Mentors

Alexander Kiltz is an early-stage technology investor at UVC Partners focused on enterprise software, mobility and industrial technology businesses in Europe.

Alexander Kölpin is a pre seed- and seed-stage startup investor, investing in software companies in Berlin and Germany. He is the Managing Director of seed+speed Ventures in Berlin, Germany. Prior to that, he was for 6 years Partner at the SeedVC WestTech Ventures, before that COO and Co-Founder of the German Startups Group, a SeedVC in Berlin.

Anna Lena is the CEO and founder of Mello, a mobile app designed to help parents connect and create strong communities. We help families find the support they need to make parenting a little easier and a lot more fun.
Before, she has worked in the management of 3 international nanny agencies in Istanbul, Vancouver & Berlin. She studied Early Childhood Education & International Business/Digital Marketing.
She fell in love with the topics of community-building and social innovation.

"Annette is a global citizen with a ‘home port’ in Hamburg: Training and work led her to living in Rennes, Los Angeles, Brussels, Mexico City and Shanghai. As a scientist by training her working style is analytical, inclusive and solution-oriented - with a clear focus on business. She is driven by a passion for sustainable corporate development and curiosity on challenges.

Anton is Chief Technology Officer at Meramo Verlag GmbH and Yocal UG, Entrepreneur and a socially responsible developer, driving digital transformation in the fields of education and job information. Anton is working in/with web technology and system architecture for the last 18 years.

Carolin founded Openers in 2013 together with Kerstin Bock and Niko Woischnik. Today, a team of 20 supports innovative companies in establishing themselves on the German-speaking market and the digital and startup scene. Clients include Atomico, Pleo, Pipedrive, Entrepreneur First, Vinted, Signals, StockX and Red Bull, amongst others. Openers´ sister companies are Ahoy! Berlin (now Knotel) and Tech Open Air.

Entrepreneur, Marketer, Investor

Professor Christian Stummeyer ranks among Germany's leading digital experts and is holder of the chair of Business Informatics and Digital Commerce at the Technical University of Ingolstadt. After long-standing stations at the Boston Consulting Group and the global management team of Siemens AG, he has been an e-commerce entrepreneur and instrumental in shaping the growth strategy of a leading online retailer of premium designer furniture. For several years, the experienced strategy consultant was responsible for the management consulting business of the UDG United Digital Group, Germany's largest digital agency. He is also the scientific director of AININ, the Bavarian Research Center for Artificial Intelligence in Ingolstadt, a visiting professor at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou and a sought-after keynote speaker.

Dirk Lehmann was born in a country that doesn’t exist anymore. That taught him early on that we can change everything for the better with the right story and idea. In his daily work, he levels up speakers, transforms companies and challenges startups. He just happens to do that as the founder of The Pitch Training and as an Innovation Advisor for global corporations.

When he is not busy creating engaging pitches for speakers or accelerating innovation for companies, he travels the world for inspiration from other cultures and enjoys a day by the sea to recover from it all. As a world citizen at heart, he is known for his never-ending smile and kindness to his peers.

Experienced manager with a demonstrated history of working in the consulting, travel and internet businesses. Skilled in Business Process, Lean Startup, E-commerce, IT Strategy, Digital Transformation and radical innovation. Has founded, funded or accelerated more than 40 startups.
Loves bringing networks to life and see the startups he works with thrive!

Before he joined HTGF, he founded and sold three of his own start-ups. Subsequently, he initiated and was responsible for an incubator for an international independent IT service provider (consulting). He enjoys successfully implementing innovations with start-ups.

Founded first company, Toptarif, in 2007 and sold it in 2010.
Co-founded several companies since (or joined management very early):
- froodies (online supermarket)
- Trademob (Ad-Tech)
- Beaconinside (location based services)
- M-Cube (incubator for comparison business models)
- Factorymarket (retail)
Some turned out successful, others not so much ;-).
Now working on the next start-up.

Isabelle has a profound knowledge in the field of startups, entrepreneurship, SME, SME-financing, venture capital and fund management (incl. management of risk, compliance and ESG). She is Managing Director and Chief Risk & Compliance Officer at Brightpoint Group (a financial service and investment company). She has studied International Relations at Sciences Po in Paris and Florence and received her Ph.D. from the LMU in Munich. In all her jobs she has always been at the interface of business, finance, law and politics: e.g. at the Industrial Investment Council, at the Federal Chancellery, at KfW and as Head of Operations at coparion.

