo and Seedrs)
Mikkel is a second-time founder, prior to Spektr he was the founder and CEO of HelloFlow, an innovative no-code, drag-and-drop builder for client onboarding, monitoring, and digital workflow solutions --> orchestration layer for business identity.
In February 2022 only 2 years after founding the company they got an acquisition offer and sold to Trulioo for around ~50m Eur, a number I found online, that Mikkel cannot confirm nor deny, returning 5X to 50X times money back to his seed...2023-10-1145 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccFredrik Cassel - Creandum's culture, Investing in several iconic companies, The new mega trends, Finding user loveFredrik Cassel - General Partner at Creandum.
Creandum is a venture capital advisory firm with offices in Stockholm, San Francisco, London, and Berlin funding early stage entrepreneurs from a 450m euro fund.
Fredrik has an exceptional track record having previously invested in several multibillion euro companies like Spotify, Kahoot!, Depop and Kry just to name a few. He doesn’t like to take the credit and attributes his success to the Creandum team. One Creandum as he likes to call it.
During this episode we discuss Creandum's culture, what he learned from Daniel Ek...2023-10-0335 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJevan Nagarajah - Precision fermentation, Dealing with co-founder break-up, Raising > 20m Eur for deep tech startup, Learning to take risksBrought to you by Zoom and Brevo. If you like the show please check out the sponsors as they are the ones making it possible. Thank you! 🙏
Jevan Nagarajah - is the founder and CEO of Better Dairy.
At Better Dairy they are using precision fermentation to produce the cheeses, yoghurts, ice creams, the type of products consumed and loved across the world but without having to use animals products.
During this episode we discuss about the founding story and how they managed to raise more than 20m Euros, splitting with h...2023-09-2632 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMars Geuze - From building racing cars to winning SpaceX Hyperloop contest, The challenges in building infrastructure, The importance of enjoying the journeyBrought to you by Zoom and Brevo. If you like the show please check out the sponsors as they are the ones making it possible. Thank you! 🙏
Mars Geuze is one of the co-founders of Hardt Hyperloop.
Hardt Hyperloop is one of the leading teams in the world working to bring the concept of Hyperloop to life.
The Hardt Hyperloop team is a talented and ambitious team coming from Delft University. They were building race cars before taking on the challenge of building a hyperloop.
During this episode, we...2023-09-1035 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAntoine Moyroud - Commitment to Europe, The Eur 105M seed investment in Mistral AI, From failing Class Preparatoire to becoming a partner at LightspeedAntoine Moyroud - Partner at Lightspeed.
Lightspeed is a venture capital firm focusing on multi-stage investments in the enterprise, consumer, and health sectors. Lightspeed invests in seed, early and growth-stage companies.
For over twenty years Lightspeed has been the first investor and an early backer of some of the most innovative companies in the world like Snapchat, Carta and BetterUp among many others.
During this episode we discuss about Antoine’s journey from failing Class Preparatoire to becoming a partner at Lightspeed at 28 years old, we discuss the firms commitment to Europe and the Eur...2023-08-2938 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAndre Retterath - Data-driven VC, Tracking 10M talents, From analyst to partner, Eagle-eye platform, Building sustainable defensibilityAndre Retterath - Partner at Earlybird Capital, Lead of the EagleEye platform used for data driven sourcing and writing the popular newsletter Data-driven VC.
With over 2 billion Euro under management, nine IPOs and 31 trade sales, Earlybird is one of the most established and active venture capital firms in Europe, having made investments in formidable companies like UiPath and N26 among others.
Founded in 1997, Earlybird invests in all development and growth phases of technology companies and has grown to several autonomous, dedicated and specialized teams, focusing on different geographies and...2023-08-1532 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMichel Elings - Selling the company to Apple, Moving to Cupertino, Building products used by millions, Cultural differences, Surround yourself with people that believe in youMichel Elings is the founder of Vev.
Michel, has a history of delivering successful products with over 100 million users and with Vev they plan to empower millions of freelancers and SMBs by providing the basic tech tools they need so they can smoothly run their business.
