Selected - The Sesamers Podcast

Living Through Three Distinct Eras of Tech

Sacha began his tech career in the 1990s, recalling a time when he had to explain what an email was to friends and family before launching a Hotmail competitor called Latin Mail. After selling his first major company, Latin Red, right before the dot-com crash in 1999, he spent nearly a decade at Betfair during the rise of online gaming. He attributes the ultimate success of Glovo, which he co-founded in 2015, to the widespread adoption of the mobile phone.

The Brutal Lessons of Market Cycles and Focus

Selling a company right before a historic market crash taught Sacha the importance of keeping your feet on the ground. After his first big exit, he immediately launched four or five companies that all failed because he lacked a clear focus. He emphasizes that long-term startup success is rarely about having a unique idea, but rather about execution, perseverance, and being 150% dedicated to solving a problem.

The UX Evolution and Global Expansion of Glovo

When Glovo launched, competitors like Just Eat already held 95% of the Spanish market, but their model lacked live tracking and resulted in 20% of orders failing. Glovo changed the game by building a tech stack centered around an excellent user experience, real-time courier visibility, and multi-category delivery. This approach enabled them to scale across more than 20 countries and 1,500 cities, executing an aggressive international playbook driven by small, highly agile launching teams.

The Rise of Quick Commerce and SMEs

Sacha highlights that 90% of the 180,000 businesses utilizing Glovo today are small and medium enterprises. He believes that local retailers have a distinct competitive advantage over massive e-commerce giants like Amazon because they are physically close to urban consumers. This proximity enables 30 minute delivery times, positioning quick commerce as the fastest growing sector of digital retail over the next decade.

Investing as an Active Operator with Yellow VC

Following Glovo's 2.3 billion euro acquisition by Delivery Hero in 2022, Sacha and his co-founder Oscar Pierre launched Yellow VC to back pre-seed and seed stage software startups across Europe. Sacha strongly believes that full-time investors quickly lose touch with reality. By remaining active executives at Glovo, they leverage real-time insights from navigating the current AI revolution directly to the startups they fund.

Nurturing Talent and the "Glovo House" Ecosystem

More than 100 startups have already been launched by former Glovo employees. Rather than trying to fight employee turnover, Glovo actively embraces and incentivizes entrepreneurship through an internal program called Glovo House. The initiative provides departing talent with mentorship, business plan reviews, network access, and early pre-seed crowdfunding from other alumni.

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From Early Computer Vision to the Commoditization of AI

Ramzi traces his tech roots back to co-founding the mobile photography platform EyeEm in 2010. To scale the curation and licensing of millions of photos, his team built early computer vision and machine learning models starting in 2013. While EyeEm once out-benchmarked tech giants like Google and Microsoft, Ramzi notes that the underlying technology has since become completely commoditized.

Redefining Creativity in the Age of Generative AI 

Ahead of his VDS panel on content creation, Ramzi shares his view that generative AI exposes human hubris regarding what makes us "special". Rather than simply enhancing or replacing human creativity, AI forces us to redefine it. He argues that while machines can mimic the technical execution of Beethoven or the Beatles, art forms like music and literature will remain human domains because they are fundamentally shared cultural experiences.

Why Traditional SaaS Is Dead (and What Excites Him Instead)

As an investor, Ramzi actively avoids traditional AI SaaS startups, believing that AI isn't just augmenting software: it is entirely replacing it. Instead, he is energized by the intersection of advanced computation and massive data sets being used to solve "impossible" problems, predicting that AI will help unlock the human brain, map the microbiome, and cure cancer within the next decade.

Investing Through Critical Systems and Human Obsession

At Work in Progress Capital, Ramzi backs engineers and scientists upgrading or resilient-proofing critical infrastructure like healthcare, energy, and defense. Because he invests at the earliest stages, his evaluation is highly qualitative. He looks for obsessive, passionate founders with a "chip on their shoulder" who have a deeply personal reason to survive the bleakest moments of building a company.

The Brutal Reality of Raising a Venture Capital Fund

Transitioning from a successful angel investor to a first-time solo GP managing a $10M fund has been an immense grind. Ramzi pulls back the curtain on the fundraising process, highlighting the challenges of securing institutional backers for a first-time fund. Driven by a desire to fix misalignment in VC, he uses his operational founder background to share industry economics openly with early-stage teams.

