Innovation and Private Capital x aulium

Thomas Viguier

Conversations with the people shaping private capital. Jump into the world of Private Markets. Your front-row seat into the world of private capital. We’ll be sitting down with top investors and industry-leading executives across sectors, unpacking the strategies, stories, and mindsets that drive private equity and beyond. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, dealmaker, or just curious about how capital really moves, this is your chance to listen in on the conversations shaping the future of business.

  1. 3d ago

    Can Europe Win Energy Sovereignty? Anna Teyssot (Exergon) on Nuclear, Batteries and Scale-Up Risk

    Europe's energy gap is widening as electrification and data centers add demand faster than the grid can deliver, and Anna Teyssot of Exergon argues that innovation, not fossil fuels, has to close it. In this conversation, Anna Teyssot explains why Exergon invests in new nuclear, batteries and AI-powered energy efficiency. She walks through what it takes to launch a European gigafactory, from anchoring a first client to prototyping a full-size cell, and contrasts Verkor's focused approach with Northvolt's vertically integrated ambition. She also covers how early-stage capital in long-cycle hardware can be de-risked and sold on to later investors, and why growth rounds remain a structural bottleneck in Europe. 🔋 Why a gigafactory needs an anchor client and a proven in-house cell, and how Northvolt took on too many projects and sites at the same time ⚛️ How a venture fund reconciles long-maturing reactor technology with a fund life the host frames as 10-12 years: back the supply chain, de-risk, and exit through secondaries or strategic buyers 📊 Why technical due diligence is about founder mindset and stress-testing systems in the worst conditions, not just checklists 💸 The Series B gap in Europe and the role the Scale Up Europe fund may play 🇪🇺 Why local-content regulation on batteries can be a competitive advantage that the US lacks Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    Can Europe Win Energy Sovereignty? Anna Teyssot (Exergon) on Nuclear, Batteries and Scale-Up Risk

  2. 5d ago

    How Do You Lead a Team When Nobody Teaches CEOs? - Emeric Ernoult (Agorapulse)

    Most founders wait for a magic operator to rescue them from managing people, and Emeric Ernoult of Agorapulse argues that person does not exist. So what should a CEO do instead? In this conversation, Emeric Ernoult draws on his book Chief Accountability Officer to argue that leading a team is the real work of entrepreneurship, yet no business school teaches it. He explains why hiring breaks long before the interview, why "hire fast, fire fast" is poor advice, and why "A players" is a misleading label. He also shares how he decides when persistence turns into stubbornness, and why he believes rocket-ship growth owes more to luck than to skill. Along the way he covers how to define quality content in an age of AI-generated overload. 🎯 Define what success looks like in a role one year out, then use it to filter candidates and shape onboarding ⏳ Hiring without diligence and then firing fast does not work, because a C-level hire needs at least six months to judge, with real outcomes often taking six to nine 📊 Score team members from one to five on how hard you would fight to keep them, and hold the conversation early when a score drops 🚀 Rocket-ship growth depends on timing, partners, and industry choice, so steady progress is a sounder gauge for continuing than ambition alone ✍️ Quality content starts with a narrow audience and high volume of practice, a point central to the Archie product Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    How Do You Lead a Team When Nobody Teaches CEOs? - Emeric Ernoult (Agorapulse)

  3. Oct 2

    Does AI Force Lawyers to Defend Against AI? - Michael Grupp (Bryter)

    AI is forcing lawyers to fight AI. As Michael Grupp puts it, "vibe lawyering" has arrived — clients now generate hundred-page legal opinions using ChatGPT, and legal teams need their own AI tools just to defend against the flood. The question is no longer whether law firms adopt AI assistants, but whether they can afford not to. Grupp co-founded Bryter as a no-code automation platform for legal workflows, raised around $90 million, then had to pivot when generative AI changed everything. The original thesis — that every lawyer would build their own digital apps — proved wrong. Only legal engineers and ops teams actually build. So Bryter launched BEAMON, a mid-market AI assistant now used by over 17,000 lawyers across continental Europe. The discussion explores why seat-based pricing may not survive, why procurement has become irrational (firms buy AI as an employee perk, not an ROI play), and why winning in legal tech today means radical focus — integrating with niche practice-management systems, building region-specific research databases, and competing on speed and transparency rather than brand. **Key Discussion Points:** 🎯 The legal AI market is fragmenting — horizontal giants dominate headlines, but mid-market and vertical players are thriving by solving specific problems in overlooked geographies and practice areas. 💰 Pricing will shift from per-seat to usage or outcome-based models as token costs rise and firms demand alignment between vendor value and what they pay. ⚖️ "Vibe lawyering" is real — AI-generated legal content forces the other side to adopt AI defensively, leveling the playing field rather than creating lasting competitive advantage. 🇪🇺 Europe's values (job security, work-life balance, regulatory protection) are both a strength and a constraint — the continent must change without abandoning what makes it livable. 🚀 Founders should stop thinking two years ahead — in fast-moving markets, decisions made today have measurable impact within three months. Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    Does AI Force Lawyers to Defend Against AI? - Michael Grupp (Bryter)