Prior to Vev he founded and sold his first startup, Prss, to Apple and moved to Cupertino to help build Apple News. After returning to the Netherlands a couple of years later, he joined Booking to launch CityBook before founding his current company, Vev.
Recently they raised...2023-07-2523 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJakob Sons - Cannabis startup in the highly regulated German market, Raising $15m round from Snoopp Dogg's Casa Verde Capital, Reaching 20m Euro run rate and Building a European category leaderJakob Sons is the co-founder of Cansativa.
Cansativa is building the largest cannabis platform in Europe and are offering the most desirable products and brands. Yummi!
In 2022 they’ve raised a 15m dollar round from Snoopp Dogg's, Casa Verde VC firm and currently they have a 20m euro run rate. Well done guys!
During this episode we discuss Jakobs transition from being a lawyer to founding a medical marijuana startup, his mindset of permanent improvement and the importance of deepwork and focus.
Enjoy!
Brought by - Edda, the most col...2023-07-1834 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAndreas Helbig - Extreme product market fit, Investment criteria at Atomico, The journey from junior analyst to partner, The importance of culture and a healthy hustleOur guest today is Andreas Helbig - Partner at Atomico.
Atomico is the venture capital firm founded by the Niklas Zennstrom, one of the founders of Skype, and investing in disruptive technology companies from Series A onwards.
They have an exceptional track record having previously invested in Supercell, Wolt, Sorare and Lilium just to name a few.
During this episode we discuss about his journey as an investor from junior analyst at Project A to Partner at Atomico, what criteria they look for when investing and the exciting future of tech in Europe.2023-06-2335 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccKajetan von Armansperg - Founding story of Leapsome, Tackling culture, Bootstrapping to 10M ARR then raising 60M Series A, Opening an office in the U.S., Money as a taboo topicOur guest today is Kajetan von Armansperg, Co-CEO of Leapsome.
Leapsome is an all-in-one platform for people enablement. They combine the tools for goals and OKRs management, performance reviews and 360s, and compensation and surveys among other features. More than 1500 companies including Spotify, Northvolt and Unity use Leapsome platform to build high-performing teams.
After bootstrapping for 5 years, in 2022 they’ve raised a 60M dollar round from Insight Partners, Creandum and Visionaries Club.
During this episode we discuss about the importance of staying frugal, their bootstrapping journey from 0 to 10M ARR and the decision pr...2023-06-0934 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccNathan Benaich - The State of AI, Transformer models across data sets, What does an AI startup look like, Obama's cloned voice, AI as the magic editing wand, The AI brain drainNathan Benaich is a General Partner at Air Street capital a investment firm investing in AI startups. When asking around in the European ecosystem his name came across several times as a thought leader in the AI space. I highly recommend you read the State of AI report which he co-authors. It’s an in depth report of about 100 pages long across Research, Industry, Politics and Safety.
Prior to founding Air Street Capital he was a scientist in residence at the investment firm PointNine for about 6 years.
During this episode we discuss his motivation and in...2023-05-2334 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAlex MacCaw - From 50M ARR B2B SaaS to 20k MRR B2C, Hacking the first sales, The beauty of mom-and-pop tech shops, Stepping down as a CEO, Relationship with moneyAlex MacCaw is the founder and CEO of Reflect app. The note-taking tool that allows you to take notes the same way you think — by associating notes through backlinks.
Prior to Reflect he built and ran Clearbit a venture-backed 50M Eur annual recurring revenue B2B saas company.
During this episode we discuss about his journey with Clearbit from hacking the first sales to using the SaaS sales playbook, the differences between building a B2B and a B2C company, and the power of a committed community.
He is currently sailing around th...2023-05-1136 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccDavid Friedberg - The founding story of The Climate Corporation and the exit to Monsanto for $1.1B, High bias to action, The Production Board and reimagining earth, The coming era of abundanceDavid is the founder and CEO of The Production Board, a holding company that builds and invests in businesses that solve the most fundamental problems that affect our planet, by reimagining global systems of production; across food, agriculture, biomanufacturing, human health, and the broader life sciences.
