Campus To Capital

Julius Ambrosius and Konstantin Girst
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Think past Consensus.

  1. 3d ago

    #31 Jacob Houlberg - Co-Founder of Evertrace on Data-Driven Venture Capital & the Future of Deal Sourcing

    What if every VC had access to the same deals? Evertrace is building the infrastructure to make that increasingly close to reality. For episode 31 we sat down with Jacob Houlberg, Co-Founder of Evertrace, the Copenhagen-based startup helping early-stage investors detect founders and companies before they show up in traditional startup databases. Evertrace monitors signals across trade registries, GitHub, patents, research grants, domains and more to identify potentially VC-backable companies as early as possible. Today, more than 250 VC funds use the platform. But the conversation went far beyond sourcing. We talked about: > Why Jacob believes sourcing should not be a competitive advantage in VC and what happens when access to deals becomes table stakes > How Evertrace processes thousands of signals every week to find companies before they become obvious > Why company formation remains one of the strongest signals of founder intentionality > Building Evertrace with a team of just three, while acquiring and integrating multiple competitors along the way > Why fully automated VC investing is much harder than quant investing in public markets > Media, data or track record: what actually gets a fund into the best pre-seed rounds? – Why Evertrace is increasingly moving toward APIs and MCP and why Jacob would be perfectly happy if nobody used their interface in a few years > What systematically tracking stealth founders taught him after moving from investor to operator A conversation about what happens when finding companies becomes infrastructure, and VCs are forced to compete on what comes next: judgment, reputation and actually helping founders. Thanks a lot, Jacob, for joining us!

    #31 Jacob Houlberg - Co-Founder of Evertrace on Data-Driven Venture Capital & the Future of Deal Sourcing

  2. Aug 27

    #30 - Philipp Baumanns, Co-Founder & COO at Telli on Reinventing How Companies Talk to Customers

    In EP 30, we sit down with Philipp Baumanns, Co-Founder & COO at Telli, the YC-backed company rethinking how businesses run customer-facing operations. The idea started from a very practical problem. While helping build Enpal’s heat pump business, Philipp and his co-founder saw teams repeat the same qualification, booking, and follow-up calls thousands of times. Most of the surrounding workflow had already been digitized. The actual customer conversation had not. We discuss how Telli went from a few early pilot customers to serving large enterprises, why the team initially focused on outbound use cases, and what it takes to build infrastructure that can handle thousands of calls at scale. Philipp also explains where Telli sees its real moat beyond the underlying voice models, why time-to-value matters as much as model quality, and why the long-term opportunity goes far beyond phone calls. The bigger ambition is to become the layer through which companies manage customer interactions across voice, WhatsApp, SMS, and eventually even personal agents. We also talk about Telli’s internal tech stack, why coding tools are becoming a major cost line next to engineering salaries, how the company thinks about outcome-based pricing, what high-agency hiring actually looks like, and which conversations Philipp still believes should remain human. A conversation about building from lived pain, scaling into a crowded market, and how the interface between companies and consumers may change over the next few years.

    #30 - Philipp Baumanns, Co-Founder & COO at Telli on Reinventing How Companies Talk to Customers

  3. Jun 24

    #29 Christian Meermann - Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures on Backing Europe’s Next Generation of Companies

    What does it take to identify exceptional founders before the numbers exist, and win the right to back them in an increasingly competitive venture market? In Episode 29, we sit down with Christian Meermann, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures . Christian shares how scaling Zalando across Europe shaped his view on growth, brand, distribution, and company building. We discuss how Cherry evaluates more than 10,000 startups each year, why team remains one of the most important investment criterion, and what separates genuine resilience from a strong-looking CV. We also explore Cherry’s operator-led approach and how the fund supports founders with hiring, communications, fundraising, and execution. The conversation covers Europe’s AI opportunity, sovereign infrastructure, hypergrowth valuations, technical founders, and why business graduates need deeper technical understanding in an AI-native world. Many thanks to Christian for such an insightful conversation!!

    #29 Christian Meermann - Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures on Backing Europe’s Next Generation of Companies

  4. Jun 10

    #28 Dennis May - Chief of Staff at Peec AI on Building at Hypergrowth Speed

    What does it take to outpace a wave of well-funded competitors and build one of the fastest-growing AI startups? In Episode 28, we sit down with Dennis May, former Associate at Lakestar and now Chief of Staff at Peec AI, one of Germany’s fastest-growing AI startups. Dennis shares why he left venture capital to join the operator side, what convinced him to bet on Peec, and what the Chief of Staff role looks like inside a company scaling at exceptional speed. We discuss Peec’s journey from zero to €10 million ARR, its expansion into New York, and how the company is helping brands understand and improve their visibility across AI search engines. We also explore the shift from traditional SEO to Generative Engine Optimization, the defensibility of AI application-layer companies, AI-native workflows, hiring at hypergrowth startups, and the reality behind Peec’s high-intensity culture. Dennis also reflects on what he learned moving from investor to operator and shares his advice for founders trying to build something truly ambitious. Many thanks to Dennis for joining us.

