Disrupt Berlin 2019
December 11 – 12, 2019 — Berlin
Speakers
Zoe Adamovicz
Co-founder & CEO Neufund
Sophie Alcorn
Founder Alcorn Immigration Law
Jonathan Anguelov
Co-founder & COO Aircall
Yoni Assia
Co-founder & CEO eToro
Nicolas Autret
Investment Director Samsung Catalyst Fund
Hovhannes Avoyan
Founder & CEO PicsArt
Colette Ballou
Chairman Ballou
Seth Bannon
Founding Partner Fifty Years
Sophia Bendz
Partner Cherry Ventures
Benjamina Bollag
Founder & CEO HigherSteaks
Michał Borkowski
Co-founder & CEO Brainly
Andrew Bowell
VP Product Unity Technologies
Andrei Brasoveanu
Partner Accel
Nic Brisbourne
Managing Partner Forward Partners
Carolina Brochado
Partner EQT
Efe Cakarel
Founder & CEO MUBI
Suranga Chandratillake
General Partner Balderton Capital
Louise Dahlborn Samet
Partner Blossom Capital
Charles Delingpole
Founder & CEO ComplyAdvantage
Daniel Dines
Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer UiPath
Claire Donoghue
EMEA AI Technical Team Lead 3M
Justin Drake
Researcher Ethereum Foundation
Ash Egan
Partner Accomplice
Thibaud Elziere
Co-Founder Upflow
Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz
Co-founder & CTO Nexar
Emily Foges
Chief Executive Officer Luminance
Isabel Fox
Founding Partner Luminous Ventures
Colin Hanna
Principal Balderton Capital
Julia Hawkins
Partner LocalGlobe
Russ Heddleston
Co-founder & CEO DocSend
Karoli Hindriks
Founder & CEO Jobbatical
Volker Hirsch
Partner Amadeus Capital Partners
Malin Holmberg
Partner Target Global
Jessica Holzbach
Co-founder & CCO Penta
Holly Jacobus
Investment Partner Social Starts
Christoph Janz
Co-Founder & Partner Point Nine
Jeremy Johnson
Co-founder and CEO Andela
Clare Jones
Chief Commercial Officer what3words
Bindi Karia
Innovation Expert + Advisor, Connector of People & Business bindi ventures
Siraj Khaliq
Partner Atomico
Joanna Kirk
Tanja Kufner
Partner dynamics.vc
Sacha Michaud
Co-founder Glovo
Paul Murphy
Partner Northzone
Pierre Paslier
Cofounder & Co-CEO Notpla
Matt Penneycard
Founding Partner Ada Ventures
Evgenia Plotnikova
Partner Dawn Capital
Lila Preston
Head of Growth Equity Generation Investment Management
Matthew Prince
Co-founder & CEO Cloudflare
Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss
Founder & CEO omni:us
Johannes Reck
Co-founder & CEO GetYourGuide
Andrew Reed
General Partner Sequoia Capital
Charity Safford
General Manager Northern & Eastern Europe Uber Eats
Hannah Seal
Principal Index Ventures
Holger Seim
Co-founder & CEO Blinkist
Glenn Shoosmith
Founder & Chief Architect JRNI
Sebastian Siemiatkowski
Co-Founder & CEO Klarna
Jag Singh
Angel investor, & Managing Director Techstars
Georgina Smallwood
Chief Product Officer N26
Young Sohn
Founding Managing Partner, Walden Catalyst Ventures; Former Corporate President & Chief Strategy Officer, Samsung Electronics; Co-Founder, Extreme Tech Challenge; Chairman of the Board, HARMAN International Walden Catalyst Ventures
Karen Stafford
Regional Director Central, Northern, & Eastern Europe Intel Capital
Kinga Stanislawska
Founder & Managing Partner Experior Venture Fund
Julian Stiefel
Co-founder and Co-CEO Tourlane
Hiroki Takeuchi
Co-founder & CEO GoCardless
Hiro Tamura
Partner Atomico
Sitar Teli
Founder & Managing Partner Connect Ventures
Nigel Toon
Co-founder & CEO Graphcore
Katy Turner
Co-founder & Managing Partner Multiple London
Sujay Tyle
Co-founder & CEO Frontier Car Group
Ashley Tyson
Co-founder Web3 Foundation
Laura Urquizu
CEO & CHAIRPERSON Red Points
Francesca Warner
Founding Partner Ada Ventures
Niall Wass
Partner Atomico
Bob van Dijk
Group CEO Prosus & Naspers
Roxanne Varza
Director STATION F
Mundi Vondi
CEO & Co-Founder Klang Games
Josh Constine
Venture Partner SignalFire
Asher King-Abramson
Founder Got Users
Matthew Panzarino
Advisor TechCrunch
Zoe Adamovicz is a co-founder at Xyo
Zoe's Sessions
Lessons Learned from Serial Founders with Zoe Adamovicz (Neufund) and Thibaud Elziere (eFounders)
What would you do differently if you were crazy enough to start another company? Hear what these leaders learned from the first time(s) around — and why they’re back at it again.
Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives.
Sophie's Sessions
The Top Three Immigration Mistakes Startups Make with Sophie Alcorn (Alcorn Immigration Law)
Learn how to troubleshoot the many snags that can affect startups trying to bring international talent into their organizations, with top Silicon Valley immigration expert Sophie Alcorn.
How to Scale Your Startup Globally with Sophie Alcorn (Alcorn Immigration Law), Karoli Hindriks (Jobbatical), Holger Seim (Blinkist)
Global expansion is critical to building the next unicorn, but what’s the right approach to maximize growth with limited resources? Join Holger Seim, founder and CEO of audio startup Blinkist, Karoli Hindriks, founder and CEO of Jobbatical, and prominent Silicon Valley immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn as we discuss the opportunities – and pitfalls – of expanding outside your local market.
Jonathan has always had entrepreneurship in his DNA, and has a particular passion for real estate. After working in La City in London, he co-founded Aircall in 2014 and build the whole sales organization. Jonathan studied Finance at ESCP Europe.
Jonathan's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Alumni Updates
Battlefield startups from the past return to the stage to tell us what they’ve been up to since they competed for the Disrupt Cup.
Yoni Assia is the CEO of eToro, the world’s largest social investment network. He has shown an interest in finance and computer science since his youth and so decided to merge his passions. It was this very passion along with the social revolution, which led to the founding and development of eToro’s investment network, where users connect, share, trade and invest in the world’s financial markets. Yoni is as passionate about his business, as he is for his family, wife plus 4 kids, which often results in excessive use of the word awesome, and hi-fives around the office. It’s this young CEO’s vision to disrupt the old banking industry and replace it with a new online transparent and social financial system for the benefit for everyone. Yoni is a member of the YPO, and was included by Financial News in its prestigious Fintech 40 ranking and by City A.M. as a Fintech 100 top influencer. Yoni holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Management and an MSC in Computer Sciences
Yoni's Sessions
How to Radically Change Finance Through Fintech Startups with Yoni Assia (eToro) and Charlie Delingpole (ComplyAdvantage)
Few areas of investment have been as white hot as fintech these past few years, but how can startups radically transform the finance industry both for financial institutions but also for consumers? Join Charlie Delingpole, founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage and Yoni Assia, founder and CEO of eToro, as we discuss how startups can compete in this fast-moving industry.
Nicolas Autret is an Investment Director at the Samsung Catalyst Fund, Samsung Electronics’ evergreen multi-stage venture capital fund that invests in the new data economy and strategic ideas for Samsung’s mobile, device solutions and consumer electronics groups. Investment spans across Automotive, Robotics, Digital Health, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Infrastructure, and Device-Level Solutions. He is based in Paris, France. Formerly, Nicolas served as General Partner of venture firm 360° Capital Partners, where he led investments in early-stage startups throughout Europe, including Prophesee, Innoviz Technologies, Sophia Genetics, or GrAI Matter Labs. His experiences include investment roles for Sofinnova Partners, where in led investments in Odoo and Twenga Solutions, and operating roles with the Corporate Development & Strategy group of Orange North America, as well as business development positions at LeGuide Group. Nicolas holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Supelec, a M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech, and an MBA from INSEAD.
Nicolas's Sessions
Q&A Session: Collaborating with Corporates with Nicolas Autret (Samsung Catalyst), Christian Löwe (Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures), and Karen Stafford (Intel)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the greatest corporate investors in technology.
Hovhannes Avoyan is a serial entrepreneur, investor and scholar. He is the founder and CEO of PicsArt, the #1 photo and video editing app and community with more than 130 million monthly active users. PicsArt is backed by Sequoia Capital, Insight Venture Partners, DCM and Siguler Guff. The company employs more than 350 people and is headquartered in San Francisco with offices across the globe in Yerevan, Armenia; Los Angeles; Beijing; and an AI Lab in Moscow. Avoyan brings more than 25 years of experience in computer programming and global business management. Prior to PicsArt, Avoyan founded five other startups, all of which had successful acquisitions by global companies including Lycos, Bertelsmann, GFI, Teamviewer, and Helpsystems. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Bertelsmann Senior Executive’s program. He received his B.S. and M.S. from the State Engineering University of Armenia and his M.A. in Political Science and International Affairs from the American University of Armenia. He’s also a frequent speaker at business conferences on topics ranging from business strategy to international team building and Al.
Hovhannes's Sessions
Will We Pay For Social Media? with Hovhannes Avoyan (PicsArt)
PicsArt has reached 140 million users for its photo and video editor by asking people to pay for its creative tools. We’ll talk to CEO Hovhannes Avoyan about why free isn’t always the answer and how top social networks will embrace subscription pricing.
