Founder Radio

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Antonia is COO and Co-founder of Kontempo. Kontempo is a leading payments and credit platform for Mexico’s industrial sector. Started in 2021, but with previous experience in the sector, they’ve executed with laser focus. In 2024 they 10x-ed their business are are now expanding the team and preparing for the next phase of growth. Antonia shares everything from Kontempo’s business and their first year, to her own development and a lot of wisdom for future founders and tech operators.Listen to this episode for lots of insights onThe first year of Kontempo: The plan, the execution, the focusHow Kontempo benefitted from the tight knit network amongst their customersHow Kontempo learned to move up in each value chain they were active inThe people Antonia is inspired by and what she learned from themThe importance of endurance, both in private life and in businessThe right and the wrong reasons to start a businessThe character traits Antonia thinks you need to enjoy the rideTimeless lessons on planning vs going with the flow, and being yourselfEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Tinashe is CEO and Co-founder of Flexclub. Flexclub is piloting an Uber-like car-network for long term rentals, and for other brands to build on top of. Started in 2018, they’ve gone to multiple iterations of their product, while navigating radically changing circumstances for mobility companies: COVID and the end of ZIRP. Tinashe opens up on Flexclub’s rollercoaster, his personal journey, and his learnings along the way.Listen to this episode for lots of insights onThe first year of Flexclub: The idea, the team, partners, pivotsHow Flexclub responded to the pandemic and the end of ZIRPWhy being a founder is like playing Age of Empires (!)The idea maze of the on-demand car industryTinashe’s lessons with regards to raising capitalTinashe’s lessons with regards to finding product / market fitFind a leadership style that’s both effective and true to yourselfTinashe’s personal growth throughout the adventureEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Yoram is CEO and founder of Dealroom. Dealroom is a Bloomberg for early stage private companies: It provides data on the companies, their founders, their funding rounds and valuations, and many other aspects of the business. Dealroom’s data is used by investors, corporates and governments in equal parts. In 11 years, the company has grown from just Yoram to over 90 FTE in 2024.Listen to this episode for lots of insights onThe early days of Dealroom: The idea, the data, pivots, first tractionThe trends Yoram is spotting in investor interestsDealrooms own fundraising experiencesWhat Dealroom data is being used forYoram’s lessons on building a companyThe different phases of growth, and what that requires from a CEOThe importance of following your intuition and doing something differentEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Karun is part of the founding team and Chief Growth Officer of GetVantage. GetVantage invests between $25k - $2.5m in emerging business in India across certain sectors, like eCommerce, SaaS, gaming, cleantech. Karun is also an investor and advisor in GajiGesa, who’s founder Vidit was on this podcast earlier. Karun has a PR and comms background and has 15 yoe at both corporates and scale-ups like Uber and Rolls Royce, before starting GetVantage.Listen to this episode for lots of insights onThe early days of GetVantage: The idea, the team, the technology, first tractionThe USD 500 - 1,500bn SME funding gap and how GetVantage is helping close itHow GetVantage is able to provide business loans within 7 to 10 days (!)The Indian government’s breakthrough initiatives to build a national digital infrastructure Karuns journey from India to the US to Singapore to India, and the change he seesKarun’s lessons on PR and comms and key tactics for others to up their gameKarun’s lessons on entrepreneurship, and the importance of always remaining a studentEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Vidit Agrawal is the founder of GajiGesa (Indonesia), which manages employee finances in South-East Asia, and has amassed 350k users in just under 4 years. With GajiGesa, employees have early access to their wages and no longer need predatory lending, and employers save thousands of hours on administration. Before GajiGesa, Vidit has spent time at several iconic companies: UBS, Uber, and Stripe, and he explains what their cultures were like, and what parts he incorporated. Listen to this episode for Vidit’s stories onSelecting a business opportunity to work onHow he factored lifestyle and passion of the problem into thatThe early days of GajiGesa: Finding product market fitAfter product market fit: Scaling and and repetitive processesWhether Vidit recommends starting a company with your wife..What needs to happen to make the company break-even in 2025Why Singapore is such a great country to live and do business inThe quality of live in Indonesia, and the first wave of tech businesses thereEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Fred Jordan of FinalSpark (Switserland) and his team are building a revolutionary new kind of computer, out of human stem cells. The human brain is several orders of magnitude more energy efficient than silicon based computer, and Fred's team hopes to unlock those efficiencies for out-of-brain computation. They have opened up their platform up to research universities, and to the public, and we've pasted the link below. After having financed FinalSpark from the proceeds of his other business for years, Fred is currently raising EUR 50m to accelerate realising their vision. Listen to this episode for lots of insights onWhy the human brain is such an incredible processing machineHow Fred and his team have been working towards replicating a human brain in a labWhat it would mean if they manage to build a working and lasting biocomputerWhy Fred is fundraising and what he expects to be able to achieve with itHow Fred has built his other business AlpVision, and his lessons learnedHow Fred's journey as an entrepreneur has changed him, and his advice to othersAnd please find a link to FinalSpark's biocomputing platform here: https://finalspark.com/live/Enjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Pit Janssen of MedApp has exited his prescription medicine adherence and delivery company to the biggest, stock exchange listed, EUR 2.0bn market cap online pharmacy company in Europe. MedApp launched as a medication adherence app, and rolled out an integrated pharmacy with a delivery function in 2020. They bootstrapped the company with a students loans and IT consultancy work until 2017, at which point angels came in. After raising money from Tablomonto Ventures, M3 Ventures and Health Innovations, they were acquired by Shop Apotheke Europe (ETR: RDC) in 2021.Listen to this episode for lots of insights onInnovation in the pharmacy businessHow oldschool pharma fought backHow to bootstrap your companyFinding hidden funding (!)The importance of a great co-founderWhat to look for in a co-founderHow to exit your business to a multinationalHow life changed for Pit and this team after the acquisitionPit’s background, drive and valuesParenting tactics for nurturing killer entrepreneursEnjoy listening!Press follow in your podcast app or on Youtube to get new Founder Radio episodes in your feed automatically.

