Entrepreneurial Realities

Afleveringen

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  #102 - From Physics Professor to Quantum Startup Founder, with Christopher Eichler (Quint Computing) 10.08.2026 21min

  Christopher Eichler spent over a decade in academic physics, a PhD at ETH Zurich, a fellowship at Princeton, a senior scientist role back at ETH, and now a professorship at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. Then he decided a university lab wasn't the right vehicle anymore, and founded Quint Computing to build the next generation of superconducting quantum processors.In this episode, Michael Machold, Operational Director of the Quantum & Semiconductor Lab, talks with Christopher about the exact moment academic research hits its limits, why he chose a startup over staying in the lab, and what building a company has taught him that a physics PhD never could.They also get into the physics itself , why quantum computing matters now as AI pushes conventional chips toward a physical limit, what early quantum computers will realistically be used for, and how the Bavarian ecosystem (including the Max Planck Institute and Munich Quantum Valley) shaped his decision to build in Europe instead of the US.If you're a researcher wondering whether your work belongs in a company, or a founder curious about the deep-tech path from lab to startup, this one's for you.Entrepreneurial Realities is the podcast of TUM Venture Labs. Subscribe for more conversations with the founders and researchers building Europe's deep-tech future.
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  # 101 - Martin Giese, Founder, Business Angel, and B2B Sales expert 29.06.2026 29min

  Martin Giese has spent 25 years at the centre of Munich's deep tech ecosystem — and he thinks most European founders have a blind spot that no incubator programme will fix: they can't sell.As Managing Director of XPRENEURS (now UTUM Accelerator) and guest lecturer at Stanford GSB, Martin has seen founders across three continents make the same mistake. In this episode, we dig into what Stanford founders understand about customers that TUM founders typically don't, why the Europe-US gap is more cultural than financial, and what it actually takes to build a B2B company that scales past the first few customers.Join me as I speak with Martin Giese — investor, incubator director, and one of Europe's most clear-eyed voices on what it really takes to sell deep tech.
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  # 100 - Five Years of Building - Special episode with Three Amazing Founders, 22.06.2026 40min

  This is our 100th episode — and we are not celebrating with a retrospective. We are celebrating with three founders who came back to tell us what actually happened.Flora Geske co-founded SUMM-AI, a GovTech company using AI to make public administration more accessible and efficient, and winner of the TUM Presidential Award. Pablo Palafox co-founded HappyRobot, a Y Combinator-backed agentic AI platform for logistics that has raised $44 million and counts the world's biggest freight brokers among its customers. Kevin Berghoff co-founded Quantum Diamonds, a TUM spin-out that has just raised €152 million and deployed its quantum sensing systems in the US, with nine of the world's top ten chipmakers already engaged.Three very different sectors. One starting point: Munich, TUM, five years ago.Join us as we look back at five years of building — and forward at what comes next.
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  # 99 - A Conversation with Adrian Locher, Co-Founder and General Partner of Merantix Capital 16.06.2026 28min

  Adrian Locher co-founded Merantix Capital in Berlin in 2016 with machine-learning researcher Rasmus Rothe. What started as an AI studio has become one of Europe's most distinctive AI organisations: a venture studio that incubates companies from scratch, a campus hosting an entire ecosystem, and — as of June 2026 — a €100 million plus fund backing AI ventures across the continent.In this conversation, Adrian traces his path from founding his first company at fourteen and selling the Swiss flash-sale platform DeinDeal to Ringier in 2012, to building Merantix's combined studio-fund-campus model. We discuss what it actually means to build AI-native companies in Europe, where the structural obstacles remain, how to evaluate teams when technology moves faster than any due diligence, and what a thriving European AI ecosystem could look like by 2031.
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  # 98 - Tech at War: Lessons from Ukraine for the Next Generation of Defense Entrepreneurs — with Dimko Zhluktenko, Soldier, Founder, Entrepreneur 10.06.2026 24min

  Defense tech is being rewritten in real time — not in labs or conference rooms, but on the frontlines of Ukraine.Join me in my conversation with with Dimko Zhluktenko — soldier, drone pilot , founder of Dzyga's Paw ($6M raised, 70+ countries), analyst at Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment RAID, and now founder of Hasta, a DefTech VC fund.Dimko has lived every dimension of defense tech at once: as a soldier who uses the technology, as a founder who sources and funds it, and as an analyst who extracts lessons from it. What he shares about drone warfare, and what actually matters on the battlefield, his analysis of Ukraine, Europe, ... is something no conference panel can replicate and a must for all defenders of liberty and democracy.
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  # 97 - 200 new Shopfloor Apps in Six Months — A Conversation with Eden Chabanet and Johannes Mohren of Arctory 08.06.2026 29min