    #28 Dennis May - Chief of Staff at Peec AI on Building at Hypergrowth Speed

  5. May 27

    #27 Maximilian Meyer - CMO of Scalable Capital on Building Europe’s Next Investment Culture

    Why do nearly half of European household assets still sit in cash while retail investors in the US continue compounding wealth through the markets? This week we sat down with Maximilian Meyer, Chief Marketing Officer of Scalable Capital, one of Europe’s leading investment platforms with more than one million clients and over €50 billion in assets. Before joining Scalable, Max founded his own startup in his early twenties and later worked at Fidelity International, giving him a perspective that combines entrepreneurship, institutional finance, and modern fintech growth. In this conversation, we explore how Scalable is trying to change investing behavior across Europe - not just through products, but through branding, education, and cultural relevance. We talk about: ​Why Europe still struggles with a deeply rooted cash-saving culture​Building trust in financial services and making investing accessible​The psychology behind retail investing and first-time investors​Scalable’s bold billboard campaigns and the strategy behind controversy​Why out-of-home advertising still matters in a digital world​The role of YouTube, finfluencers, and financial education​Expanding a fintech brand across different European markets​AI, personalization, and the future of financial communicationMany thanks to Max for the insightful conversation.

    #27 Maximilian Meyer - CMO of Scalable Capital on Building Europe’s Next Investment Culture

  6. May 15

    #26 David Stålmarck - Co-Founder & CTO of Atech on Building the “Lovable for Hardware”

    Why is hardware still dramatically harder to build than software? This week we sat down with David Stålmarck, Co-Founder & CTO of Atech, one of the most exciting early-stage hardware startups coming out of Scandinavia right now. Backed by Lovable, Nordic Makers, Emblem, and scout-linked capital connected to Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz, Atech is tackling a problem that has existed for decades: while software has gone through massive abstraction waves, hardware development is still constrained by complexity, tooling, and long iteration cycles. In this conversation, we explore whether hardware could go through a similar transformation to software, and what happens if building physical products suddenly becomes dramatically more accessible. We talk about: Why hardware never experienced the same abstraction wave as softwareThe biggest bottlenecks in modern hardware developmentWhy "Hackathon Maxxing" and Building in Public is KeyBuilding a software-like UX for physical productsThe role of AI in hardware developmentPhysical AI, robotics, and the next computing waveWorking with Lovable and lessons from modern developer toolsThe realities of building a deep-tech startup in EuropeMany thanks to David for the highly technical and thoughtful conversation. Now available on all major platforms.

    #26 David Stålmarck - Co-Founder & CTO of Atech on Building the “Lovable for Hardware”

  7. May 7

    #25 Niels Martin Brøchner - Founder of Paradox on Organizational Intelligence, Context Fragmentation & the Future of Enterprise Software

    Why are organizations still structured around management principles that are thousands of years old? This week we sat down with Niels Martin Brøchner, Founder of Paradox, a Danish startup building what might become one of the most ambitious infrastructure layers in enterprise software. Backed by SpeedInvest and already working with leading Danish companies, Paradox is tackling a problem most organizations feel every day but rarely describe clearly: context fragmentation -> the idea that meaning, priorities, and understanding drift as information moves through layers of an organization. Instead of building another productivity tool, Paradox is trying to fundamentally rethink how companies align, communicate, and make decisions. In this conversation, we explore what happens when organizations move beyond static workflows and toward continuously connected organizational intelligence. We talk about: Why most companies still operate on outdated organizational structures The hidden cost of context fragmentation inside large organizations What Paradox and Apppa actually do in practice The idea behind the “Organizational World Model” Why enterprise alignment is becoming one of the biggest software opportunities The overlap between AI, knowledge systems, and leadership Trust, security, and handling highly sensitive organizational data How AI could fundamentally reshape leadership and decision-making Building deep-tech enterprise software in Europe Advice for students and young founders entering tech Many thanks to Niels for the thoughtful and highly ambitious conversation. Now available on all major platforms.

    #25 Niels Martin Brøchner - Founder of Paradox on Organizational Intelligence, Context Fragmentation & the Future of Enterprise Software

  8. Apr 24

    #24 Yerrie Kim - Executive Director of CSE on Research, Entrepreneurship and Long-Term Impact

    What happens when universities move beyond teaching entrepreneurship and start shaping it? This week we sat down with Yerrie Kim, who holds degrees from Harvard and MIT and has worked across finance, consulting, and venture building, before recently taking on the role of Executive Director at the Copenhagen School of Entrepreneurship. At CSE, the ambition is not to replicate a VC fund or accelerator. Instead, it operates at the intersection of research, education and entrepreneurship; supporting founders while staying grounded in academic thinking and long-term impact. In this conversation, we explore what that actually looks like in practice, and where universities can play a more meaningful role in building companies and ecosystems. We talk about: What differentiates university entrepreneurship from VC and accelerators The role of research in shaping entrepreneurial thinking Why US universities continue to outperform in producing top innovators Whether business schools risk losing relevance in the age of AI and deep tech How to prepare founders for increasingly competitive venture environments Europe’s ambition to strengthen its innovation ecosystem Making entrepreneurship accessible beyond the “already entrepreneurial” Many thanks to Yerrie for the thoughtful and forward-looking conversation. 🎧 Now available on all major platforms.

    #24 Yerrie Kim - Executive Director of CSE on Research, Entrepreneurship and Long-Term Impact
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About

Think past Consensus.

Information

  • Creator
    Julius Ambrosius and Konstantin Girst
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Julius Ambrosius and Konstantin Girst
  • Show Website
    Campus To Capital

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