Behind the Mic: Our Speakers
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Scott Galloway
Founder & NYT Best Selling Author
Prof G Media
Moderator
About
Scott Galloway is Professor of Marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business and a serial entrepreneur. He was named one of the world’s best business professors by Poets & Quants. Scott has founded nine companies, including Prophet, RedEnvelope, L2, and Section, where he also teaches. He is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Four, The Algebra of Happiness, Post Corona, Adrift: America in 100 Charts, and The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security. Scott has served on the boards of directors of The New York Times Company, Urban Outfitters, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Panera Bread, and Ledger. He has won multiple Webby and Best Podcast awards, and his books have been translated into 28 languages. Across his Prof G, Prof G Markets, and Pivot podcasts, No Mercy / No Malice newsletter, and his YouTube channel, Scott reaches millions.
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Anu Gupta
Chief Business and Strategy Officer
Signet Jewelers
Speaker
About
Anu Gupta joined Signet in September of 2023 as Chief Business Development and Strategy Officer. She leads the development, evaluation and execution of strategic growth initiatives tied to Signet’s mid- and long-term goals. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of H&R Block, Inc., publicly traded global tax preparation, financial products, and small-business solutions company, since 2019. With over 25 years of transformative business experience in strategy, business development and operations, Anu has driven profitable growth with P&L responsibilities across Fortune 50, private equity, and early-stage entrepreneurial ventures, shaping a compelling strategic direction, building capabilities, and driving impact. She has deep experience in various strategic roles within Target, Inc., Safeway, The Michael’s Companies, Bed, Bath and Beyond Inc., Hellman and Friedman LLC and HCL Technologies. Most recently, Anu served as Chief Revenue Officer of Better Home & Finance, a digital-first fintech homeownership company.
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Nina Mayer
Principal
Earlybird Venture Capital
Panelist
About
Nina is a Principal with Earlybird VC in Berlin where she focuses on early stage investments in B2B FinTech & InsurTech, and Enterprise Software. She is a well-known investor in the European Fintech market, having invested in and working with companies like Upvest, Flanks, Finmid, and Hakuna.
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Carsten Thoma
President
Celonis
Speaker
About
Carsten Thoma, former co-founder of Hybris is celebrated for pioneering B2B and B2C omni-channel e-commerce solutions and leading SAP’s transition to cloud services post the acquisition of Hybris. He leverages his extensive experience in guiding hyper-growth companies to drive corporate strategy and development as President of Celonis.
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Wesley Chan
General Partner
FPV Ventures
Speaker
About
Wesley Chan, co-founder and managing partner at FPV Ventures, is recognized for his pivotal role in founding Google Analytics and Google Voice during his 14-year tenure at Google, where he also developed 17 patents. His notable venture capital career includes early investments in over twenty unicorns and five decacorns, such as Canva and AngelList.
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Sohaila Ouffata
Founder
African Tech Vision
About
Sohaila Ouffata is the Founder of African Tech Vision, a platform nurturing the next generation of climate entrepreneurs across Africa and empowering African women’s entrepreneurial potential. With over a decade of experience in international venture capital, Sohaila played a pivotal role in growing BMW i Ventures into one of the world’s most successful corporate venture funds. She currently serves on the Supervisory Board of Scout SE, a leader in digital real estate. Sohaila holds a degree in Media Management from the University of Applied Sciences RheinMain.
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Gesa Miczaika
Founder & General Partner
Auxxo
Panelist
About
Dr. Gesa Miczaika, co-founder of the first all-female venture firm in Germany, Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, plays a pivotal role in championing female entrepreneurship in Europe. Her influence extends through her deputy presidency at the German Startups Association and her co-founding of the Evangelistas network.
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Filip Dames
Founder & Partner
Cherry Ventures
Speaker
About
Filip Dames, a founding member of Zalado, is a German entrepreneur and the Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures, known for his significant impact on Zalando's expansion and product development. Honored as "Investor of the Year 2022" and being featured on Forbes Midas List Europe, he actively engages in the startup community, serving on various boards, and lecturing at top business schools.
