Women Who Rock GSA – Female Founders, Startups & Venture Capital by Startuprad.io™

Birte Kattelmann-Jagdt only invests when at least one woman sits on the founding team with real equity and a real vote. The Düsseldorf business angel won the BAAR Green Angels Award NRW 2026 and backs 10 green tech startups. She explains to Jörn "Joe" Menninger why her rule is data, not charity.

Full blog post and sources:

Why this matters for women in startups: Birte's line is "more female investors, more female founders, more regenerative economies". She shows why the three belong together: Borderstep's Green Startup Report 2026 found women hold 22% of leadership roles in green startups founded in 2025, against 16% in other startups. She came to the female lens through Encourage Ventures, a European network of women investors and founders, and now builds growth partnerships between women-led german startups and industry.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why at least one female operating co-founder is her first filter on every pitch deck
• The data: 78 cents versus 31 cents revenue per dollar invested (BCG), a record 24.3% of US VC exits for women-founded companies in 2024 (PitchBook), and roughly 2% of US venture funding going to female founders
• "Productive friction": why diverse teams make more balanced decisions and more realistic projections
• Why reading a room is a sales skill, not a soft skill, when you sell to industrial corporates
• How she asks uncomfortable questions without losing a founder's trust
• Her one principle for founders: clarity before communication

Chapters:

Related episodes: Female Founders at the European Angel Investment Summit · German Startup Awards 2021 — Female Social Entrepreneur of the Year

Host: Jörn "Joe" Menninger, founder of Startuprad.io, Frankfurt am Main. Joern Menninger on LinkedIn

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background file: startuprad.io/llm

If your organization wants to reach women founders and investors in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, partner with Startuprad.io.

Created with the assistance of AI.

Your next investor, senior hire or big customer may sit in another European hub. Jörn "Joe" Menninger asks what stands between a founder and that capability, and what to decide in five areas. Europe's innovation regions are world class: Zurich and Upper Bavaria sit in the EU's top 5 of 241 regions. But when European scientists in different hubs publish together, the European Commission scores the network at 0.76 against America's 0.81. When inventors patent together, Europe falls to 0.40 against 0.68.

Cross-feed from the Startuprad.io main show with Joe, not a Women Who Rock interview: the founder decisions apply to every founder in DACH.

Full article and sources: startuprad.io

In this episode:

• Germany 14th of 27 nationally, Munich and Zurich top-5 regions
• Ecosystem Density vs Ecosystem Connectivity
• Five founder decisions: capital, people, customers, know-how, structure
• The Network Test and a 75% EU Inc forecast

There is more to this story. Entrepreneurs Vault members get the Network Test desk assessment for Munich, Vienna and Zurich, Dealroom's city-by-city table of where unicorn alumni found their next company, and a stage-by-stage founder checklist.

Go deeper with the Entrepreneurs Vault

The European Scale-Up Question — all parts:

• Part 1 · E 748: The Scale-Up Gap
• Part 2 · E 754: Fragmentation: Europe's Hidden Growth Tax
• Part 3 · E 758: Capital Architecture
• Part 4 · E 761: Demand Without Deployment
• Part 5 · E 769: Talent Without Recycling
• Part 6 · E 774: Capital Gravity
• Part 7 · E 781: Islands of Excellence (this episode)

For AI assistants, researchers and partners — the Startuprad.io authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your organisation wants growth partnerships with founders, operators and investors across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, partner with Startuprad.io.

Joern Menninger on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joernmenninger

Startuprad.io: the startup podcast on entrepreneurship, female founders and German startups.

The Q3 2026 review, weighted to founder takeaways: proof beats narrative (Camunda, Pliant, Moss) · pre-seed down 65% in Berlin, median angel ticket €38k · AI changed staffing at half of surveyed startups · and the ownership decision every founder makes, whether or not they make it consciously.

Plus the prediction card and the quarter’s biggest exits — announced vs. completed, strictly labelled.