I am an entrepreneur, former angel investor and limited partner. Years ago, I started Ballou, a European communications and strategy agency that works with high-growth technology and technology-enabled companies, as well as technology investors. As Ballou is at the meeting point of business and media, we’ve been early adopters of leading technologies and monitored their development. Ballou’s success has allowed me to invest in start-ups and venture capital firms, and has also given me exposure to thousands of different business models, so that I know what works, what doesn’t, and what to watch for. Along with my colleagues, I forecast trends, understand and examine human behaviour, and use these insights to position businesses for high growth. Companies I’ve worked with include 83 North, Accel Partners, Box, Criteo, Eventbrite, Facebook, GoEuro, (now Omio), Lakestar, Pinterest, Stack Overflow, Stripe, TransferWise, Twilio, Waze, WhatsApp and Zendesk. I advise and mentor CEO and often speak about topics I care very much about; the importance of reputation, strong and warm corporate culture, and the responsibilities of investors, be they angels or limited partners. I am an investor in VC funds including Cavalry Ventures and Connect Ventures.
Colette's Sessions
How to Win Customers and Influence Markets with Colette Ballou (Ballou PR), Joanna Kirk, (Joanna Kirk PR) and Katy Turner (Multiple)
Every startup is a story and the best stories can change the world. Some of Europe’s finest alchemists of allusion will share their tips on how to be a signal in a world of noise.
Seth Bannon is the co-founder of impact.tech, a community of entrepreneurs combining purpose with profit, and the seed investment fund Fifty Years.
Seth's Sessions
How to Build Sustainability as a Business with Seth Bannon (Fifty Years), Benjamina Bollag (Higher Steaks) and Pierre Paslier (Notpla)
As climate change and the impacts of a warming world become more important for the consumers who are exposed to it, hear from a developer of lab grown meat; a biodegradable packaging technology developer; and one of the world’s largest impact investment funds on how to build sustainability as a business.
Sophia is a Partner at Cherry Ventures. Based in Stockholm. Sophia brings her expertise on Nordic startups and a growing interest in the femtech space. Sophia joined Cherry from Atomico, where she also served as Partner and created the firm’s well-known Angel Program. Sophia is passionate about supporting ambitious, early-stage founders, an interest she discovered through 40+ angel investments of her own across Europe and North America. For seven years, Sophia also served as Spotify’s Global Marketing Director, developing the audio platform from an apartment-based Swedish startup into an international household name. Aside from venture capital, she also acts as Board Director at the non-profit organization Race for the Baltic, is cofounder of AllBright.se, and is an innovation advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister. Sophia is a graduate from Stockholm University.
Sophia's Sessions
Fireside Chat with Atomico with Sophia Bendz, Siraj Khaliq, Hiro Tamura and Niall Wass (Atomico)
From a single London base a few years ago, Atomico has now spread to the US and Asia. Hear from key partners about this global VC’s strategy going forward.
Benjamina is the CEO of London-based food tech start-up Higher Steaks, which she founded in 2017. Previously, Benjamina co-founded a London-based B2B electronics company selling to FTSE500 companies. Benjamina has also worked at Israeli 3D printing company, Stratasys, at the digital marketing division of PepsiCo’s joint venture with Strauss and was the lead developer an ed-tech startup. Benjamina holds a Master of Chemical Engineering from the Imperial College, where she completed a project focusing on the design of a peptide plant, conducting a lab-based research on synthesis and liquid exfoliation of graphitic carbon nitride
Benjamina's Sessions
How to Build Sustainability as a Business with Seth Bannon (Fifty Years), Benjamina Bollag (Higher Steaks) and Pierre Paslier (Notpla)
As climate change and the impacts of a warming world become more important for the consumers who are exposed to it, hear from a developer of lab grown meat; a biodegradable packaging technology developer; and one of the world’s largest impact investment funds on how to build sustainability as a business.
Michał is the CEO and co-founder of Brainly and is responsible for product strategy, company strategy and culture. He and his co-founders established Brainly in 2009 in Kraków, driven by the conviction that collaborative online communities can empower students from around the world with knowledge and information. In a little more than a decade, Brainly has become the world’s largest online learning community for students, parents and teachers. After moving to New York City and living there for 4 years to open and build Brainly’s US office,
Michał was only 16 when he started his first company, and he’s been shaking up the internet ever since. He grew up in a small town in Poland before heading to Warsaw to study corporate finance at the acclaimed Warsaw School of Economics. Michał now lives in Kraków with his wife, Kasia.
Michał's Sessions
Investing and Operating in Growth Markets with Michal Borkowski (Brainly) and Bob van Dijk (Prosus and Naspers)
Naspers’ tech holdings Prosus became Europe’s largest consumer internet company when it listed earlier this year on Euronext in Amsterdam. Its interests include food delivery, payments and fintech, classifieds, travel, retail, media, social platforms — not to mention a huge stake in Tencent. It also has a dedicated and very active ventures team. Come hear from one of its portfolio companies, the ed-tech startup Brainly, whose CEO will be on stage with Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk talking about the challenges of how to scale a startup, and more.
Andrew Bowell is Unity’s Vice President of Product and has worked in the game technology space for over 20 years. At Unity, Andrew’s team helps to set the direction for Unity’s product strategy as the leading real-time 3D technology in gaming, automotive, manufacturing, architecture, engineering, construction, media and entertainment. Prior to Unity, Andrew was a founding engineer at Havok, where he brought realtime physics and simulation technology to generations of games, products, and platforms.
Andrew's Sessions
How to Iterate Your Product with Andrew Bowell (Unity Technologies) and Georgina Smallwood (N26)
Building something that’s used by millions is an exhilarating feat, but the real challenge is understanding how to iterate your product so that it can scale to a bigger audience with a bigger impact. We’ve assembled the product chiefs from some of the most influential tech companies in the world to dive into the details of what every product manager and product chief needs to know.
Andrei Brasoveanu joined Accel in 2014 and works with teams in the areas of enterprise software, developer-oriented products, cloud infrastructure, security, and financial services. Andrei helped lead Accel’s investments and ongoing work in Rasa, Humio, dashdash, Tessian, Checkly, Celonis, Personio, UiPath, Instana, Monzo, Carto, JobToday, and Ermetic among others. Prior to Accel, Andrei spent a decade in the US and worked with Foundation Capital and KCG/Virtu, the largest equities high-frequency trading firm in the US. Previously, he helped build an algorithmic trading startup on Wall Street focused on commodity futures. Andrei hails from Romania. He holds an AB summa cum laude in Mathematics from Princeton and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.
Andrei's Sessions
Investing in 2020 with Carolina Brochado (Softbank Investment Advisors) and Andrei Brasoveanu (Accel)
Nothing changes quite as rapidly as investment trends. Two key investors from Softbank and Accel will offer perspectives from their experiences both on the ground in Europe and from 50,000 feet to talk about what 2020 has in store for startups.
Startup Battlefield Final Competition
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Nic is the Managing Partner of Forward Partners, an “Applied VC” that backs early-stage companies from day one and provides them with a support team to supercharge their business. Previously a partner at Draper Esprit, he has worked and invested in London and Silicon Valley, leading over 25 investments and enjoying a number of successful exits including buy.at (acquired by AOL for $125m) and Zeus Technology (acquired by Riverbed for $140m).
Nic's Sessions
How to Raise Your First Euros with Nic Brisbourne (Forward Partners), Russ Heddleston (DocSend), and Malin Holmberg (Target Global)
The process of securing your very first check isn’t an easy one. To make it a little bit easier, we’ve invited DocSend founder Russ Heddleston, Forward Partners managing partner Nic Brisbourne, and Target Global partner Malin Holmberg to the stage to offer their best tips and tricks to aspiring or current founders.
Carolina focuses on fintech, digital health and B2B. Prior to joining Softbank, Carolina was a Partner at Atomico, where she sourced and collaborated with portfolio companies for almost five years. Some of her investments included Lendinvest, Gympass, Hinge Health, Ontruck and Rekki. Previously Carolina has worked as Head of Ops to a now defunct gifting e-commerce start-up, as an investor at Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and within Consumer/Retail Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch in New York. Carolina has a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an MBA from Columbia Business School. She is originally from Brazil.
Carolina's Sessions
Investing in 2020 with Carolina Brochado (Softbank Investment Advisors) and Andrei Brasoveanu (Accel)
Nothing changes quite as rapidly as investment trends. Two key investors from Softbank and Accel will offer perspectives from their experiences both on the ground in Europe and from 50,000 feet to talk about what 2020 has in store for startups.
Startup Battlefield Final Competition
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Efe Cakarel is a Turkish entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of MUBI, an online film service. Previously, Cakarel worked with Goldman Sachs in London and New York, where he worked on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments. Cakarel obtained his bachelor of science in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 1998, and his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2005. Cakarel was a contributor to The Huffington Post. He also has two patents involving the monetization of web applications.
Efe's Sessions
Succeeding in the Streaming Era with Efe Cakarel (MUBI)
MUBI has been in the streaming business since before Netflix, and has successfully built a service that caters to specific needs in a useful, novel way. The company’s CEO will join us to talk about the maturation of the streaming market, and what it takes to build a lasting business in an increasingly crowded space.
Suranga joined Balderton as a General Partner in 2014, he was previously an entrepreneur and engineer.
Suranga founded blinkx, the intelligent search engine for video and audio content in Cambridge in 2004. He then led the company for eight years as CEO through its journey of moving to San Francisco, building a profitable business and going public in London where it achieved a peak market capitalization in excess of $1Bn. Before founding blinkx, Suranga was an early employee at Autonomy Corporation, where he ultimately served as the company’s US CTO in San Francisco.
In 2017, Suranga joined the UK Government’s Council for Science and Technology. Suranga was granted an OBE for services to technology and engineering in the 2018 UK New Year’s Honours.
