How Community and Communications Are Reshaping Venture Capital — with Hege Tollerud of BrightEye Ventures

In this episode of The Runway, we sit down with Hege Tollerud, Head of Community and Events at Brighteye Ventures — Europe’s leading edtech VC fund.

 With a rich background in journalism, media, and ecosystem building from Oslo to China to London, Hege shares how VC is evolving beyond just capital to include real human connection, community, and strategic support.

We dive into:

• Hege’s unique journey through media, city branding, and edtech leadership
• Why community and communications are now core to value creation in VC
• What founders should really be doing at startup events
• The role of storytelling in early-stage fundraising and brand building
• How BrightEye defines and supports the future of learning and work
• Emerging VC trends in platform, events, and content

Tune in for a fresh take on the future of venture capital, and what it means to build truly founder-centric ecosystems.

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Runway is a podcast started by Black Unicorn PR co-founders Julija Jegorova and Mauro Battellini to help startup founders, company builders and business leaders with insights, tools and advice from specialists in sales, marketing, PR and more.

Black Unicorn PR is a London-based tech PR agency focused on startups, scaleups and VC.

For more information visit: https://www.blackunicornpr.com/

For even more advice, especially on PR, visit the Black Unicorn PR blog