Prior to The Production Board, he was the founder and CEO of The Climate Corporation which he sold for $1.1B dollars to Monsanto. Spanning his career, he has contributed to 32 patents.
On the fun side he is also the co-host of the All-in pod, the super popular podcast co-hosted...2023-05-0143 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccLina Chong - Leaving U.S. for Europe, Berlin calling, Studying philosophy, Surrounding yourself with excellent people, Assessing startups, Overcoming challenging periodsLina Chong is a Partner at Target Global.
Target Global is one of the leading European venture capital investors with more than 3bn EUR in AuM and offices across Berlin, London, Tel Aviv and Barcelona.
They have backed more than 15 unicorns including household names such as Delivery Hero, Revolut, Wefox, Flink, TravelPerk and many others.
Lina was named Partner at Target earlier this year after working her way up from Associate. An American transplant in Berlin, she leads Target's German operations and co-leads the fund's early stage strategy. She is also a two-time f...2023-04-2036 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccKoen Thijssen - Raising $16M Series A, Rocket Internet Mafia, Going from 0 to 1 in the insurance industry, Stick to the plan regardless of market volatility, Why you hardly overpay for the best peopleKoen Thijssen, founder and CEO of Insify. At Insify they modernize the insurance market for Europe’s small and medium companies.
Prior to founding Insify, Koen was the founder and CFO of Bloomon, a subscription based flower business disrupting the $60B flower industry, in 2021 Bloomon was acquired by Bloom & Wild.
12 months ago they’ve raised with Insify $17m round led by Accel with participation from Visionaries and Frontline to expand into more markets.
During this episode we discuss about the Rocket Internet Mafia and why there are so many great entrepreneurs coming out it...2023-04-1427 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccStef van Grieken - Moonshots projects at Google, Assessing the risk of starting a start-up, Falling in love with biology, Why we need more definite optimists EuropeansStef van Grieken is the co-founder and CEO of the biotech company Cradle.
Based between Delft and Zurich, Cradle’s machine learning platform helps scientists to design and program ‘cell factories’ faster and more successfully, speeding up the development of a more environmentally friendly method of producing almost anything.
They have recently raised a 6 million dollar seed round co-led by Index Ventures and Kindred Capital.
Prior to Cradle, Stef spent 7 years with Google as a Senior product manager for Google AI known as Google Brain and Google X known for its moonshots projects.
...2023-03-2744 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccEric Lagier - Founding byFounders and the Nordic pledge to pay it forward, The journey to San Francisco and the exit with Memolane, and Erics' tattoo - Muditā - the pleasure in seeing others succeedOur guest today is Eric Lagier - founding Partner at byFounders.
byFounders is an early-stage venture fund backed by a collective of some of the most accomplished founders from the Nordics.
After eight years in Silicon Valley, where he built an extensive network of investors and founders, Eric returned to Copenhagen to found byFounders and support the next generation of globally ambitious founders building a better tomorrow.
Eric has more than 20 years of operational experience in Silicon Valley and in Europe, was part of the early team at Skype and Tradeshift and he fo...2023-03-1026 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccFilip Dames - Founding Cherry Ventures, Learnings from startup to IPO with Zalando, Making the first million and the importance of doing More of what you loveOur guest today is Filip Dames - Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures.
Cherry Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm led by a team of entrepreneurs with experience in building fast-scaling companies such as Zalando and Spotify. The firm backs Europe's boldest founders, usually as their first institutional investor.
They have a great track record having previously invested in the seed stage of over 90 companies across Europe, including FlixBus, Auto1 Group, Infarm, Forto, SellerX, Juni, and Flink just to name a few. They are based in Berlin with offies in Stockholm and London.
...2023-02-2436 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccSabina Wizander - The journey from 20-1000 employees and from 0-150M EUR with the healthcare startup KRY, The pursuit of work life balance, and The excitement for the Energy marketOur guest today is Sabina Wizander - Partner at Creandum.