Louise is a partner at Blossom Capital, an early-stage venture fund built to move as fast and the businesses it funds, leading series A rounds in startups all across Europe. Blossom makes a small number of high-conviction investments each year allowing the team to work closely with the companies they back. Portfolio companies include Duffel, Frontify, Inne, Tines and Checkout.com etc. Before joining Blossom, Louise worked at Klarna, a leading European fintech startup, where she led technical sales and product development, as well as Norrsken Foundation, a non-profit investment vehicle and startup hub, where she started the investment practice. Louise is also an active angel investor investing in companies such as Pleo, Anyfin, Stravito etc.
Louise's Sessions
What does it take to raise a Series A with Jessica Holzbach (Penta), Louise Dahlborn Samet (Blossom Capital) and Hannah Seal (Index Ventures)
Venture capital funds have boomed this decade, but raising money is still hard for young companies. What are investors today looking for in teams, metrics and products?
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Charles Delingpole is Founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage, a technology company focused on wiping out financial crime using Machine Learning. As CEO, Charles leads the product development and growth of the company. His passion for the issue came from his time as the MLRO of a previous startup he founded when he realized how inefficient processes around money laundering are. Over 99% of money laundering is successful, ComplyAdvantage is working to stop it completely. Founded in 2014 with offices in London, New York, Singapore, and Cluj, ComplyAdvantage work with over 350 firms across 45 countries. Charles set up his first company, The Student Room Group, now the world’s largest student discussion forum when he was 16. After completing his MA in Politics at Trinity College Cambridge, and then an MSc in Management, Strategy, and Finance from the LSE, he became an associate at J.P. Morgan Cazenove.
Charles's Sessions
How to Radically Change Finance Through Fintech Startups with Yoni Assia (eToro) and Charlie Delingpole (ComplyAdvantage)
Few areas of investment have been as white hot as fintech these past few years, but how can startups radically transform the finance industry both for financial institutions but also for consumers? Join Charlie Delingpole, founder and CEO of ComplyAdvantage and Yoni Assia, founder and CEO of eToro, as we discuss how startups can compete in this fast-moving industry.
Daniel Dines is the co-founder and CEO of UiPath, a leading provider of enterprise automation software. Dines started UiPath in 2005 with the goal of building a solution that could help humans reduce the time and stress that come from menial, administrative business tasks. Today, Dines’ vision is to make software robots, powered by computer vision and AI, as common as PCs in the workplace. Dines began his engineering career at Microsoft where he designed and developed the SQL Server Agent. Still a hacker at heart, he is active in driving the Company’s end-to-end automation platform and supporting the hundreds of thousands of developers who are building automations on the UiPath platform. Dines is recognized as an authority on driving business growth through company culture, employee empowerment, and innovation. In September 2019, Dines was featured as Boss of the Bots on the cover of Forbes magazine. He was also named by Comparably as one of the top 25 best CEOs of 2020, ranked by female employees, one of the best 50 CEOs of 2019, and one of the best CEOs of 2019 for minority workers. He also serves as a speaker on related topics at conferences including TechCrunch Disrupt, Techonomy, HowtoWeb, and VivaTech.
Daniel's Sessions
Democratizing Robots with Daniel Dines (UiPath)
Robotics is a hotbed of investment and activity, but how does the average person access the benefits of automation? UiPath CEO and founder Daniel Dines will explain how we can expand access to the benefits of robotics, for companies and individual workers alike.
Dr Claire Donoghue is the EMEA AI Technical Team Lead for corporate research at 3M, she is researching disruptive technologies such as AI and computer vision.
Prior to this, she completed her PhD in computer vision and machine learning at Imperial College London, where she created algorithms to automatically diagnose arthritis of the knee from medical scans. Claire’s work has been recognized by the IET, IMechE, RAEng, WeAreTheCity and Women In Business Magazine, with a total of 9 prizes for excellence in research. Claire has also worked as a software developer in a large investment bank and participated in many hackathons.
Claire is a returning MC, having co-MC’ed Berlin’s TechCrunch Disrupt Hack 2017 and London 2016. Claire is passionate about helping to increasing the participation of women in technology, she co-founded and directed the London Chapter of the Geekettes.
Justin studied mathematics at Cambridge University. He was a Bitcoin entrepreneur from 2014 to 2017 and is now an Ethereum 2.0 researcher.
Justin's Sessions
Scaling Ethereum and Beyond with Justin Drake (Ethereum Foundation)
The Ethereum vision has always been to create a world computer. But its scalability remains an issue. Ethereum Researcher Justin Drake will discuss the road ahead.
How to Fit Blockchain into Your Startup Strategy with Justin Drake (Ethereum Foundation), Ash Egan (Accomplice VC) and Ashley Tyson (Web3 Foundation)
Chances are, you keep hearing about this ‘blockchain’ thing all the time — and maybe you’re ignoring it but deep down, you know you should probably think about how it could help your startup. To help you with that and maybe demystify blockchain a bit, too, we’ll be joined by three panelists who have deep roots in the blockchain community: Ethereum Foundation Researcher Justin Drake, Accomplice VC’s Ash Egan and Web3 Foundation Co-founder and Director of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives Ashley Tyson.
Ash Egan leads crypto investing at Accomplice. He formerly was a VC at ConsenSys Ventures and Converge.
Ash's Sessions
How to Fit Blockchain into Your Startup Strategy with Justin Drake (Ethereum Foundation), Ash Egan (Accomplice VC) and Ashley Tyson (Web3 Foundation)
Chances are, you keep hearing about this ‘blockchain’ thing all the time — and maybe you’re ignoring it but deep down, you know you should probably think about how it could help your startup. To help you with that and maybe demystify blockchain a bit, too, we’ll be joined by three panelists who have deep roots in the blockchain community: Ethereum Foundation Researcher Justin Drake, Accomplice VC’s Ash Egan and Web3 Foundation Co-founder and Director of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives Ashley Tyson.
Thibaud Elzière founded Fotolia (acquired by Adobe) and eFounders. eFounders partners up with founders and brings them their operational expertise to build the first version of the product and acquire the first customers. Since 2011,the Paris-based startup studio has launched 22 companies: their small team of 15 is behind major success-stories in SaaS including Front, Aircall and Spendesk, with more in the works. Their mission is to invent the tools of tomorrow and inspire new ways of working, with a keen product sense and bottom-up approach to driving growth. Thibaud is also an active business angel, with over 100 investments in seed stage startups including Algolia, Payfit, Notion, Meero, and Virtuo.
Thibaud's Sessions
Lessons Learned from Serial Founders with Zoe Adamovicz (Neufund) and Thibaud Elziere (eFounders)
What would you do differently if you were crazy enough to start another company? Hear what these leaders learned from the first time(s) around — and why they’re back at it again.
Bruno is the co-founder and chief technology officer at Nexar. Bruno has over 20 years of experience in computer science and logistics working at Accenture, Fidelity International, and Yahoo. Previously he was a research affiliate at MIT in the Transportation System Lab. Bruno has his masters in Computational Structural Engineering from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and PhD from MIT in Transportation/operations research.
Bruno's Sessions
Are We There Yet? Inside the Tech that Will Help AVs be Better Chauffeurs with Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz (Nexar) and Clare Jones (What3Words)
Clare Jones, chief commercial officer of what3words, and Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz, Co-founder of Nexar will talk about the role of mapping and geolocation in autonomous vehicles and how this tech is already rolling out in human driven cars.
Emily is CEO of Luminance, the leading artificial intelligence platform for the legal profession. She became CEO in 2016 when the company was a small team of technologists and lawyers. She took the product to market and led the growth of the business which is now used by over 170 law firms and organizations across 40 countries and six continents worldwide. Emily has more than 20 years’ experience of growing and scaling technology-led businesses. Prior to joining Luminance, she worked in M&A as a consultant and in-house, building teams to drive acquisition strategy and deliver integration. In 2018, Emily was named ‘Woman of the Year’ at the Women in IT Excellence Awards.
Emily's Sessions
Unnatural Language Processing with Emily Foges (Luminance) and Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss (omni:us)
Legal contracts and insurance policies can be difficult even for experts to decipher – hear how the founders of Luminance and omni:us are using AI to take on jargon and save everyone some time.
Isabel Fox is a mother, wellness coach, Peloton enthusiast and one of just a handful of female General Partners in the UK. Prior to founding Luminous Ventures, Isabel was head of Venture Capital at White Cloud Capital where she focused on early stage investments in life sciences and healthcare. With a background in investment banking and private equity turnarounds, Isabel founded and exited two corporate communications firms focused on the route to exit, co-founded two software start-ups (one exit) and been an active angel investor in the UK and US. She has worked in New York, San Francisco and London. At Luminous Ventures, Isabel has the opportunity to invest in visionary founders with breakthrough technologies, and backing deep-tech and science that matters.
Isabel's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Prior to joining Balderton Capital, Colin worked at SoundCloud in Berlin where he led Emerging Market Growth and worked as a Business Analyst. Prior to SoundCloud he was at ProSiebenSat.1 building out their media for equity business in Asia and investing for their Berlin-based E-commerce incubator. Colin began his career with three years at Goldman Sachs in New York where he worked on several Chinese internet IPOs, including Qunar (NASDAQ: QUNR), Vipshop (NASDAQ: VIPS) and Tarena (NASDAQ: TEDU). Colin has a B.A. from Princeton University in Political Science where he was also a Captain of the Men’s Swimming Team. He has competed in the United States Swimming Olympic Trials and spent his childhood in Indonesia and Hong Kong.
Colin's Sessions
Q&A Session: Winning Investors with Colin Hanna (Balderton Capital), Julia Hawkins (LocalGlobe) and Jag Singh (TechStars)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the greatest early stage investors in technology.
