On this episode of Launch Stories, Joe De Sena, founder and CEO of Spartan, shares how he created the world’s leading endurance sports brand with a community of over 10 million athletes globally – a business he calls the ‘Louis Vuitton of hard stuff.’ You’ll hear how he moved himself and his family to six countries to oversee Spartan’s global expansion, why Japan was the toughest market to crack, and why he’s happier being called a ‘force of nature’ than ‘warm and fuzzy.”

On this episode of Launch Stories, my guest and fellow Cornellian Joe De Sena ’90 – founder and CEO of Spartan – shares how his path from Ithaca led him to creating the world’s leading endurance sports brand with a community of over 10 million athletes globally. He talks about what coming from a family that didn’t attend college and being accepted to Cornell after this fourth attempt taught him about persistence, how what he learned on campus made him a better entrepreneur and how he has applied these experiences to creating the ‘Louis Vuitton of hard stuff.’

On this episode of Launch Stories, I speak to Michael Schuster, Co-founder and Partner at Speedinvest, one of Europe’s most active early-stage venture capital firms with over 600 mil EUR of assets under management. You’ll learn why founders need to balance product and sales to  scale quickly, and why a successful investor behaves like a good music producer. You’ll also hear how a venture capital firm can make a positive ‘dent’ in the Universe.    Links: BitPanda: https://www.bitpanda.com/en GoStudent: https://www.gostudent.org/en TIER Mobility: https://www.tier.app/en/ WeFox: https://www.wefox.com/de-ch Shpok: https://www.shpock.com/en-gb

On this episode of Launch Stories, my guest is serial entrepreneur Matteo Berlucchi, Co-Founder & CEO of Healthily - a medically approved self-care platform that enables people to assess and manage their health with over 2 million users worldwide. You’ll hear why you must create a business with high margins and scalability, and why building a healthcare startup takes more time than you would think. You’ll also learn why you should never compromise on the quality of the people you hire, and why Matteo calls himself the “Chief Anti-Asshole Officer.” Links: https://www.livehealthily.com/ https://en.unesco.org/ https://ec.europa.eu/info/index_en https://www.amazon.com/Asshole-Rule-Civilized-Workplace-Surviving/dp/1600245854 https://rocketpharma.com/ https://www.orkla.com/ https://www.amazon.com/   If you like it, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends! https://zoltanvardy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/zvthelaunchcode/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltanvardy/ https://www.instagram.com/zoltanvardy/

On this episode of Launch Stories, I speak to Jonas de Cooman, Co-founder & CEO of Spott, a marketing platform that helps brands sell more by adding interactivity to videos and images on their digital channels. You’ll hear what Jonas had to ‘unlearn’ after a career at Coca-Cola and Unilever to build a successful global business as an entrepreneur and why he had to develop a ‘bullshit detector’ to make sure he hired the right people. You’ll also hear what pivotal change in sales strategy led to Spott generating 2,000 customers in 90 countries. Links: https://spott.ai/ https://www.unilever.com/ https://www.coca-cola.com/ https://polsky.uchicago.edu/programs-events/new-venture-challenge/ https://polsky.uchicago.edu/ https://www.ikea.com/ https://www.amazon.com/ https://appsumo.com/   If you like it, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends! https://zoltanvardy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/zvthelaunchcode/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltanvardy/ https://www.instagram.com/zoltanvardy/

On this episode of Launch Stories, I talk to Ondrej Bartos, co-founder and general partner of Credo Ventures. You’ll hear the ‘behind the scenes’ story of how he joined a $1.6 million seed investment round in Romanian unicorn UIPath. You’ll also learn the key ingredients that eventually led to UIPath’s staggering $35 billion valuation on the New York Stock Exchange, and how the Central European startup ecosystem has evolved since Ondrej’s pioneering role in the early 2000s.   Links: https://www.credoventures.com/ https://www.uipath.com/ https://www.nyse.com/index https://seedcamp.com/ https://www.accel.com/ https://www.blueprism.com/ https://www.sequoiacap.com/ https://www.logmein.com/ https://www.avast.com/   If you like it, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends! https://zoltanvardy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/zvthelaunchcode/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltanvardy/ https://www.instagram.com/zoltanvardy/

On this episode of L(a)unch Stories, you’ll hear from Agata Kwaśniewska, CEO of the ReaktorX acceleration program and ambassador of Startup Poland. She explains what role an accelerator plays in the startup ecosystem, how ReaktorX helped Polish startups Renderro, Lofty and Hashiona to grow and when founders should start thinking about building a global business.   Links: https://www.reaktorx.com/ https://startuppoland.org/ https://renderro.com/ https://lofty.studio/ https://hashiona.com/   If you like it, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends! https://zoltanvardy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/zvthelaunchcode/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltanvardy/ https://www.instagram.com/zoltanvardy/  

On this episode of L(a)unch Stories, I speak with Zsuzsa and Attila Kecsmár, a husband-and-wife team, who are the co-founders of Antavo. You’ll hear how Antavo grew to become a globally recognized loyalty management platform with clients like BMW, Lagardère, Benetton and BrewDog across three continents. Zsuzsa and Attila explain why a founder shouldn’t pay attention to her grandmother when she asks, “when will you get a real job?” as well as, what it takes to build a successful global tech startup.    Links: https://antavo.com/ https://www.bmwgroup.com/en.html https://www.lagardere.com/ http://www.benettongroup.com/ https://www.brewdog.com/uk/ https://seedcamp.com/   If you like it, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends! https://zoltanvardy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/zvthelaunchcode/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltanvardy/ https://www.instagram.com/zoltanvardy/  

On this episode of Launch Stories, I’m talking to Mike Chaffe, CEO of Wolves Summit, one of the premier tech and innovation conferences held in Central and Eastern Europe, twice a year. You’ll hear he managed to not only steer the business to safety but has used COVID’s impact to accelerate his business’ international expansion. You’ll also learn about the future of the events business, the importance of maintaining self-care while building a company, and the unusual method he’s discovered to help him recharge. Links: https://www.wolvessummit.com/ https://hopin.com/ https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-international-trade https://www.enterprisesg.gov.sg/ https://www.eas.ee/eas/?lang=en https://viennabusinessagency.at/ https://websummit.com/   If you like it, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends! https://zoltanvardy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/zvthelaunchcode/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltanvardy/ https://www.instagram.com/zoltanvardy/

On this episode of Launch Stories, I speak to Emi Gal, Co-Founder and CEO of Ezra, a US-based healthcare tech startup that enables early cancer detection using MRI and AI. You’ll hear how he built his first startup, Brainient, into one of Europe’s leading ad-tech companies, what he’s learned from launching a business in three radically different startup ecosystems, and what it means to create a purpose-driven company.    Links: https://emigal.com/ https://ezra.com/full-body/ https://www.teads.com/teads-studio/ https://seedcamp.com/ https://www.credoventures.com/   If you like it, subscribe, leave a review and share it with your friends! https://zoltanvardy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/zvthelaunchcode/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoltanvardy/ https://www.instagram.com/zoltanvardy/