Creandum is a venture capital advisory firm with offices in Stockholm, San Francisco, London, and Berlin funding early stage entrepreneurs from a 450m euro fund.
They have an exceptional track record having previously invested in Spotify, Klarna, Trade Republic, Kahoot! and Bolt just to name a few.
Part of her tenure as an investor at Creandum, Sabina joined the healthcare startup KRY. After they invested in their seed round she joined the team and was part of the journey from 20 to 1000 employees and...2023-02-1733 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJulian Kley - From preparing to become a heart surgeon to COO, Learning to trust your intuition, The importance of continuous and instant feedback, Founding AVI Medical, The future of HealthcareJulian Kley Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of AVI Medical.
Avi Medical is a Munich-based health tech company that runs patient-centric, tech-enabled medical practices that provide a convenient, personalized, and holistic digital and physical patient experience.
They recently raised a 50m Euros Series B, round led by Balderton with participation from Eurazeo, Heal Capital, and the UiPath founder and CEO Daniel Dines among others.
During this episode, we discuss about his career path from pursuing medicine to becoming an entrepreneur, how to learn to trust your gut instinct, and the future of healthcare.2023-02-0733 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAlfonso Peccatiello - The effect of high interest rates on the economy, The probability of a recession, Europe position in the changing world order, Strategies to protect capitalIn the last 6 months I was trying to wrap my little head around the macro environment and the effects on the economy and to be honest on my pocket. I just didn't know how inflation, interest rate hikes, and debt cycles fit together to be able to create an investment thesis or at least protect my capital.
Our guest today will try to answer some of these questions so please welcome Alfonso Peccatiello Founder & CEO of The Macro Compass.
The Macro Compass is an investment strategy firm whose mission is to democratize professional macro analysis, b...2023-01-3137 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccFrancesco Simoneschi - Raising $130m at the top of the market, The banking API revolution, The opportunity in payments, Founding TrueLayer, Learning to unplugPlease meet Francesco Simoneschi - Co-Founder and CEO of TrueLayer.
In a couple of short years Francesco and his co-Founder Luca, have built TrueLayer into one of the world's leading providers of financial APIs.
Their mission is to grow the Open Banking economy by creating a truly global platform for companies to develop new financial services and products.
In September 2021 they’ve raised a 130m dollar round led by Tiger Global and Stripe pushing the company to unicorn status. Previous investors count the likes of Northzone, Temasek, and Anthemis.
During this ep...2023-01-2440 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJoel Nordström - Raising €5M Seed in a frozen market for Atlar, The journey with Tink from employee #12 to the sell to Visa for $2.2B, and hustling your way and get your dream job while at uniHappy New Year you lovely humans, I hope you had a relaxing holiday season together with your loved ones and you are ready to rock'n'roll 2023.
Our guest today is Joel Nordström, co-founder and CEO of Atlar. At Atlar, they automate and streamline bank payments for companies.
Prior to founding Atlar, Joel was employee #12 at Tink – the open banking pioneer acquired by Visa for $2.2 billion – where he also met his cofounders.
They recently raised €5M Euros round led by Index Ventures and joined by La Famiglia, Cocoa, and some prominent angels like Revolut CFO Mikk...2023-01-1032 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccDavid Heinemeier Hansson - Learnings from working remote for the last 20 years, Creating Ruby on Rails, Bootstrapping, Define success, StartupsDHH is the Creator of Ruby on Rails the popular web development framework used by companies like Twitter, Github, Shopify, AirBnb, Square, Twitch and Zendesk to name a few.
He is also a co-owner and the CTO of 37signals the company responsible for developing Basecamp and Hey email service.
David has many talents, besides being a top programmer, he is a bestselling author and a Le Mans class-winning racing driver.
During this episode, we discuss his anti-VC philosophy, why Ruby on Rails became so popular, and his learnings from building a bootstrapped company a...2022-11-2134 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccKerry Murphy - The marketsize for digital fashion, how fashion is part of our identity and the future of the Metaverse despite market turmoilKerry Murphy is the founder and CEO of The Fabricant.