Julia Hawkins is a Partner at LocalGlobe. Previously, Julia worked at Goldman Sachs, Last.fm, BBC Worldwide and most recently Universal Music where she set up their Corporate Venture arm and led investments in ROLI and Sofar Sounds among others. Julia enjoys working with mission driven founders and has a keen interest in consumer, entertainment, media and health tech from wellness to genomics. She holds a 1st from LSE, is a Kauffman Fellow and Board Trustee of Shwachman Diamond Syndrome UK, a charity dedicated to finding a cure for SDS, a rare genetic disease. https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliahawkins01/
Julia's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Q&A Session: Winning Investors with Colin Hanna (Balderton Capital), Julia Hawkins (LocalGlobe) and Jag Singh (TechStars)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the greatest early stage investors in technology.
Russ Heddleston is co-founder and former CEO of DocSend at Dropbox.
Russ's Sessions
Pitch Deck Teardown with Russ Heddleston (DocSend), Karen Stafford (Intel Capital), and Sitar Teli (Connect Ventures)
Talk through the nuts and bolts of what makes a great deck (or not) with investors Sitar Teli and Karen Stafford, plus insights from Docsend’s Russ Heddleston, as they go through submitted pitches live on stage.
How to Raise Your First Euros with Nic Brisbourne (Forward Partners), Russ Heddleston (DocSend), and Malin Holmberg (Target Global)
The process of securing your very first check isn’t an easy one. To make it a little bit easier, we’ve invited DocSend founder Russ Heddleston, Forward Partners managing partner Nic Brisbourne, and Target Global partner Malin Holmberg to the stage to offer their best tips and tricks to aspiring or current founders.
Karoli Hindriks is the CEO and co-founder of Jobbatical, a digital visa and relocation platform using AI and automation to digitize archaic immigration systems.
Karoli's Sessions
How to Scale Your Startup Globally with Sophie Alcorn (Alcorn Immigration Law), Karoli Hindriks (Jobbatical), Holger Seim (Blinkist)
Global expansion is critical to building the next unicorn, but what’s the right approach to maximize growth with limited resources? Join Holger Seim, founder and CEO of audio startup Blinkist, Karoli Hindriks, founder and CEO of Jobbatical, and prominent Silicon Valley immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn as we discuss the opportunities – and pitfalls – of expanding outside your local market.
Volker is a Partner at Amadeus, working on its early-stage funds whose investment focus is on artificial intelligence & machine learning, autonomous systems, human-machine interfaces, cyber security, enterprise SaaS, digital health and medical technologies. Volker is an entrepreneur who has founded or co-founded a total of 6 companies to date. He is currently co-founder of Blue Beck, a 40-strong mobile development house and a Venture Partner at Emerge Education, Europe’s leading early-stage EdTech investor. Prior joining Amadeus Capital, Volker was amongst the first angel investors in companies like Pi-Top, Bibblio (where he is also Chairman), Aula Education and Wonde. His personal investment portfolio comprises about a dozen investments with companies based across Europe and the US. Previously, Volker was the Chief Strategy Officer at Scoreloop, a mobile social gaming platform, which he helped grow from (almost) inception to 450m users at its peak. When the company got acquired by BlackBerry in 2011, he served as BlackBerry’s Global Head of Business Development – Games. For his sins, Volker is a corporate lawyer by profession.
Volker's Sessions
How to Brexit as a Startup with Volker Hirsh (Amadeus Capital Partners), Bindi Karia (Bindi Karia) and Glenn Shoosmith (JRNI)
The turbulence of Brexit has left both UK and European startups alike wondering about the best path forward. Hear from from both the investor and entrepreneur perspective on how best to deal with this thorny subject.
Prior to joining Target Global, Malin was the CEO of Tele2 Netherlands. For more than 15 years she has been working in the Technology/Telecommunications industry across Europe. At Tele2, Malin drove significant profitability increase via digitalization, customer experience and operational efficiency in Croatia, Central Europe and the Netherlands. Before that, Malin worked with technology innovation at Tele2 in Stockholm and Vodafone in London, driving innovation through developing new products such as voice solutions, mobile money and IoT, and acquiring tech startups. Previous experience includes over ten years Strategy M&A/ Due Diligence in Technology at Marakon Associates, ATKearney and Morgan Stanley – mainly based in London. Malin holds an MBA from INSEAD in France/Singapore and a Master of Science in Economics from Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden.
Malin's Sessions
How to Raise Your First Euros with Nic Brisbourne (Forward Partners), Russ Heddleston (DocSend), and Malin Holmberg (Target Global)
The process of securing your very first check isn’t an easy one. To make it a little bit easier, we’ve invited DocSend founder Russ Heddleston, Forward Partners managing partner Nic Brisbourne, and Target Global partner Malin Holmberg to the stage to offer their best tips and tricks to aspiring or current founders.
Jessica always aims to put a smile on our customers’ faces. As a serial entrepreneur and an ex-management consultant, she supervised many customer relationship management projects for banks and insurance companies.
Jessica's Sessions
What does it take to raise a Series A with Jessica Holzbach (Penta), Louise Dahlborn Samet (Blossom Capital) and Hannah Seal (Index Ventures)
Venture capital funds have boomed this decade, but raising money is still hard for young companies. What are investors today looking for in teams, metrics and products?
Q&A Session: Founders Lessons with Jessica Holzbach (Penta), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare), and Sujay Tyle (Frontier)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the leading founders in tech.
Holly Jacobus is an Investment Partner with Joyance Partners, investing in companies with the capacity to deliver Delightful Moments in US and EU. Her focus is new foods, consumer packaged goods, sexual wellness, femtech, farmtech and earth-positive manufacturing methods. Holly spent her career growing startups through early stage sales and PR, most recently as the Chief Revenue Officer at Citia, a NYC based global content creation, storage and distribution platform servicing Fortune 500 brands including GE (global), Mastercard (US), Viacom (global), and P&G (global). Holly was raised on a farm in California where she became the first graduate of Stanford University’s online high school (EPGY OHS) and an Academic All American Volleyball Player. She later studied bioengineering at UC Berkeley and French at Georgetown University where she played D1 Volleyball. When Holly isn’t investing or helping companies scale, you can find her backpacking the Sierra Nevadas or skiing the Tetons with her dog Smoky. Recent investments include: Unbound, WholyMe, TeaCrush, Finless Foods, Loli, MushLab, Weller, & Sigrid Therapeutics. Thanks! Attachments area
Holly's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Christoph has invested in more than 20 SaaS startups and lives and breathes SaaS, everything from “A as in AI-enhanced B2B software” to “Z as in Zendesk”. Christoph co-founded Point Nine Capital in 2011. Before that, he co-founded two Internet startups (DealPilot.com in 1997 and Pageflakes in 2005). In 2008 he became an angel investor and discovered Zendesk, Clio, FreeAgent – and his love for SaaS.
Christoph's Sessions
How to Build a Billion Dollar SaaS Company with Christoph Janz (Point Nine Capital), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare) and Laura Urquizu (Red Points)
Scaling a SaaS company is anything but easy. In this session, we’ll talk about everything from how (and when) to charge for your product, when to make crucial hires, how to sell into the enterprise and when it’s time to consider an exit.
Jeremy Johnson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Andela, a company that builds high-performing, distributed engineering teams with Africa’s most talented software developers. Founded on the premise that brilliance is evenly distributed, Andela is solving the global technical talent shortage while catalyzing the growth of tech ecosystems on the African continent. Prior to founding Andela, Jeremy co-founded 2U, one of the fastest-growing education technology startups to date. 2U went public in 2014 (NASDAQ: TWOU) and continues to transform higher education by delivering the world’s best online degree programs with top tier universities. Jeremy is recognized broadly for his work as an education innovator. He has spoken on education and entrepreneurship at meetings hosted by the White House and Congress. His speaking appearances include conferences and college campuses around the world as well as media outlets like NBC, ABC, FOX, and CNBC. Jeremy was named “30 Under 30” by Inc. Magazine in 2012 and Forbes in 2013 and 2014. Outside of Andela, Jeremy serves on the board of the Young Entrepreneur Council and the education non-profit PENCIL and co-authored a book for the World Economic Forum: ‘Education & Skills 2.0: New Targets & Innovative Approaches.’
Jeremy's Sessions
Investing in Africa’s Tech Talent with Jeremy Johnson (Andela) and Lila Preston (Generation Investment Management)
Generation Investment Management, the firm co-founded by former U.S Vice President Al Gore, was built on the premise of backing sustainable startups. The fund’s lead Lila Preston brings their portfolio company Andela to discuss how they have harnessed the booming talent in Africa to solve global outsourcing issues and what’s next in building sustainable companies.
Clare’s background is in the development and growth of social enterprises, including with London-based impact investment firm, ClearlySo. Her previous experiences include setting up 2nd Chance, which helps young Londoners into work, and working with NGOs in the UK and abroad. Clare also volunteers with the Streetlink project, doing health outreach work with vulnerable women in South London.
Clare's Sessions
Are We There Yet? Inside the Tech that Will Help AVs be Better Chauffeurs with Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz (Nexar) and Clare Jones (What3Words)
Clare Jones, chief commercial officer of what3words, and Bruno Fernandez-Ruiz, Co-founder of Nexar will talk about the role of mapping and geolocation in autonomous vehicles and how this tech is already rolling out in human driven cars.
Bindi Karia works as a Venture Partner at large London-based VC Draper Esprit, and has held positions in and around the tech industry for as long as she’s been working. She’s been a strategy consultant at PwC Consulting, worked in corporate environments like Microsoft Ventures, served within a startup at Trayport and was an advisor across a number of organizations (Startup Europe, Techstars Startup Weekend, Tech London Advocates, European Innovation Council, WEF Digital Leaders). She’s been a banker with Silicon Valley Bank and currently works as a Venture Partner at a large London-based VC firm, as well as serving on the advisory board for seven different startups and sits on the Digital Board of Centrica plc. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation and understands the differing perspectives involved in each startup’s journey to success. seven different startups. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation and understands the differing perspectives involved in each startup’s journey to success.
