Slush

Slush episodes:

• 11.09.2022

  Welcome to Slush 2022

  Ahead of Slush 2022, we sit down for a conversation that provides everyone who’s joining us in Helsinki with a bit of the backstory and context behind the event you’re about to attend. We'll cover:Why and how Slush was foundedHow...

  
• 08.11.2022

  #10 Christian Reber, Pitch Co-founder & CEO + Stephen Nundy, Lakestar Partner and CTO | Product-driven organizations from two perspectives

  We bring you two sides of the German collaborative presentation company Pitch as its Co-founder and CEO Christian Reber is joined by board member and Lakestar partner Stephen Nundy to discuss product-driven companies. Christian and Stephen (as a CTO himself)...

  
• 07.14.2022

  #9 Jeppe Rindom, Pleo CEO & Co-founder | Pre to post P/M fit with a Danish unicorn

  Jeppe Rindom is the Co-founder and guiding hand of Pleo- The corporate card and expense claim company and the fastest to reach the €1bn valuation in Denmark. Jeppe dives deep with Mikko Mäntylä into the granular details of how...

  
• 07.07.2022

  #8 Sonali de Rycker, Partner at Accel | Foundational lessons in building legendary companies

  Sonali de Rycker is a true icon of European venture. In her fourteen years with Accel, she has made early investments in success stories ranging from Spotify to Avito, Hopin to Kry and Monzo to Sennder. Together with Sonali, we...

  
• 06.07.2022

  #7 Cristina Cordova, Partner at First Round | Operator lessons from a decade at Stripe & Notion

  Cristina Cordova spent a decade leading partnerships at two of the most iconic tech success stories of the past decade – Stripe & Notion – before joining First Round Capital in March of 2022. Today, we discuss tactical company-building lessons...

  
• 05.26.2022

  #6 Des Traynor, Co-founder & CSO of Intercom | The surprising principles that built a €1B+ customer comms business

  Today, we speak to Des Traynor of Intercom about problem selection, pricing, using principles to scale yourself as a leader, and maintaining alignment as an organisation grows. Des is one of the most succinct communicators in European tech. He didn't...

  
• 04.26.2022

  #5 Brian O’Malley, MP at Forerunner Ventures | Building for consumers

  Today, we’re speaking to Brian O’Malley, Managing Partner at Forerunner Ventures – the famously consumer-savvy Silicon Valley firm – on everything it takes to build generational outcomes in the consumer space.

  
• 04.21.2022

  #4 Guy Podjarny, Co-founder & President of Snyk | Lessons in scaling from a €8B business

  Guy Podjarny is Co-founder and President of Snyk – the €8B developer-first security platform. Together, we unpack tactical considerations that go into scaling a business – especially one with a product-led, freemium-based go-to-market. Guy started Snyk with his co-founders Assaf...

  
• 04.05.2022

  #3 Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital | Investing in a better future

  Today on the Soaked by Slush podcast, we're joined by Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital – the notoriously frontier tech focused fund. We cover topics ranging from recognizing iconic entrepreneurs early to Deena’s efforts to write a children’s book...

  
• 03.23.2022

  #2 Quentin Clark, ex-Dropbox CTO & MD at General Catalyst | World-class product & engineering leadership

  When it comes to building legendary engineering and product organizations, there really aren’t many people more experienced than Quentin Clark. Having spent 20 years moving up the ranks at Microsoft, Quentin went on to become CTO at two legendary software...

  
• 03.16.2022

  #1 Alex Bouaziz, Co-founder & CEO of Deel | Building a €5B business in 3 years

  In just over three years, Alex Bouaziz has scaled Deel to more than €5B in valuation and 700 employees across 60+ different countries. In the episode, we discuss the principles, systems and choices that have put him and Deel on...

  
• 12.16.2021

  In Conversation With Robert Lacher, Founding Partner at Visionaries Club | What would a founder's ideal VC look like?

  Hi folks. Slush 2021 happened, and we had the opportunity to record some fun and interesting episodes on location. This week’s guest is Robert Lacher, an entrepreneur and Founding Partner at the Berlin-based VC Visionaries Club. Robert is a central...