Julius Bertram is an experienced founder, social entrepreneur and business developer. Currently he serves as CIO | Co-founder of Librileo gUG. He started his first internet company directly after graduating as master for safety and hazard defense together with a renowned german venture capitalist.
In his role as for Librileo gUG he is fundamentally rethinking the educational structures for small children.
He has extensive experience both in the for profit world of business cases and equity based fundings, as well as in the non profit world of impact orientation.

Karolin started her career as a lawyer in 1999 with the lawfirm SKW Schwarz. From 2006-2010, she lived in Budapest, Hungary and made her Master of Law with the Suffolk University Boston, USA. 2015 she moved to the lawfirm Schindhelm in Hanover. In spring 2019, Karolin became module manager for tourism law at IUBH Internationale Hochschule. Her focus lays on consulting e-commerce companies with respect to all their online needs, like data protection, terms and conditions, liability, advertising and IT contracts. Since 2016, she is assisting start-ups in Berlin with getting started legally.

Klaus is CTO & Startup Founder / Advisor from Berlin.
Prototyping is his craft - where Software Engineering meets Business Development.
In the past he has founded three companies. He is currently involved in two start-ups and in their advisory board.
He is committed to fight climate change and believe in purpose companies. He is now planning his next venture to be a slow business in the area of climate tech.

Lisa Lang is a European entrepreneur, technologist and international keynote speaker.
She has gained recognition as one of Forbes Europe’s Top 50 Women in Tech, top 100 most influential people in wearable tech worldwide, one of 25 leaders in fashion and technology worldwide, and has been listed as one of the 50 most important women for innovation & startups in the EU.

Manuel is an international experienced product- and business manager based in Silicon Valley, with strong ties to the German start-up scene. In his current role at Walmart Inc. he’s in charge of establishing a global eCommerce platform with focus on Fintech and payments. In one of his previous roles he was leading the successful expansion of one of the very first San Francisco based tech start-ups to Berlin. He’s advocating for a product-driven company culture, passionate about technology backed innovation and loves to solve challenging problems with aspiring entrepreneurs.

Martin Arnold is Tax and Legal Partner at AMI Arnold Legal / AMI Steuerberatungsgesellschaft mbH. He is the founder of AMIPARTNERS and has more than 20 years of experience in advising foreign companies including Japanese multinationals in international corporate tax and company law matters. His main focuses are M&A, international tax and transfer pricing. Martin speaks Japanese, German and English.

Marc is an Investment Director at Mountain Partners
hands-on angel investor, startup mentor, serial entrepreneur and VC Blogger

An Engineer by heart, but business in mind and always caring about the people. He founded his first startup in 2009 and sold it before joining Wooga in 2012 as an Executive Producer. He has built multiple successful teams and products since and as a member of the Management Team he is leading Product Management and Production departments.

Maxie Matthiessen is an internationally award-winning serial entrepreneur with a passion for women's health and social impact. She has founded two companies, Ruby Cup and FEMNA Health. Ruby Cup is a pioneer period company with a designated social mission to give all girls and women access to sustainable female hygiene. FEMNA Health is the first tele-medicine platform in Germany that offers home-diagnostics and health consultations to women's health.

Robert Maier is an experienced founder, CEO and angel investor. Robert joined HV Holtzbrinck Ventures in April 2020. Before that, Robert co-founded Visual Meta (LadenZeile.de) and served as its CEO since its inception for 10 years. Visual Meta is an international, Berlin-based operator of shopping comparison websites. Robert was responsible for all non-technical topics such as marketing, strategy, finance, sales, HR, and product. He scaled the company from zero to >300 people, >15 countries, >€40m revenue and >€10m net profit within a few years. He sold Visual Meta to Axel Springer / Idealo.

Prior to that, Robert worked as an investment banker for Merrill Lynch and as an investment professional for a VC fund. Since 2008, Robert invested in ca. 50 companies as angel investor, realizing various high-profile exits. Robert holds a degree in Business Administration from WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management and spent semesters in India and France.

Robin Eyben advises investors, founders and companies ranging from early-stage start-ups to large corporations on their corporate transactions, venture capital financing rounds, convertible loans, venture loans, strategic acquisitions, joint ventures, mergers and exits. He focuses on technology-driven clients from the U.S., Asia and Europe and has deep insight into the latest venture capital and M&A deal terms and market trends as well as the challenges that start-ups are regularly facing during growth and expansion. He regular shares his experience and knowledge as mentor and speaker on industry events, conferences and seminars in the U.S. and Europe.

