Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants: How Young Innovation Leaders Give Back
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton
A few years ago I was responsible for recruiting and supporting a community of 1200 + successful millennial entrepreneurs at the Kairos Society. The top 25 Kairos Companies have collectively raised over $500mm in investment capital, with a market cap of over $3bn. Every year, Kairos would invite their global community to an exclusive summit at the New York Stock Exchange, where these startups would connect with influential government leaders, investors, and Fortune 500’s top executives. With so many resources at hand, I was curious what these young entrepreneurs perceived as their most impactful moment at such a powerful summit.
I was expecting them to share stories about meeting an investor, celebrity or a Fortune 500 CEO, but instead, they would mostly refer to an eye-opening conversation they would have with another young entrepreneur about an obstacle or challenge they were currently facing. It was the mutual mentorship and knowledge exchange among young founders - who they could relate to so well- that made their summit experience so valuable.
It is no secret that behind some of the world’s most successful founders you will find great mentors. Mark Zuckerburg was mentored by Steve Jobs, Jack Dorsey was mentored by philanthropist Ray Chambers, Marc Benioff of Salesforce was mentored by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft were mentored by PC inventor Ed Roberts.
Every great visionary has a mentor at some point along the road and mentorship is considered a critical foundational component for building a succesful startup.
Since working at Kairos, I have sourced startups for the United Nations, Fortune 500 Companies and the European Parliament. Today many of those young entrepreneurs who benefited from having a mentor are ready to give back what they received, understanding how crucial mentorship and trusted guidance is during the early days of their startup.
Having seen the power of knowledge transfer within communities, I co-founded the EU top 50 mentorship program. We carefully selected 18 European Innovation Leaders based on their entrepreneurial experience in generating impactful innovation both in business and in society as well as their desire to give back.
If you are a seed-stage startup founder with a HQ in Europe, you can now apply for the EU top 50 competition using the links below!
The kick-off will take place at the European Parliament in Brussels on November 26–27th 2018 where you will pitch your venture during the European Innovation Summit and will be followed by a mentorship program during which mentors will connect with their mentees for one hour a month over Skype for the duration of six months.
Europe’s Young Innovation Leaders:
Josipa Majic is the founder and CEO at ID Guardian, a London-based company with offices in Zagreb and Palo Alto that analyses biometric data and creates smart devices with biosensors. ID Guardian ultimately helps people and companies worldwide to take care of their overall health and wellness in a seamless and hassle-free way. Josipa is the main visionary behind ID Guardian’s products and overall strategy, responsible for successful customer relationships with Fortune 100 clients globally. She was acknowledged by TIME Magazine as the inventor of top 10 most innovative products of the year. Josipa was a keynote speaker at a panel during the Global Entrepreneurship summit alongside President Barack Obama, appeared on the BBC, Fox News, WSJ, Forbes, CNN, and many others.
Apply to be mentored by Josipa Majic here
Cristian Tamas is the co-founder & CMO at TypingDNA (Techstars NYC backed) which aims to secure all online accounts based on the way people type on their keyboards. TypingDNA combines AI and behavioural biometrics as an identification verification tool with a 99% accuracy rating.
With more than half of all data breaches being a direct result of weak and stolen passwords, TypingDNA offers a disruptive solution for multiple user cases, such as in finance and healthcare, preventing identity thefts. TypingDNA won the product of the day on Product Hunt and was selected by Disrupt100 as a potential disruptor to influence, change or create new global markets.
Apply to be mentored by Cristian Tamas here
Kamil Adamczyk is a medical doctor and founder of Cardio Technology, a company working on an oncology project dedicated to helping patients suffering from malignant brain tumors. At Cardio Technology they provide them with a brain implant destroying cancer cells without harming the healthy brain.
Previously Kamil was the CEO of Inteliclinic, a company that won LeWeb Paris startup competition for the best startup, and has been chosen as the best sleep startup by HealthXL. Inteliclinic has received the first prize for Neuroon as the most innovative product at SXSW in Austin, Texas.
Apply to be mentored by Kamil Adamczyk here
Irene-Marie Seelig is a pioneer in circular, sustainable and next-generation manufacturing innovation within the consumer goods industry. In 2017, Irene was awarded Forbes 30 Under 30 for “creating the products of tomorrow” through her startup which manufactures a vegan leather alternative made from mushrooms instead of animal skins. She has been apart of Plug and Play’s Fashion for Good accelerator along with winning the 2016 Kering Award for Sustainable Fashion Innovation for this development. In addition, Irene is the Innovation Development Manager at Swarovski, managing a 15M Euro product portfolio and leading a team of designers, material scientists, and engineers from ideation to launch to commercialize new, innovative products for their B2B customers. Prior to her tenure at Swarovski, Irene worked across Global Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility teams at Stella McCartney spearheading the development of product marketing strategies across all internal and external digital platforms.