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Joel co-founded London-based Trubrics, which helps product teams track what’s happening inside LLM models. He and his co-founder founded the company when they saw companies investing heavily in LLM models but remaining in the dark on what is going on inside. They’ve just closed a pre-seed round, did their first hire and are about to launch their first version of the product to customers.Amongst many other things we talked about Trubric’s pre-seed roundLLMs and LLM applicationsHis evolution from engineer to sales to CEOWhen to seek advice and when to ignore itThe sales tactics Joel masteredJoels drive and valuesJoels first companies at age 13 (!)How Joel manages his confidenceEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Meet one of Europe’s most driven impact entrepreneurs: Kees Aarts, founder of Protix. Protix is an insect protein company founded to radically reduce the environmental footprint of our food system and help stop the loss of biodiversity in our seas. Kees and his team started out 14 years ago, and today they are the world leader in insect ingredients, running the largest insect farm ever built. Their mission is to bring the food system back into balance with nature. There were many gems in this conversation, amongst many other things we discussed:Kees trigger to start ProtixKees first year as a founder Kees philosophy for success: Evolve every single dayKey moments of evolution in his personal and professional lifeKees analysis of why wealth can make a country less innovativeKees thoughts on the business climate in the NetherlandsKees thoughts on artificial intelligence and the future of our speciesEnjoy listening! 

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Kim Durand hails from Paris and moved to Mexico City to start Cheaf, which reduces food waste by offering high quality food that is close to the expiry date at steep discounts. Started less than 4 years ago, the company now employs 30 FTE. Kim was born and raised in France and has worked at incubator Nova Founders Capital and Uber, before starting Cheaf. Amongst many other things, we discussed Kim's business journey spanning from France to Malaysia to the Netherlands to MexicoKim's development from numbers guy to becoming founder and CEO of CheafThe reality versus the perception of starting a companyKim's routines to stay fit and deal with stressKim's plans for the futureEnjoy listening!Press follow in your podcast app to get new Founder Radio episodes in your feed automatically.