Sales enthusiast, investor, company builder, business developer, people manager, and entrepreneur by heart. Torsten co-founded testhub GmbH, sold it to Applause, and led the European Business Development/Partner unit. Now he is helping startups with sales related topics.

Tim Vogelsang is the founder and managing director of Octorank, a company helping technology startups connect with corporates. Tim has seen hundreds of pitch decks and startup presentations over the last years. He enjoys working with passionate founders to sharpen their business model and pitch and prepare them for the next steps.

Since 2005 Rayk is part of the Berlin startup ecosystem. He has a background in Business Administration and Economics. He is with the team of IBB Ventures to find all those startups that make a difference in the world and create a sustainable future as well as create value for our region as a business location. He is proud to support his portfolio companies like Babbel, Wunderflats, Suitepad, Travelcircus, Sofatutor, Mymoria and some others. But the most exciting venture in his life is his little son !

Robin is CTO and a member of the management board of Verlag - Der Tagesspiegel. He has a degree in Computer Science, is Co-Founder and CTO of Lesara and is a tech advisor for early stage startups.

CFO of doctari group, Germany's largest group providing temporary and permanent manpower in health care; long-time professional transaction advisory history with Andersen and EY; IPO of Focus Digital AG and merger to form Tomorrow Focus AG (holidaycheck AG)

Mirco works as a Strategic Advisor to Startups, Corporates, Politics, Associations, Investors, Foundations, Promotional companies for Cities and Universities
He is a former Managing Director of the German Startups Association and a former member of The Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (House of Representatives).

Partner at LEA Partners

Christian is Berliner Sparkasse’s head of the sales team for the digital industry.
He has more than 25 years experience in consulting startups and medium sized companies
He specializes in financial Planning and Corporate Finance.
Christian is also Member of the Guarantee Commitee of Bürgschaftsbank Berlin and Speaker of the Finance & FinTech Forum at SIBB (the Digital Business Association of Berlin-Brandenburg).

Principal at Speedinvest; Developer & Lawyer; Early-stage VC at Target Partners; CEO / Co-founder at fruux, the company behind sabre/dav.

15 years experienced divisional Head of Innovation with a demonstrated history of working in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and executive office. Skilled in team leading and strong operations professional graduated from Hasso Plattner Institute (design thinking, agile management, lean start-up). Graduated in Banking, Law and MBA-Entrepreneurship, he will connect startups with funding programs and research institutes.

Dr. Arndt Schwaiger is an experienced entrepreneur, advisor, speaker and investor whose background in artificial intelligence and extensive business experience provides a unique and balanced perspective. He has started several technology companies and has advised more than 400 startups, SMEs and corporations on their digital business models, technology and overall strategy. Arndt’s education, large international network and experience in artificial intelligence and especially in digital business models also provide a wealth of practical knowledge in this burgeoning field.

As a serial entrepreneur being active for more than 20 years Peter supports startups and SMEs to shape their value proposition, become market-ready and succeed with process-driven information logistics. He is also working as a partner at a marketing agency and as a lecturer at different universities.

Dana advises national and international investors, technology-driven companies and start-ups from early-stage to exit on venture capital and M&A transactions . She pursued her studies in Heidelberg with a special focus on corporate law, after which she obtained her LL.M. in Law and Technology in Tel Aviv.

He is a networker with the vision to create new things through collaboration. The experience he gained during his long time work for a large corporate as production manager, auditor for management systems and head of the Open Innovation Berlin department.
In the Würth Group he supports start-ups to bring their ideas to market quickly. He supports them with hardware, service, support, know-how, laboratories and a big network of experts.

Angel investor with focus on B2B software in Silicon Valley and in Germany.
Software executive at SAP.

Julius Bachmann is a partner at founder coaching firm Volate, investor at Joyance Partners, and musician based in Berlin. He works intensively with entrepreneurs around Europe as a coach with a focus on personal growth, business strategy and finance.

After 10 years as an international government affairs professional with incisive analytical capabilities and excellent communications skills in several languages, Marie is looking for a meaningful change. This explains her desire to work closely with startups who are taking decisive actions towards building strong businesses at the same time putting sustainability at its core.