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Eva-Valérie Gfrerer
Founder
Morphais
About
Eva is the founder of Morphais, a data intelligence firm that empowers investors and corporations worldwide to make data-driven, efficient, and inclusive decisions when sourcing and screening new opportunities. Leveraging their AI-based platform, Morphais identifies exceptional startups in Europe at the time of incorporation. With over 7 years of experience in the tech and VC ecosystem, Eva has been recognized as one of Germany’s most influential women in tech.
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Marie Pestalozzi
Co-Head of Private Equity Investments
Amundi Alpha Associates
About
Marie Pestalozzi is an accomplished investment professional with over fifteen years of experience in investment management and consulting. She has a diverse background that includes a significant tenure as Partner and Senior Investment Advisor at Marcuard Family Office and Vice President at BlackRock, where she worked in both investment management and investor relations. Marie also spent a year as a consultant at IFBC AG. She possesses a deep understanding of financial markets and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her roles. Marie holds a Master of Arts in Business Administration and Management, with a focus on Finance, from the University of Zurich. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) from GARP. Marie is currently involved in wealth management, applying her extensive expertise to help clients achieve their financial goals.
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Dan Westgarth
Chief Operating Officer
Deel
Speaker
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Felix Haas
Chairman & Co-Host
Bits & Pretzels
Speaker
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Raj Ganguly
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
B Capital
Panelist
About
Raj Ganguly is a Co-Founder and Co-CEO of B Capital, based in the firm’s Los Angeles office. His focus is connecting extraordinary entrepreneurs with the people, capital and support needed to drive exponential growth. Raj is a Senior Advisor to BCG, a strategic partner to B Capital that provides a unique value-add to founders in each stage of the investment lifecycle. Raj previously was at Bain Capital investing in technology-driven companies across the U.S. and Asia.
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Frederic Court
Founder & Managing Partner
Felix Capital
About
Frederic is Founder and Managing Partner at Felix Capital, a London-based venture capital firm for the Creative Class. Felix is a thematically focused firm, operating at the intersection of technology and creativity, with over $1.2 billion in venture and growth capital. Felix invests in fast-growing digital consumer brands, platforms and related enabling-technologies, with a focus on Europe and North America. At Felix, Frederic works closely with portfolio companies across the firm’s B2C and B2B focus areas, including Mejuri, a modern jewellery brand; Mirakl, a SaaS platform for marketplaces; Yoobic, a frontline SaaS solution; Effy, an energy renovation business; and AMI Paris, a contemporary luxury apparel brand. Recent exits for Felix include Peloton, a digital fitness business (IPO in 2020); Moonbug, a children’s entertainment platform, acquired by Candle Media in 2021; Highsnobiety, a digital media and lifestyle brand, acquired by Zalando in 2022; and in 2023, Felix exited its investment in Yfood to Nestlé. Frederic has worked in the technology industry for over 20 years, previously as a VC-backed tech entrepreneur, and as General Partner with Advent Venture Partners in London, where he was the first investor in global online fashion and luxury marketplace Farfetch. Farfetch IPO-ed at a $6 billion valuation in 2018 (NYSE: FTCH). Frederic was named “Investor of the Year” in Europe by his peers at the 2012 and 2019 Investor All Stars event. He has been on Forbes’ Midas List Europe every year since 2017
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Robert Lacher
Founding Partner
Visionaries Club
Founding Partner
About
Robert is Founding Partner of Visionaries Club and an entrepreneur at heart. Before Visionaries he has been the Founding Partner of La Famiglia having been the driver behind the fund’s history and early vision. Robert continues to manage La Famiglia’s first independent fund with more than 30 portfolio companies such as deel, Personio and Forto. Robert is also a Founder of the fashion platform AMAZE, which he sold to Zalando in 2016. Prior to that, he worked for Boston Consulting Group and studied engineering and business at RWTH Aachen, University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Harvard University.