Irene has lived and worked across Europe, the UK and the U.S. to reimagine how we make, use and dispose of products. Being highly passionate about the circular economy and next-generation manufacturing to disrupt and reshape the consumer goods industry to drive clean growth, Irene contributes as an advisor, mentor and guest lecture to various organizations globally.
Apply to be mentored by Irene-Marie Seelig here
Alina Gratschner has lived and worked all over Europe, the U.S., Africa, and across Asia, being actively engaged in connecting and developing innovative ecosystems across continents. Alina is the Managing Partner and Co-founder of ‘Accelerate Korea’, focusing on cross-border incubation and acceleration programs in partnership with public and private sectors. Being passionate about exponential and disruptive technologies shaping our future and driving economic development she contributes as an advisor, guest lecturer and mentors to various organizations.
Apply to be mentored by Alina Gratschner here
Caritta Seppa is the COO and co-founder of Tespack, a company specialised in mobile energy and whose customers and partners include Vodafone, Plan International and Save the Children. Caritta has been shortlisted by Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in 2018 as one of the young innovators reshaping the world and she was selected as one of the One Young World youth leaders and delegate speakers for the One Young World Summit 2018, the leading summit for future youth leaders that also gathers together head of states from around the world. Caritta was selected as one of the top 100 Women in Wearables in 2018 and one of the Winning Women Entrepreneurs in 2017 by Ernst and Young. Caritta is passionate about technology and empowering others and is a mentor and advisor to aspiring young entrepreneurs and students. Caritta was one of the co-organisers for the first Women in Tech Forum in Lima in 2018 and Women in Tech Track Leader for the first Women in Tech Day event in Valencia she co-organised with Techstars.
Apply to be mentored by Caritta Seppa here
Carlos Lee Santos is co-founder & CEO at HypeLabs, the company behind mesh networking software that allows any device — from mobile to desktop to IoT — to securely connect even when there is no internet connection. The company is AngelPad alumni and has partnered and is invested by some of the largest players in the telco space, namely Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, NovaBase, and others.
Started working on IT at the age of 14, Carlos was an early age IT team manager, providing assistance and working for companies such as IBM, BPI Bank, Santander, Zon Telecommunications and Glintt in the following years. With a background in Computer Science, his entrepreneurial skills have been recognized by organizations such as the Thiel Fellowship Summit, Inc. magazine, Saint Gallen University and Kairos Society. Today he acts as CEO, and mentors a variety of startups enrolled in multiple acceleration programs around the globe.
Apply to be mentored by Carlos Lee Santos here
Daniel Horak is the co-founder of CONDA one of the largest crowd investing platforms for the CEE region which raised close to 30M EUR for over 110 projects. The community of CONDA consists of more than 30.000 investors.
CONDA is currently building a global ecosystem (the CRWD-Network) for security and equity token offerings — building the financial market of the future. As Co-Founder and managing partner of CONDA, Daniel Horak is the driving force in the area of marketing and sales. He is also Member of the Board at Austrian Startups and works as a Lecturer for business planning and early-stage financing. Daniel is a Forbes 30under30, experienced speaker and co-author of several books in the field of alternative financing and crowdfunding.
Apply to be mentored by Daniel Horak here
Jakub Zielinski is a serial internet entrepreneur, investor and Managing Partner at Nextweb Holdings. He founded several successful startups in media, advertising, and digital health reaching over 20 Million unique users.
Previously Jakub served as Chief Digital Officer in large international media companies in charge of online operations in over 20 countries.
Apply to be mentored by Jakub Zielinski here
Marcin Pilarz is the co-founder of Talkin’ Things. Talkin’ Things is the leader in delivering smart packaging solutions for IoT and has a long history of working with Fortune500 companies to deliver innovative solutions that define the trends in the Smart Packaging Market.
Talkin’ Things is the only provider in the world that offers a real end-2-end solution with customizable technology, software, hardware and marketing creation. Talkin’ Things has over 20 pending patents and is bringing 1.5 Billion tags on the market within a year, reimagining the customer experience.
Apply to be mentored by Marcin Pilarz here
Michal Prywata is a pioneering inventor focused on creating technologies that have large-scale human impact, as well as drive long-term shareholder wealth. As an experienced business executive, he has raised in excess of $50M.