  4. Oct 1

    How Does Porelio Filter Forever Chemicals From Water? - Rhea Machado (Porelio)

    Rhodium costs €240,000 per kilogram — the price of a small apartment in Berlin — and today's filtration materials are often more expensive than the metals they're designed to recover. That economic paradox has kept breakthrough adsorption technology trapped in academic labs for decades, unable to scale for industrial use. Rhea Machado, co-founder and CEO of Porelio, explains how her team cracked the production problem that has plagued functionalized ordered mesoporous silica (FOMS) materials. Originally developed for catalysis research at BasCat, the joint BASF–TU Berlin lab, these nano-scale silica structures offer 400–800 square meters of internal surface area per gram and can be engineered with chemical "arms" that selectively bind target molecules. Porelio's innovation isn't the material itself — it's a scalable, cost-effective manufacturing process that makes industrial deployment viable. The company is targeting two markets: PFAS removal from wastewater, where short-chain "forever chemicals" slip through activated carbon filters, and precious metal recovery from pharmaceutical and chemical process streams. Both applications hinge on the same principle — designing surface functionality to capture specific molecules while leaving everything else untouched. **Key Discussion Points:** 🧪 Why adsorption materials have been stuck in the lab — producing at €50,000/kg makes even palladium recovery uneconomical 🌊 The PFAS challenge — ultra-short chains like TFA require a polishing step beyond activated carbon ⚙️ Scaling chemical production — the €2–3M pathway from pilot plant to multi-ton commercial output 🔬 Product-market fit in process chemistry — why trust and shared economics matter more than spec sheets 💰 Metal recovery economics — how concentrating trace rhodium or palladium from liquid streams unlocks recycling value Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    How Does Porelio Filter Forever Chemicals From Water? - Rhea Machado (Porelio)

  5. Sep 24

    Damping Earthquakes From the Roof - Alberto Bussini (ISAAC Global)

    Most buildings designed to current seismic codes are built to save lives — not to remain functional after an earthquake. Alberto Bussini explains why that standard leaves thousands of structures unusable even when they don't collapse, and how active mass dampers installed on rooftops can change that equation. The conversation unpacks the technical and commercial journey of bringing structural protection to existing buildings — a market far larger than new construction but historically neglected by innovation. Bussini walks through the engineering challenges of reducing mass, ensuring power redundancy, and proving reliability in real-world deployments. He also contrasts the regulatory environments of Europe and the US, explaining why California's performance-based codes and appetite for alternate methods make it a more attractive early market than Italy, despite Europe's strong technical talent and university research. 🏗️ Active mass dampers reduce seismic demand by 70–90%, using motors and software to adapt the same hardware across different building types 🇺🇸 US alternate-means-and-methods codes allow faster adoption of novel systems compared to Europe's prescriptive standards 💰 Non-invasive rooftop installation avoids evacuation and downtime, cutting total retrofit cost by up to 4× versus traditional strengthening 📊 Sales cycles in infrastructure run 10–24 months; success depends on tight collaboration with structural engineers, owners, and contractors 🌍 Applications extend beyond seismics to wind-induced oscillation in towers, concert vibrations, and telecom infrastructure Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    Damping Earthquakes From the Roof - Alberto Bussini (ISAAC Global)

  6. Sep 22

    Why Family-Owned Food Firms Are Better Than Tech Startups - Josef Brunner (NutriUnited)

