EUVC

Today we are happy to welcome Eleanor Kaye, Executive Director at Newton Venture Program, a joint venture of LocalGlobe and London Business School. Newton trains aspiring and practising venture capital professionals with an explicit mission to diversify the VC Ecosystem. Previously, Eleanor worked at Palantir Technologies across multiple operational roles during Palantir’s period of hyper-growth before Direct Listing. A passionate hiker, mother and now, gardener, Eleanor also dedicates time to mentor, encourage local impact initiatives, and supporting those in need. In this episode you’ll learn:- Why & how LSE & Local Globe are involved in the Newton Venture Program- How blind recruiting and evaluation leads to more diversity in VC- The impact of the Newton Venture Program and who it’s for- Why Eleanor believes VC could do with a little less naïvety amongst emerging managers- There’s no right way to do venture, so how does the Newton Venture Program teach?- Reflections on role models and who to learn from

Today's episode is one for the geeks! 🤓 We are happy to welcome Dmitry, General Partner at Runa Capital in Berlin. He invests in cloud infrastructure, deeptech and quantum computing. He has a PhD in physics, was a visiting researcher at the University of Ulm and Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. Come and join us as he discover what the hell photonics are.What you will learn in this episode: The importance of patience and why your career path in VC must tie closely to your expertise and backgroundHow deep tech thesis can evolve over time to incorporate new topics and technologies as they emergeWhy the majority of VC investments in quantum computing go to creating more powerful machines, but applications remain important to keep an eye on

Today we are happy to welcome Thomas Otter, General Partner at Acadian Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that helps founders around the world build enduring companies. Recent European investments include Techwolf, Fifty, and Figures. Thomas has an operator background in HR Tech and the Future of Work, having been a Research VP at Gartner, and led Product at SuccessFactors.In this episode you’ll learn:- A deep dive on The Future of Work vertical and why it’s vertical special to its own- Why there’s a need for a specialised VC like Acadian for Future of Work- How Acadian wins as a global, but small investor

Today we are happy to welcome Matthias Engel and Sven Heiligtag, Managing Partner and Partner of Vireo Ventures, an early-stage VC investing in seed and pre-seed highly scalable start-ups that drive electrification, in the energy, mobility and smart city space. Matthias has served 5 years as Managing Director of innogy’s corporate venture capital activities building and managing an investment team and portfolio with a dedicated investment volume of €130m with investment activities in Europe, Israel and North America. And Sven has been 20 years with McKinsey & Company in the Electric Power & Natural Gas practice, leading practices in Germany and Japan.In this episode you’ll learn:- How the Vireo team think about the energy vertical and why electrification plays such a big role- The Vireo team’s take on the energy crisis and it’s affect on the startup and LP landscape- How big firms don’t always follow through as you would expect

Today we are happy to welcome Siim Teller, Founder and General Partner of Lemonade Stand. After 20 years growing products in a number of startups (most notably at Skype) in Tallinn, London and Berlin, Siim set up Lemonade Stand in 2019 to invest in early stage Baltic and East European startups. Lately he’s being looking for AI and Machine Learning applied to boring business problems.In this episode you’ll learn:- A deep dive on the Baltic ecosystem and the VCs to know in the region- Family Office motivations to do venture and how Siim used LP investments to guard against adverse selection- Reflections on the limitations of the solo GP model

Today we are happy to welcome Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Managing Partner at Seedcamp, arguably, Europe's leading seed fund, first launched in 2007 to support European entrepreneurs truly compete on a global scale. With investments in over 460 companies including publicly listed Romanian-founded, UiPath, Wise and unicorns Revolut, wefox and Pleo. Carlos is a published author, fellow podcaster and made it onto Forbes Midas List of 2022 as one of the most influential VCs in Europe in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. You are in for a treat.In this episode, you will get a rare look into the top four funniest objections that Seedcamp and Carlos have had to endure from LPs on their journey to building Seedcamp to the hallmark it is today. Objection #1: "Your fund model will break when it goes from 5M to 20M€"Objection #2: "You're just spraying and praying and your portfolio will be far too big for you to manage"Objection #3: "Why don't you just invest in the winners?"Objection #4: "Who led deal X, Y and Z and how will you retain that person and keep him/her motivated?" And some extra reflections by Carlos on opportunity funds, VC decision-making and incentive structures and firm management.

Today we are happy to welcome José, Founding Partner of Samaipata. Before joining the early-stage pan-European VC fund, José was the co-founder of La Nevera Roja, the leading food-delivery platform in Spain. José has also worked at PWC and Accenture in Strategy and M&A Advisory.In this episode you’ll learn:- VC Brand building from one of the best brands in the space- Why you must build your brand for founders and not LPs & how to balance personal and firm brand- What’s behind Samaipata’s ethos of go beyond, think big and stay real- How José thinks about building LP relationships from first touch to conversion and beyond

Today we are happy to welcome Anne Solhaug Tutar, Partner at Antler Nordics, former entrepreneur and startup expert. At Antler, Anne has made more than 40 investments in early-stage startups and was named Company Builder of the Year in 2021 as well as top 10 Leadership Talents 2021 in Norway by E24. Anne's entrepreneurial background comes from Turkey where she founded one of the country's first health food FMCG with customers such as Starbucks and Carrefour. In this episode you’ll learn:- How relocating to Turkey led Anne into entrepreneurship and then VC- How hustling as an entrepreneur carries into the hustle of being an emerging VC- How Antler Nordics has built a model to optimize collaborating with industry

Today we are happy to welcome Jon Coker, Founding Partner of Eka Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in Seed and early Series A consumer technology companies building sustainable economy. Jon founded Eka alongside Camilla Dolan to build a leading venture firm that integrates impact investing with mainstream venture. Prior to Eka, Jon has spent 11 years at MMC Ventures, ultimately as Managing Partner and led venture investments in 17 companies, been the investor representative at the board of 21 companies.In this episode you’ll learn:- Everything about assessing founder development capacity and the pillars of self-awareness, impact awareness, systems and process thinking and speed of self-development- Jon's views on coaching and coaches in venture capital and the difference between looking for A players and Growth Mindset founders- How Jon and Eka build their founder assessment around honest interviews that uncover the story and person behind the startup- Why Jon has seen more value taken away by VCs than added by VCs

Today we are happy to welcome Diana Florescu and Piyush Puri. Diana is the CEO and Founder of mediaforgrowth, a media for equity advisory firm, specialised in Series A to pre-IPO media capital fundraising. Piyush leads the Brand Capital International team in Silicon Valley as Vice President of BWI, the strategic investment arm of The Times Group – India’s largest multimedia conglomerate. In this episode you’ll learn:- How media for equity came to existence as a category of venture investing and why media companies are increasingly active in the space- The story of Times Group of India and its journey to investing media capital in more than 900 brands over the last 18 years- What the typical media for equity deal looks like and how media is priced in such deals