The Global Startup Movement - Startup Ecosystem Leaders, Global Entrepreneurship, and Emerging Market Innovation

Eduard Emiryan is a cofounder at Amber Lamps, one of Armenia's leading mobile development shops. Amber Lamps products include apps such as Runtime and Lucid Dreams. On this episode you'll learn: how the culture has shifted in Armenia towards entrepreneurship, if entrepreneurship is just a young person's game, and how much capital is available to young startups in Armenia.

Brett Hagler is the CEO and Co-Founder of New Story - an innovative nonprofit that transforms slums into sustainable communities around the world. Brett is a cancer survivor, author, speaker, Y Combinator alum, and 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur. After reviving a lost Christian faith, Brett took a trip to Haiti and met families living in the type of slums that New Story is now on a mission to transform into sustainable communities. On this episode you'll learn: the inspiration and story behind New Story, what it's like to run a nonprofit in Silicon Valley, and how New Story promotes entrepreneurship in communities.

Trafi is the world's smartest public transport journey planner based on machine learning, crowd-sourced data and self-learning algorithms helping to provide the highest quality product across competition. This past year, Trafi closed a $6.5 million Series A round led by Octopus Investments, EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme and BaltCap. Regimantas Urbanas is Trafi's CMO focused on scaling Trafi outside of Europe. On this episode you'll learn: Trafi's criteria in deciding what countries to expand to, the biggest differences in user acquisition channels across different countries/cultures, and the current state of entrepreneurship in Lithuania.

Hekla joined NSA ventures in 2010 and works with broad range of start-up companies in health tech, education tech and other industries. Before joining NSA ventures Hekla worked ten years at the global medical innovation company Ossur (NASDAQOMX), first in R&D department and later as a product manager for the company in Shanghai where she gained valuable insights into the Asian markets. On this episode you'll learn how NSA ventures looks to differentiate itself as the leading fund for startups in Iceland. Also, how has deal flow evolved in Iceland since Hekla came onboard NSA ventures in 2010? How do Hekla advise Icelandic startups raising Series B and higher rounds in finding capital outside of Iceland?

Erlendur Guðnason is the Founder and Chariman of the Board for Vizido. Based out of Reykjavik, the Vizido app allows you to remember things and organize yourself without typing a single letter. You can learn more and try out the product at www.vizido.com. Erlendur also serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Federation of Icelandic Startup Companys. The goal of the Federation of Icelandic Startup Companys is to promote and establish a framework for start-ups in Iceland that stimulates innovation and growth to the Icelandic economy. Previously Erlendur was CEO of Stiki a large consulting and software company specializing in information systems security.

Inka Mero is an entrepreneur and angel investor based out of Helsinki, Finland. During the course of her career she has Co-founded 7, and invested in 30+ companies in Consumer Internet, Mobile, Analytics / E-commerce space. This includes raising several funding rounds from 50-100kE pre-seed and seed rounds up to 30 M Euros of Series B. She is currently the Co-founder and Chairwoman for Koppicatch, a seed investment firm and accelerator for both startups and corporations. On this episode we discuss corporation innovation, Helsinki deal flow, and what a corporate accelerator is.

Based out of Gothenburg, Sweden, Patrick Arnesson is the CEO and Cofounder of Football Addicts a mobile app development company focused on Football. Patrick and his team bootstrapped their first app, Forza Football, to 7 million total users with 3 million daily active users without ever taking in any outside investment. He is now partnered with some of the biggest brands in football including both Adidas and Nike. On this episode we discuss why not to take investment from VC's, getting millions of users with no funding, and Gothenburg's startup scene.

After 10 years as senior manager in the Telecom & IT industry in Sweden and Norway, Thomas founded his own Ed-tech and e-learning company Edvantage group and ran it as CEO for 12 years. As one of Europe’s leading e-learning companies, it was sold to Lumesse in 2011. During the same period Thomas co-founded two Med Tech Companies and sold them in 2007 and 2014. Thomas has been investing in start-ups for more than 10 years and as Business Angel full time the last two years he holds a portfolio of fifteen companies. His latest project, Angel Challenge, is a hands-on program to empower private investors to co-invest into startups. He also runs a co-working space for Business Angles in Oslo called Oslo House of Innovation or OHOI’.

Marianne is the President and COO of Slush, the biggest technology and startup event in Europe and Asia. She studies Industrial Engineering and has been involved with Slush since 2012.

Slush is the focal point for startups and tech talent to meet with top-tier international investors, executives and media. In 2014, Slush brought together over 14.000 attendees and more than 3500 companies for the two-day event. More than 750 investors came to Helsinki to meet startups in nearly 3.800 pre-booked meetings. Next Slush will take place in Helsinki on November 11-12th, 2015.

Slush is a non-profit event organized by a community of entrepreneurs, investors, students and music festival organizers. Although Slush has grown from a 300-person event to become one of the leading events of its kind in the world, the philosophy behind it has remained the same: to help the next generation of great, world-conquering companies forward.

Meli James is the Head of New Ventures at Sultan Ventures, a boutique venture firm focused on early-stage startups, a Program Director at the award winning XLR8UH, a first of its kind venture accelerator formed in partnership with the University of Hawaii; and the President of the Hawaii Venture Capital Association. Prior to returning to her native Honolulu, Meli lived in Silicon Valley for over 10 years, where she co-founded and contributed to numerous start-ups in the Bay Area and Honolulu, including Nirvino – #1 ranked wine app, an Apple Platform Top 100 App, & Top Ten Lifestyles App. Meli is a founding member of the Startup Paradise initiative helping to build a thriving startup community that nurtures collaboration and innovation in Hawaii. She is committed to establishing resources to grow talent and high-growth ideas.