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Sophia Hummelman Co-Founded ReCarbn, which is working on reversing climate change, by direct air capture of CO2.   Sophia was born and raised in the Netherlands and has working in finance at JPMorgan and iFund, in London, Paris and Amsterdam, before starting ReCarbn. Amongst many other things, we discussed How direct air capture of CO2 worksWhat you do with the CO2Recent developments at ReCarbnReCarbns businessmodel Sophia’s own journey, all the way from her upbringing to her role at ReCarbnEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Listen to our talk with Harpreet Singh! Harpreet Co-Founded Peckish, and is building a new backend operating system for restaurants to drastically reduce food waste and increase profitability for restaurants. Harpreet was born and raised in Sydney, Australia and now works and lives in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Before Peckish, he has founded The Turban Shop and worked at Uber as an operations manager. Amongst many other things, we spoke about Harpreets journey from Sydney to AmsterdamStress and how he deals with itSikhism and what it means for Harpreet in daily lifeThe importance of finding a great co-founderEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Tune in to our latest conversation with Yorick Bruins! Yorick is Co-Founder and CEO of Wakuli, a Netherlands based Direct-to-Consumer subscription coffee brand, thats has also started opening coffee shops at a high pace.Wakuli is all about changing the system of coffee production and distribution, and by cutting out a lot of the middle men, succeeds in paying farmers ±5x times what they'd get from others. Their coffee tastes amazing, too.Yorick has founded Wakuli about 5 years ago, and has been working on higher quality food and a fairer system his entire career. In this episode, Yorick speaks about:Where his passion for food emergedThe challenges he's faced along the wayHow he learns from othersAdvice to those aspiring to start a business themselvesEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Mikael Rautanen is Co-Founder and CEO of Inderes, a Finland based equity research and investor relations company. Inderes is changing the investing industry, from a focus on the 1%, to a world where every retail investor has full access to company information and insights. Mikael attributes a lot of Inderes success to the unique company culture.Mikael has been at the helm of Inderes for over 15 years, and tells us about The early days of InderesThe team's is organisation and cultureShifting from survival mode, to money making mode, to a focus on the longevity of the companyMikael's personal journey, learnings, challenges in business and in his personal live, and how he overcome thoseEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!Niko is the founder of Rite Studios, a boutique sports chain from Belgium. He's started his career at Unilever and has held Strategy and General Manager roles at Uber in India, the Middle East and Europe. In this episode, we discuss The founding of RiteThe development sports has gone through in the last 50 yearsThe challenges he sets himself, things he's struggled with, and the Marathon des Sables, a gruelling 250km ultrarun through the Sahara DesertEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!This episode we have Mark Hulshof of Triggre. Mark has been building Triggre, a nocode automation platform for SMEs, for over 10 years. He's now experiencing a strong acceleration in his business, and is getting ready for expansion. Mark is very open about his ambitions, struggles and learning experiences along the way. We touch on a wide range of topics, includingNocode for SMEsUse cases for Triggre Neuro-linguistic programmingHow leaders can embrace vulnerabilityHis drive, values and upbringingEnjoy listening!

Want to know how successful founders turn ideas into empires? Listen to Founder Radio for inside stories from innovative entrepreneurs from all over the globe. Hit follow on your podcast app or YouTube for instant updates!This episode we talk to Jacqueline van den Ende of Carbon Equity. Jacqueline and her co-founders started Carbon Equity 3 years ago in order to combat climate change. Carbon Equity enables consumers to invest in innovative technology companies, leading to direct climate impact and attractive financial returns. The company has just announced its Series A, and saw its number of users and assets under management grow with 100% and 300% respectively since its previous capital raise.Amongst many other things, we discussClimate Change Moral LeadershipHow capital allocation decisions impact the way the world worksJacqueline's journey from private equity, to leading a scale up in the Philippines, to starting Carbon EquityEnjoy listening!