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Henrietta Hearth’s path to venture capital began with a deep interest in nutrition and public health. After realizing the limitations of public health campaigns, she pivoted to the corporate world, launching over 100 products at firms like Danone and L’Oréal. Her transition into venture capital came via an MBA and a desire to drive meaningful change in the food ecosystem, ultimately leading her to Big Idea Ventures where she set up their European operations in Paris.

Henrietta explains that 30% of global emissions are linked to food, especially meat and dairy, making alternative protein a key climate solution. But beyond sustainability, alt-proteins tap into health and ethical concerns too. While the sector has suffered from overvaluation, like the now-cautionary tale of Beyond Meat, Henrietta argues there's still strong potential if companies focus on taste, affordability, and customer satisfaction.

Some of the most promising innovations in food tech today combine scientific rigor with user-centric design. Henrietta points to Gourmey, a cell-based foie gras startup in Big Idea Ventures’ portfolio, as a standout example of aligning tradition, taste, and ethics. She also highlights the emerging role of AI in food R&D, citing companies like New Wave Biotech, which are using machine learning to speed up product development, especially in precision fermentation.

While Henrietta sees AI as a valuable tool, she urges founders and investors alike not to get lost in the buzz. Real impact still comes from solving core problems, like child malnutrition or the lack of innovation in infant nutrition. She expresses a desire to see more startups tackling urgent global issues, particularly in underserved markets, where food tech can truly make a life-or-death difference.

Henrietta stresses the importance of founders building companies around real customer problems, not just investor narratives. Many early-stage companies focus too much on raising funds instead of validating product-market fit. Whether the end customer is a family or a large food corporation, the key to long-term success is solving meaningful, scalable problems.

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Nicolas’s journey began with a first-hand experience in Bolivia, where he witnessed the environmental impact of industrial meat production and deforestation. This planted the seed for a mission-driven career focused on sustainable food. After stints in both corporate and nonprofit sectors, he became convinced that cell-cultivated meat could offer a breakthrough solution - if it could deliver on taste, scale, and affordability.

Instead of competing immediately with commodity meats, Gourmey launched with cultivated foie gras - a premium, high-margin product that addressed a real market gap due to supply chain volatility and regulation. This choice allowed the company to prove the viability of its tech without having to undercut traditional meat prices from the outset. By addressing an underserved culinary segment, Gourmey established credibility with chefs and customers alike.

Gourmey has raised over €60 million and grown to a team of 50+ people. Nicolas emphasized the importance of working with mission-aligned investors who understand the long road of deep tech development. With their latest cost analysis showing production prices as low as €5-€7 per kilo, the company is entering a new phase where cultivated meat could move beyond fine dining into broader markets. This opens the door to massive potential impact in the $2 trillion meat industry.

Consumer acceptance is rising, even before widespread availability. Gourmey's strategy includes launching in forward-looking markets like Singapore and collaborating with Michelin-starred chefs to drive trust and desirability. Nicolas believes chefs are the ultimate tastemakers who can help shift public perception - from skepticism to curiosity - by letting flavor lead the way.

Gourmey is currently raising a Series B round to fund its next milestones: regulatory approvals, commercialization in key global markets, and the expansion of its product range beyond foie gras and duck to other poultry and meat types. With a lean approach and efficient tech, the company aims to prove its model without the capital-heavy burden of massive infrastructure builds.

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Marion co-founded Ask Mona in 2017 with the goal of making culture more interactive and accessible by enabling conversations with artworks. Back then, they used custom-built NLP tools, and the idea of combining AI and culture was seen as niche. Today, Ask Mona works with major cultural institutions worldwide, leveraging generative AI to help organizations personalize content and better engage with audiences.

What began as a tool for museums has grown into a broader vision. Marion explains that curiosity has always been the core of their approach, whether it’s asking questions about a painting, a travel destination, or even a bottle of wine. Realizing this opened up new markets in education, tourism, and consumer goods. Ask Mona’s mission now spans any object or experience that sparks a desire to learn.

