On this episode of Launch Stories, I speak to Jonas de Cooman, Co-founder & CEO of Spott, a marketing platform that helps brands sell more by adding interactivity to videos and images on their digital channels. You’ll hear what Jonas had to ‘unlearn’ after a career at Coca-Cola and Unilever to build a successful global business as an entrepreneur and why he had to develop a ‘bullshit detector’ to make sure he hired the right people. You’ll also hear what pivotal change in sales strategy led to Spott generating 2,000 customers in 90 countries.

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On this episode of Launch Stories, I talk to Ondrej Bartos, co-founder and general partner of Credo Ventures. You’ll hear the ‘behind the scenes’ story of how he joined a $1.6 million seed investment round in Romanian unicorn UIPath.

You’ll also learn the key ingredients that eventually led to UIPath’s staggering $35 billion valuation on the New York Stock Exchange, and how the Central European startup ecosystem has evolved since Ondrej’s pioneering role in the early 2000s.

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On this episode of L(a)unch Stories, you’ll hear from Agata Kwaśniewska, CEO of the ReaktorX acceleration program and ambassador of Startup Poland.

She explains what role an accelerator plays in the startup ecosystem, how ReaktorX helped Polish startups Renderro, Lofty and Hashiona to grow and when founders should start thinking about building a global business.

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On this episode of L(a)unch Stories, I speak with Zsuzsa and Attila Kecsmár, a husband-and-wife team, who are the co-founders of Antavo.

You’ll hear how Antavo grew to become a globally recognized loyalty management platform with clients like BMW, Lagardère, Benetton and BrewDog across three continents.

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On this episode of Launch Stories I’m talking to Mike Chaffe, CEO of Wolves Summit, one of the premier tech and innovation conferences held in Central and Eastern Europe, twice a year.

You’ll hear he managed to not only steer the business to safety but has used COVID’s impact to accelerate his business’ international expansion. You’ll also learn about the future of the events business, the importance of maintaining self-care while building a company, and the unusual method he’s discovered to help him recharge.

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On this episode of L(a)unch Stories, I speak to Emi Gal, Co-Founder and CEO of Ezra, a US-based healthcare tech startup that enables early cancer detection using MRI and AI.

You’ll hear how built his first startup, Brainient, into one of Europe’s leading ad-tech companies, what he’s learned from launching a business in three radically different startup ecosystems, and what it means to create a purpose-driven company.

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On this episode of L(a)unch Stories, you’ll hear from Julien Coustaury, Founding Partner of Fil Rouge Capital – about how he became an entrepreneur and investor after building international mobile companies, and how this experience changed his mindset.

You’ll also learn what he looks for in a startup team when making an investment. Finally, you’ll hear how Julien met Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Brian Chesky, and what role culture plays in building a successful global business.

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