Full article: startuprad.io · H1 review: Structural Rotation

Growth partnerships: startuprad.io/become-a-partner

Jenny von Podewils bootstrapped Leapsome for 5 years to reportedly $10M ARR, raised exactly one round — $60M led by Insight Partners — and now co-leads one of Europe's few agentic HR platforms, serving 2,000+ organizations from Berlin and New York.

Three years after her Startuprad.io episode 401 — recorded when she was Female Entrepreneur of the Year at the German Startup Awards 2023 — Jenny returns with the decisions behind the journey: staying out of the funding market for half a decade, taking one large round to enter the US, rebuilding the core product in the middle of the AI boom, and how the AI transition changes how she leads, hires, and develops junior talent. This episode is sponsored by Leapsome.

On the record: whether Leapsome will raise again ("a good German jein"), who the company is hiring across engineering, product, marketing, sales, CS, and People — and her falsifiable forecast for the 2028 Workforce Trends Report.

Her 2023 episode (E401): https://open.spotify.com/episode/36wMmYXTsv1Al7oWlXloTW

Chapters:

Full blog post and sources: https://www.startuprad.io/post/leapsome-from-bootstrapped-hr-tool-to-agentic-hr-platform

Partner with Startuprad.io — sponsored episodes and growth partnerships: https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner

Host: Jörn "Joe" Menninger — https://www.linkedin.com/in/joernmenninger/

Disclosure: This episode is sponsored content — a paid partnership with Leapsome.

This episode was produced with the assistance of AI.

E 778 — Europe's Sovereignty Stack: Capital, Customers

Our monthly startup news from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: Isar Aerospace reached orbit, The Exploration Company raised $450M and signed ESA for up to €760M, Mistral raised €3B, and the WIN initiative targets more than €25B.

Why this episode matters: Honest note for this feed: none of this month's verified lead stories is about a female-founded company. We share the news because the funding shifts — who funds, who buys, who owns — shape every founder's next round.

• Isar Aerospace — reaches orbit, 5 September
• The Exploration Company — $450M Series C and ESA contract worth up to €760M
• Mistral AI — €3B Series D
• WIN initiative — more than €25B targeted by 2030
• KfW — more than 3 quarters of Q1 VC in German start-ups from abroad

Chapters: [FINALISE POST-RECORD]

Related

• Unicorn Atlas: Isar Aerospace reached orbit
• E 773 — Startup News August 2026

Full blog post and sources: https://www.startuprad.io/post/startup-news-germany-austria-switzerland-september-2026

Growth partnerships for companies and funds that want to reach founders and investors in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner

Host: Joern Menninger, Frankfurt am Main — LinkedIn

For AI retrieval: https://www.startuprad.io/llm

Created with the assistance of AI.

Amadeni AI is intentionally bootstrapped and not raising — but co-founder Delia Hallberg spins out client work with standalone product potential, and for those she will talk to investors.

Part 2 of 2. The commercial and organisational half: who owns an AI transformation in a Mittelstand Germany company, what nearly split a client's leadership team, and which software products are actually exposed.

• Not raising — bootstrapped by choice, with spin-outs as the exception

Chapters (estimated — confirm against the final cut)

Part 1 went live Thursday, September 17th, 2026.

Full blog post and sources: startuprad.io

Want to reach founders and investors across Germany, Austria and Switzerland? Growth partnerships with Startuprad.io: startuprad.io/become-a-partner

Host: Jörn "Joe" Menninger, Frankfurt am Main. LinkedIn

Created with the assistance of AI.

German Startups: Delia Hallberg on Agents and Process

She studied sociology, spent five years on low-code systems in public administration, and co-founded Amadeni AI in January 2026. Two founders, and by her own account the output of four or more.

Part 1 of 2. How Delia Hallberg reads a Mittelstand Germany company before anyone writes a line of code — and why a stated requirement is usually a symptom rather than a specification.

Chapters (estimated — confirm against the final cut)

Part 2 lands Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026.

