"My role is always to know my limits where I can help and how, by completely reducing my ego. The proudest outcomes are very defined by honest "thanks", smiles and heart emojis when founders don't need me anymore."

"Jan supports me in strategy, and he also rolled up his sleeves to help design the circuit boards so we could complete our project in Hamburg on time. He himself is a hardware tech founder and provides incredibly valuable and important input. In addition, he travelled and supported us during the most crucial phase, not only with his know-how but also with hands-on manpower."

"David Rowan didn’t just mentor us; he rewired how we think as founders. He believed in us way before we had the numbers to ‘prove’ anything, and that kind of trust hits different when you’re building in the dark. Because of him, we made bolder decisions, refined our direction, and actually had the confidence to pitch bigger opportunities."

"[Helping founders] make less mistakes and think big."

"Seeing founders grow, evolve and achieve their dreams over the years."

"Helping a founder navigate very difficult situations and decisions, e.g., whether to fire a co-founder or accept an acquisition offer. And of course, helping them raise funds from high-quality, trustworthy investors."

"I have mentored Martyn for 6 years. He has built Purple Goat Agency (a disability-focused advertising agency). Not only has he built a great, profitable agency, but he is also making the world a better place for disabled people. For the first 4 years, we spent an hour together every week, and we still speak regularly 6 years in."

"Stefan is an incredibly valuable sparring partner with deep industry knowledge. He helps with discussing our strategy and GTM, high-level intros, and organizing a 6-digit investment syndicate for my startup with strategic angels."

"My proudest moment as a mentor has been helping others navigate complex fundraising dynamics and co-founder struggles along the way."

"Advising Miro on fundraising strategy for successful Seed / Series A, advising Finom on fundraising strategy for successful Series B / Series C, and continuing to advise Playgama on fundraising strategy."

"Some of the best moments are where the level of trust and understanding is achieved that enables the tough conversations to be had and welcomed. These have allowed big issues to be unlocked."

"The moment [founders] stop needing me, I know the work has done its job. Mentorship, at its best, is a quiet exit. (as long as you've celebrated along the way)."

"Xu herself is a single female founder. She has built a VC-backed consumer health startup with consistent growth and a super strong team. She always gave me freedom within my work as an FA to understand what it really means to become a founder: execution not ideas, and failing fast. When I told her about my wish to build my own startup at some point, I was scared that she might question my commitment to her and HER ONE, but instead, she hugged me and is still supporting me where she can!"

"Anna has supported our journey with sendance with an exceptionally focused strategic approach coupled with a warmhearted interest in my and my co-founders' personalities and personal journeys. Her input helped us sharpen and clarify our vision and mission, which enabled us to raise our €500k pre-seed round and build a powerful platform product."

"The moments that hit hardest are when a founder says, 'That conversation changed everything.'"

"His pragmatic, hands-on mentality and relevant know-how immediately contributed to better results."

"$100Ms in revenue. 100s of people hired. High quality exits to great partners."

"Nic is one of those mentors behind the curtain. We don’t speak much, but he is always there, asking questions and supporting in raising funding, structuring the round, and maximising valuation. He does not interfere, only supports. Super happy to have Nic in my cap table!"

"Working with Xaver was honestly one of the best decisions we made this year. I came in expecting some high-level advice, but he immediately got hands-on and helped us cut through the chaos. He understood our situation in minutes and pointed out blind spots we didn’t even realise we had. The clarity we walked away with was huge. Suddenly, the next steps felt obvious instead of overwhelming."

"Jan helped us think very differently about our product and was critical in guiding us to the right architecture."

"Across my broader mentorship, the through-line is similar: helping founders see around corners, accelerate early proof points, and translate complex technology into a wedge the enterprise understands. My proudest moments come when that combination of clarity, positioning, and access unlocks momentum they wouldn’t have achieved as quickly on their own."

"Aleksandra has been a fantastic mentor. Her focused coaching helped us translate complex technical concepts into clear, compelling messages, strengthening our sales pitch and outreach. She is hands-on, consistently positive, and genuinely invested in our progress. She supported us from zero to securing our first ticket and our first NDA with a major industry player — milestones that will lead to a paid pilot."