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Franziska Meyer
Co-Founder
Edurino
About
Franziska Meyer is the Co-Founder of Edurino, an award-winning EdTech company revolutionizing education through digital play. Edurino’s flagship product is a hybrid learning app, combining digital content with haptic figurines and an ergonomic stylus to enhance children's learning experiences. Franziska began her career at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) before founding Edurino. She holds an MSc in International Management from Università Bocconi.
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Nate Maier
Investment Officer
State of Wisconsin Investment Board
Speaker
About
Nate Maier, CAIA is an Investment Officer at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board focusing on the fund’s growth equity and venture capital portfolio. Nate is focused on sourcing, underwriting, and managing the best direct and fund investments. Nate holds a B.S in Economics from University of Wisconsin – Madison and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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Philipp Petrescu
Founder & CEO
MVP Factory
Founder & CEO
About
After working at Mckinsey and J.P. Morgan, Petrescu founded Lendico, among others, with a successful exit to ING Diba during his time at Rocket Internet. In 2018, the young enterpreneur founded MVP Factory - a leading European product and venture builder. With this, he succeeded in achieving something that most digital consultants fail at: incorporating digital transformation and successfully executing it at startup speed while creating real impact. MVP Factory has already completed more than 300+ projects with partners ranging from SMEs to large corporations.
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Helmut Schöenenberger
Co-Founder & CEO
UnternehmerTUM GmbH
Co-Founder & CEO
About
Scalable tech-startups are Helmut’s passion as co-founder and CEO of Unternehmertum, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at Technische Universität München (TUM). He is especially interested in startups in the field of smart enterprises, additive manufacturing as well as smart city and mobility solutions. With his background as a founder, aerospace engineer and venture capitalist he loves to help new ventures solve strategy, recruiting, business development and future financing challenges.
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Billy Sarracino
CEO
Turvo
CEO
About
Billy brings over 20 years of operating, investment banking and corporate finance experience across technology, consumer and retail industries, spanning multi-billion dollar enterprises to start-ups. Billy joined Turvo in 2019 as Chief Financial Officer, where he developed the Company’s financial organization, secured financing from strategic partners, and led the sale of Turvo to Lineage Logistics and Bay Grove. Prior to joining Turvo, Billy was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Securities and at Morgan Stanley in the Global Consumer Retail Investment Banking Group. Billy began his investment banking career at Citi in 2007. Additionally, Billy worked at Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ: “CENT”) where he was the Manager of Corporate Finance & Treasury. Billy holds a BA in Political Science from UCLA, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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Hélène Huby
Co-Founder & CEO
The Exploration Company
About
Helene is Co-Founder & CEO of The Exploration Company which builds reusable space capsules that carry goods and humans to space stations around the Earth and to the Moon. She has served as an executive at Airbus Defence & Space and ArianeGroup both in operational and strategic roles: from starting as Head of Innovation to leading major European space programs. She is the Founder and Chair of Urania Ventures, a deep tech investment company. She is the Founder and Chairman of The Karman Project, a non-profit foundation which fosters trust, independent dialogue and cooperation between the ones who shape the future of space. She graduated from ENS-Ulm, Sciences-Po Paris and ENA.
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Sean Warrington
Head of Private Investments
Gresham Partners
Panelist
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Simon Schmincke
General Partner
CREANDUM
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Sarah Guemouri
Principal
Atomico
About
Sarah Guemouri has been building the Intelligence function at Atomico for the past 5 years and is the co-author of the State of European Tech report. She is responsible for various tech and data initiatives at Atomico, such as developing Atomico's long-term DDVC & insights strategy, intelligence generation to support decision-making across key functions, investment activities programmatic support, etc... Prior to joining Atomico, she worked 2 years in business development at data.ai [data.ai], a mobile data intelligence scaleup and 4+ years in Investment Banking and Private Equity at J.P.Morgan & BNP Paribas respectively.
