the found podcast

Hugo Paquin and Kyrylo Korsun
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Hamburg is building something. These are the people doing it. Every month, Hugo and Kyrylo sit down with the founders, operators, and investors shaping Hamburg's startup scene. Honest conversations. Real stories. The stuff that doesn't make it into the press release.

Episodes

  1. Jun 22

    Alina Klarner — Building Impact Startups, Rethinking VC & Avoiding *ssholes

    Alina Klarner is the founding partner and GP of Impact Shakers Ventures, a €20M early-stage fund backing diverse founders tackling climate, social inclusion, and impact infrastructure across Europe. Impact Shakers has invested in 25 startups across eight countries and catalysed nearly five times the capital it deployed through co-investors including General Catalyst, World Fund, and European family offices — all built on a flywheel of community and ecosystem building. Before impact, Alina spent over a decade in private equity — which she then left in 2020 after investing a first £850 angel check to back five female founders. She never looked back. In this episode, we also talk about: 🔹 Her definition of impact — systemic change rooted in lived experience, not chasing whatever wave is trending 🔹 "Impact or profit? Both. Always." — why she's tired of the false choice 🔹 The stealth gigafactory in Northern Germany that's profitable on a fraction of Northvolt's funding 🔹 Why she runs "a very strict no-assholes rule" now that the fund is her own 🔹 Why VC isn't the only path — grants, angels, revenue-based and steward-ownership funding are some of the many examples Where to find Alina: LinkedIn: Impact Shakers: Where to find found: Newsletter: https://www.foundhamburg.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundhamburgKyrylo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrylokorsunHugo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugopaquinIn this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Alina Klarner & Impact Shakers (02:08) From private equity to impact — the 2020 leap (02:50) "Putting the first euro on the table is the hardest" (03:31) Doing all the work while the PE guys made the decisions (04:51) Meeting Yonca on LinkedIn & a year of "co-founder dating" (05:32) How the fund works — the community-capital flywheel (06:53) Defining impact: systemic change rooted in lived experience (08:13) "Impact or profit? Both" — killing the false choice (08:53) Is impact just a label that comes and goes? (10:58) The state of impact in 2026 — "a phase of growing up" (11:55) Hamburg's momentum & the new House of AI (12:59) Community as a business lever, not just a nice-to-have (14:21) How a remote fund builds real connection — retreats & residencies (15:43) Why Spain — and the last three investments (17:04) The European impact map: UK, Germany, Spain (18:27) What makes her invest: "the people" (19:07) "If you're not in it with your full heart, we won't invest" (19:47) "Storytelling sounds very American" — the authenticity take (21:08) 90% of European exits are under €100M (21:48) A 16-year average time to exit — "that's insane" (23:09) Why spraying money across 90% failures "doesn't sit right" (23:49) "The goal is not VC funding. The goal is to build a business." (24:45) Hamburg's ecosystem: emerging, ambitious, challenger (25:53) Under-the-radar companies more people should know — Lignopure (27:14) The stealth gigafactory vs. Northvolt (29:57) Why every European country has its own impact specialism (30:39) "A strict no-assholes rule" (31:20) Impact Shakers' four-year plans & building the impact economy (32:41) AI two ways: impact for AI and AI for impact (35:26) Her #1 advice for impact founders (42:19) Beyond VC: grants, angels & revenue-based funding (43:45) "It's not a bad business — it's just not a match with VC" Referenced: Humara — physics-based software for waste-plant design (Impact Shakers led the €1.2M seed)Lignopure — lignin as an alternative to fossil-based materials (https://www.lignopure.com)Katapult Future Festival (Amsterdam) & The Drop (Malmö) — her no-panels event picks (https://katapultfuturefest.com)House of AI Hamburghttps://www.house-of.ai/hamburgZebra Investment Night https://hamburg.impacthub.net/zebra-investment-night/For inquiries about sponsoring the found podcast, email kyrylo@foundhamburg.com

    47 min

  2. May 27

    Fenja Vespermann — Why enterprise AI fails, working with Audi & Adidas, the cringe rule