  Meet Eden Chabanet and Johannes Moran, Co-Founder of Arctory.Arctory is a platform for shopfloor vibe coding which, since its inception, has been used in hundreds of applications. Join me as we discuss topics such as the role of vibe coding in demanding professional environments, positioning focused platforms versus generalist ones, the role of IT in a changing world, ... and how a German startups focusing on the mid market is experience significant growth.
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  # 96 - Meet Simon Wilhelm, CEO & Co-Founder of Scaile and learn how to be visible in the age of Gen AI 18.05.2026 20min

  Join me in my conversation with Simon Wilhelm, CEO & Co-Founder of Scaile.Simon understood that classic SEO techniques no longer works. His startup helps companies get visibility. After a mere 6 months, he has secured 40 plus customers from multiple countries and shares learnings with us.
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  # 95 - Vibe coding for founders with Edgar Kussberg, Director of Product Management at Sonar 14.05.2026 33min

  Do join the discussion I had with Edgar Kussberg about Vibe coding.Edgar is a former entrepreneur where he focused on product development and gradually turned in applying his market focused approach to code development.He is currently in charge of Product development at SonarSource, a Swiss scale up which is the leader in code validation tool. We discuss on what is the phenomenon of vibe coding, who are the typical use cases and how to make the most of this new technology.
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  # 94 - Interview with Christine Carville and Marc Goldberg co-founders of Resilience Labs 12.05.2026 31min

  Do join our conversation with Christine Carville and Marc Goldberg, co-founders of Resilience labs, now Cerebral, a this podcast first married couple.Both started Resilience labs in 2019 to bridge a gap in the American healthcare market by training new clinicians while providing accessible care to patients. By integrating proprietary education with AI-powered clinical tools, they professionalised a fragmented industry and achieved a significant acquisition by the platform Cerebral.
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  # 93 - A conversation with Sebastian Mallaby, author of "The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence" 15.04.2026 30min

  The latest episode of Entrepreneurial Realities welcomes back Sebastian Mallaby, who joined the podcast once before to discuss The Power Law, his landmark account of the venture capital industry. This time, Sebastian returns with The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence — the result of three years of unprecedented access to Demis Hassabis and his inner circle.The Infinity Machine traces the journey of a chess prodigy from North London — Nobel Prize winner, founding CEO of Google DeepMind — whose singular goal was never money or power, but the scientific dream of artificial superintelligence.The conversation covers the story of DeepMind itself, the lessons European deep tech startups can draw from its trajectory, the very real risks of AGI, and many of the other defining questions that sit at the frontier of AI today.
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  # 92 - AI, Startups and Sports. A conversation with Michael Brand and Jonas Dunkel 24.03.2026 26min

  In this episode, I speak with Michael Brand, CEO of TraxSurf and Jonas Dunkel, CEO of DeepGolf, two German entrepreneurs applying AI to elite sport performance. Different sports but same ambition: replace guesswork with data, and help athletes improve with precision. A conversation about technology, entrepreneurship, and building something new far from the traditional hubs of surf and golf culture.
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  # 91 - AI and Ethics with Rabbi Mois Navon 18.03.2026 26min

  Rabbi Mois Navon is one of the founder engineer of MobilEye. He is also an advisor to the Israeli Government on the theme of AI and Ethics and a lecturer at ben Gourion University.Join us on our discussion on why ethical considerations profoundly matter for AI entrepreneurs and how to take these into considerations for your AI startups.
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  # 90 - What if waste could replace fossil resources? 11.03.2026 22min

  Sebastian Bastek, co-founder of Valoron, takes you on a journey of transforming mixed waste into virgin-quality fuels and chemicals, scaling a bold climate tech vision from the lab to industry and literally turning trash into treasure.Dive into the breakthroughs, the entrepreneurial journey, and how Valoron is turning circular economy ideas into reality. Hosted by Lucia Lara from the Climate & Circular Lab.
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  # 89 - Interview with Florian Doetzer, Managing Director TUM Venture Lab Aerospace and Defence 05.03.2026 23min

  This episode concludes our special series during the ⁠⁠Munich Security Conference⁠⁠⁠, where we explore the entrepreneurial realities behind defense and dual-use innovation.We speak with my colleague Florian Doetzer⁠⁠, who is the Managing Director of the TUM Venture Lab for Aerospace and Defense. The name of Florian’slab was changed from Aerospace to Aerospace and Defense and announced at the MSC (see here).Together, we discuss how Florian’s lab supports Defense related startups and the underlying ecosystem which is being build in Munich for develop and support a competitive European defense industry.
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  # 88 - Interview with Nicolas Tenzer, Senior French Policy Expert 22.02.2026 27min

