#40: Kinga Matula from battling cancer to landing Tim Draper as investor

Marketa is the heart and brain behind Start it @ČSOB Accelerator which is an industry agnostic accelerator (Yes, it is named by a well known bank CSOB but still agnostic), and is accepting the applications for its 15th wave of acceleration by 30th of April 2025. They've helped more than 100 startups druing the 5 months of tailored support in the form of mentoring, coaching, workshops and most importantly more heads thinking about their emerging business with them. Among the Alumnis are companies like Resinstant AI, Moovin, MotionTrex, Zarathustra, Young link, InvestBay, YEDEM, Gamifit, Mumdoo, ReKrabice, E Cafe Bike, RoboTwin, Mamio, Marter, Twigsee, Spectoda, Pointee, Happenee, Boost.Space, Stavarion, Mebster and many others.Voluntary Quiz -> How many times does Katerina say a word "start" ?

What happens when a brilliant scientist accidentally discovers her own cancer cells while developing a cancer-detection platform? She doesn’t panic. She builds a revolutionary biotech startup instead. Meet Kinga Matula, a deep-tech founder who transformed a nightmare diagnosis into a relentless drive to revolutionize drug discovery.Her startup, Curigen, is now backed by:- Tim Draper (Draper Associates) – She won him over after surviving Navy SEAL training, pitching while building a boat, and in the end, stole his paddle – all during the Draper University Program.- Tensor Ventures- Lighthouse VenturesFrom fighting cancer to pitching her vision under extreme conditions, Kinga's journey is the one to listen to.

Enjoy our newest episode with Linn Kretzschmar from CERN Venture Connect, a program that’s mixing up startup players with CERN experts. Our co-host Kateryna Kovalenko asked all the questions about DeepTech you were always curious about but too afraid to ask. Did you know there the coldest and hottest placesoon Earth are in CERN? No? Then enjoy the newest episode!

Paweł Michalski is a co-founder and CEO of VCLeaders, a platform that helps European VCs build future-proof VC firms, additionally serves as a Venture Partner at World Fund one of Europe's largest Climate VC Funds and seeks visionary founders who can help save the climate! Also, Pawel is a hobby cook so who else should be the first guest of 2025 in our Startup Kitchen Talks talking about Climate, fundraising, solo GPs, their role in the ecosystem, and much more! Orchestrated by our co-host Andrew Gray.

Jess is an Investor at Planet A Ventures, a leading European Climate VC fund. Jess is an active member of the climate ecosystem, leading several local community initiatives in Berlin. Before joining the climate startup and investment space, Jess studied Politics and International Relations at Cambridge University and worked as a Climate Innovation Researcher for the United Nations Development Program. Recently, Jess and the team at Planet A teamed up with SpeedInvest and Norrsken VC to write the Climate Hardware Scaling Playbook - a comprehensive guide for hardware founders to navigate the complexities of scaling their technology, in the context of climate change.  Today’s episode is being recorded at the Slush conference in Helsinki by our Guest Host Andrew Gray. Slightly shorter and faster-paced and for the hardcore hardware founders out there. We will talk about navigating the challenges of scaling hardware, and touch briefly on the current state of climate innovation in the wake of recent political developments (being recorded in November 2024).

Ondrej is a Head of Sparring CZ Office, helps startups in early stages and VC funds, and aims to explain legal terms in human language. Enjoy the newest episode with our host Kate Syslova about the origin of Sparring name, functional ESOPs, Angel Investors, or IPOs. And guess Ondrej's favorite food.

Ory Weihs, an Israeli living in Prague, Ory is an experienced founder turned investor. He is the founder of XLMedia PLC & Team Odeon, an early investor in companies such as Mews, Medorion, 4Trans, Legly, Scaut, Bridgify, EverBlue Labs, CzechFounders VC and more. Ory is an avid supporter of the startup community and leads several philanthropic activities, in the newest episode by Andrew Gray.

The first guest of our new co-host Andrew Gray is a serial impact and climate tech founder and investor, Ryan Grant Little!Ryan's work focuses on removing animals from the supply chain and reducing climate impact. At the age of 20, he founded the charity Canada Helps, which has facilitated more than $3B of donations to Canadian charities over 25 years.  He has had two very different entrepreneurial journeys which have both resulted in successful exits, and is a prolific climate investor. Most recently, Ryan has mobilized extensive resources in support of Ukraine’s resistance against the Russian invasion. And of course, Ryan hosts the enthusiastically named podcast “Another Climate Tech Podcast”.Enjoy!

Tématem dalšího plzeňského BIC Beatu byl DeepTech. Jan Romportl, CEO plzeňského startupu Elin.ai, popularizátorka AI Sara Polak a Petr Ulvr, zakladatel českého deep tech fondu Tensor Ventures si povídali o české deep tech scéně. Vzniká v Česku dost kvalitních deep tech startupů? Jak jsou podporovány a co jde dělat lépe? Jak pomoci DeepTech startupům? Je zde dostatek DeepTech investorů? To a mnohé víc v následující diskuzi, která je záznamem živého eventu v Plzni, díky inkubátoru BIC.

The Fall of the Year will be fully packed with Startup Events and we can't wait! With the upcoming highlist event for investors ENGAGED Conference by DEPO Ventures, let us revisit the discussion we had last year with Jan Krahulik and Marvin Liao from Diaspora Ventures.  We discussed CEE startups still aspiring for the “big fish in a small pond” award, why Marvin thinks VCs didn’t learn a thing or what are the unsexy verticals VCs overlook. Hosted by our Katerina Syslova.