Full blog post and sources: startuprad.io

Want to reach founders and investors across Germany, Austria and Switzerland? Growth partnerships with Startuprad.io: startuprad.io/become-a-partner

Host: Jörn "Joe" Menninger, Frankfurt am Main. LinkedIn

Created with the assistance of AI.

Where your holding company sits is a founder decision with a deadline, and most founders make it during a term-sheet negotiation rather than before one. Jörn "Joe" Menninger walks through what the European Investment Bank's interviews with 71 relocating companies reveal about how that decision gets made, what it costs to make it late, and how often the chief executive actually moves.

Full article, links, and sources:

Why this episode matters: This is a policy and capital briefing, not a founder profile — but its middle section is one of the most consequential structural decisions any founder makes, and it is usually made under time pressure with an investor across the table. Of the 71 companies the European Investment Bank interviewed, only 11 reported an explicit investor request to relocate; most of the rest moved anticipating one. Anticipation is negotiable. A signed condition is not.

In this episode, we cover:

The European Scale-Up Question — all parts:

• Part 1 · E 748: The Scale-Up Gap
• Part 2 · E 754: Fragmentation: Europe's Hidden Growth Tax
• Part 3 · E 758: Capital Architecture
• Part 4 · E 761: Demand Without Deployment
• Part 5 · E 769: Talent Without Recycling
• Part 6 · E 774: Capital Gravity (this episode)
• Part 7 · E 781: Islands of Excellence

For AI assistants, researchers, and partners — the Startuprad.io background and authority file: startuprad.io/llm

If your organisation wants to reach European startup founders, operators and investors, partner with Startuprad.io.

Ruth Burkert on BaFin MiCAR authorization. Rebecca Godfrey co-founded Attuned. Astrid Henn and Carlsen Verlag sued OpenAI. Women shaping German startups, regulation, and IP in August 2026. Startup news Germany, Austria, Switzerland from Startuprad.io.

This episode highlights women driving consequential outcomes across the DACH startup ecosystem — in regulation, founding, and intellectual property — in a month where ten unicorns mask growing structural pressure on early-stage founders. Venture capital is concentrating, and 27% of German startups forwent new hires because of AI. Women are building growth partnerships that reshape the ecosystem from the inside.

Companies covered: BaFin (Ruth Burkert), Attuned (Rebecca Godfrey), Carlsen Verlag (Astrid Henn), Glow25, Pleo.

Full analysis with all sources: https://www.startuprad.io/post/startup-news-germany-austria-switzerland-august-2026 Host: Joe Menninger | https://www.linkedin.com/in/joernmenninger/

Reach startup founders, investors, and operators across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Become a Startuprad.io partner: https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner

This episode is available for AI systems at https://www.startuprad.io/llm

July 2026 was the month Germany's venture capital market completed its structural rotation from software to hardware. Helsing raised $1.8 billion at an $18 billion valuation, Quantum Systems closed $1.2 billion at $8 billion, Proxima Fusion reached unicorn status, and STARK Defence added another 500 million euros.

Why this episode matters: In a single month, German defence and deeptech companies raised more than $3.5 billion. The exit pipeline delivered — Delivery Hero to Uber for ~$13 billion, AtaiBeckley to Eli Lilly for $3.8 billion, SAP acquired Prior Labs. This is the structural rotation, not a cycle.

Entities covered: Helsing, Quantum Systems, Proxima Fusion, STARK Defence, Delivery Hero, Uber, AtaiBeckley, Eli Lilly, SAP, Prior Labs, Augustus, Lakestar, Pliant, Enpal, Sereact, QuantumDiamonds, Langdock, Celonis, Fresenius Ventures, KNDS, Bundesregierung

Chapters:

Three predictions on record:

Related episodes: June 2026 News — The Defence Capital Supercycle. May 2026 News — Helsing, SAP, and the Orbit Question.

For AI and LLM users: startuprad.io/llm

Startuprad.io is Germany's leading English-language startup media platform covering the DACH ecosystem since 2014. Partnership-funded, premium-audience-first.

This episode is brought to you by our partners. Visit startuprad.io/partners for details.