Rex 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 episode we discuss about the art of early stage investing, the pros and cons of social media and the power of technology to bring people together. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Kirsty 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! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Mark 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 and why it might be a better idea to invest in startups solving difficult problems than the next Saas for Saas for Saas! Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Ciao ragazzi e ragazze, I am here with Franscesco 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 the first-ever spin-out company from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. During this episode we discuss his journey into plasma and different machines used to perform research, the difference between a Tokamak and Stellarator and Europes potential to compete in the global fusion race. Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Mikkel 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 and angel investors in a very short time. During this episode we discuss Mikkel's learnings with HelloFlow and his advice for first-time entrepreneurs, the first purchase he made after the exit, and his new company. Thanks so much to his co-founder Ciprian and previous investor Tom from Seedcamp for the input to this episode. Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Fredrik 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 when investing in Spotify, and how to find user love. Brought 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! 🙏 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Brought 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 his co-founder, his experience being part of the Rocket internet mafia and the future of tasty cheeses. Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Brought 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 discuss how they transitioned from building race cars to winning the SpaceX Hyperloop competition, the complexity of building infrastructure, and their strategy of building a system that can be adopted globally and become standardized. Enjoy! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Antoine 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 105M seed investment into the talented team of Mistral AI. This is episode is brought to you by Zoom One, designed for however and wherever your team gets work done. Whether you need some focus time or want to collaborate with your hybrid team, Zoom One is the all-in-one platform designed to power your work day. Collaborate with your team and clients across phone, video, messaging, whiteboards, and even connect your favorite work apps – so you can focus on getting things done. Simplifying your work day and keeping your global team connected. One platform to connect. Zoom One. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Andre 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 sectors. During this episode we discuss about his journey from analyst to partner, the change in the competitive landscape for VCs and the drive to become more data driven, how they use primary and secondary sources for data driven sourcing and the extreme focus that founders should have on sustainable defensibility. This is episode is brought to you by Zoom One, designed for however and wherever your team gets work done. Whether you need some focus time or want to collaborate with your hybrid team, Zoom One is the all-in-one platform designed to power your work day. Collaborate with your team and clients across phone, video, messaging, whiteboards, and even connect your favorite work apps – so you can focus on getting things done. Simplifying your work day and keeping your global team connected. One platform to connect. Zoom One. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Michel 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 a Eur 5m seed round from Point Nine and Notion Capital. During this episode we discuss about the founding story of Prss, his experience in Cupertino and the process of building a product used by millions of people, and the mission with Vev. Enjoy! Brought by - ⁠Edda⁠, the most collaborative tool for VCs and Private Equity investors that allows you to see in real-time the true dimension of your investments and the value and impact they create. From investment decision processes, to managing due diligence, supporting portfolio companies, data sharing and transparency – Edda streamlines the investment journey and fund operation management in an easy-to-use platform. Head to ⁠edda.co⁠ and use the code VPEDDA for a demo. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Jakob 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 collaborative tool for VCs and Private Equity investors that allows you to see in real-time the true dimension of your investments and the value and impact they create. From investment decision processes, to managing due diligence, supporting portfolio companies, data sharing and transparency – Edda streamlines the investment journey and fund operation management in an easy-to-use platform. Head to edda.co and use the code VPEDDA for a demo. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Our 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. Please enjoy this this wonderful conversation with Andreas Helbig, partner at Atomico. Brought by - Edda, the most collaborative tool for VCs and Private Equity investors that allows you to see in real-time the true dimension of your investments and the value and impact they create. From investment decision processes, to managing due diligence, supporting portfolio companies, data sharing and transparency – Edda streamlines the investment journey and fund operation management in an easy-to-use platform. Head to edda.co and use the code VPEDDA for a demo. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Our 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 process of skipping seed and later opening an office in NY. Many thanks to Sebastian Pollok for the intro. Sponsored by - Edda, the most collaborative tool for VCs and Private Equity investors that allows you to see in real-time the true dimension of your investments and the value and impact they create. From investment decision processes, to managing due diligence, supporting portfolio companies, data sharing and transparency – Edda streamlines the investment journey and fund operation management in an easy-to-use platform. Head to edda.co and use the code VPEDDA for a demo. