Venture Europe

Maximilian Kufner - co-founder and CEO of Again.Bio.

At Again they are using a millennia-old bacteria to turn CO2 emissions into clean sustainable products.

Last year they’ve raised ~ Eur 40m led by HV Capital and Google Ventures bringing the total raise to ~Eur 100m.

They are building bioreactors that capture harmful CO2 emissions at the point source, thus producing carbon negative chemicals in an energetically efficient process.

During this episode we discuss about his journey from being a venture capitalist investing in Again to joining as a co-founder, The differences between chemocatalysis and biocatalysys and why optimism and attitude is sometimes more important than skills.

Enjoy!

Mati Staniszewski, is the co-founder and CEO of ElevenLabs.

He shares how a pre-seed idea turned into a $6.6B AI company powering the future of voice.

We talk about how they cracked adding emotion to speech, real-time dubbing, watermarking for trust, and building one of the most influential startups in AI.

He also gives some info on behind the scenes of Lex Fridman’s interview with India’s PM and how ElevenLabs is giving thousands their voices back.

We recorded this exceptional episode at the Italian Tech Week in Torino.

Sponsored by ⁠ValueAdd⁠ - AI enrichment and search on your professional network.

Tom Wilson is a Partner at Seedcamp - the legendary seed fund, started in 2007 in Europe that has backed companies like Revolut, UiPath, Wise and wefox to name a few.

During this episode we discuss about the common traits of founders that have created multibillion eur in value, his learnings as he matured as an investor over the last 10 years, and the value proposition of Seedcamp to early stage founders.

Enjoy!

Dan Ariely is the bestselling author of Predictably Irrational and one of the world’s leading behavioral economists.

We explore why humans consistently make irrational choices, the hidden forces that shape our decisions, and what entrepreneurs can learn about pricing, perception, and context.

From his personal story of resilience after a life-changing accident to powerful experiments like the decoy effect and anchoring, Dan reveals why we’re “prisoners of our past choices” — and how to escape them.

If you’ve ever wondered why smart people make irrational decisions, or how psychology can transform business strategy, this conversation is for you.

Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more inspiring conversations!

Des Traynor, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Intercom, one of the most iconic SaaS companies to come out of Europe.

If you've ever messaged a company through a chat widget that actually worked, chances are you've used Intercom.

Des co-founded Intercom in 2011 in Dublin, and since then, the company has helped redefine how businesses talk to customers.

Today he leads Intercom's R&D team based in Dublin and London, but he's led many teams within the company including Product, Marketing, Customer Support, and Content. He is also a prolific investor in companies like Stripe, Miro, Notion and Hopin.

In this conversation, we dive into the moment when they realised the impact of AI on their business, the decision to build a new AI product even in the face of product Cannibalization and the importance of honest communication to the organization in face of high productivity gains, automations and potential job displacements.

Enjoy!

Our guest today is Maxime Barbier, co-founder and CEO of Timeleft.

They are organizing dinners for strangers. Imagine a sort of blind date with 5 other people while eating good food. Spicy!

Timeleft is now live in 320+ cities across 65 countries. Every Wednesday, more than 25,000 people gather in restaurants worldwide to share a meal and experience the joy of genuine human connection and they went from 0 to 16m Eur run rate in 18 months.

During this episode we discuss the return to "irl", the effects of social media and why you should go on a Timeleft experience.

Enjoy!

A comprehensive guide to personal cybersecurity, emphasizing the evolving threat landscape from mid-2024 to mid-2025, marked by unprecedented data exposures like the 16-billion credential "GOAT" leak.

We highlight the shift in risk from corporate servers to individual user devices, largely due to infostealer malware.

The document details major data breaches across various sectors, identifying common attack vectors such as supply chain vulnerabilities, insider threats, and the sophisticated evolution of ransomware.

Crucially, we outlines a modern password and authentication strategy, advocating for long, unique passphrases, the ubiquitous adoption of multi-factor authentication (MFA)—prioritizing hardware keys and authenticator apps—and the essential role of password managers as a "digital vault" for secure credential management.

Finally, we underline the importance of proactive breach monitoring through services like "Have I Been Pwned?", cultivating phishing awareness, diligent software updates, and securing home and public Wi-Fi networks to build robust digital resilience.

Two weeks ago, I was in New York for the Venture Intelligence day (organised by Vestberry) moderating a panel with some pretty savvy VCs — among them Left Lane Capital a spinoff from Insight Partners with $2B AuM, Galaxy Ventures with $1.5B AuM, and Angelini Ventures with $300M AuM.

The topic? Platform 2.0 — how VCs are going beyond capital to actually support founders.

We talked talent, playbooks, community, business development, growth — and what it really means to be ‘value-add’ in 2025.

This episode is the result of that trip. A deep dive into how the smartest firms are supercharging portfolio support — and what the future of venture capital looks like.

Curious how your VC firm can provide more valueadd? Visit valueadd.network and let's have a chat.

An in-depth look at the complex and often turbulent relationship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, focusing on its historical context and a significant public dispute in June 2025.

We chart the evolution from initial skepticism and pragmatic advisory roles to periods of strong public support and financial contributions, culminating in a dramatic falling out over a legislative bill.

We analyze the strategic use of their respective social media platforms, X and Truth Social, as battlegrounds for influence, highlighting their differing reaches and implications.

Ultimately, we explore the underlying motivations of ego, business interests, and political ambition that drive their interactions, along with the financial and broader political ramifications of their highly public conflicts.