The Fabricant is a digital fashion house that operates at the intersection of technology and fashion. They use technology to create seductive fashion narratives unconstrained by the boundaries of the physical realm.
They recently raised a 14 million dollar Series A round led by Greenfield One with participation from Ashton Kutcher and other strategic angels.
During this episode, we discuss the importance of fashion in our identity, the components of a story, and the vision of The Fabricant in the future of the Metaverse.2022-11-1025 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccSebastian Pollok - Why Europe needs to wake up, why it's all about the people and their fresh Eur 400m across 3 funds to support B2B SaaS early and growth and science-driven moonshotsSebastian Pollok is a founding Partner of Visionaries Club.
Visionaries Club is a Berlin-based early stage VC fund, backed by leading European digital founders and family business entrepreneurs.
They recently raised 400 million Euros of fresh capital across 3 funds. A seed fund, a growth fund, and a science-driven focused fund.
They have an excellent track record, having previously invested in Personio, Miro, Choco, Xentral, TrueLayer, Pigment, just to name a few, and they invested alongside top-tier VCs such as Sequoia, Accel, Index, Lightspeed and Bessemer.
Previously, Sebastian was the co-founder and co-CEO...2022-11-0324 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJulien Codorniou - The journey with FB (Meta) from 500m users to IPO, assessing teams and angel investing and the consumerization of ITJulien Codorniu is a partner and investor at Felix Capital, the 600m Euro fund investing in brands and related enabling technologies.
At Felix he focuses on SaaS (Worktech in particular) and gaming investments.
Before joining Felix, Julien spent 11 years at Facebook, where he led the global platform partnerships team, helping Facebook partners build, grow and monetize their mobile apps and games. Also he has been serving as Vice President of Facebook Workplace. Under his leadership, Workplace went from 0 to 10 million paid subscribers at companies like Walmart, Nestlé, McDonald's, Chevron, Astrazeneca, Spotify and many others.
...2022-10-2727 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMichel D. Traore - The clear case for NFTs in the $30B music streaming marketMichel Traore - the co-founder and CEO of anotherblock, a Web3 platform democratizing music ownership through NFTs.
Anotherblock connects music rights to NFTs, and creates a smooth and easy way to both buy and sell music rights. With his cofounders, Michel plans to introduce music to a free and open market, increasing its value and solving the imbalance of power within the industry.
Before Anotherblock he spent several years at Schibsted, and in the European startup scene, building fintech products from scratch. Growing up between the pop-wonder of Sweden and Burkina Faso, where his father...2022-10-1331 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccTimmu Tõke - Raising from a16z, finding product market fit and building for the metaverseMy guest today is Timmu Tõke - the founder and CEO of Ready Player Me. Ready Player Me is a cross-game avatar platform for the metaverse and more than 4,000 companies use their avatars in their products. They recently announced their series B of 56 million dollars led by a16z with participation from some iconic names like Roblox co-founder David Baszucki, King Games co-founders Sebastian Knutsson and Riccardo Zacconi, and Twitch cofounder - Justin Kan among many others. Before building Ready Player Me the young team spent many years building avatar tech for e...2022-09-3034 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccDaniel & Dorin - How to raise Eur 10M in 10 monthsDaniel Bakh and Dorin Tarau are the founders of Fullview, a customer support suite that lets you instantly monitor, control, and analyze user sessions for faster real-time customer support. The guys founded Fullview in 2021 and in record time they’ve raised 10 million Euros in just 10 months from top investors like Cherry, Seedcamp, and later on from Lightspeed. During this episode we discuss about how to build momentum and create urgency when fundraising, how to hire player-coaches and how Anoushka from Lightspeed convinced the team to choose Lightspeed instead of another VC on a higher valuation....2022-09-0634 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccXavier Collins - You get what you measureXavier Collins is currently a Vice President of Turo, the American unicorn, facilitating car sharing. At Turo, he’s responsible for launching and building the UK business as well as leading their international expansion. Prior to Turo, he held roles at Deliveroo and Uber and most recently founded one of the UK’s largest angel investment syndicates. During this episode, we discuss why he left a secure career in law to join Uber, why you usually get what you measure and how he