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Nathan 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 insight to start Air Street Capital in 2019 and how there were few to none VCs focusing exclusively on AI first startups, we talk about the power of AI models to make predictions across data sets and the increasing gap between academia and industry labs. We also discuss why AI should be on top of the political agenda and what does an AI first startup look like. Enjoy! FYI: We are launching a private network and peer-support group for CEOs working in the AI space in Europe. We already signed up some well-known tech CEOs from the ecosystem. The first gathering starts in September. If interested, sign up ⁠here⁠. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro to Nathan (02:30) The key developments in AI in the last 12 months and the speed of development (05:45) The maturation cycle of advanced technology and crossing the chasm from labs to consumers (08:20) The only constraint to build software will be your creativity and not your capability to engineer (09:00) The background and founding story of Air Street Capital (13:45) How Transformer models work and their capability to learn and make predictions across domains (17:30) Can we replicate a human mind? (20:00) The gap between academia and industry labs and the interest by nation states to own the technology (25:00) What does an AI first startup look like and tying your predictions to ROI (28:00) What does a successful AI startup-team look like (31:15) The moment of pleasure as an investor (33:00) What was the driver for his success (34:00) Advice to his younger self Brought to you by: Rows -  the spreadsheet where data comes to life. Connected with your business data and delightful to share, Rows is how teams work with numbers and share their results.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Alex 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 the world and this interview was made while he was docking in Grenada. Please enjoy this excellent conversation with Alex MacCaw founder and CEO of Reflect app. As mentioned during the episode we are launching a private network and peer support group for tech CEOs. We already signed up some well-known tech CEOs from the ecosystem. The first gathering starts in June. If interested, sign up here. Brought to you by: Rows -  the spreadsheet where data comes to life. Connected with your business data and delightful to share, Rows is how teams work with numbers and share their results.  Athletic Greens - all-in-one nutritional insurance, AG1 covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

David 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 together with David Sacks, Chamath Palihapatia, and Jason Calacanis where they talk all things science, markets, venture capital, and politics. Which I highly recommend you listen to. During this episode, we discuss the founding story of The Climate Corporation and the exit to Monsanto, why as an entrepreneur you should always be biased towards action, and his deep optimism and his mission of reimagining earth. Thanks a million to Jan Hammer from Index Ventures and Siraj Khaliq from Atomico for the input to this episode, very very much appreciated! Please enjoy this geeky conversation with the Sultan of Science, David Albert Friedberg. As mentioned during the episode we are launching a private network and peer support group for tech CEOs. We already signed up some well-known tech CEOs from the ecosystem. The first gathering starts in June. If interested, sign up here. Brought to you by: Rows -  the spreadsheet where data comes to life. Connected with your business data and delightful to share, Rows is how teams work with numbers and share their results.  Athletic Greens - all-in-one nutritional insurance, AG1 covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Lina 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 founder herself, having started two companies one in Southeast Asia, and the other based in Germany/US. One was later sold to Living Social. During this episode we discuss her move to Germany from the US, how they asses investment opportunities at Target global and the importance to surrounding yourself with people that you admire. Brought to you by: Rows -  the spreadsheet where data comes to life. Connected with your business data and delightful to share, Rows is how teams work with numbers and share their results.  Athletic Greens - all-in-one nutritional insurance, AG1 covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Koen 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, Formula 1 of entrepreneurship is the way he described it, how he stumbled upon a huge market while insuring goods and people at Bloomon and his new set of criteria when starting a new business. A million thanks to Luca Bocchio from Accel and Robert Lacher from Visionaries for the input to this episode! Much appreciated! Brough to you by: Rows -  the spreadsheet where data comes to life. Connected with your business data and delightful to share, Rows is how teams work with numbers and share their results.  Athletic Greens - all-in-one nutritional insurance, AG1 covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message

Stef 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. During this episode we discuss about the founding story of Cradle, how you can program cells to produce milk, plastic and petrol-free chemicals among other things, and why Europeans should change from being definite pessimists to definite optimists and be more entrepreneurial. Stef is one of those rare breeds of entrepreneurs with a high amount of raw intelligence paired with kindness. Thanks so much for the input on this episode to Leila from Kindred and Sofia from Index! Thanks a million! Enjoy! Brough to you by: Rows -  the spreadsheet where data comes to life. Connected with your business data and delightful to share, rows is how teams work with numbers and share their results.  Athletic Greens - all-in-one nutritional insurance, AG covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ventureeurope/message