The Recursive Podcast

Thaleia Misailidou is a prominent figure in the venture capital industry. She is an active Angel investor passionate about supporting ambitious founders in deep tech. Thaleia also co-founded the Tech Finance Network, a professional community dedicated to supporting Greek startups. With seven years of experience as a seed-stage investor at Marathon VC from its early days, she played a key role in d...

Lars Rasmussen is a tech angel investor and startup advisor. Lars co-founded Where 2 Tech, which was acquired by Google in 2004, leading to the creation of Google Maps. His journey continued as a Director of Engineering at Facebook, where he led teams in Menlo Park and London. Passionate about innovation, Lars’ investment portfolio includes standout companies like Canva, Astranis, Chiaro, Neara, a...

Csongor Biás is the Managing Director of Startup Hungary, an initiative dedicated to accelerating the growth of Hungary's startup ecosystem. With extensive experience in the startup scene, he is an active angel investor and has worked with venture capital firms and accelerators. Csongor also played a key role as Country Manager in launching Vacuumlabs’ operations in Budapest. Now, alongside 12 sta...

Ivett Angyal brings experience from multiple industries. Currently, as Operations Lead for EDIHs at EIT Digital , she supports digital innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe by managing key processes, reporting KPIs, and ensuring impactful results. In 2018, Ivett co-founded and served as a CEO of a tech startup, a marketplace for pre-loved products. In her conversation with Irina Obushtarov...

In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, visionary entrepreneur Sergiu Negut shares his journey and insights on business growth, international markets, and fundraising. As the co-founder of FintechOS, one of the region's fastest-growing companies, Sergiu brings a wealth of experience, including raising a $60M Series B+ round this year. Beyond leading a tech company, he is an angel investor, found...

In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, Mihnea Craciun shares his expertise and journey from media to banking, investing, and entrepreneurship, offering a comprehensive view of Romania’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Together with Elena Vrabie, they explore: The evolution of Romanian entrepreneurship: challenges, opportunities, and the unique profile of local founders. The role of global networks a...

György Simo is a Managing Partner at Day One Capital Fund. He began his career as a journalist before joining the Magyar Telekom Group, where he played a key role in launching [origo], Hungary’s leading internet portal. In 2003, György became the CEO of T-Online Hungary and took on executive roles at Magyar Telekom, overseeing media acquisitions, growth initiatives in media, e-commerce, and data s...

How can extreme sports change your view on life & business? In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, Cosmin Curticapean takes us through his entrepreneurial journey that began in 1995, spanning industries from telecommunications to fintech. In 2016, he founded LENDOX, a tech startup focused on alternative financing solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises. Since then, LENDOX has secur...

What was it like to study AI back in 2003, and how does it pay off today? In this episode of The Recursive Podcast, Bogdan Iordache shares his journey from becoming a CTO at just 21 years old to his evolution as a successful investor. Bogdan is a prominent person not only in Romania’s startup ecosystem, but in CEE. Over the years, he has worn many hats—founder, advisor, event organizer—and today,...

Nika Pintar is the founder and Head of Revenue at Ani Biome, a longevity biotech startup at the forefront of microbiome health and longevity. Nika believes the winning longevity drug won’t be a molecule but an algorithm. At Ani Biome, they have built an integrated ML infrastructure to tackle mental, muscular, and immunological longevity through the gut. Their bioactives, AgeBiotics, are pre-clinic...

What makes a “perfect marriage” between founders and investors? In this episode of The Recursive podcast we explore investor’s dilemma and founder’s mindset with Pedja Predin. He is General Partner at Fifth Quarter Ventures, a new early-stage venture capital fund creating global success stories from Southeast Europe. Pedja has over 12 years of experience in venture capital, corporate strategy, bus...

In this episode, Irina Obushtarova talks with Martina Silov, President of CroAI, the Croatian Artificial Intelligence Association, and Head of Partnerships at Mindsmits.  Martina is an advocate for tech optimism, focusing on integrating technology into education and fostering a strong AI community. In this episodes, she shares about:  Connecting with the AI community in Croatia and beyond The resp...