finally became a singer and a songwriter with an album published on Spot...2022-08-3130 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccTony Jamous - How to hire a high performing teamTony Jamous is the founder and CEO of Oyster - a distributed HR platform that empowers companies to hire, pay, and care for talented teammates regardless of location. Tony founded Oyster In January 2020 and since then they’ve raised around 220 million dollars, grew the team to approximately 600 FTE, and have reached unicorn status. Prior to Oyster Tony founded Nexmo, a pioneer in the Communications Platform as a Service (“CPaaS”) category - the company went public via a merger with Vonage in 2016. After a successful Nexmo exit, Tony took some time off to consider what t...2022-08-1427 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJudith Dada - Defining your mission. For Whom and For What?Judith Dada is a General Partner at La Famiglia. La Famiglia is a European seed stage venture capital fund investing in B2B technology companies that enable or disrupt large industries. At La Famiglia, Judith focuses on the future of work, as well as data and ML-driven business models and she has invested in companies like Personio, Graphy, y42, tagr, and uncut among others. La Famiglia is backed by a selection of world-leading entrepreneurs from various industries that provide precious early market access, impactful partnerships, and deep expertise for La Famiglias’ portfolio companies....2022-07-2838 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAnthony Danon - FinTech is eating the worldAnthony Danon is a co-founder and general partner at Cocoa, the angel fund 100% backed by founders. Anthony has spent the last 7+ years as an early-stage VC focused on investing in what he calls "fintech is everything". He started his career as an operator in fintech, building credit risk models for an invoice financing company. As an investor, Anthony has been lucky to partner with companies such as TrueLayer, Primer, Wayflyer, and Ramp Network, to name a few. Prior to Cocoa he was a Partner at Speedinvest leading their Seed fintech strategy across Europe...2022-07-1427 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccNina Achadjian - Vertical SaaSBefore joining Index, Nina was a Financial planning and analysis Lead for Google’s AdSense team where she managed a multi-billion dollar book of business covering Amazon, Ebay, and IAC. Nina started her career as a high yield bond trader at Citigroup and She also started HIVE Ventures, the first seed venture fund focusing on Armenian entrepreneurs, where she invested in over 30 companies. At Index, Nina focuses on venture and growth investments in enterprise SaaS, vertical SaaS, and AI. She is excited by the combination of software and payments to help legacy industries transition from us...2022-06-3039 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccUlric Musset - Liberation CapitalMy guest today is Ulric Musset the founder of Vauban. Vauban is a venture capital platform that makes it easy for investors & VCs to launch their funds, SPVs and syndicates. Over $1bn has been invested via Vauban's platform since its launch. Ulric is an angel investor as well as an entrepreneur with a keen passion for supporting the venture capital ecosystem. During this episode, we discuss what led Ulric to become an entrepreneur, the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and Vauban's mission. Let's go and talk with Ulric.2022-06-1335 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccAndrei Brasoveanu - Prepared mindMy guest today is Andrei Brasoveanu Partner at Accel. He joined the fund in 2014 and works with the team on Web3/crypto, enterprise software, developer-oriented software, open-source, security, and financial services. Andrei has led Accel’s investment in Sky Mavis, Sorare and Nansen among others and he has also worked closely with Celonis, Instana, Monzo, Personio and UiPath. Prior to Accel, Andrei spent a decade in the US working for some of the largest equity high-frequency trading firms in the country. Andrei is originally Romania. He graduated summa cum laude in Mathematics from Pri...2022-05-3125 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccHannah Seal - Future of WorkMy guest today is Hannah Seal - Partner at Index Ventures. Before joining Index, Hannah managed the consumer marketplace business for Ebay in the UK, and set up the General Merchandise business for Ocado. At Index, Hannah is passionate about helping visionary entrepreneurs from day one, and supporting them as their companies scale and grow. She is particularly energised by founders who have an unfair advantage in tackling daunting problems in technical or challenging markets. Her investments for Index include Remote, a platform to enable distributed working; Multiverse, the company bringing apprenticeships into...2022-05-0823 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccHenrik Landgren - How to implement a