For Marion, accessibility isn’t just about physical access. It’s symbolic too. Many people feel intimidated or excluded in cultural spaces. Ask Mona’s tools aim to remove those barriers by letting users ask questions in their own words, via text or voice, and get tailored answers. This promotes a more inclusive experience, particularly for those who might not feel confident navigating traditional museum formats.

Marion’s work extends beyond entrepreneurship. As a lecturer, artist, and author, she approaches AI not just as a technical tool, but as a societal force. Her diverse roles allow her to both build and critique technology, emphasizing the importance of keeping human perspectives central in AI development. Her latest book explores how AI affects our attention and decision-making, urging reflection on how we use the tools we build.

Marion’s biography of Alice Recoque, a forgotten French AI pioneer, is part of her mission to spotlight accessible role models in tech. She believes in showcasing diverse paths into the AI field, especially for women and people from non-technical backgrounds. Her own journey, rooted in the humanities, is a testament to the value of interdisciplinary contributions to the tech world.

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Ilias Benjelloun’s journey began with identifying untapped talent in Canada’s tech scene and helping create community among builders. He transitioned from launching startups to developing programs at large institutions like Desjardins, where he helped align startup innovation with corporate goals. His goal has remained constant: unlocking value trapped by outdated structures and accelerating impact through strategic collaboration.

During his time at Desjardins, Ilias led several key initiatives including a $250M fund, a corporate accelerator, and a pre-incubator. What made these efforts unique was their grounding in local ecosystem needs, not top-down mimicry of Silicon Valley models. His philosophy is simple but powerful: start with what you have, listen to the community, and complement what’s missing. He was also an early advocate for integrating SDGs into innovation frameworks, proving that financial returns and social impact can go hand-in-hand.

Having traveled to innovation hubs in the Middle East, San Francisco, and beyond, Ilias observed a few standout patterns: corporate investors are entering earlier, opening doors more readily, and embracing a pay-it-forward culture that fosters genuine collaboration. By contrast, some ecosystems - including parts of Canada - remain more cautious, often waiting until startups are less risky. Ilias believes this risk aversion can be overcome through smart partnerships and shared learning.

Ilias is now focused on activating a massively underutilized force: the African diaspora in Europe and North America. These globally connected individuals hold cultural insights, technical expertise, and business potential that is often overlooked. He argues for shifting the narrative away from DEI as a moral obligation and toward viewing inclusion as a strategic business advantage, especially in sectors like climate tech, agtech, and water innovation where frugal solutions are in high demand.

To turn this vision into reality, Ilias advocates for partnerships with anchor corporates in target countries - like OCP in Morocco - and creating consortiums that lower the risk of startup collaboration. This requires intermediaries with cultural fluency and operational know-how to translate between regions. He sees VivaTech as a prime example of where these global bridges can be built, linking France, Canada, Africa, and beyond. His mission is to move from talk to action, harnessing innovation not just for returns, but for systemic change.

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Yannick Alléno is best known for revolutionizing French cuisine. But in recent years, he’s stepped into an entirely different arena—road safety advocacy. After his son’s life was taken in a senseless car crash, Yannick transformed his grief into action, founding an association to tackle road violence through legislative reform, youth support, and technological innovation.

At VivaTech 2025, Alléno launched the Impact initiative—the first platform rallying civil tech actors to combat road deaths globally. The effort brought together over 120 startups from 42 countries, proposing solutions spanning AI, sensor tech, vehicle safety systems, and behavior-change tools. Three standout projects were showcased:

• A steering wheel sensor detecting alcohol levels through perspiration
• A motorcycle safety application enhancing rider visibility
• A chemical grip agent reducing aquaplaning on roads

“Tech can save lives, and it can be a good business too,” Yannick says.

Beyond policy and startups, Impact uses art and storytelling to change public perception. Its signature performance, Fragiles, fuses dance, music, and testimonies - including from perpetrators of road violence - to humanize the statistics and engage younger audiences.
This intersection of emotional resonance and policy innovation is at the heart of the project’s approach.

Impact’s mission rests on three pillars:

• Legal reform: Contributing to the reclassification of reckless road violence as homicide in France
• Family support: Providing psychological and financial help to families, especially children impacted by the loss of siblings or parents
• Cultural transformation: Running awareness campaigns that challenge outdated narratives around driving, alcohol, and responsibility

From France to New Delhi, Alléno’s ambition is global. He’s seeking partnerships with governments, insurers, mobility companies, and tech leaders to embed road safety solutions at scale. Renault is already an anchor partner, providing both financial and strategic support.

