Venture Europe: Entrepreneurship | Technology | Venture Capital | Eu/Acc
By Calin Fabri | Entrepreneur | Advisor
Deep Dive - Have I been Pwned?, The recent password leaks, Protecting Yourself from Mass Password Leaks
A comprehensive guide to personal cybersecurity, emphasizing the evolving threat landscape from mid-2024 to mid-2025, marked by unprecedented data exposures like the 16-billion credential "GOAT" leak.
We highlight the shift in risk from corporate servers to individual user devices, largely due to infostealer malware.
The document details major data breaches across various sectors, identifying common attack vectors such as supply chain vulnerabilities, insider threats, and the sophisticated evolution of ransomware.
Crucially, we outlines a modern password and authentication strategy, advocating for long, unique passphrases, the ubiquitous adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA)—prioritizing hardware keys and authenticator apps—and the essential role of password managers as a "digital vault" for secure credential management.
Finally, we underline the importance of proactive breach monitoring through services like "Have I Been Pwned?", cultivating phishing awareness, diligent software updates, and securing home and public Wi-Fi networks to build robust digital resilience.
Supercharging Portfolio Value-Add - Platform 2.0, Creating engaging communities, The importance of playbooks, Business Development , Talent, Branding
Two weeks ago, I was in New York for the Venture Intelligence day (organised by Vestberry) moderating a panel with some pretty savvy VCs — among them Left Lane Capital a spinoff from Insight Partners with $2B AuM, Galaxy Ventures with $1.5B AuM, and Angelini Ventures with $300M AuM.
The topic? Platform 2.0 — how VCs are going beyond capital to actually support founders.
We talked talent, playbooks, community, business development, growth — and what it really means to be ‘value-add’ in 2025.
This episode is the result of that trip. A deep dive into how the smartest firms are supercharging portfolio support — and what the future of venture capital looks like.
Curious how your VC firm can provide more valueadd? Visit valueadd.network and let's have a chat.
Musk VS Trump: Helping Trump win, Twitter/X VS Truth Social, High stakes politics
An in-depth look at the complex and often turbulent relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, focusing on its historical context and a significant public dispute in June 2025.
We chart the evolution from initial skepticism and pragmatic advisory roles to periods of strong public support and financial contributions, culminating in a dramatic falling out over a legislative bill.
We analyze the strategic use of their respective social media platforms, X and Truth Social, as battlegrounds for influence, highlighting their differing reaches and implications.
Ultimately, we explore the underlying motivations of ego, business interests, and political ambition that drive their interactions, along with the financial and broader political ramifications of their highly public conflicts.
Salar al Khafaji - Autonomous on-site construction robots, Construction ~10-15% of GDP but low productivity, How affordability affects fertility rates, Learnings from selling his startup to Palantir
Salar al Khafaji - founder and CEO of Monumental.
At Monumental they are developing a suite of autonomous, electric robots which can work around the clock so everyone can afford a high-quality house or apartment in a beautiful city or village.
Last year they’ve raise a 23M Eur round from Hummingbird, Northzone, Plural and other investors with the mission to make construction primarily software-defined and work towards a future where beautiful, bespoke buildings are built within a single day with minimal labor.
Prior to Monumental, Salar built and sold the data company Silk to Palantir.
During this episode we discuss about the construction market and how it is the only industry the productivity has decreased, his mistakes from his first business Silk, and the biggest current bottleneck at Monumental.
Enjoy!
Construction Market - Deep-dive
We provide an extensive overview of the global construction market, highlighting its significant economic impact and projected growth to over $16 trillion by 2030.
We detail the substantial contribution of the construction sector to global GDP and employment, emphasizing its role as a key economic driver.
We also focus on the European construction market, outlining its regional importance and growth, alongside the pervasive influence of technological innovation, including BIM, 3D printing, AI, and robotics, in transforming industry practices.
Specific attention is given to bricklaying robotics startups like Monumental and FBR, showcasing their advancements in automation to address labor shortages and enhance efficiency and safety within the industry.
Mary Meeker - AI Trends
Jan-Hendrick Boelens - Air-to-air counter-drone system, Defending Europe, Why Europe needs a single defense market, The constrains in the supply chain and dependencies on China
Jan-Hendrick Boelens co-founder and CEO of Alpine Eagle.
Munich-based and backed by leading investors including General Catalyst and IQ Capital, Alpine Eagle is building the world's first air-to-air counter-drone system.
Prior to Alpine Jan-Hendrick was chief engineer at Airbus, and CTO at Volocopter and Quantum Systems.
During this episode we discuss how technology can help protect democracies in the face of global instability, why Europe needs and single defence market and the dependency on China in the supply chain.
Enjoy!