data-driven cultureMy guest today is Henrik Landgren co-founder and CPTO of ArK Kapital a precision financing company that empowers technology businesses to grow faster with non-dilutive capital. They recently closed a 165M Euro seed round of Equity and Debt capital - round led by LocalGlobe with participation from Creandum and some prominent angels including Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, Zettle by PayPal founder Jacob de Geer, Embark Studios founder Patrick Söderlund, King founder Sebastian Knutsson, and EQT Ventures founding partner Hjalmar Winbladh Prior to ArK, Henrik was a partner at EQT Ventures - the Swedish venture capital fu...2022-04-2450 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccEléonore Crespo - Doer till the IPOMy guest today is Eléonore Crespo co-founder and co-CEO of Pigment, the business planning platform (gopigment.com). Prior to Pigment, Eléonore was an investor at Index Ventures, working side-by-side with entrepreneurs and spearheading investments in Alan, Spendesk, Swile and Slite. Before Index she worked as a senior analyst at Google, reporting directly to the EMEA president and CFO on matters of strategy and planning. During this episode we discussed about how she managed to raise 73M dollars 1 month after giving birth to twins, why as a founder you should always be hiring and th...2022-04-0734 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccSebastian Mallaby - The Power LawSebastian Mallaby is an English journalist, author and a Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and contributing columnist at The Washington Post. Formerly, he was a contributing editor for the Financial Times He has written many well known books as The Man Who Knew, More Money Than God, The World's Banker and the one that we will focus on in this episode: The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future. In writing The power law Sebastian had unprecedented access to the most celebrated ventur...2022-03-2029 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccOphelia Brown - High-conviction investingHigh-conviction investing - with Ophelia Brown, co-founder and partner at Blossom Capital. Blossom Capital was founded only 4 years ago, and recently raised their third fund of around 380M Euros and became one of the largest Series A investors in Europe having invested in the likes of Checkout (est. val. $40B), Moonpay (est. val. $3.4B) and Pigment (est. val. $500M). Blossom's mission is to supercharge the most visionary founders in Europe, enabling them to build companies which compete on a global scale. Previously she was a General Partner at LocalGlobe, where she invested in a number of exciting companies including...2022-02-1024 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccRoland Manger - Cohesion and autonomyMy guest today is Roland Manger - co-founder and Partner at Earlybird. With over 1.5 billion EUR under management, eight IPOs and 30 trade sales, Earlybird is one of the most established and active venture capital firms in Europe, having made investments in formidable companies like UiPath, N26 and Forto among others. Founded in 1997, Earlybird invests in all development and growth phases of technology companies and has grown to several autonomous, dedicated and specialized teams, focusing on different geographies and sectors. During this episode we discuss about the inception of Earlybird, the importance of balance between cohesion...2022-01-1243 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccKyle Samani - DecentralisedKyle Samani - Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital. Multicoin Capital is a thesis-driven investment firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain companies reshaping trillion-dollar markets. They manage several billion in assets across hedge funds and venture funds. Since founding the firm in May 2017, they've developed a reputation for being forward-leaning, independent thinkers. They are known for pioneering token economic models, valuation methodologies, and challenging long-standing assumptions that the crypto ecosystem takes for granted. During this episode we discuss how and when Kyle got involved in the crypto space, the mental models they...2021-12-0728 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMathias Ockenfels - Network effectsMathias is a Berlin-based General Partner at Speedinvest, managing the fund's Marketplaces & Consumer team that focuses on all things network effects and consumer tech. Mathias has been building and investing in marketplace and platform businesses for over 13 years being previously part of Mountain Partners and Point Nine Capital. Over the years, he invested into over 80 startups in the space. At Speedinvest, Mathias led investments in companies such as TIER Mobility, Schüttfix, Planetly, Byrd and CoachHub among other. Since 2017, the Marketplaces & Consumer team is investing over €100M into early stage marketplaces and platforms and has made...2021-11-1436 