This isn’t bad luck, it’s preventable. And we can act now.

Association Antoine Alléno – Official site of the initiative

Impact Project – Civil tech movement for road safety

VivaTech – France’s biggest tech & innovation event

Sesamers – Discover the events and people shaping the future of innovation

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SOSV wasn’t always a billion-dollar fund—it began as a scrappy experiment. Ten years ago, the team was writing $50K checks. Today, it’s a global operation with $1.5B under management, backing 60+ new startups annually and running two specialized programs:

• HAX for hard tech (robotics, industrial, mobility)
• IndieBio for biotech, food, health, and sustainability

Their formula? Hands-on acceleration + deep labs + strategic follow-on capital.

“We’re not just investors—we’re builders. We have scientists and engineers on staff to help startups go from prototype to product faster.”

Ben’s career spans Asia (Japan, Korea, China), Silicon Valley, and Europe. While SOSV is a US-based fund, its hard tech accelerator HAX was originally launched in Shenzhen and has since relocated to Newark, NJ. Its biotech program IndieBio began in San Francisco and later expanded to New York City. Today, ~50% of SOSV’s portfolio is US-based, with the rest spread across Europe, Asia (notably Singapore), and LATAM.

SOSV focuses on:

• Climate Tech: From Neptune Robotics cleaning ship hulls to AI-powered food formulation
• Health Tech: With over 100 investments, including 20+ in women’s health
• Biomanufacturing: Startups using biology to produce materials, pharma, food, and solvents sustainably

Frustrated with event inefficiencies, Ben built his own internal toolset—combining spreadsheets, Python scripts, and LLMs—to run high-efficiency online matchmaking events. These have drawn thousands of VCs and startups, focusing on niche verticals like:

• Biomanufacturing
• Women’s Health
• Climate Tech (with over 1500 participants and 800 investors)

“If it takes me more than an hour to do a repetitive task, I’ll just build a tool to automate it.”

And yes—SOSV has invested in eight startups discovered through these very matchmaking events.

SOSV is known for spotting winners in categories others overlook. Their portfolio spans everything from plant-based AI-designed food (NotCo) to microbe-based mining. As Ben puts it:

“We’re not afraid to invest in the things that don’t have a category yet.”

Ben spoke at over 300 events—but not for ego. As a self-described "trained shy person," it was a way to build visibility without cold outreach. For founders, the lesson is the same:

“It takes three signals to make a tiger. If people hear about you on stage, in media, and from someone they trust—they believe.”

In other words, visibility builds credibility.

SOSV – Early-stage investor in deep tech and biotech

Hello Tomorrow – Global Summit for science and deep tech innovation

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What started as a niche academic research project has become a deep tech startup operating across Europe and Latin America, with millions raised in private funding and grants. Strong by Form developed Woodflow, a technology that turns natural timber fibers into 3D-formed structural materials, enabling strong, lightweight, and carbon-reducing alternatives to concrete, aluminum, and even steel.

Their design-driven approach doesn’t just replicate wood planks—it reimagines wood as a high-performance composite, shaped by nature's logic and modern computational design.

Though most of the founding team hails from Chile, the company was strategically incorporated in Spain to operate within Europe’s innovation and regulation ecosystem. Today, the team is 27 people strong and split across Chile, Germany, and Spain.

“Europe is tough on regulation—but it’s also where real scale is possible,” Andres explains.

Yes, their iconic waveform-style logo was sketched in five minutes. Yes, it was inspired by Joy Division. But that aesthetic also represents the undulating structural logic behind their composite designs. Andres’ co-founder Jorge, an architect-turned-engineer, originally developed the idea while studying at ETH Zurich. His mission? Create the lightest, most material-efficient structural slab possible—starting with carbon fiber but pivoting to wood for scalability and sustainability.

Strong by Form’s founding trio came together through long-standing friendships and complementary skill sets—engineering, digital fabrication, and startup acceleration. When Jorge and Daniel realized they had a revolutionary process but no path to market, they called Andres, who had just left venture capital. He joined to build the business—and soon they were securing grants, awards, and investor interest from forestry giants and mobility leaders alike.