Europe's Defense Transformation: Spending, Policy, and Investment Opportunities
An overview of the European defense market, excluding Russia, highlighting a significant and accelerated increase in investment driven by the changed geopolitical landscape, primarily following the conflict in Ukraine.
We detail the current size and projected growth of defense spending by EU and key European NATO nations, emphasizing the commitment to and achievement of NATO spending targets as a percentage of GDP, with several countries exceeding the 2% benchmark.
We also outlines the key drivers of this transformation, including geopolitical imperatives and strategic alignment within NATO and the EU, alongside emerging trends like technological advancements in AI, cybersecurity, and advanced platforms, as well as industrial and procurement dynamics aiming for greater collaboration and strategic autonomy.
Finally, we discuss investment opportunities in leading European defense companies and attractive market segments, while also addressing the strategic considerations and risks for investors, such as production scalability, supply chain vulnerabilities, fiscal sustainability, and evolving ethical concerns.
AI - History, Trends and Opportunities
Explore the transformative force of Artificial Intelligence (AI), outlining its historical evolution from foundational concepts to modern advancements like generative AI and large language models.
We detail the primary drivers fueling AI's growth, including technological enablers like increased computing power and big data, as well as economic and societal factors.
Furthermore, we analyze the vast opportunities AI presents across key industries such as healthcare, finance, and transportation, alongside its potential to drive economic growth and offer societal benefits.
Finally, we critically examine the significant threats and challenges accompanying AI, emphasizing ethical considerations, potential socio-economic impacts, security vulnerabilities, and inherent technical limitations.
Sebastian Hjärne - From prompt to hire, Recycling tennis balls, The search engine for talent, Raising funds from the Swedish Tech Mafia
Sebastian Hjarne - founder and CEO of Talentium.
At Talentium they are building the search engine for talent and creating an end-to-end platform for hiring.
€3.5m pre-seed round led by EQT ventures, with participation from some exceptional angels like Sebastian - the CEO of the giant Klarna, Joel - CEO of Sana Labs and Fredrik - CEO of Voi Technologies.
During this episode we discuss about the how Talentium was built from the frustration of finding top talent in machine learning, the challenge with boolean search and the more human future of hiring.
Enjoy!
A Deep Dive into the Global Recruitment Market, The $2 Trillion Projected Global Staffing & Recruitment Market Value by 2031, The Future of Talent Acquisition
A comprehensive overview of the global recruitment market, describing its significant current size and projected growth, driven by factors like increased job vacancies and technological advancements.
We segment the market by staffing type (temporary dominating), recruitment channel (online leading), end-user industries (IT & Telecom prominent), and service types (RPO and Executive Search growing).
The research also highlight key drivers such as SME growth and evolving workforce dynamics while outlining challenges including skill gaps, market competition, and data privacy concerns.
Finally, we discuss major market trends like the pervasive influence of AI and the continued rise of remote work, along with the competitive landscape dominated by large global players but also featuring specialized niche firms.
Jakob Sons - Starting a Medical Cannabis startup, Quitting the lawyer career, Making Eur 35M in 2024, The hyper-personalisation trend and diversifying from flower
Jakob Sons is one of the co-founders and Managing Partners of Cansativa.
Cansativa is building the largest medical cannabis platform in Europe and are offering the most desirable products and brands yummy.
In 2022, they've raised the 15 million round from Snoop's dog, Casa Verde, and they generated 35M Eur in Revenue in 2024 and projected 90M Eur in 2025.
During this episode, we'll discuss Jakob's transition from being a lawyer to founding a medical marijuana startup together with his brother, the hyper-personalisation trend in medical cannabis, and the importance of curiosity, focus and speaking up.
Deep-dive: European Medical Cannabis, Market Size, Trends, Regulation
An overview of the global medical cannabis market, highlighting its rapid growth driven by legislative reforms, increasing research, and patient acceptance.
While North America currently leads, Europe, particularly Germany, is identified as a major growth engine due to recent law changes significantly boosting patient access and imports, despite challenges like reimbursement, physician education, and supply chain complexities.
The analysis details market size variations, evolving product preferences (favoring extracts and precise dosing), primary therapeutic uses, and the significant hurdles posed by regulatory fragmentation, banking restrictions, and competition from the illicit market.
Stress-free productivity, The Bible of personal organisation, Productivity is directly proportional with the ability to relax
This 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 significant maintenance burden and potential for focusing on "shallow work," concluding that GTD remains a relevant framework for managing complexity, often complementing other systems.
Copy and use the framework here: https://www.notion.so/Get-Things-Done-Framework-49c2a7e04b0741189b75b97f8ebf0365?pvs=4
Ioan 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 founder
Ioan 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 by Dawn Capital and based on its traction and growth, lets say the future is bright for them.