  
• 12.09.2021

  In Conversation With Karma Kitchen Founders Gini & Eccie Newton | Building kitchens and raising 300 million dollars

  In this episode, recorded live at the Slush 2021 event in Helsinki, William and Isak talked to Gini and Eccie Newton from Karma Kitchen. Gini and Eccie are a pair of British siblings who decided to enter the catering business,...

  
• 11.25.2021

  In Conversation With Scott Sandell, Managing General Partner at NEA | How to last for 100 years in venture capital

  In this episode, we had the pleasure of talking to one of the absolute veterans of venture capital, the Managing General Partner of NEA, Scott Sandell. NEA has been around since the 1970’s, making it one of the oldest VC...

  
• 11.18.2021

  In Conversation With Molten Ventures' Nicola McClafferty & James Clark | All about rebranding: why should you do it?

  How does one rebrand? Should you even rebrand? We were joined by Nicola McClafferty and James Clark, from the establishment formerly known as Draper Esprit. That’s right, Draper Esprit did what many people often advise against and rebranded themselves, to...

  
• 11.11.2021

  In Conversation With David Nothacker, Co-founder & CEO of Sennder | Growth through acquisitions

  I don’t know about you, but there’s something special and even beautiful about trucking. About the seemingly simpler life on the highway, accompanied by demanding distances and fleeting views. It doesn’t immediately conjure up images of digital platforms and software,...

  
• 11.04.2021

  In Conversation With Vision Fund Investors Nahoko Hoshino & Anthony Doeh | SoftBank is doubling down on Europe – why now?

  When Softbank unveiled its first 100 billion dollar Vision Fund in 2017, the world had never seen investment funds of such magnitude. Two years later in 2019, Vision Fund 2 was announced, and in 2021, their combined fair value was...

  
• 10.28.2021

  In Conversation With Edgeir Vårdal Aksnes, Co-founder & CEO of Tibber | Less is more: The power of simple value propositions

  Our guest this week, Edgeir Vårdal Aksnes, is reinventing how people buy electricity. I don’t know about you, but I don’t always even remember that I’ve bought electricity, I just know that I pay a bill. To Edgeir and his...

  
• 10.21.2021

  In Conversation With Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel | What’s happening in European SaaS?

  In some previous episodes, we have discussed the state of the European ecosystem and its future trajectory, everywhere from the projections of investors to what’s happening on the aisles of accelerators. In this episode, Philippe Botteri from Accel joins Isak...

  
• 10.14.2021

  In Conversation With Emily Orton, Co-founder & CMO of Darktrace | From founding days to IPO

  No trace of darkness in this episode, where we talked to Emily Orton, Co-founder & CMO at the cybersecurity success-story Darktrace. Emily has been on board from the beginning, and shared some of her main learnings from the founding days...

  
• 10.07.2021

  In Conversation With Roxanne Varza, Director at Station F | Can you teach entrepreneurship?

  Roxanne Varza not only has one of the most cinematic names of anyone we’ve talked to, but it also carries a boatload of weight in the European startup ecosystem. She is the Director of Station F, the biggest startup campus...

  
• 09.30.2021

  #25 Lotta Kopra | Combining science and business: Commercializing deeptech

  In this episode we are taking a trip back home to Finland, with our guest Lotta Kopra, the Chief Commercial Officer of Spinnova. Spinnova has developed a technology with which raw wood pulp that has been separated into microfibrillated cellulose...

  
• 09.22.2021

  In Conversation With Nicole Quinn, General Partner at Lightspeed | Why VCs should do field research on consumers

  In this episode of the Soaked by Slush podcast, we had the opportunity to host Nicole Quinn, Partner at Lightspeed Ventures. As an investor, Nicole is a master at working with founders, brands, and end-customers. Her impressive background in both...

  
• 05.27.2021

  In Conversation With Northzone Partners Wendy Xiao Schadeck & PJ Pärson | Web 3.0, Decentralization & Europe

  In this episode, Isak and William talked to two Northzone Partners, Pär-Jörgen Pärson and Wendy Xiao Schadeck. Northzone is an early-stage venture capital fund based in Stockholm and New York, with many impressive companies in their portfolio. Many of these...

  
• 05.20.2021

  In Conversation With Martin Mignot, Partner at Index | European tech: where are the giants?