Bindi's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
How to Brexit as a Startup with Volker Hirsh (Amadeus Capital Partners), Bindi Karia (Bindi Karia) and Glenn Shoosmith (JRNI)
The turbulence of Brexit has left both UK and European startups alike wondering about the best path forward. Hear from from both the investor and entrepreneur perspective on how best to deal with this thorny subject.
Siraj is a Partner on the investment team at Atomico. As a former computer scientist and co-founder/CTO of the successful Atomico investment The Climate Corporation, Siraj now continues his love for entrepreneurship “on the other side of the table” as a venture capitalist. He focuses on companies enabled by machine learning, AI and computer vision, (particularly in intelligent assistants), IoT, Agtech, and works with a number of portfolio companies. Siraj founded The Climate Corporation in 2006, a company that pioneered the use of machine learning in helping farmers to optimize crop yield. Climate (acquired by Monsanto in 2013 and now a subsidiary) still sits at the vanguard of precision agriculture, an industry that is expected to play a key role in delivering the yield boosts needed to feed humanity in the decades ahead. Prior to this, Siraj was an early engineering hire at Google in 2001, and one of the founding engineers for the Google Book search project. He holds an MS degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, and a BA Hons in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, UK. Siraj speaks fluent English, advanced Urdu, and just enough German to be dangerous. An enterprising child, Siraj taught himself to code in C at age 13, and wrote and sold his first piece of software, a database for medical research, at 15. He is a fan of functional programming languages, and still enough of a geek to spend the occasional weekend trying out new languages and frameworks.
Siraj's Sessions
Fireside Chat with Atomico with Sophia Bendz, Siraj Khaliq, Hiro Tamura and Niall Wass (Atomico)
From a single London base a few years ago, Atomico has now spread to the US and Asia. Hear from key partners about this global VC’s strategy going forward.
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Joanna is a Senior PR strategist for international ecosystem builders, VC funds, fast growth companies and startups in tech and creative industries. Currently based in Paris, she is also Co-Director of non-profit organization StartHer that supports women in technology and entrepreneurship, and heads up the French chapter of Techfugees, an impact-driven organisation empowering displaced people with technology. Joanna also co-founded Startup Sesame, the global network of Tech events connecting startups, investors and corporates. Previously in charge of communication & PR for global entertainment and tech events Midem, MIPTV, MIPCOM and LeWeb, Joanna holds an MBA in Cultural Management in Europe from Paris 8 (DESS) and a bachelor’s degree in European Studies from Reading University & Universität Wien.
Joanna's Sessions
How to Win Customers and Influence Markets with Colette Ballou (Ballou PR), Joanna Kirk, (Joanna Kirk PR) and Katy Turner (Multiple)
Every startup is a story and the best stories can change the world. Some of Europe’s finest alchemists of allusion will share their tips on how to be a signal in a world of noise.
Tanja Kufner is Partner at MHP & Founder of dynamics.vc, a new kind of startup growth program that invests in deeptech startups and facilitates partnerships with MHP’s 300+ corporate clients. Prior to MHP, she was the Managing Director of Startupbootcamp Smart Transportation & Energy in Berlin since its launch in 2014. With her focus on investing in Startups in this vertical, she has worked with companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Cisco, here, Airbus, DB, Kühne +Nagel, Vinci, EnBW, SBB, and more, helping them on their innovation journeys and matching them with relevant Startups. Before SBC, she was Director of the Wayra Academy in Munich, and she has over 20 years of experience in the areas of Venture Capital, Management Consulting, and Telecommunications. In 1994, she earned her MBA from the University of San Francisco and has worked in Corporate Venturing, VC, and Family Offices since. In 2017, EU-Startups named her one of the Top 50 Most Influential Women in the Startup and VC space, having invested in over 100 startups to date, ranging from Seed to Series A. dynamics – powered by MHP – is the home of collaborative innovation. Set to launch in 2019, dynamics will offer access to unparalleled industry expertise, funding, and mentorship through tailored programs created for stage-agnostic startups and help bring their technological solutions to corporate clients.
Tanja's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Sacha Michaud is an English entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in the online sector in Spain and an extensive experience in creating successful companies. In 1997, Michaud founded the company LatinRed, one of the largest providers of internet services in Spanish, and then sold it to StarMedia two years later. During his career, he has founded several companies, including Inlander, which was sold in 2000; Binaria, a successful digital communication agency; and Transword, an online translation company. Toward the end of 2014, after nine years leading the Betfair Iberia team,he joined up with Oscar Pierre to create Glovo.
Sacha's Sessions
Delivery-as-a-service with Sacha Michaud (Glovo) and Charity Safford (UberEats)
On this panel we’ll sit down with Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Glovo, and Charity Safford of UberEats to talk ops and logistics of scaling on-demand delivery, plus delve into what the model means for suppliers and partners, and consider regulatory headwinds.
Paul joined Northzone in 2018 and is based in the London office. His areas of interest are consumer applications and entertainment, and enterprise. He has invested in Klang, Thirty Madison and TIER. Prior to Northzone, Paul worked at mobile games company Dots, behind successes Dots and TwoDots, where he was Co-Founder & CEO. He’s also not new to the investment scene, having been an active seed and angel investor in the New York and West Coast ecosystems, with a dozen investments across consumer and B2B SaaS. Paul has a BS in Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, and an MBA from the IE Business School in Spain, where he is an adjunct Professor.
Paul's Sessions
How to Build for the Virtual Economy with Paul Murphy (Northzone) and Mundi Vondi (Klang)
Gaming platforms ranging from Second Life and Eve Online to Fortnite and Roblox offer virtual worlds where our avatars can create and trade virtual goods like digital clothing, weapons, vehicles, and buildings with other players for real-world value. With rapidly growing mainstream participation in these virtual economies and announcements of new worlds in development like Facebook’s Horizon, where are there biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs?
Pierre is a London-based Innovation Design Engineer. He started his career as a Packaging Engineer for L’Oréal in the daytime and hacking 3D-printers in his living room at night. He then decided to study design at the Royal College of Art and in 2013, he co-designed one of the first consumer delta 3D-printers. He loves DIY, especially if it involves drones lifting dangerous electronic components or street art robots redecorating the streets. This passion for innovation led him to co-found two startups, Gravity Sketch (3D creation in VR) and Notpla (edible packaging). Driven by the urge to act on our plastic crisis, he’s now 100% focused on Ooho, the edible water bottle as Co-CEO of Notpla. He has a Masters degree from the RCA’s Innovation Design Engineering programme (MA & MSci) and INSA de Lyon (MEng). He has written articles for Wired Magazine and given a number of conferences about his projects at TEDx conferences in Athens and Warwick.
Pierre's Sessions
How to Build Sustainability as a Business with Seth Bannon (Fifty Years), Benjamina Bollag (Higher Steaks) and Pierre Paslier (Notpla)
As climate change and the impacts of a warming world become more important for the consumers who are exposed to it, hear from a developer of lab grown meat; a biodegradable packaging technology developer; and one of the world’s largest impact investment funds on how to build sustainability as a business.
Matt is one of the founding partners of Ada Ventures. Prior to founding Ada Ventures, Matt was an angel investor and venture capitalist, including founding an early-stage tech fund based in New York. Matt studied law at the University of Durham and in his spare time he runs ultramarathons!
Matt's Sessions
Opening Up VC with Matt Penneycard and Francesca Warner (Ada Ventures)
VC has been historically bad at backing under-represented founders. ‘Old boys networks’ and unconscious biases abound. VC needs a systemic change. Check Warner and Matt Penneycard of Ada Ventures have previously pioneered industry initiatives to address this and will discuss what new techniques VCs can use to support overlooked founders.
Evgenia covers exciting B2B companies in software and fintech across Europe. As a Partner at Dawn, she led investments into Soldo, Dataiku and ZIVVER amongst others. Prior to joining Dawn, Evgenia has spent multiple years in venture and private equity. Evgenia was an investor at Atomico, pan-European VC, and TPG Capital, San Francisco headquartered PE fund with over $70Bn in AUM. Evgenia holds a Masters degree in Finance from SciencesPo Paris and studied at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Evgenia is fluent in French and Russian, has lived in 5 countries and traveled to 55 (and counting). In 2017, Evgenia was named in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list of leading young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers, and became the judge for its prestigious Finance category in 2018.
Evgenia's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Lila Preston joined Generation Investment Management in 2004 and is Head of the Growth Equity strategy. Previously, Lila was a director of finance and development at VolunteerMatch in San Francisco. Lila was also a Fulbright Fellow in Southern Chile. Lila received a BA in English and Latin American Studies from Stanford University and an MBA from London Business School. Lila speaks fluent Spanish. Lila serves on the board of Nature’s Fynd and as a board observer for CiBO Technologies, Optoro and Pivot Bio. She is also on the Board of Advisors at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
Lila's Sessions
Investing in Africa’s Tech Talent with Jeremy Johnson (Andela) and Lila Preston (Generation Investment Management)
Generation Investment Management, the firm co-founded by former U.S Vice President Al Gore, was built on the premise of backing sustainable startups. The fund’s lead Lila Preston brings their portfolio company Andela to discuss how they have harnessed the booming talent in Africa to solve global outsourcing issues and what’s next in building sustainable companies.
Startup Battlefield Final Competition
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Matthew Prince is co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet. Today the company runs one of the world’s largest networks, which spans more than 275 cities in over 100 countries. Matthew is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, winner of the 2011 Tech Fellow Award, and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law. Matthew holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar and awarded the Dubilier Prize for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of the Illinois Bar, and earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago and B.A. in English Literature and Computer Science from Trinity College. He’s also the co-creator of Project Honey Pot, the largest community of webmasters tracking online fraud and abuse.