During this episode we discuss how a meeting with the Revolut team in London sparked the creation of FlowX.AI, why the ego is the enemy of the entrepreneur, and how does the multi-agent AI platform works in practice, beyond the buzzwords.
Enjoy!
2025 FinTech Trends: AI Agents, The $100T wealth transfer, Stablecoins and the resurgence of B2C FinTech
FT 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.
Mastering 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.
Dirk Sahlmer - Bootstrapped founders VS VC backed founders, Maximising your wealth when starting or selling your business, 3 mistakes founders make when selling
Dirk 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 business
Ciao!
State 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 region
Tom 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 and the tech optimism in Europe.
Enjoy!
Daria 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 mechanics
Daria 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 - climate performance potential to combine the climate crisis with the venture capital model.
Enjoy!
Christian Rebernik - First accredited edtech scale-up in Europe, Challenging the status quo in education, Creating 1M change-makers and the Importance of purpose
Christian 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!
Anna 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 recruiting
Anna 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!
Winston Churchill - Fifty Years Hence
Winston 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's fundamental needs and emphasises the crucial role of virtue and spiritual understanding in navigating the future.
Tatiana Shalalvand - The capabilities as a multi-stage fund, Impressing founders with knowledge, Investing in Aira and Travelperk
Tatiana 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.
Enjoy!
Pär-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 love
Pär-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 Europe and as of lately New York.
During this episode we discuss the common traits of category defining entrepreneurs like Daniel Ek, why we need to change the narrative for tech Europe and keep the talent here and what heavy metal can teach you about management.
Enjoy!
Vadim Fedotov - Hyper-personalised Supplements, Why Cristiano Ronaldo started using it in 2022 and then invested, Building a high-performing team, The future of personalised wellness
Vadim 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 he’s leveraging technology to change the future of health optimization.
Get ready for an inspiring conversation packed with insights, resilience, and a glimpse into the future of wellness.
Enjoy!
Machines of Loving Grace - Essay review of Dario's Amodei, CEO of Anthropic
Dario 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 experience.
He acknowledges challenges like inequality, societal constraints, and the potential displacement of human labor, but maintains a hopeful outlook.
The author envisions a future where AI could lead to unprecedented economic growth, the prevention of most diseases, and a strengthening of liberal democracy.
He advocates for proactive efforts to ensure AI benefits are widely accessible.
Link to essay: https://darioamodei.com/machines-of-loving-grace
Max Junestrand - Raising $35M in 6 months, Mapping pain points and using Aha! moments, Choosing Benchmark as a lead investor, Empowering Lawyers
Max 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 discuss how they initially got rejected by YC and how they made their way back to get accepted, how they cleverly mapped the pain points and potential aha moments for specific roles of their customer segment and why they chose Benchmark as a lead investor.
Enjoy!
Daniel 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 slide
Daniel 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 discuss why every deck has a magic slide, why we don’t have more growth funds in Europe and the mechanics that prevent VCs from innovating.
Enjoy!
How I Learned to Let My Workers Lead - A review about how Ralph Stayer changed the way he lead to empower workers and improve efficiency
Ralph 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 strategic decisions to teams of workers, resulting in improved performance and a more engaged workforce.
Stayer's experience highlights the importance of fostering a culture of learning, shared responsibility, and continuous improvement, a culture that ultimately redefined his role within the company.
Link to essay: https://hbr.org/1990/11/how-i-learned-to-let-my-workers-lead
Casper 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 follow
Casper 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 of money while figuring out what data set to focus on and why you should design your org chart by reverse engineering from customer problems.
Enjoy!
James 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 2030
James 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 15-25% of new electricity demand by 2030.
They have recently raised a $22M Series A round led by Plural to accelerate growth, expanding the team and engaging with high-volume suppliers.
During this episode we discuss about how photonics work, James background and the inefficiencies in the current AI data centers.
Enjoy!
John 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 individual
John 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 johnrush.me
In this episode we discuss why not all ideas should raise venture capital, why he moved from Norway to Turkey and the 3 years tax free visa program and why Europe needs more bootstrappers.
Enjoy!
Thomas 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 industry
Vay 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 six years in Silicon Valley, where he launched Zoox's first self-driving vehicle on public streets. Zoox was bought in 2020 by Amazon for $1.2B according to Dealroom. Thomas was also part of launching Amazon's first Echo in leading Technical Program Manager positions.
During this episode we discuss the advantages of remote driving when it comes to safety, the market opportunities in the more than $1T driverless car industry, and why Elon Musk has announced to also focus on remote driving at Tesla pointing to the benefits of embodied learning.
Enjoy!
Anton 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 intelligence
Anton 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.
During this episode we discuss about why now we are in the most transformational years in human history where machine intelligence become more capable than human intelligence, how you can get motivated when someone argues against you and how to run a successful fundraise.