  This episode is part of our special series during the ⁠Munich Security Conference⁠⁠, where we explore the entrepreneurial realities behind defense and dual-use innovation. We speak with Nicolas Tenzer⁠, a French senior policy expert who was among the first voices to warn of the dangers posed by Europe's sustained disinvestment in and neglect of its defense capabilities.Together, we explore the current state of European security and draw parallels between the challenges of building the next generation of entrepreneurs and those of developing a competitive European defense industry.
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  # 87 - Drone Aid Collective, an entrepreneurial initiative to make an impact 19.02.2026 27min

  This episode is part of our special series during the Munich Security Conference, where we explore the entrepreneurial realities behind defense and dual-use innovation.We are joined by Khrystyna Rozhenko and German Stelmakh, founders of Drone Aide Collective.Khrystyna and German explain how they have mobilized funding to support drone production for Ukraine and organized hands-on workshops across Europe to transfer criticaltechnical know-how. Tune in for an inside look at innovation, resilience, and action at the intersection of defense, technology, and civil society — and please donate here.
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  # 86 - Oleksii Markhovskyi, on the reality of being a DefTech entrepreneur in Ukraine 17.02.2026 42min

  This episode is part of our special series during the Munich Security Conference, where we explore the entrepreneurial realities behind defense and dual-use innovation. Dariia Rekun speaks with Oleksii Markhovskyi, co-founder of Ukrainian defense tech company Frontline Robotics, and Alina Kizlevych, who works on partnerships at Darkstar and brings deep experience working with defense startups.The conversation explores what it takes to build a defense tech startup in Ukraine: how teams develop and test products in real battlefieldconditions, what “product market fit” means during wartime, and the mainchallenges Oleksii has faced as a founder, from operations and hiring tofundraising and executing fast.Together, they discuss what building a company in Ukraine looks like today, the challenges founders face in high-stakes environments, and how Frontline Robotics’ cooperation with Quantum Systems gave rise to e a new German-Ukrainian joint venture strengthening European security.
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  # 85 - Agile DefTech: Artem Moroz from Brave 1 on Ukraine's 3-Month Development Cycles 15.02.2026 29min

  This episode is part of our special series during the Munich Security Conference, where we explore the entrepreneurial realities behind defense and dual-use innovation.Anastasia Lala⁠, pipeline manager at the TUM Venture Lab Aerospace and Defense, speaks with Artem Moroz ⁠, Head of Investments at Brave 1⁠ — a Ukrainian government initiative designed to fast-track DefTech solutions through asymmetric innovation.Together, they discuss the transition of civilian entrepreneurs into defense founders, the high-stakes reality of development cycles where technology often only has a three-month lifespan on the front line, and how Ukraine is building a sustainable defense ecosystem to support NATO and long-term European security. Do listen to this conversation to understand how agile startups are redefining modern warfare and creating the future of defense technology
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  # 84 - Building Europe's Defense Tech, One Hackathon at a Time, Benjamin Wolba Co-Founder of EDTH 11.02.2026 24min

  This episode is part of our special series during the Munich Security Conference, where we explore the entrepreneurial realities behind defense and dual-use innovation.We speak with Benjamin Wolba, co-founder of the EuropeanDefense Tech Hub .Benjamin co-created what has become Europe's largest network of defense tech hackathons — bringing together engineers, students, researchers, and early-stage founders across cities including Munich, Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, London, and more importantly, Lvyv and Kyiv.Each event gives participants 48 hours to prototype real solutions to challenges sourced directly from frontline partners in Ukraine and NATO allies, with the explicit goal of continuing toward deployment after the weekend ends. What started as a single event with 150 participants has grown into a movement on track to run over twenty hackathons in 2025 alone, with each edition producing ten to twelvestartups.Together, we explore what it takes to build an efficient grassroots innovation movement in defense, how hackathons can serve as an on-ramp for civilian technologists entering the sector, and what Benjamin has learned about the gap between ideation and real battlefield deployment — and how to close it.And for those that want to attend the Demo Day on Sunday in Munich, the link is here.
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  #83 – From Consulting to AI Startups: Execution, Reality & Building in Europe 04.02.2026 37min

  Former BCG consultants and now founders Benedikt Wiechers and Michael Spira share an honest, behind-the-scenes perspective on their transition from consulting to entrepreneurship — and what it really takes to build AI-driven companies in Europe.The conversation explores the realities of leaving a secure consulting career, why execution quickly matters more than strategy once you start building, and what makes Europe — especially Germany — a viable place to build AI startups. They also discuss how to think about talent, curiosity, and continuous learning in fast-moving AI fields, and why founders need to cut through startup hype to focus on solving real problems.Hosted by Claire Schwarz, former member of the Software / AI Lab and now consultant at BCG.