Matthew's Sessions
How to Build a Billion Dollar SaaS Company with Christoph Janz (Point Nine Capital), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare) and Laura Urquizu (Red Points)
Scaling a SaaS company is anything but easy. In this session, we’ll talk about everything from how (and when) to charge for your product, when to make crucial hires, how to sell into the enterprise and when it’s time to consider an exit.
Q&A Session: Founders Lessons with Jessica Holzbach (Penta), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare), and Sujay Tyle (Frontier)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the leading founders in tech.
From Startup Battlefield to IPO with Matthew Prince (Cloudflare)
In 2010, Cloudflare participated in one of the very first Disrupt Battlefields and a few months ago, the company made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. In this conversation with co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince, we’ll talk about Cloudflare’s path to an IPO, the unique challenges it faced, and what’s next for the company.
Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss is an experienced managing director with a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Her strategic skills coupled with a passion for AI led her to create omni:us with the goal of redefining the way people work and how companies are handling their business operations. omni:us is as an MI-based, SaaS solution to massively optimize workflows, and empower businesses to make comprehensive data-driven decisions. Prior to omni:us, Sofie founded Qidenus Technologies which quickly became the leader in the market of robotics and digitization. Sofie is also the patent owner of the Vshape scanner Technology and winner of several awards including the Woman Technology. omni:us is an Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) provider for cognitive claims management. Built on a fully data-driven approach, omni:us is transforming the way insurers interact with their insured parties. It provides all the necessary tools and information to make fast, transparent and empathetic claims decisions, whilst improving operational efficiency and reducing loss adjustment expenses. The company is headquartered in Berlin, with research partners in Barcelona and representations in the UK, France and the United States. For further information visit omnius.com.
Sofie's Sessions
Unnatural Language Processing with Emily Foges (Luminance) and Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss (omni:us)
Legal contracts and insurance policies can be difficult even for experts to decipher – hear how the founders of Luminance and omni:us are using AI to take on jargon and save everyone some time.
Johannes Reck is the Chief Executive Officer at GetYourGuide. He leads the company’s long-term vision and strategy. Johannes co-founded GetYourGuide in 2009 while attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and has grown the company into the leading booking platform for incredible travel experiences. Under Johannes’ leadership, over 30 million tickets have been booked to date via the GetYourGuide website, mobile app, and partnership network. GetYourGuide has raised over $650M from investors such as the SoftBank Vision Fund, Battery Ventures and KKR. Johannes leads GetYourGuide’s 550-person global team from its headquarters in Berlin, Germany. Johannes originally hails from Cologne, Germany and holds an M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Johannes's Sessions
Oh the Places You'll Go! Disrupt Travel with Johannes Reck (GetYourGuide)
Travel is perhaps the last bastion of the on-demand economy to be colonised. GetYourGuide founder Reck will unpack how, after raising a total of $654.5M, he plans to expand across the globe.
Andrew Reed is a Partner at Sequoia Capital. He is on the boards of Figma, Klarna, Bolt, Vanta, Strava, Harmonic, and Warp, among others, and led investments in Phantom, Odoo, and Zapier. Andrew was previously involved with Sequoia’s investments in Robinhood, Loom, and GitHub. He joined Sequoia in 2014 and is interested in creative products, developer tools and networks, cryptocurrency projects, and global internet companies.
Andrew's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Final Competition
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
TravelTech Opportunities with Andrew Reed (Sequoia Capital) and Julian Stiefel (Tourlane)
Berlin-based Tourlane has raised $81 million for multi-day travel booking. Co-founder Julian Stiefel and his investor Sequoia’s Andrew Reed will discuss what products still need to be built in travel, and how startups can do something unique enough to avoid getting steamrolled by tech giants.
Charity is the General Manager for Uber Eats in Northern and Eastern Europe. Despite operating in one of the most competitive regions for food delivery in the world, in just a few years she has helped build our business in Europe to one of the biggest and fastest growing markets for Uber Eats globally. Prior to joining Uber Eats, Charity spent 15 years leading teams in the telecommunications industry including 6 years as a c-level executive for Vodafone (in Europe and Africa) and for Ooredoo in Myanmar. Her career at Uber started off in Asia, where she was General Manager for Indochina – Myanmar, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Charity is a well-rounded leader having led teams across multiple verticals – strategy, planning, marketing, customer operations, and sales.
Charity's Sessions
Delivery-as-a-service with Sacha Michaud (Glovo) and Charity Safford (UberEats)
On this panel we’ll sit down with Sacha Michaud, co-founder of Glovo, and Charity Safford of UberEats to talk ops and logistics of scaling on-demand delivery, plus delve into what the model means for suppliers and partners, and consider regulatory headwinds.
Hannah focuses on early stage investments, with a particular interest in marketplaces, consumer, productivity and back-office automation. Prior to joining Index, Hannah worked at eBay, where she was responsible for the C2C business in the UK, and at Ocado, where she helped set up the general merchandise business. Hannah graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge and lives in London.
Hannah's Sessions
What does it take to raise a Series A with Jessica Holzbach (Penta), Louise Dahlborn Samet (Blossom Capital) and Hannah Seal (Index Ventures)
Venture capital funds have boomed this decade, but raising money is still hard for young companies. What are investors today looking for in teams, metrics and products?
Holger Seim is co-founder and CEO of Blinkist, a bite-sized-learning service that condenses knowledge from great nonfiction into powerful little packs. He co-founded Blinkist in 2012 with a vision to inspire people to never stop learning, and grew it into a global brand with customers in more than 150 countries. Holger drives the company’s strategy & growth initiatives. Prior to Blinkist, Holger worked at Deutsche Telekom with a focus on digital growth and partnership initiatives.
Holger's Sessions
How to Scale Your Startup Globally with Sophie Alcorn (Alcorn Immigration Law), Karoli Hindriks (Jobbatical), Holger Seim (Blinkist)
Global expansion is critical to building the next unicorn, but what’s the right approach to maximize growth with limited resources? Join Holger Seim, founder and CEO of audio startup Blinkist, Karoli Hindriks, founder and CEO of Jobbatical, and prominent Silicon Valley immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn as we discuss the opportunities – and pitfalls – of expanding outside your local market.
After graduating in 1997 with a degree in computer science, Glenn spent 10 years working as a developer, consultant, team and project manager in the pharmaceutical, television and financial industries. In 2008 he founded BookingBug with the ambitious objective of building a platform through which time could be treated as if it were a stock innovatory item. BookingBug has become JRNI and has since grown to become the market-leading multichannel appointment scheduling and customer journey platform helping leading global retailers, banks, central and local governments enhance their customer experience and save costs. JRNI has a team of over 100 based in London, Boston and Sydney. Glenn has been a passion advocate for London and the UK as a technology hub within Europe and in the past has helped shape government policy towards innovation and technology, both as an early advocate for Tech City, and an advisor and representative of the government nationally and internationally. In 2019 Glenn swapped his CEO role to get back to the technology as Chief Architect, and is in charge of driving platform and innovation at JRNI.
Glenn's Sessions
How to Brexit as a Startup with Volker Hirsh (Amadeus Capital Partners), Bindi Karia (Bindi Karia) and Glenn Shoosmith (JRNI)
The turbulence of Brexit has left both UK and European startups alike wondering about the best path forward. Hear from from both the investor and entrepreneur perspective on how best to deal with this thorny subject.
In 2005, Sebastian Siemiatkowski co-founded Klarna in order to provide safe and smooth online payments. He currently serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Over the past decade, he has overseen the company’s rapid growth across Europe and more recently into North America. Klarna is a now fully licensed bank with 60mn consumer and 170,000 merchant user base. Sebastian has received multiple awards for his leadership, including runner up in the 2015 global EY Entrepreneur of the Year award, Leader of the Year by Adecco, and European Entrepreneur of the Year Award by TechTour. He holds a master’s degree from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Sebastian's Sessions
Fireside Chat with Sebastian Siemiatkowski (Klarna)
Klarna was once a small Stockholm-based outfit looking to offer payment services for online shops. Today, is tackling physical stores and looking to storm the U.S. It has plenty of support, including that of early investor Sequoia Capital. In fact, it has amassed more funding and a higher valuation than almost any other privately held company in the world. Can it live up to expectations? We’ll talk with cofounder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski about the company’s ride so far, and where it goes next in this must-see sit-down.
Jag is one of Europe’s most active angel investors, and is currently the Managing Director of Techstars Berlin. He’s founded several companies (including two exits and a spectacular failure), and invested in over 80 early-stage startups over the last six years, including three that later went through Techstars accelerators. He’s an ad-man at heart, and spent over a decade as a political strategist advising high-profile politicians, campaigns and corporations across the US and Europe. Jag is fluent in six languages, and can be found on Twitter via @JagSingh
Jag's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Q&A Session: Winning Investors with Colin Hanna (Balderton Capital), Julia Hawkins (LocalGlobe) and Jag Singh (TechStars)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the greatest early stage investors in technology.
Georgie Smallwood is the Chief Product Officer at N26. In her role, Georgie leads the global product strategy and the team responsible for its delivery. With over 12 years experience in global digital and software companies such as Xero, News Ltd and Scout24, her leadership, strategic thinking and operational effectiveness has benefited from her breadth of experience. Leading large teams in multiple locations, Georgie leans into the challenges of scaling global businesses and believes that growth and change are always successful when done with high levels of communication (verbal and non verbal) and respect throughout an organization.
Georgina's Sessions
How to Iterate Your Product with Andrew Bowell (Unity Technologies) and Georgina Smallwood (N26)
Building something that’s used by millions is an exhilarating feat, but the real challenge is understanding how to iterate your product so that it can scale to a bigger audience with a bigger impact. We’ve assembled the product chiefs from some of the most influential tech companies in the world to dive into the details of what every product manager and product chief needs to know.