Enjoy
Walter Ballheimer - Sending satellites into space, The CubeSats revolution, Different types of satellites, The space-tech market
Walter 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!
Christian 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 entrepreneurs
Christian 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 to get some equity in the business, ouch
- The second one MyVideo, which was one of the leading video platforms back then in Germany and France that he sold to ProSieben
- The third one was eDarling. They built a matchmaking business running 15 brands in 20 countries having revenue in 12 different currencies. They listed that on the New York stock exchange.
- And the forth one nebenan.de the largest social network for neighbours in Germany with around 3m active users.
Such a hustler!
During this episode we discuss about his learnings in building multiple consumer businesses, the motivation to start Carbon One and the mental struggles that an entrepreneur is usually faced with and some suggestions on how to deal with it.
Enjoy!
Colin 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 founder
Colin 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, product-focused founders spanning verticals including Cloud, Consumer, Crypto, and Fintech.
He began his career at Goldman Sachs in New York where he focused on raising capital for Asian internet companies, including Tencent, Nexon, and Tarena among others.
During this episode we discuss about his competitive swimming period from Princeton, the open-source movement and the crypto market.
Enjoy!
George Henry - Most successful investor in unicorns at seed stage, Learning velocity, Having a compelling vision, Taking more risks
George 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 importance of having a compelling vision and taking risk.
Enjoy!
Lukas Saari - AI copilot for healthcare practitioners, Raising $10M seed round in 8 months, The administrative burden and the future of Healthcare
Lukas 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 this episode we discuss why AI is the internet moment of our generation and why founders should take advantage of it, we touch on the cost and the administrative burden in healthcare and how Tandem solves that and how to go about validating a pain point and raise money from investors.
Enjoy!
Florian 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-awareness
Florian 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 Florians' motivation to start Atai, how drug discovery works and why it takes around 10 years to bring to market, and a personal story of trying psychedelics to go through the loss of a loved one.
Enjoy!
Michael 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 market
Michael 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 resilience in him and his team but also killed his previous startup.
Brought to you by Wolt4Work, sign up and add Venture Europe and your Company Name in the company field to get a 100 Eur voucher
Alexandre 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 Europe
Alexandre 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 company co-founded by Daniel Ek - Neko health.
During this episode we discuss about the opportunities in healthcare in Europe, what Alex looks for when meeting teams to invest in and the future of brain machine interface.
Brought to you by Wolt4Work, sign up and add Venture Europe and your Company Name in the company field to get a 100 Eur voucher
Robert 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 people
Robert 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 Pay, Leapsome, Workflex, Adfin, Pledge and Accountable to name a few.
During this episode we discuss about about why European founders and investors should take more risk, the rarity of a unicorn founder and how to find it and the importance to surround yourself with ambitious and driven people.
Enjoy!
Brought to you by Wolt4Work, sign up and add Venture Europe and your Company Name in the company field to get a 100 Eur voucher
Aleksander Larsen - $1.3B revenue, North Korean hack, From the hottest company in web3 to being called a scam, Building digital nations, Competing with Visa
Aleksander 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 inclusion through gaming and crypto and competing longterm with Visa
Enjoy!
Brought to you by Wolt4Work, sign up and add Venture Europe and your Company Name in the company field to get a 100 Eur voucher
Annie 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 Bets
Annie 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 Tournament of Champions and the NBC National Poker Heads-Up Championship.
During this episode we discuss about the difference between decision quality and outcome quality, some frameworks she advises entrepreneurs to use when making decisions and the power of mental time travel.
Enjoy!
Brought to you by uTopic - the topic based communication platform for entrepreneurs
Oliver Holle - From an angel fund to 1B AuM, Building specialized teams to support founders, Starting a company in the 90s VS today
Oliver 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 to succeeded as a founder.
Enjoy!
Brought to you by uTopic - peers, not followers
Carmen Alfonso Rico - Investing in killers with a heart, The right to a secret, Co-founder relationships, Finding your superpower and win-win situations
Carmen 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 table with founders, her preferred questions to ask founders and the challenges that women face when focusing on career.
Enjoy!
Brought to you by uTopic - peers, not followers
Bernt Bornich - Androids for the worlds labor demands, Raising > Eur 100M from EQT and OpenAI fund, Building softness in robots, Embodied learning and AGI
Bernt 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.
During this episode we discuss about the importance of building softness in order for androids to work and live among humans, the infinite demand curve for a useful droid and his advice for founders to go and build stuff that matters more specifically filling the gap for a future with energy abundance.
Enjoy!
Brought to you by uTopic - peers, not followers
Kaushik Subramanian - Learnings from building products at Meta and Stripe, Extreme focus on the user problem, User first mentality, Choosing your design partners
Our 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 how he asses founders if they have a product first mindset.
Brought to you by uTopic - peers, not followers