    Josef Brunner built and sold multiple tech companies before retiring—only to discover retirement was a terrible mistake. His solution? Enter the fragmented German food industry through succession-starved family businesses, using roll-up mechanics as a tool to build a vertically integrated food champion. What sounds like an unconventional pivot is actually a calculated play on market structure, aging ownership, and the limits of tech-first strategies in traditional industries. Brunner explains why family-owned food businesses with strong margins and decades of legacy often have no succession plan, creating an acquisition opportunity that combines substance with speed. He walks through his first deal—convincing two brothers to accept equity in a company worth nothing on paper—and why he deliberately avoids commodity products, instead targeting niche brands that large players can't easily replicate. The conversation also covers why Brunner keeps his management team at six people, why he refuses to use PowerPoint, and how he applies founder mode without sacrificing delegation. He discusses the role of AI in process optimization and M&A due diligence, the danger of thinking about exits, and why he believes the truth sits in the shelf, not in what customers say they want. Key discussion points: 🍷 Why ego is less of a problem in traditional industries than in tech, and how wine helps build trust with sellers 🎯 The financial and human filters Brunner uses to vet acquisitions—and why above-average profitability for a decade signals a hidden edge 📊 How Brunner built a local Claude model to crunch financials and generate earnout structures without exposing confidential data 🚫 Why advisory boards are meaningless unless participants have skin in the game ⚖️ The difference between being a household name and being systemically important—and why only the latter matters Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    Why Family-Owned Food Firms Are Better Than Tech Startups - Josef Brunner (NutriUnited)

  7. Sep 17

    Why Buying a Business Beats Starting One – Gytenis Galkis (SuperHero Capital)

    Most entrepreneurs dream of building something from scratch — but what if the smarter path is buying a business that already works, modernizing it, and reaping the returns? Gytenis Galkis explores how search funds and entrepreneurship through acquisition are reshaping the European venture landscape. The conversation unpacks the concept of "founder market fit" — the idea that at pre-seed stage, investors aren't betting on a product but on whether the founder's background, network, and deep domain knowledge position them to crack a specific market. Galkis contrasts the venture model, where nine out of ten bets fail, with the emerging search fund strategy: backing talented operators to acquire profitable, under-managed businesses in sectors ranging from industrial suppliers to car rental marketplaces. He argues that Europe's succession crisis — hundreds of thousands of businesses owned by aging founders with no succession plan — presents a massive, under-explored opportunity for a new generation of entrepreneurs who may lack the capital to start from zero but have the expertise to professionalize and scale. **Key Discussion Points:** 🎯 Founder market fit matters more than product at pre-seed — investors evaluate baggage, not promises 🚗 Search funds enable entrepreneurship through acquisition, not just startup creation — buying a "used car" can outperform building a new one 📞 CallStream is betting that telcos will integrate AI transcription and CRM automation directly into phone calls, unlocking value for small business owners 🇱🇹 Lithuania saw 8% growth in millionaires last year — the fastest rate globally — driven by a maturing startup ecosystem 🔄 Roll-up strategies in fragmented, analog industries offer outsized returns when paired with basic professionalization, not just AI Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    Why Buying a Business Beats Starting One – Gytenis Galkis (SuperHero Capital)

  8. Sep 16

    Europe Created the Energy Transition. Can It Scale It? - Jan Lozek (Future Energy Ventures)

    The European energy system currently utilizes only 30% of its distribution grid capacity on most days — a structural inefficiency that software and AI can unlock without laying a single new cable. Jan Lozek explains how intelligence and orchestration technologies are solving grid bottlenecks, accelerating renewable connections, and saving Europe trillions in fossil fuel dependency. This conversation unpacks Future Energy Ventures' thesis: that the hardware for decarbonization already exists, but the missing layer is software to manage, flex, and coordinate distributed energy assets at scale. Lozek walks through real portfolio examples — from digital twins that find hidden grid capacity to fiber-optic monitoring that increases transmission throughput by 20% — and argues that venture capital's role in energy has shifted from funding new hardware to enabling smarter systems. He also addresses the tension between impact narratives and return expectations, the structural challenges of exiting climate tech in a down market, and why European LPs no longer accept concessionary returns for "noble" investments. 🔌 Why grid connection times of 5–10 years create massive opportunities for software solutions ⚡ How virtual power plants aggregate distributed solar, batteries, and EVs to create flexible capacity 📊 The role of people due diligence: a psychologist interviews founding teams and scores dynamics before investment 💰 Secondary markets in 2024–25: GP-led and LP-led structures as liquidity mechanisms when exit windows close 🇪🇺 Europe as the inventor of the energy transition — and why fragmentation remains both asset and obstacle Subscribe to Aulium for more conversations on innovation and private capital.

    Europe Created the Energy Transition. Can It Scale It? - Jan Lozek (Future Energy Ventures)
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Conversations with the people shaping private capital. Jump into the world of Private Markets. Your front-row seat into the world of private capital. We’ll be sitting down with top investors and industry-leading executives across sectors, unpacking the strategies, stories, and mindsets that drive private equity and beyond. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, dealmaker, or just curious about how capital really moves, this is your chance to listen in on the conversations shaping the future of business.

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