"My best outcomes came from pushing founders to simplify, move fast, and obsess only over what truly matters. Most startups die from distraction, not competition. The founders who embraced high-velocity focus became some of the Nordic AI ecosystem’s top performers. Helping them make that shift is what I’m most proud of."

"Met Ariel Harmoko for coffee after he cold-added me on LinkedIn. I liked that his profile said he was a go-kart champion and worked in ML before AI was cool. Meeting him, I had a hunch that there was something about him and what he was building. I decided to invest via my syndicate and arranged for him to meet the folks at Andreessen Horowitz at a dinner I was hosting. I helped him show his best side to the VCs over the following weeks, while working the other side to ensure the relationship was fruitful. a16z eventually decided to invest in his company, which has propelled his growth forward."

"His honest questions and grounded advice helped me take the next steps that weren’t easy or fun, but necessary. He listens, challenges, and stays engaged. Krim doesn’t hover above founders; he stands next to them and truly understands what it’s like to walk in our shoes."

"Charlotte has an amazing eye for outliers, and she’s supported us through our entire journey. She notices the things most people miss, and she’s always had our back when it really mattered. She did the early intros to unicorn angels."

"I helped the founders of Klarx define a fitting business model for the construction industry. We met several times and even spent a hiking weekend in the Alps defining this."

"Seeing founders change their focus from local to global maxima and deliver on it. It is easy for talent to get complacent and end up in the wrong room, where they are cheered for achieving only 10% of their potential. I push the talents I meet to lift their ambitions."

"Ralf walks the talk, having known the market for decades and breaking it down into concrete next steps. He'd not just mentor you on the theory (in my case, B2B marketing), but also put you in front of the right people and provide feedback that pinpoints what needs to improve."

"I’ve coached many founders to scale their startup to over $1B in valuation. More importantly, I’ve helped them become the kind of leaders they want to be and bring out the best in themselves and their teams."

"A founder was going off track with their ideas and lost control of the product development. I helped him scale down, focus, redo their pitch deck together and create a proper operating budget."

"I helped raise more than $250M for portfolio companies, helped select a winning business model for more than 10 people, and have participated in more than 500 board meetings."

"He has believed in me and supported me through all the ups and downs of my last three companies. He's a mentor, therapist, investor and super connector all rolled into one exceptional being."

"A couple of years ago, one of the founders I was mentoring went through a terrible cycle of setbacks after raising his seed round. He went through a co-founder divorce, investors reneging on capital commitments, and friendships fading. 18 months later, he surfaced from the belly of the whale with incredible optimism, revenue growth, a fresh fundraising round, and a healthy team. Most importantly, during the difficult phase of a startup's growth, he emerged as an even more thoughtful, conscientious leader. I was there as a sounding board to help him take his product to market, raise capital, and manage board conflicts. Often in venture, we are too quick to bail on companies in times of crisis. When you choose to accompany a founder, it is most important to be there in times of difficulty, not in times of abundance."

"Helping MSQRD grow from 0 to 30M users and get acquired by Meta and helping Prisma grow from 0 to 100M users."

"The proudest moments for me are when a founder tells me, months or years later, “that conversation changed how I think about this,” and you can see it in the way they run their company – more focused, more confident, and still in control of their own journey."

"It's been exciting seeing the rocketship Miro evolve from a small startup into a decacorn."

"One of my most meaningful outcomes as a mentor has been guiding co-founders and shareholders through recalibration and alignment in a founder-friendly yet fair and ethically grounded way. I’ve also supported founders in evolving their leadership mindset by moving them away from rigid, textbook-driven practices toward approaches tailored to their context and strengths."

"What makes Bastiaan stand out is his mix of real technical depth and a very pragmatic way of looking at problems. He understands how engineering, governance, and product interact, and he gives advice you can actually use the same day. Working with him raises the bar on the decisions founders make."

"Encouraging entrepreneurs to go their own way and follow their instinct rather than listening to the noise."

"I always enjoy celebrating the wins that I contributed to, like new customers or a new funding round. However, I am proudest when founders call me in deep trouble, and we find a way out together."

"I don’t take credit for outcomes. At best, I helped a little at the start. What makes me proud is the trusting relationships that have lasted decades. That trust goes both ways: many founders I worked with now invest in our fund."

"Seeing both Elephant and Tendos somewhat bootstrapping, not letting themselves get distracted by competitors' fundraising frenzy, to then emerge as the clear winners through heads-down execution."