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccPaul Murphy - Fuck it, ship it!Paul Murphy is a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners focused on early stage investments in technology companies in Europe. Previous to Lightspeed he was a general partner at Northzone where he led the investments in Hopin, Tier Mobility and Flink among others. He was also part of Betaworks. The creative group responsible, among others, for creating Giphy - the platform for animated Giphs, acquired by Facebook, Bitly - the link shortener and Dots - the beloved mobile game inspired Yayoi Kusama. During this episode we discuss his experience of building Dots at Betaworks...2021-10-2423 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccMatt Miller - In pursuit of 'world-class'Matt is a partner at Sequoia focused on early and growth stage investments in technology companies. A self-proclaimed nerd from an early age, Matt started building computers and writing code at 12 years old in his mother’s kitchen. He has worked as an entrepreneur, an advisor and now an investor. At Sequoia, Matt has worked closely with companies like Carbon Black, Confluent, Graphcore, Tecton and Tessian among others. Prior to Sequoia, Matt worked at Goldman Sachs working with top technology companies like Microsoft and Salesforce where he also put together a report for Steve Jobs. In his spare time, Ma...2021-09-2927 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccKarl Munthe-Kaas - Happy, but never satisfiedKarl Munthe-Kaas is the Co-founder and CEO of Oda, Norway´s largest online grocery store. Oda was founded in 2013 by a group of ten friends, combining skills in software development with traditional Lean operations. They have used the Lean Startup philosophy extensively, both in the overall startup strategy, as well as in their daily experiments. Oda was valued at 1B Euro in 2021 after raising 265M Euro from Kinnevik, Prosus, and SoftBank to expand to Finland and Germany. Oda has a fully integrated warehouse and distribution system, resting on proprietary technology and operational processes. This has enabled them to...2021-08-2237 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJohan Brand - Building Kahoot!If you are building user centric products you are going to LOVE this episode. In this episode we discuss about Johans' most successful venture to date, Kahoot! A bit about Johan. He is a creative technology entrepreneur based in Oslo, Norway. As a Founding Partner at We Are Human in London he creates purpose driven organisations striving for sustainable social and commercial impact. We Are Human’s most successful venture to date is Kahoot!, one of the world’s fastest growing learning brands with over 70 million unique monthly active users in 200+ countries. Un...2021-06-1634 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccJacqueline van den Ende - It is not the critic who counts; but the "entrepreneur" who is actually in the arenaJacqueline van den Ende is the founder and CEO of Carbon Equity. Jacqueline went full circle in her hero journey starting by co-founding the first non-profit student run strategy consultancy in 2008 - De Kleine Consultant, still going strong today, then moving into private equity working as an associate for HAL investments (~€ 12.7bn net asset value) to then change gears and move to Manila, Philipines and be the CEO of Lamudi - a rocket internet company - growing a team from 2 interns to 100 FTE - just to realise that she wanted to be part of a more mission dr...2021-05-2433 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccPatrick Meutzner - High-growth and mental healthPatrick Meutzner - one of the co-founders of Trengo. Trengo is a platform that offers one inbox for all customer contact channels from Social messaging, Chat, Email, Voice to SMS and they've been growing like crazy during the last year, growing from 12 people to 50 during a global pandemic and tripled the MRR in the last 12 months having clients across 60 countries. By all accounts this a very successful startup that is being chased by top European and International VCs but the story today is not about their success. The story in this episode is...2021-04-0229 min
Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/AccSaul Klein - The changes in the landscape since 1995 in the VC ecosystem in Europe and the requirement of practical science fiction when they invest in teams at seed stageSaul Klein is currently a General Partner at LocalGlobe - a seed VC based in the UK and GP at Lattitude - a series B focused VC fund meant to fill in the gap in the European VC ecosystem which you will learn more about during our conversation. Previously, Saul was a General Partner at Index Ventures a role that he held for 8 years In 2012 David Cameron appointed Saul to be the UK's first tech envoy to Israel and a Technology Business Ambassador. Saul is a serial entrepreneur with two decades of experience building and...2021-04-0223 min