A technology and business leader in robotics, aerospace, and A.I. Michal is the founder of Bionik Laboratories, a highly innovative robotics company with products in more than 25 countries worldwide. He is also the founder of Skypod Aerospace, a company focused on innovative military and civilian-use VTOL aircraft.
Apply to be mentored by Michal Prywata here
Monika Żochowska is the Co-founder and CEO at Phenicoptere Sp. Z o.o., a Warsaw-based company with sales in over 60 countries. Monika has created a disruptive product under the GLOV brand in the cosmetic industry that revolutionises the everyday routine of removing makeup. The idea is to remove makeup only with water, simplifying the traditional makeup removing process. Monika is the main visionary behind Phenicoptere’s products and overall strategy, and has received many awards, among others she was named as Entrepreneur of the Year by EY, the most creative entrepreneur by BRIEF, and she was acknowledged by Sukces Pisany Szminką (in collaboration with Forbes) as Businesswoman of the Year in 2016. Aside from working at Phenicoptere, Monika runs a Diamond Advisory company as a Certified Diamond Grader by HRD. Prior to that, she worked for 2 years in Antwerp in the Diamond District for Boulle Rough Diamonds as a Marketing Manager developing ultra luxurious diamond jewelry brand. Monika has been living in Jacksonville FL, Valencia, Antwerp, Brussels, Paris, London, Dubai, Warsaw.
Apply to be mentored by Monika Zochowska here
Noemi Malska has gathered experience in international business while working in Israel at the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce. Later on she’s joined a VC fund as an analyst, then she became a member of the management board, COO of one of the portfolio companies and currently, she is an investment manager at another VC. She is also a Chairman of the Supervisory Board at a company related to cybersecurity sector. Therefore Noemi has a perspective of each stakeholder within the startup/investor loop. She has interests in business development within new technology sector e.g. cyber security, fintech, space. Noemi is practicing Yoga Ashtanga and she claims it influences many aspects of life in a positive way.
Apply to be mentored by Noemi Malska here
Perttu Ojansuu, CEO & Co-founder of Happeo, the leading Digital Workplace Platform for Enterprises with 220,000+ users and €8M in funding. Earlier Perttu founded Gapps Ltd, the largest Google Cloud reseller of Finland.
Apply to be mentored by Perttu Ojansuu here
Sarah Al-Hussaini is the COO of Ultimate.ai. Backed by Techstars and based across Helsinki and Berlin, Ultimate.ai helps European enterprises scale their customer service.
They power some of the world’s largest contact center providers including Salesforce, Microsoft, SAP, and Genesys.
Apply to be mentored by Sarah Al-Hussaini here
Tom Charman is the co-founder and CEO of KOMPAS, a deep tech company focusing on artificial intelligence in mobility. He is an experienced founder with a previous exit and has worked with technology companies focusing on understanding and analyzing data.
In 2016, Tom gave a TEDx talk on Artificial Intelligence and the ‘Future of Technology’ and has been recognized as an industry leader, having spoken at events including Mobile World Congress, and Visa Futures. Tom advises governments and institutions on deep technologies and their impact on society, has been recognized as a leading influencer in the field of deep technology, and was named the Future Face of Innovation and Technology by the Chamber of Commerce. Most recently, he was listed in the 30 south of 30 power list.
Apply to be mentored by Tom Charman here
Yori Kamphuis is passionate about providing a safer, more secure world. He is co-founder and CBDO of Storro, a peer-to-peer, blockchain application that allows you to easily create secure collaboration spaces. What’s unique is that your shared data is not stored in a cloud at some third party or with us, but is physically distributed over project members you designate.
StartupDelta placed Yori in its ‘Future maker 50’ (Toekomstmaker50) in 2018, he is one of the ‘101 most interesting technologists, inventors and tinkerers’ (aka Nerds) of The Netherlands according to Vrij Nederland, and was elected Futurist of the Year in 2013. Yori is a Global Shaper of the Amsterdam Hub, connected to the World Economic Forum.
Apply to be mentored by Yori Kamphuis here
Yosef Harb is the founder of Happitech, a company that measures heart rhythm disorders using the smartphone camera with no additional hardware. Named most disruptive healthcare innovation by Deloitte and Singularity University NL and acknowledged by Tim Cook CEO of Apple during his keynote.
Apply to be mentored by Yosef Harb here
For more information on the program please visit www.eutop50.eu or email Karolina@ glowfly.eu
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