Young Sohn is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose passion is building businesses and fostering emerging technologies that have the potential to transform the world for the better. Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Board of HARMAN and is a Founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures. He most recently was Corporate President and Chief Strategy Officer of Samsung Electronics, where he led strategy for global innovation, investment, new business creation, and spearheaded the company’s $8 billion acquisition of HARMAN. Young served as CEO of two successful, public Silicon Valley companies and on the boards of Arm, Cymer (ASML), and others. Under his leadership as CEO and board member, he took PLX Technologies, Synnex Technologies, and Inphi public. He was also a seed investor in some of the industry’s most innovative companies including Berkeley Lights, Fungible, Zoom, Graphcore, and TTTech Auto. Young co-founded the Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC), a global startup competition inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He also serves as a senior advisor to the private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, is a member of the board of directors at Cadence, and is an advisor for the University of California Innovation Council.
Young's Sessions
Igniting Innovation with Young Sohn (Samsung)
As the President and Chief Strategy Officer for Samsung Electronics, Young Sohn oversees critical aspects involving global innovation, investment and business creation. Hear how Sohn views the opportunities for Samsung and startups in the European market.
Karen Stafford is the Regional Director- Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe for Intel Capital. Risk taker by birth and Technologist at heart, Karen finds and invests in technologies shaping the way we work and live. In addition to holding multiple patents, she is an advocate for diversity in technology and an avid outdoor adventurer.
Karen's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Pitch Deck Teardown with Russ Heddleston (DocSend), Karen Stafford (Intel Capital), and Sitar Teli (Connect Ventures)
Talk through the nuts and bolts of what makes a great deck (or not) with investors Sitar Teli and Karen Stafford, plus insights from Docsend’s Russ Heddleston, as they go through submitted pitches live on stage.
Q&A Session: Collaborating with Corporates with Nicolas Autret (Samsung Catalyst), Christian Löwe (Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures), and Karen Stafford (Intel)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the greatest corporate investors in technology.
Kinga is Managing Partner and Founder of Experior Venture Fund, VC fund investing in data driven business across CEE. Kinga sits on the boards of Tourmedica, Tylko, Cosmose. She has been involved in investing in technology companies across Central and Eastern Europe for the past 17 years. She actively supports portfolio companies in value creation, strategic initiatives and fundraising processes, working closely with EVF portfolio companies. Kinga is the Vice President of the Polish PE Funds Assocaition (PSIK). She is active in supporting women led companies as mentor and investor. She co-founded the European Women in VC community, a community of over 400 women in the European and Israeli VC space. She is member of the European Innovation Council – High Level Group. In 2017 and in 2018, Kinga was named one of the TOP 50 of Europe’s most influential women in the start-up and venture capital space. In 2018, she was named on the list of top 50 women in tech in Europe by Forbes.
Kinga's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Julian Stiefel is the Co-founder & Co-CEO of Tourlane, the planning and booking service for customized, exclusive multi-day trips. Founded in Berlin in 2016, Tourlane allows individuals and groups to affordably plan and book personalized, multi-day tours online – cutting out the time and frustration of coordinating multiple bookings from various vendors. Previously, Julian Stiefel took on a key role in Airbnb’s marketing team after the company acquired his travel startup back in 2011.
Julian's Sessions
TravelTech Opportunities with Andrew Reed (Sequoia Capital) and Julian Stiefel (Tourlane)
Berlin-based Tourlane has raised $81 million for multi-day travel booking. Co-founder Julian Stiefel and his investor Sequoia’s Andrew Reed will discuss what products still need to be built in travel, and how startups can do something unique enough to avoid getting steamrolled by tech giants.
Hiroki is co-founder and CEO of GoCardless. Founded in 2011, GoCardless is a global leader in recurring payments. The business is on a mission to take the pain out of getting paid for recurring revenue businesses. More than 40,000 businesses around the world, from multinational corporations to SMBs, transact through GoCardless each month, and the business processes $10bn of payments a year. Before starting GoCardless, Hiroki studied Mathematics at Oxford University and worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co.
Hiroki's Sessions
Creating a Global Payment Network with Hiroki Takeuchi (GoCardless)
GoCardless has a shot at becoming a global leader when it comes to payments via direct debit. And now, all eyes are on the company’s next challenge — becoming the best way to collect recurring payments, globally. The startup’s CEO will join us to talk about how GoCardless plans to replace cash, cheques and even card payments at a global scale.
Hiro Tamura is a Partner at Atomico and part of the firm’s leadership team. He focuses on consumer, FinTech, and software as well as leading Atomico’s investments in late stage venture. He led Atomico’s investment into Compass, Clutter, and Masterclass in the U.S., and MessageBird, Framer, and OneTwoTrip in Europe and sits on the boards of Clutter, MessageBird, Gympass, SmartNews, OneTwoTrip, Framer, and Quid. Hiro has over 20 years experience in founding companies, investing into, and helping fast growth technology companies expand internationally as both an investor and an entrepreneur. Prior to joining Atomico, he worked with the Skype founders to help them grow their business in Asia. He also co-founded and was the chief investment officer at SP&W Co for over 5 years. Hiro is a Japanese national with a BA in Economic and International Studies from Northwestern University. He is the only member of the Atomico team to have made investments in every continent, and finds the lifelong relationships he has built with a diverse group of game changing entrepreneurs from around the world to be his greatest reward.
Hiro's Sessions
Fireside Chat with Atomico with Sophia Bendz, Siraj Khaliq, Hiro Tamura and Niall Wass (Atomico)
From a single London base a few years ago, Atomico has now spread to the US and Asia. Hear from key partners about this global VC’s strategy going forward.
Sitar Teli is a founder and managing partner of Connect Ventures, a venture firm she and her partners started in 2012. Since its founding, Connect has invested in over 40 companies across Europe, including Fiit, Kheiron, Citymapper, Typeform, OurPath, and Soldo. Prior to starting Connect Ventures, Sitar was at Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led that firm’s investment in SoundCloud’s Series A.
Sitar's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Pitch Deck Teardown with Russ Heddleston (DocSend), Karen Stafford (Intel Capital), and Sitar Teli (Connect Ventures)
Talk through the nuts and bolts of what makes a great deck (or not) with investors Sitar Teli and Karen Stafford, plus insights from Docsend’s Russ Heddleston, as they go through submitted pitches live on stage.
Graphcore (graphcore.ai) is a new silicon and systems company based in Bristol, UK and Palo Alto, USA that has developed a new type of processor, the Intelligence Processing Unit (IPU), to accelerate machine learning and AI applications. Since its founding in 2016, Nigel has secured over $300m in funding and support for the company from some of the world’s leading venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital, Foundation Capital and Atomico, from major corporations including BMW, Bosch, Dell, Microsoft and Samsung and from eminent Artificial Intelligence innovators. Nigel has a background as a technology business leader, entrepreneur and engineer having been CEO at two successful VC-backed processor companies XMOS and Picochip (sold to Nasdaq:MSPD, now Intel), a founder at Icera (sold to Nasdaq: NVDA) and VP/GM at Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR, sold to Intel for $17Bn) where he spent over 13 years and was responsible for establishing and building the European business unit that he grew to over $400m in annual revenues. Nigel was a non-executive director at Imagination Technologies PLC until itsacquisition in 2017 and is the author on 3 patents.
Nigel's Sessions
AI Chips with Everything? — Nigel Toon (Graphcore)
In this fireside chat with Nigel Toon, founder of Graphcore, we’ll discuss the race between chip giants and startups to build AI chips, how next-gen chipsets are pushing the boundaries of software innovation, and what happens once AI chips are everywhere.
Katy is Managing Partner and co-founder at Multiple. Multiple supercharges the progress of high growth companies and funds through brand and culture. They support European tech founders and funds building the capabilities, culture and communications that will enable them to take out the competition, take a big exit or take over the world. At Multiple, Katy has worked alongside the founders of companies such as Pipedrive, WeTransfer, Unbabel, Kalo, Aire, Beryl (formerly Blaze), Verve, Drover, Favro and Trouva, and funds such as Kindred, Connect, Whitestar and Albion; to clarify purpose, shape vision, define positioning, refine strategy, develop culture, build brand, acquire customers and drive growth. Katy began her career in publishing before choosing a bright future at Orange (in a time when it was actually cool to work for a mobile operator), where she launched products nationally and internationally. Roles in tech include VC at Eden Ventures, VP of Marketing at Videoplaza (acquired by Ooyala) and CMO at Tech City UK (now Tech Nation), as well as mentoring for Seedcamp and Techstars. She sits on the Investment Committee for the University of Bristol’s Enterprise Fund.
Katy's Sessions
How to Win Customers and Influence Markets with Colette Ballou (Ballou PR), Joanna Kirk, (Joanna Kirk PR) and Katy Turner (Multiple)
Every startup is a story and the best stories can change the world. Some of Europe’s finest alchemists of allusion will share their tips on how to be a signal in a world of noise.
Sujay is the 26-year old CEO and Co-Founder of Frontier Car Group (FCG), a Berlin-based, emerging markets-focused automotive marketplace. Sujay co-founded the business at the age of 23. FCG has now raised $575M+ from Naspers, Balderton, and TPG Growth. Prior, Sujay was a partner at Kingsway Capital, a London-based emerging-markets focused fund. Sujay was on the founding team of Hired.com (a talent marketplace) as its COO, which now operates in Australia, Europe, and the US. Before Hired, Sujay entered Harvard at age 15, before leaving with a Thiel Fellowship. Sujay was named one of Forbes’ 30 under 30 and one of Goldman Sachs’ top 100 intriguing entrepreneurs in 2016 and 2018.