Experienced entrepreneur, tech nerd, 3x startup founder, 4x startup employee, COO, CTO, hands-on generalist with tech background and corporate experience. Business model, validation, pitching, fundraising, building MVP, bizdev, processes, partnering, scaling

Daniel Höpfner is a Founder and Managing Director of building10, a Berlin-based early stage investor with focus on B2B Startups with the potential to disrupt an industry. b10 backs "category killer" startups. We are looking for entrepreneurs with a bold vision, ability to execute, fast going and the potential to go global. We love technology-driven models, disruptive startups in huge markets and b2b-companies which put the enterprise-world upside down. Prior to that, Daniel was the founder and CEO of PressMatrix - a smart publishing platform. Previously, he worked for OC&C Strategy Consultants in Dubai. He has been a senior executive at VC-backed companies such as Mobile Open Source Startup Funambol in Silicon Valley. He is regular speaker on various aspects of entrepreneurship. Daniel has studied economics, holds several patents for SaaS computing and lives with his family in Berlin.

Enrico Bernardo is a strong entrepreneurial mind with a focus on digital marketing and transformation. With his data driven mindset he is convinced that using the right data is the key to building products that really matter to people. Enrico enjoys to develop new strategies of growth marketing, going beyond the standard online marketing mix and performance marketing KPIs. Having build multiple businesses from scratch, going trough the rollercoaster of being an entrepreneur, he sharpened skills in various fields such as due diligence processes, contract negotiations, hiring teams, product definitions & design, UI & UX, business development especially in the movie and media, same as eCommerce industry. Currently Enrico is managing Partner at WEVENTURE one of Germanys fastest growing digital advertising Agencies and investor/shareholder into different startups of the WEVENTURE ecosystem

Christoph Baier is the co-founder and managing director of Ambivation. A company that connects companies and startups for collaboration.
Personally he is matching Companies & Startups for Cooperation & Open Innovation especially in the domains of AI, IIoT, SaaS, PropTech & Cleantech.

In 25+ years Jutta gathered a lot of experiences, mainly in marketing, but also in sales, strategy development, across multiple industries and a couple of different company sizes
Personally she is matching Companies & Startups for Cooperation & Open Innovation especially in the domains of AI, IIoT, SaaS, PropTech & Cleantech.

Constanze is Managing Partner and founder of i-potentials, one of the leading German executive search boutiques for entrepreneurs. Active in the digital economy for 15 years, Constanze has accompanied the growth and transformation of countless well-known startups and digital players in Germany - including Spreadshirt, Delivery Hero, Mister Spex & Xing.
She is a recognized expert for all topics related to recruiting & leadership in the innovation age and provides her expertise as an author, business angel, speaker and consultant for German politics. She began her career in 2006 as assistant to the management of Spreadshirt - a German e-commerce pioneer - and subsequently shaped the management and organizational structures of companies that are now among the beacons of the German innovation landscape.

Evelyn counts more than 25 years of marketing expertise, including international Marketing Management Positions at BDF for NIVEA. More than 13 years ago she founded Markenbewegung and after many years of consultancy projects for Industry clients in the last years she focussed more and more on mentoring and consulting Startups as Advisor and Business Angel. In that context she is active in various networks within the Startup Universe in Hamburg and Germany (NCA, Future Hamburg, HK Hamburg, Reeperbahn Pitch, Food Innovation Camp...).

Transformation & Restructuring Professional combining spikes in finance & operations, Thomas is working as a trusted partner to management teams & shareholders in Europe’s industrial sector.

Before joining bmp Ventures, David gained experience in Consulting and Banking as well as the Co-founder of two VC-backed B2B SaaS startups. His dedication is business building, strategy, deal-making with strong analytical and communication/presentation skills.
David is graduated from well-known Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Germany and hold a banking degree certified by the German Chamber of Commerce (IHK).
He has lived and worked in Canada, the USA and France, love the outdoors and operas. Adventure-seeker, TAR finisher. Set official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS®: longest Business Pitch Marathon of the world (29 hours)!

Stefan founded his first company at age 19 in Denmark, while studying law. He built his eCommerce company to €10m in revenue, sold it and completed his degree. After running several eCommerce start-ups, he founded a Social Network in 2006 which scaled to 12 million users in 23 countries. In 2010, Stefan moved to Berlin and founded itembase.com (now SF based). His experience with purchasing behavior relative to eCommerce, digital profiles from social networking, and a privacy-focused law degree have given Stefan insights into providing consumers the right information at the right time.

Alexander is a Serial Entrepreneur. He helps founders & business owners to organise their financial and tax structure. Moreover he is author of "Weniger Steuern & mehr Vermögen".

Berlin based Serial Entrepreneur (Steganos, Netz Holding), Company Builder (e.g. RatePAY, Talentory) and Angel Investor (e.g. Seedcamp, MisterSpex).

Navid is an Investment analyst at Lakestar and covers the German and Nordic Ecosystem for both the early and later stage fund. His main focus lies on Logistics, Marketplaces and anything to do with pricing.