  Europe is a wonderful place, I think we can agree on that. I could spend all day listing reasons why, but then again this is just an episode description. However, some people are claiming that the jury is in regarding...

  
• 05.11.2021

  In Conversation With Hanno Renner, Co-founder & CEO at Personio | Combining purpose with a billion-dollar business

  “Purpose” and “impact” are not new concepts anymore; millennials have been growing up with and spreading them around for many years now. They might still seem abstract to many people. Until you meet Hanno Renner, Co-Founder and CEO of Personio,...

  
• 05.06.2021

  In Conversation With Sofia Nunes, Co-founder & Head of Culture at Mambu | How to feed and grow culture

  Sofia Nunes is the Co-Founder and Head of Culture at Mambu, which is a combination that isn’t often seen. In fact, some would question whether or not culture is something a Founding team should even be thinking about. Sofia Nunes...

  
• 04.29.2021

  In Conversation With Nick Dahl, Senior Product Manager, Growth at Spotify | Growth Lessons from Truecaller and Spotify

  Let’s talk about growth. Or, I mean, we did already. With Nick Dahl, Spotify’s Growth Strategy Lead and Truecaller’s ex Head of Growth. Nick is an excellent example of how to think about startup growth in a modern and analytical...

  
• 04.22.2021

  In Conversation With April Dunford, Author of Obv!ously Awesome | Product positioning done right

  When Founders build a product, they are quite literally creating a new thing in the world. Part of that creative process is – as strange as it may sound – defining what the product actually is. What does it do? Who...

  
• 04.15.2021

  In Conversation With Phil Libin, Founder of Evernote & mmhmm | Remote work and the blending of digital life and real life

  The pandemic has arguably accelerated the onset of many future trends, not least for the rise of remote work and daily human interaction through live streams and video conferencing. Phil Libin, the creator of Evernote, has founded a new company...

  
• 04.08.2021

  In Conversation With Sophia Bendz, Ex Global Director of Marketing at Spotify | Lessons in branding

  Sophia Bendz was there when Spotify was taking its first adolescent steps, and left when it had amassed an over 9-digit global user base. Like many other companies of the same size, Spotify is more than the sum of its...

  
• 04.01.2021

  In Conversation With Avi Meir, Co-founder & CEO of TravelPerk | Reflections of a pandemic-time CEO

  In this episode, we are talking to Avi Meir, CEO of TravelPerk. Based in Barcelona, TravelPerk was the fastest growing SaaS start up in Europe in 2019. Then the pandemic hit us globally, and Avi only had a couple of...

  
• 03.25.2021

  In Conversation With John Lindfors, Managing Partner at DST Global | Why is this the best time ever to be an entrepreneur?

  Hi dear humans, long time no podcast. The Soaked by Slush-podcast has returned

  
• 12.17.2020

  In Conversation With Pavel Matveev, Founder of Wirex | Cryptocurrencies: From the Margins to the Mainstream

  Yep, this one has to do with Bitcoin. Pavel Matveev is the Founder and CEO of Wirex, a London-based global cryptocurrency payment platform, that is also the largest of its kind. In 2020, they launched a wait-list for a multicurrency...

  
• 12.11.2020

  In Conversation With Rahul Vohra, CEO of Superhuman | Mastering Product-Market Fit

  If you can, go grab a notebook or open up a notes-app. You might not need to use it, but you might want to. In this episode, we had the honor of getting to pick the brain of a product-market...

  
• 12.03.2020

  In Conversation With Jimmy Wales, Co-Founder of Wikipedia | The Anomaly of the Internet

  The internet would not be the same without Wikipedia. In this episode, we had the honor of hosting its Founder, Jimmy Wales. Even in the modern age of the internet, Wikipedia still remains among the 15 largest web sites, whilst...

  
• 11.26.2020

  In Conversation With Jessica Rolph, Co-founder & CEO of Lovevery | Achieving Hyper-Growth Outside Tech

  Why do some founders succeed again and again? Jessica Rolph co-founded and successfully sold Happy Family to Danone. Now, in just three years, her new company, Lovevery, is growing twice as fast as Happy Family. In this heart to heart...

  
• 11.19.2020

  In Conversation With Lawrence Leuschner, Co-Founder of Tier | Succeeding In a Highly Competitive And Dynamic Market

  If you live in a major city, chances are you’ve seen an electric scooter standing around or being driven. Chances are you might’ve tried one yourself. Chances are you have seen a post on social media about them, and chances...