    Fenja Vespermann is the co-founder and CEO of mimikry AI — a Hamburg-based studio building custom AI pipelines for enterprise creative production. In less than a year, she's worked with Audi, Adidas, and Otto Group. Without raising a single euro. Before mimikry, Fenja ran her own 3D animation agency. Then Corona hit, the studio closed, and she borrowed 15K from a friend to start over. In this conversation we discuss: 🔹 How she landed Audi, Meta, and Otto Group as a one-year-old bootstrapped company 🔹 Why she refuses to raise — "scale the money, not the people" 🔹 Her contrarian thesis: there is no AI tool, AI is just a technology 🔹 The night her studio shut down and she called her mom to say "I have no idea what to do" 🔹 Being mistaken for the PM, not the CEO Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:30) Why most enterprise AI deployments fail (06:10) "There is no AI tool — AI is just a technology" (08:00) Origin story: 3D animation, Corona, the studio shutting down (10:00) Borrowing 15K and getting into Midjourney's beta (17:00) Why standardizing client data is 40% of the work (19:00) Landing Audi, Meta, Otto Group, BMW, and Replit in year one (21:00) "Get over the cringe" — the go-to-market (24:30) Europe vs America: speed and risk appetite (28:30) Why Mimikry refuses to raise (30:00) "Stay as small as possible. Scale the money, not the people." (31:00) How an AI-native company actually works (ComfyUI, Claude Code) (33:30) VibeCon NYC and the Replit installation (40:40) Being a female CEO in a room full of men Find Fenja: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fenjavespermann Find mimikry AI: https://www.mimikry.ai Check out found: Newsletter: https://www.foundhamburg.com Kyrylo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrylokorsun Hugo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugopaquin

    44 min
  3. Iskender Dirik — Storymaxxxing, investing in Parloa, Hamburg tech scene

    Apr 26

    Iskender Dirik — Storymaxxxing, investing in Parloa, Hamburg tech scene

    Iskender Dirik is a German entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and tech executive with 20 years of experience in the digital world. He founded his first company at the age of 21 and built and exited a couple of tech startups afterwards. He is a prolific angel investor with dozens of investments, including in German AI unicorn Parloa. He led a €100M CVC Fund at Bauer Venture Partners and is currently a venture partner at leading European VC Earlybird. He also founded and led ‘’Microsoft ScaleUp" in Berlin and led Europe for Samsung NEXT, Samsung’s global startup and innovation unit, and was the head of Wix Germany. Besides his enthusiasm for tech, Iskender is also known for being a design-lover and creative mind. He is a regular content writer and contributor and known for publishing thought-leadership articles around AI, technology, startups, venture capital, impactful presentations, marketing and leadership principles. — In this episode, we discuss: 🔹 How he knew within 2 minutes that the founder of German AI unicorn Parloa was special 🔹 From humble beginnings in a Turkish household in Wilhelmsburg to building and selling multiple tech businesses 🔹 Going from being an extreme introvert to pitching in front of thousands at OMR 🔹 The rise of storymaxxxing and the importance of style and sending the right signals in business 🔹 Co-founding 2hearts, Germany’s largest tech community for people from immigration background — Where to find Iskender: LinkedIn: /iskenderdirikWebsite: id.vcDealMacher Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Th7rV4JGpGdKEn839KIMq— Links to found Hamburg: Newsletter: https://www.foundhamburg.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundhamburg/Hugo’s LinkedIn: /hugopaquin Kyrylo’s LinkedIn: /kyrylokorsun — Referenced: Iskender’s LinkedIn post about the classic business outfit: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7419670877237133312/ His website where he whimsically lists all the mispronunciations of his name: iamiskender.com2hearts: www.2heartscommunity.com

    1 hr
  • 3 Episodes

About

Hamburg is building something. These are the people doing it. Every month, Hugo and Kyrylo sit down with the founders, operators, and investors shaping Hamburg's startup scene. Honest conversations. Real stories. The stuff that doesn't make it into the press release.

Information

  • Creator
    Hugo Paquin and Kyrylo Korsun
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Hugo Paquin and Kyrylo Korsun
  • Show Website
    the found podcast