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Ties Boukema
Data Lead
Dawn Capital
About
Ties leads Dawn Capital’s data function, focusing on Rolodex – their proprietary data & AI platform for relationship intelligence. The aim for Rolodex is to have better meetings with other VCs through AI driven intel, to be smarter about who is met with and when, while better leveraging personal networks (including 2nd or 3rd order connections). This technologic approach is about elevating people and relationships through AI, not replacing them. Previously, Ties worked at Google, where he was revenue analytics lead, managing several billion dollars of its ads business. During his time there, Ties also actively contributed to work diagnosing diabetic retinopathy through AI and mapping air pollution in European cities. He also co-founded Cognitas.tech, a company that works with the London School of Economics (LSE) and other institutions to teach data science. He holds a masters degree in Management from the LSE.
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Donald Stalter
Partner-- North America
Global Founder's Capital
About
Don is passionate about working with entrepreneurs who build durable, generational businesses. The GFC portfolio features over a dozen multi-billion dollar disruptors. Previously, he co-founded CityDeal, which was exited to Groupon in the early days, then built and ran Groupon's international offices with 500+ employees spanning Europe and Asia. He subsequently led BD at Airbnb globally and launched multiple offices both organically and through M&A. He constructed and ran the original high end listing and long term stays initiatives, which are multi-billion dollar revenue generating product categories today - LTS now accounts for 20%+ of Airbnb's revenue. Simultaneously, Don advised a variety of high growth startups such as Handy, which was an early Airbnb partner and made a marked impact on global listing quality. He has a track record of succeeding in highly competitive markets. While an investment banker at Credit Suisse tech M&A group in San Francisco, Don worked on George Boutros' team on multiple blockbuster multi-billion dollar deals, including Submarino/Lojas Americanas (B2W), Google/Youtube, Google/DoubleClick, and many more. During his junior and senior years in high school, Don ran a six figure online marketplace, which sold virtual and real world goods to Ultima Online and Everquest gamers. He went to the University of Minnesota for the majority of his high school course load and while in college at the University of Chicago, he attended courses with Nobel Laureate professors Robert Fogel and Gary Becker. His honors thesis surrounded the economic, anthropological and cultural impacts of the reunification of Germany.
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Dr. Rasmus Rothe
Co-founder & CTO
Merantix
About
Dr. Rasmus Rothe is the co-founder and CTO of Merantix, the leading AI group in Europe. He serves as a General Partner of Merantix's venture arm, which builds and invests in AI companies. Merantix also operates an AI solutions business, Merantix Momentum, and oversees the largest AI ecosystem in Europe, including the AI Campus in Berlin and AI House Davos at the World Economic Forum. Rasmus received his Ph.D from ETH Zurich and is a renowned deep learning researcher. He serves as a founding board member of the German AI Association.
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Robert Göbel
Co-founder and Managing Director
Spread AI
About
Robert Göbel is the Co-founder and Managing Director of SPREAD GmbH, where he spearheads a platform that integrates augmented engineering knowledge throughout the product lifecycle. Previously, he was Manager of Operations Performance & Strategy at MHP - A Porsche Company, focusing on digitization strategies and technology Proof-of-Concepts for leading automotive OEMs in Europe and China. Robert also served as a Senior Management Consultant in Industry 4.0, driving multiple projects. His earlier roles include Technical Solutions Manager at IBM, specializing in Watson IoT, and working in International Procurement at Deutsche Bahn AG, where he supported procurement strategies and data analysis.
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Dominik Obermaier
CTO
HiveMQ
About
Dominik Obermaier is the CTO at HiveMQ. He is the lead architect of the HiveMQ Enterprise MQTT Broker, which is used in the largest commercial IoT deployments in the world with multiple millions of connected devices. Dominik is co-author of the book “The Technical Foundations of IoT” and is a technical expert for IoT protocols and highly scalable cloud software. He is a member of the OASIS Technical Committee and standardized MQTT 3.1.1 and MQTT 5 and a frequent speaker on IoT and Java topics.