  
• 11.12.2020

  #8 Sonya Baranova, Co-founder of Inovat | The Early Stages of Founding a Startup

  Often, one of the first steps to becoming an entrepreneur is finding something that makes you go, ”this sucks”. Sonya Baranova is one of many who took the next steps, figuring out and building a solution. Sonya is a young...

  
• 11.05.2020

  In Conversation With Sami Marttinen, Co-founder & CEO of Swappie | The Secret Behind Exponential Growth

  Most of us like new stuff better than used stuff, but not all new stuff is good for the planet. Sami is a guy who, with his team, figured out how to make used stuff into really good stuff. Refurbished...

  
• 10.29.2020

  #6 Mariam Gyulumyan from Lucky Carrot | Building Processes for Incentivising Employees the Right Way

  How do you solve a complex problem with simplicity? Take our guest, young Armenian entrepreneur Mariam Gyulumyan, and her start-up Lucky Carrot for example. She wanted to help companies create systems with which employees could get just recognition for good...

  
• 10.22.2020

  In Conversation With Jonathan Rochelle, ex Product Lead at Google Drive | How to Build And Scale a Great Product?

  Some things just work like they’re supposed to, and for a moment the world feels flawless. Sometimes it’s the universe handing you a full house out of nowhere because it was your turn, but often it’s because someone carefully designed...

  
• 10.15.2020

  #4 Hayley Sudbury, Founder & CEO of Werkin | The Importance of Role Models and Finding your Identity

  How much have role models affected your career or life choices, either consciously or unconsciously? Now, what if you had found no one? What if there had been no one to relate to? Hayley Sudbury, the CEO of WERKIN, underlines...

  
• 10.08.2020

  In Conversation With Jyri Engeström, Investor at Yes VC | Understanding the Rules of the Venture Capital Game

  There’s no such thing as a free brunch. That’s the saying, right? For some founders, the worry and uncertainty over the cost of a loss in autonomy after a VC deal makes the option seem less attractive. What should founders...

  
• 10.01.2020

  In Conversation With Katelin Holloway, Ex VP of People & Culture at Reddit | Managing People and Culture in 2020

  Katelin Holloway is one of the sharpest 21st century voices on people and culture in the business world. In this podcast, she shares her insights on the subject, based on her experience at companies such as Pixar and Reddit, to...

  
• 09.28.2020

  In Conversation With John Schoolcraft, Oatly's Creative Director | Marketing, Staying True to Your Vision & Blackstone

  In the very first Soaked by Slush conversation, our guest is the Global Creative Director of Oatly, John Schoolcraft. Oatly has gone a long, long way from being an obscure Swedish oat milk start-up to becoming one of the global...

  
• 09.28.2020

  Introduction Episode | Start Here #0

  Welcome to the Soaked by Slush Podcast! In this brief intro episode the hosts, Isak Rautio and William von der Pahlen set the scene for the upcoming podcast. Why has Slush created the podcast, who’s gonna be on it and what...

  
• 09.26.2020

  SLUSH 2019 MINI SERIES | Wired UK's Features Editor Victoria Turk on being a tech journalist in the age of post-truth

  It's tea time with WIRED UK’s Features Editor Victoria Turk! Let’s cut the crap and dive head first to the big questions: What's the future like for tech journalism in the era of fake news and content overload? And what...

  
• 09.26.2020

  SLUSH 2019 MINI SERIES | MasterClass CEO David Rogier on how the education phenomena was built from zero to one (and beyond)

  Learning in 2020? Lifelong. Also, good business. MasterClass is on a profitable mission to democratize access to knowledge – and ensure that you learn from simply the best. CEO and Co-Founder David Rogier unpacks MasterClass’s admirable success story. How did they...

  
• 09.25.2020

  SLUSH 2019 MINI SERIES | Founder Petteri Lahtela of Oura on how to live a more aware life through self-monitoring

  Oura – it’s like Patagonia, but for your finger. Especially in the Nordics, all the business people wear these ring-shaped miniature computers night and day, optimizing everything from eating, sleeping, and training to working. But how did the Finnish brand make...