Louise Maunoir, Director Europe at Sigma, bridges European and Chinese entrepreneurial ecosystems through community building and fellowship programs, drawing on her diverse background from creating carbon credit systems for 3,000 Egyptian farmers (generating €4.8 million in carbon credit value) to microfinance work in Kenya and founding her own venture-backed startup that she closed earlier this year after exactly two and a half years. Based in Switzerland with business and sustainability expertise, Louise discovered her passion for China through pure curiosity - taking flights without predetermined plans to understand what she describes as a "black box" ecosystem that operates at remarkable speed, where "a robot can be built in 48 hours because everything is close to each other." Her China Fellowship, developed with collaborator Catherine, provides European founders with week-long immersions to decode Chinese business systems, covering everything from hardware manufacturing and engineering hiring to fundraising and visa processes across key hubs like Shenzhen (manufacturing), Shanghai (tech), Beijing (AI/robotics), and Guangzhou. As Sigma's Europe Director, Louise tailors community programming to different regional maturity levels - hosting advanced events in fast-paced London while supporting earlier-stage founders in countries like Poland, where entrepreneurship battles cultural resistance and parental disapproval, noting the importance of creating founder-friendly ecosystems in underrepresented hubs like Budapest, Italy's Bocconi network, and Madrid. Louise co-founded the Gossip Group angel group with Linda Cheng to democratise investing knowledge and support impact-driven founders, defining impact broadly as "anything that doesn't have negative consequences for the planet" while creating structured deal flow and educational events. Her networking philosophy transformed from business school awkwardness to realising "networking is just making friends and helping each other," emphasising that exceptional communities like Sigma enable 2am crisis calls about firing decisions or fundraising challenges among like-minded builders. Louise anticipates returning to startup building within 18 months once she feels "the itch that it's not possible to do anything else," currently managing multiple initiatives between Sigma community growth, China bridge-building, and angel investing while maintaining her core belief that great people enable unlimited possibilities.