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Ante Spittler
Co-Founder and CEO
Moss
About
Ante Spittler is the Co-Founder and CEO of Moss, a leading spend management platform and corporate card provider in the European landscape. Ante began his career at McKinsey & Company, subsequently co-founding and leading Move24 Group, a relocation services startup before a stint as a Partner at Global Founders Capital in Berlin and San Francisco. Ante graduated from the University of Cologne with a Double Degree Master in Finance and International Management.
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Max Schertel
Co-Founder
Finmid
About
Max Schertel is the Co-Founder of finmid, a platform providing B2B financing infrastructure for software platforms and marketplaces, enabling them to offer capital solutions to their customers. Prior to founding finmid, Max spent five years at the Neo bank N26, where he served as a Director of Business Operations, playing a pivotal role in scaling the company's growth. Max holds a Master’s degree in International Business Management from Grenoble Ecole de Management.
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Bastian Nominacher
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Celonis
Speaker
About
Bastian Nominacher is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Celonis, the pioneer and global leader in process mining. Born out of a university project in 2011, Bastian and his two co-founders discovered a new technology called process mining and realized its limitless potential to reveal and fix the inefficiencies businesses can’t see. Celonis partners with leading technology companies such as IBM, Accenture, ServiceNow and more. Celonis has earned decacorn status, completed a $1 billion Series D round in June 2021, secured an additional $1 billion in liquidity in August 2022 and is currently valued at $13 billion. Prior to founding Celonis, Bastian previously worked for Ernst & Young, Accenture and IBM. He studied finance, information management and computer science at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and is the author of several scientific papers on IT carve-outs and post-merger integration.
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Steve Jacobs
Partner and Chief Product Officer
Lakestar
About
Steve Jacobs is a Partner and Chief Product Officer at Lakestar, leading the Deep Tech investing team, where he focuses on identifying companies built on novel scientific or engineering breakthroughs. He brings over a decade of experience in product management, design, and development from Silicon Valley, working at industry giants like Apple, HP, Facebook, and Google. Additionally, Steve founded and exited his own startup, Olio Devices. He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford.
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Maximilian Fischer
Co-Founder
Deltia
About
Maximilian Fischer is the Co-Founder of Deltia, a company leveraging AI and computer vision to deliver insights into manufacturing processes. Prior to founding Deltia, Maximilian co-founded Actyx Platform, where he served as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). He began his academic career as a graduate teaching assistant in quantum mechanics at ETH Zurich and conducted research in Optical Materials Engineering.
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Dr. Andre Retterath
Partner
Earlybird Venture Capital
About
Dr. Andre Retterath is a Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, where he leads the firm’s engineering team and its data-driven platform, EagleEye. Andre is also the author of Data-Driven VC, a widely-read Substack with a community of over 30,000 experts that focuses on startups, venture capital, data, and AI. He holds a PhD in Economics and Finance from the Technical University of Munich, bringing a research-driven approach to his work in venture capital and technology investing.
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Shane Curran
Founder & CEO
About
Shane Curran is the Founder and CEO of Evervault, a pioneering encryption infrastructure platform designed to provide flexible payment security solutions for developers. A recipient of the prestigious Thiel Fellowship, he has been recognized as one of Forbes' 30 Under 30. Shane’s journey in tech began early when he won the 53rd BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2017 at the age of sixteen.
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Neil Shah
Co-Founder
About
Neil Shah is the Co-Founder of Tilt, a real-time shopping application, where he played a key role in bringing this innovative concept to mainstream western markets. Prior to Tilt, Neil was one of the earliest employees at Revolut, joining as the 5th team member and serving as the Global Head of Expansion and Authorizations. In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, Neil serves as a mentor at Seedcamp, guiding the next generation of startup founders. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Manchester.
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Steve Sarracino
Founder & Partner
Activant Capital
Speaker
About
Steve founded Activant Capital in 2015 and is the firm’s general partner. He has a long track record of investing in disruptive technology companies and has extensive experience as a board director in high-growth B2B platform businesses. He has since grown the firm to $1.0bn+ in AUM, and drives Activant’s long-term strategy.
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Maximilian Mayer
Partner
Activant Capital
Speaker