2021 Bavarian U.S. Offices Podcast Series Bavarian U.S. Offices

In this episode, our Project Manager Lena Maria Ludwig sits down with Stephan Jacob— Founder & COO of Cotopaxi to talk about the journey of his direct-to-consumer, outdoor gear and apparel company. Giving and ‘Doing Good’ is core to the Cotopaxi model. They manufacture outdoor products and experiences to fund sustainable poverty alleviation. The company was founded in 2013, is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and opened a subsidiary in Bavaria in 2018.

In this episode, our Managing Director James E. Mister chats with Ravi Belani —Managing Director of Alchemist Accelerator, a venture-backed initiative focused on accelerating the development of early-stage ventures that monetize from enterprises. The conversation includes Alchemist’s journey over the better part of the last decade under Ravi’s leadership and a few of the more memorable turning points or milestones in that time —of course including the decision to expand their footprint to Europe.

In this episode, Project Associate Stefan Faistenauer chats with Francesco Wiedemann, Co-Founder of KYTE — a San Francisco and Munich-based startup disrupting the rental car industry. Francesco will focus on the corner pillars of KYTE’s journey from startup launch to the ongoing market expansion process. 
This direct-to-consumer fleet logistics platform has now launched in several U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Miami. Users can rent vehicles through KYTE and get them delivered right to where they are, be it their home, office, or the beach!

Our Project Manager, Lena Maria Ludwig, gets together with Jason Hirshman, Founder of Uncountable, to talk about his startup's journey, international expansion, and what needs to change in the AI industry.
Uncountable is a San Francisco and Munich-based startup with a focus on R&D acceleration across the materials and chemicals industry. Their platform helps scientists and product managers cut development time, reduce testing iterations, and find new innovative products faster. Founded in 2016, they expanded to Munich, Bavaria, in 2018.

We are excited to kick off this first episode “Operating at the Apex of AV Development” with our guest Dr. Jan Becker, President, CEO and Co-Founder of Apex.AI - a Silicon Valley startup which is building an operating system for autonomous vehicles to enable developers to successfully implement complex, safety-critical AI software and applications for autonomous mobility.
 
As an expert and leader in the Automated Driving and Robotics space, Jan has been innovating high-profile projects both in the US and Europe, including for Bosch and Stanford University. 
 
We are eager to learn more about his journey in the automated vehicle space and the opening of their European operations in Bavaria in 2019.