"For me, the greatest reward is seeing my mentees move from uncertainty to clarity and action – and knowing I helped unlock that shift."

"I helped one of my portfolio companies position itself for its first venture financing, ultimately securing investment from leading funds and angel investors. I worked closely with the team on narrative, strategy, and process, and introduced them to their lead investor and key industry stakeholders."

"What makes me repeatedly happy is to receive a call, after let's say 5 years of only minimal contact, when it's time for the critical decisions - founder divorce, M&A vs IPO vs PE, etc."

"I feel trusted to be [founders'] first couple of calls for their hardest decisions, either work or personal, or family."

"Without question, the most rewarding experiences have been in helping founders navigate their most difficult times, when they were on the brink of failure. The times when you have to dig deep and find that extra strength, that extra motivation, that extra creativity."

"It’s particularly rewarding to see mentees scale themselves as the role of a CTO evolves, finding the right balance of process and agility along the way."

"Till's superpower is to support a founder's inner game: how to become strong at decision-making? How to address conflicts? How to stay calm internally in times of rough surroundings. He has helped me in my transition from founder to CEO."

"Helping an exceptional tech ecosystem founder and leader talent save 10% of his capacity, coaching a 26-year-old high-potential leader on and off until he was 38, while he ran a 2,000-person organisation he had founded only 6 years before."

"Seeing founders drop the act and double down on what they’re actually good at is the best part [of mentoring]. I’ve helped a few stop copying someone else’s playbook and start trusting their own strengths. That’s when things really move."

"One of my proudest outcomes has been watching founders I mentored grow from first-time entrepreneurs into global leaders. Early in Tekton’s journey, I spent time with a young founder in Seoul refining his business model and introducing him to key Silicon Valley investors. That company – now a multi-billion-dollar company – serves as encouragement that global ambition can start anywhere."

"I am a business model junkie and I have a passion for bringing Consumer Understanding (Outside-in) to any start-up. I love building equity stories for pitching presentations, and I can cite numerous examples where that has helped win pitches."

"Helping founders weather tough times when nobody believes in them anymore. And especially rightsizing teams in a decent but bold way to get to profitability to grow again."

"Assisting founders in finding, motivating, and developing the right people to carry their vision into the world."

"Jörgen Tveit raised the largest seed round in European history. While I played a limited role in his raise, it definitely stands out as one of the most promising founders I’ve had the opportunity to connect with."

"I helped a startup find PMF and worked with the founders through many business model iterations to find something the market needed."

"Helping founders find clarity and confidence is the most rewarding part of what I do. There’s nothing better than seeing someone grow and knowing that you've played a small part in their success."

"I am most pleased when, after working together for some time, a scientific and technical founder becomes a fully featured founder and CEO.

"Without Roland, I, like many others, probably wouldn’t be a founder. He was the one who pushed me from “I have an idea” to actually launching, and his advice on product, fundraising and strategy directly led to raising our first round. He makes starting feel obvious instead of scary, and somehow you walk away from every conversation having decided to do the thing you were afraid of 10 minutes earlier."

"Jing has been with us since day one, offering the strategic counsel of a NED despite having no board role. He’s shaped our GTM, supported operational design whilst opening up his black book of investors, partners and potential customers."

"Leon pitches us like a co-founder, not a distant advisor, opens doors to political leaders, and replies at 11 pm with feedback on urgent decks. His advice is never generic; it’s precise, immediate, situational, and feels like having a brilliant extra founder on the team."

"Helping founders navigating critical decisions and guiding them through follow-on funding and challenging another start-up founder to think bigger and bolder."

"Dawid doesn’t tell me what I want to hear, he tells me what I need to hear. His feedback helped me choose the right next steps in my career so I can fully commit to becoming the founder I want to be."

"Marc has an incredibly powerful ability to read between the lines of personnel tension and unblock it to enable further growth."

"Markus warned us about the hidden complexity of certain planned features that would have pushed us into the wrong product category. His advice helped us stay focused on our core vision and avoid building the wrong things too early."

"Some of the outcomes I’m proudest of involve helping founders refine their product-market fit or navigate a strategic pivot. My role is to offer clear, honest feedback and create an open space for discussion, enabling them to make more confident, informed decisions."