At JEC 2025, Strong by Form unveiled a bike frame prototype made entirely from Woodflow, designed using composite logic rather than milled timber. It's a visual and functional proof that their stamped biocomposites can handle form, function, and strength—without carbon-intensive inputs.

“This bike isn’t a gimmick—it’s a signal. We’re building with wood the way carbon fiber is used in aerospace,” says Andres.

While construction remains their core focus, Strong by Form is expanding into automotive and micromobility. BMW was one of the first to express interest back in 2019—and is now working with the startup on large-scale, interior and exterior vehicle components. A million-euro grant is fueling development of their advanced pressing process, and they’re now actively engaging new partners in bikes, transportation, and e-mobility.

Strong by Form’s investor cap table is as unconventional as their tech: four corporate investors (including Europe’s top timber producers and construction leaders) and a mix of impact-oriented VCs. Andres admits they had to throw out the startup rulebook.

“The first thing you're told is to avoid corporates. Well, our first investor was a corporate,” he laughs.

The result is a founder journey that doesn’t follow Silicon Valley tropes—but proves that material science innovation can (and must) be funded differently.

Strong by Form – Woodflow technology for carbon-neutral construction & mobility

JEC World – Global leader in composites innovation

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Linn’s path into deep tech began in business and innovation management, including time at Vienna University of Economics and Business. Her initial exposure to CERN came through an EU-funded Marie Curie research project focused on valorizing technologies for future particle accelerators. That unique intersection—cutting-edge science meets real-world applications—eventually led her to join CERN full-time in 2022.

Launched in late 2023, CERN Venture Connect gives startups access to cutting-edge technologies, expert support, and a curated partner network across Europe and beyond. The goal is simple: turn advanced scientific tools into commercial solutions with real impact. The program is designed to support both internal CERN teams and external deep tech entrepreneurs.

Startups engaging with CERN can tap into technologies across three key domains:

• Accelerators: Superconducting magnets, radiofrequency cavities, and ultra-high vacuum systems
• Detectors: Microelectronics, sensors, and precision instrumentation
• Digital: Distributed data systems, AI for real-time processing, and tools that manage 20TB/sec of sensor data
• These tools, originally designed for particle physics, are now finding applications in manufacturing, sustainability, health tech, and consumer goods.

CERN offers non-equity, royalty-based licenses to startups. There’s no cost until your startup generates more than €1 million in revenue, at which point CERN takes 2% of revenues to reinvest in R&D and internal innovation grants. The priority isn’t profit—it’s impact and dissemination, aligned with CERN’s public mandate.

A standout example: Dutch startup Inphocal, incubated via HighTechXL, uses CERN’s structured laser beam to mark curved surfaces—like Coke bottles or fruit—without damaging the product or using ink. Originally developed for precision alignment in particle accelerators, the tech is now powering high-speed, sustainable printing solutions in consumer goods.

Startups apply via the CERN Venture Connect website, selecting relevant technologies and submitting a business case. CERN assesses technical fit and commercial viability, often in collaboration with its partner network of:

• 50+ organizations across VCs, accelerators, legal support, and national innovation hubs
• Support includes expert mentorship, hardware prototyping, and investor matchmaking
• Acceptance is selective: 40 applications led to 5 startups in the first year.

Linn emphasizes that the goal is not vanity partnerships or logo-stacking. Startups must show clear technical alignment and commercial rationale. If existing commercial technologies can solve your challenge, CERN encourages you to use those instead. Their technologies are intended to fill gaps in the market, not compete with industry.

Roughly 40% of the startups in the program come from inside CERN—scientists exploring entrepreneurship as a career path. The other 60% are external founders, many of whom discover CERN technologies through events, venture builders, or deep tech networks.

As one of the world's top physics labs, CERN isn’t always top-of-mind for startup founders. That’s why events like Hello Tomorrow are essential for visibility and discovery. “We have the tech and the founder-friendly terms—we just need startups to come,” says Linn. You’ll also find them at Web Summit, Hello Tomorrow Turkey, and other innovation gatherings throughout the year.

Website: ventureconnect.cern
LinkedIn: Linn Kretzschmar
CERN on LinkedIn: CERN

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