EU-Startups Podcast
The official Podcast of EU-Startups.com - the leading online magazine about startups in Europe.
10
She Turned Plastic Waste Into Opportunity
Join us for an interview with Angela Ivanova, the co-founder and CEO of LAM’ON Compostable Films, a Bulgarian company at the forefront of sustainable packaging solutions. Angela shares her journey of addressing one of the most pressing environmental challenges: the 1.2 million metric tons of laminated paper wasted annually. LAM’ON has developed bio-based, compostable laminating films and packaging foils that seamlessly integrate with paper recycling, offering a circular economy solution without compromising quality. In this discussion, Angela dives into the challenges of building LAM’ON from the ground up. She reflects on the gender gap in entrepreneurship, the moments that l...
Enabling People. Not Replacing Them
In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Nikita Miller, Chief Product Officer at Perk, formerly TravelPerk, to discuss the company’s evolution into an AI-native travel and spend management platform and its global ambitions. Nikita joined Perk in September 2025 as the Barcelona-founded scale-up was expanding beyond travel into spend and expense management, integrating acquisitions such as Yokoy, and accelerating its growth in the US. Central to Perk’s strategy is eliminating what Nikita calls “shadow work”: repetitive tasks such as reconciling receipts, managing invoices, booking travel and navigating company policies. By automating these processes, Perk aims to give employees more tim...
Spider Silk in BioTech
Interview with Jekaterina Romanova, founder & CEO of PrintyMed For today’s podcast, produced in association with the Women TechEU scheme, we sit down with Jekaterina Romanova, CEO and co-founder of Latvian biotech startup PrintyMed, to discuss biomimetic spider silk, its medical potential, and the challenges of scaling deep-tech innovation in Europe. The Women TechEU scheme is an EU-funded project supporting women leading deep tech startup companies from Europe. As part of the consortium team implementing the programme, our mission is to foster inclusive innovation by supporting women-led startups, including under-represented deep tech sectors and European regions. We believe that diversity dri...
How Europe can Win in Tech
Interview with Tom Wehmeier, Partner and Head of Intelligence at Atomico For today's podcast we sit down with Tom Wehmeier, Partner and Head of Intelligence at Atomico, to discuss European technology, the firm’s investment philosophy, and the influential State of European Tech report. Tom reflects on his unconventional route into venture capital. Before joining Atomico, he worked in telecommunications, witnessing shifts such as the emergence of 3G and internet-based calling. This taught him to recognise hype cycles, adopt a patient long-term view, and understand why established companies often struggle to respond to disruption. He explains that breakthrough technologies are fr...
The Future of European Payments
Interview with Lena Hackelöer, founder & CEO at Brite Payments In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Lena Hackelöer, founder & CEO at Brite Payments, to explore the company’s growth, the future of European payments, and the challenges facing fintech founders. Lena shares how Brite has evolved from a Swedish startup founded in 2019 into a leading pay-by-bank provider operating across 27 European markets. Following its Series A round, the company expanded into Germany and France. She reflects on how her early career shaped her entrepreneurial approach. Her experience at Klarna during its hypergrowth phase taught her how to build and...
The Fund Selling Climate to Skeptics
In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Tim Schumacher, the visionary co-founder of saas.group and General Partner at World Fund, to explore the journey, philosophy, and future of his founder-friendly SaaS acquisition platform and his ClimateTech investments. Tim shares how saas.group evolved from its first acquisition, DeployBot, to a thriving ecosystem of 18 independent SaaS brands spanning 30 countries. He dives deep into the core values that drive saas.group’s success: a commitment to preserving the bootstrapper mindset, fostering cultural alignment, and ensuring every acquisition is tailored to the founder’s personal and professional goals. Tim also reflects on t...
Is the Office Era Over?
Join us for a deep dive with Job van der Voort, CEO and co-founder of Remote, as he explores the evolution of work, the challenges of global employment, and the principles behind scaling remote-first teams. From his transition from neuroscientist to startup leader, to the lessons learned at GitLab and Remote, Job shares insights on mindset shifts, cultural nuances, and the future of distributed work. Job discusses the practical challenges of building a globally distributed team, the importance of asynchronous communication, and why treating all employees as equals - regardless of location - is key to fostering a cohesive culture. ...
From Dining Table to $700M Exit
Jos White, co-founder of Notion Capital <p>Key Points </p> Early entrepreneurial conversations and their lasting impact on mindset and ambition Recognising the pivotal moments when a business idea gains real traction and scalability Why firsthand entrepreneurial experience gives VCs a unique edge in advising founders The intangible traits - beyond metrics and pitch decks - that define exceptional founders How the founder landscape has evolved since 2009, including the rise of AI and its new blind spots Key differences between European and American founders in approach, ambition, and execution
From Getting Scammed to Building a Unicorn
Join us for a conversation with Tarek Müller, co-founder and co-CEO of ABOUT YOU, a leading European fashion and lifestyle e-commerce platform and Hamburg’s first unicorn. Tarek shares his journey from building websites at 13 to scaling one of Europe’s fastest-growing tech companies, and dives deep into the future of digital commerce, AI, and sustainable retail - and his close brush with a scammer! In this interview, Tarek reflects on his entrepreneurial roots, the evolution of ABOUT YOU, and the strategic shifts shaping e-commerce today. He also explores the role of AI, the balance between personalisation and sustainability, and h...
The Startup Turning Swamps Into Fashion Gold
Interview with Julian Ellis Brown, CEO & co-founder of Ponda <p>**Key Points</p> Ponda’s mission was sparked by a bold idea: materials should restore, not deplete, their environments, with wetlands as the ideal starting point for this vision. BioPuff is a plant-based insulation derived from bulrush, offering a regenerative, high-performance alternative to goose down and synthetic fills. Regeneration goes beyond sustainability by actively healing ecosystems - such as rewetted peatlands - while creating materials, rather than just minimising harm. BioPuff can disrupt fast fashion by demonstrating that regenerative materials can be scalable, cost-effective, and viable for mainstream adoption, not ju...