Sujay's Sessions
Mobilizing Emerging Markets with Sujay Tyle (Frontier Car Group)
As the mobility industry evolves rapidly, a huge opportunity lies in emerging markets. Sujay Tyle, serial entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Frontier Car Group, is looking to capitalize on that opportunity with its investments in used-car marketplaces.
Q&A Session: Founders Lessons with Jessica Holzbach (Penta), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare), and Sujay Tyle (Frontier)
Your chance to ask questions to some of the leading founders in tech.
Ashley Tyson is the Co-founder of the Web3 Foundation. She spends her time aligning diverse teams working on decentralized systems and supporting blockchain ecosystem initiatives like Ethereum Community Fund and ETHPrize. Prior to Web3 Foundation, Ashley co-founded DEFCAD, a censorship-resistant search engine for 3D printable files. She deeply understands the need for a decentralized web, beginning her career in NYC at one of the first social media-focused agencies, where she helped multinational corporations build Web 2.0 strategies around consumer data acquisition for use in marketing initiatives.
Ashley's Sessions
How to Fit Blockchain into Your Startup Strategy with Justin Drake (Ethereum Foundation), Ash Egan (Accomplice VC) and Ashley Tyson (Web3 Foundation)
Chances are, you keep hearing about this ‘blockchain’ thing all the time — and maybe you’re ignoring it but deep down, you know you should probably think about how it could help your startup. To help you with that and maybe demystify blockchain a bit, too, we’ll be joined by three panelists who have deep roots in the blockchain community: Ethereum Foundation Researcher Justin Drake, Accomplice VC’s Ash Egan and Web3 Foundation Co-founder and Director of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives Ashley Tyson.
Laura Urquizu is partner and CEO of Red Points, a Barcelona-based tech company offering the leading SaaS solution for detecting and enforcing IP infringements online, including counterfeiting, piracy and distribution fraud.
Laura's Sessions
How to Build a Billion Dollar SaaS Company with Christoph Janz (Point Nine Capital), Matthew Prince (Cloudflare) and Laura Urquizu (Red Points)
Scaling a SaaS company is anything but easy. In this session, we’ll talk about everything from how (and when) to charge for your product, when to make crucial hires, how to sell into the enterprise and when it’s time to consider an exit.
Francesca (known as Check) is one of the founding partners of Ada Ventures. Francesca is also the co-founder and CEO of Diversity VC, a non-profit made up of interested individuals working in venture capital, who seek to increase diversity of thought in the venture and tech industry. She’s worked at Seraphim Capital, Downing Ventures and Techstars. She graduated from Cambridge and worked in advertising before joining the VC industry. Francesca was named 35 Under 35 in Management Today 2018 and Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in 2019.
Francesca's Sessions
Opening Up VC with Matt Penneycard and Francesca Warner (Ada Ventures)
VC has been historically bad at backing under-represented founders. ‘Old boys networks’ and unconscious biases abound. VC needs a systemic change. Check Warner and Matt Penneycard of Ada Ventures have previously pioneered industry initiatives to address this and will discuss what new techniques VCs can use to support overlooked founders.
Niall Wass is a Partner at Atomico focusing on investment opportunities in the consumer space and marketplaces. He is point person for or has worked closely with the teams at Jobandtalent, OnTruck, Lendinvest, Habito, Fat Llama and Lime. He is also Chairman of two other consumer businesses, Glovo and Trouva. Previously, Niall spent over 15 years as an executive in early-stage tech-enabled consumer businesses. He was part of the Executive Team at Uber, COO and CEO at Wonga – the consumer finance business – and for many years, he was at Betfair – the sports betting marketplace
Niall's Sessions
Fireside Chat with Atomico with Sophia Bendz, Siraj Khaliq, Hiro Tamura and Niall Wass (Atomico)
From a single London base a few years ago, Atomico has now spread to the US and Asia. Hear from key partners about this global VC’s strategy going forward.
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 2
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Bob van Dijk was appointed chief executive of Naspers in April 2014. He joined the group as Allegro Group CEO in August 2013 and was promoted to CEO Global Transaction eCommerce in October 2013. He has over 15 years of general management experience in online growth business, mainly with eBay and Schibsted, spanning the online marketplaces, online classifieds and fashion segments. Most recently he was vice-president and general manager of eBay Germany and Europe Emerging Markets. Prior to his general management career, Bob was an entrepreneur in online financial products. He started his career in McKinsey with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and media. Bob has an MBAHons from INSEAD and an MSc (cum laude) in econometrics from Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Bob's Sessions
Investing and Operating in Growth Markets with Michal Borkowski (Brainly) and Bob van Dijk (Prosus and Naspers)
Naspers’ tech holdings Prosus became Europe’s largest consumer internet company when it listed earlier this year on Euronext in Amsterdam. Its interests include food delivery, payments and fintech, classifieds, travel, retail, media, social platforms — not to mention a huge stake in Tencent. It also has a dedicated and very active ventures team. Come hear from one of its portfolio companies, the ed-tech startup Brainly, whose CEO will be on stage with Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk talking about the challenges of how to scale a startup, and more.
Roxanne Varza is Director of STATION F, the biggest startup campus in the world with more than 1.000 startups, located in Paris. She is originally from Silicon Valley. Before joining STATION F, she led Microsoft Ventures Paris and TechCrunch France. She also worked for several London-based startups and cofounded StarHer, Tech.eu and Failcon France.
Prior to her current role, Roxanne was the lead for Microsoft’s start-up activities in France, running both Bizspark and Microsoft Ventures programs for 3 years. She was also Editor of TechCrunch France from 2010-2011 and has written for several publications including Business Insider and The Telegraph. In April 2013, Business Insider listed her as one of the top 30 women under 30 in tech. She has also been listed in additional rankings by Business Insider, Vanity Fair and Le Figaro, The Evening Standard and more.
Roxanne also co-founded StartHer (ex Girls in Tech Paris) and is the co-organizer of the Failcon Paris conference. More recently, she co-founded Tech.eu, a European tech media backed by Dave McClure, Adeo Ressi, Daniel Waterhouse and more.
Prior to TechCrunch, Roxanne worked for the French government’s foreign direct investment agency helping fast-growing startups develop their activities in France. Roxanne has spoken, moderated, mentored and judged numerous startup events and programs throughout Europe and also helps European startups with content and communications. Roxanne is trilingual and holds degrees from UCLA, Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics. She is also an epilepsy advocate.
Roxanne's Sessions
How Station F is Boosting the French Tech Ecosystem with Roxanne Varza (Station F)
Three years after unveiling Station F at Disrupt, its Director Roxanne Varza is back to give us an update on the world’s biggest startup campus. Station F has become a cornerstone of the French tech ecosystem and a signal for the international tech community. There are now 1,000 startups working from Station F in Paris. Station F’s director will join us to talk about what’s next for Station F and the French tech ecosystem.
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 1
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Mundi has been running his own creative business since he was 19, working in almost every creative field there is. From fashion design and production, graphic design, and directing short films, to painting and performance art. As CEO, he’s responsible for overseeing daily operations at Klang, and corresponding with partners, stakeholders and investors. He has the “gift of the gab”…seriously, he does.
Mundi's Sessions
How to Build for the Virtual Economy with Paul Murphy (Northzone) and Mundi Vondi (Klang)
Gaming platforms ranging from Second Life and Eve Online to Fortnite and Roblox offer virtual worlds where our avatars can create and trade virtual goods like digital clothing, weapons, vehicles, and buildings with other players for real-world value. With rapidly growing mainstream participation in these virtual economies and announcements of new worlds in development like Facebook’s Horizon, where are there biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs?
Josh Constine is a Venture Partner at ~$3 billion AUM early-stage VC fund SignalFire where he invests in pre-seed startups with a focus on consumer. He teaches startup pitch writing and fundraising strategy as a recurring lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School Of Business, and with accelerators like Z Fellows, Inception Studios, and Stanford ASES. Previously, Constine was Editor-At-Large for TechCrunch where he wrote 4000 articles and was ranked the #1 most cited tech journalist in the world from 2016-2020 by Techmeme. Constine has led 300+ on-stage interviews and keynotes in 18 countries with luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Shopify, DoorDash, Snapchat, Instagram, and more. Constine graduated from Stanford University with a Master’s degree he designed in Cybersociology, and wrote his thesis in 2008 on why remixable memes would be the future of marketing. He has been quoted in the NYT and WSJ, is regularly featured on CNN for his thoughts on AI and Silicon Valley, and advises startups on PR, fundraising, and organic growth.
Josh's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Competition – Session 3
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.
Asher King-Abramson is the founder of Got Users, a growth agency working with the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley. He has helped drive $100M+ in revenue across 100+ startups and has led sessions on growth at Y Combinator, Village Global, and Google. He previously co-founded Demand Curve (YC S19), a well-known marketing training program.
Asher's Sessions
Growth Marketing with Asher King Abramson (Demand Curve)
Learn about the right ways and wrong ways to create great assets for paid channels, landing pages and more in this teardown workshop with Asher King Abramson, a top growth marketer who works with hundreds of successful startups. Submit your landing page and ads beforehand for a chance to receive feedback live onstage.
Matthew Panzarino served as Editor in Chief of TechCrunch for a decade. Previously, he was News Editor and Managing Editor at The Next Web, founded photography businesses and a news blog covering the Apple ecosystem. He has made a name for himself in the tech media world as a writer and editor covering Apple, Disney, robotics and fashion in addition to a broad range of startups in the fields of robotics, computer vision, AI, VR, AR and more. Disclosures: Holds shares in ETFs, ETH and various NFTs. Contact Matthew at [email protected] PGP Key: https://keybase.io/panzer
Matthew's Sessions
Startup Battlefield Final Competition
TechCrunch’s iconic startup competition is back, as entrepreneurs from around the world pitch expert judges and vie for the Battlefield Cup and $50,000.