For today’s episode, we talked with Karol Szubstarski, a venture investor at OTB Ventures. With over a decade of experience in the realm of venture capital, Karol brings a blend of traditional and corporate VC expertise to the table. He spent five years as an Associate and Investment Analyst at Intel Capital, identifying opportunities across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa,...

Our guest today is Bartosz Lipnicki, an entrepreneur, investor, and Managing Director at Endeavor Poland. With a background in industrial engineering, Bartosz's career trajectory has evolved to encompass sales, business development, and entrepreneurship. Bartosz is the Founder and Managing Partner at Alfabeat, a seed fund specializing in enterprise software companies from Central and Eastern E...

Our guest today is Krzysztof (Chris) Wrobel, the founder and CEO of Virbe AI, a startup incorporating a one-stop-shop solution to extend your team with AI-powered digital employees. With passion and experience for the future of digital interaction, Chris founded Virbe AI, a Virtual Being creation suite, designed to transform Conversational AI and chatbots into interactive human-like avatars. Chris...

Our next guest is an engineer turned entrepreneur turned investor. Borys Musielak is a founding partner at Polish SMOK Ventures, having a particular focus on software development tools, game development, and artificial intelligence. In 2007, he founded OSnews.pl, a pioneering news site covering tech, marketing, and business. He also co-founded Filmaster, a platform providing personalized analytics...

Our guest for this episode has a big, bold ambition to make digital identity services the cornerstone of all economic and social activities of people around the world. Konstantin Bezuhanov is co-founder and CEO of Evrotrust Technologies, the company that aims to solve the challenges associated with secure digital identification.  Evrotrust's products are adopted by over 1.3 million users acros...

Our guest today is Radoslav Gaydarski, co-founder of CleverPine, a company that has made significant strides in the tech industry since its inception during the pandemic. Prior to this position, he was the co-founder and CEO of Upnetix, offering client-tailored software solutions, which was acquired by Scalefocus.  With a deep background in software development and a passion for entrepreneurship,...

Our guest today is Milen Manev, the co-founder and CTO of PlanDelta, a next-generation planning tool bridging the gap between strategic and financial planning.  With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, Milen has a wealth of knowledge in software product development and has held various leadership positions, including Vice President at the American software company SyncHR. He holds a Ma...

Our guest today is Diana Aladzhova, an experienced investment manager and partner at the first Bulgarian mezzanine fund Silverline Capital. Shе is also the founder of the cloud-based provider of CFO services CFO Insights. Diana has a background in banking and the private sector, with a focus on investment structuring, due diligence, financial analysis, and company valuation. She holds a Master&#39...

Our next guest has come a long way in his professional and personal development - from investment banking, through digital media and marketing, and e-commerce to rethinking humanity’s relationship with food. Victor Penev is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of the food database and nutrition data provider Edamam. He is also a mentor and investor in food tech startups and an advisor to...

Our next guest is an entrepreneur in the promising field of circular economy, advocating for the continuous use and reuse of materials.  Mihail Dimitrov is the co-founder and CЕO of Swipe.bg, a Bulgarian marketplace for buying and selling used smartphones. The company recently raised an investment to expand regionally and grow its market share.  Mihail Dimitrov comes with vast experience in e-comm...

Our guest is on a quest to redefine the way businesses collaborate and work with data in the cloud. With more than 20 years of experience in building successful enterprise software products, George Dochev is the co-founder and CTO of US-Bulgarian scale-up LucidLink.  The company’s solution is used by the biggest names in the media, health, and finance industries, namely Adobe, Spotify, and WebMD. ...

Our guest is only 27 years old but he already has several successful ventures in the e-commerce industry. Ruslan Leteyski founded his first company while still in high school.  He’s the founder of CheckOutX and Vanga AI, e-commerce solutions for Shopify & WooCommerce that help merchants increase their revenue.  His current project TimeCraft is a platform for providing session-based digital ser...

In today's special episode, we're breaking away from the norm to revisit some of our most memorable conversations and catch up with our guests to see where life has taken them since. Our guest for today is none other than Ivaylo Slavov, a veteran in Bulgaria's IT industry. Last time we spoke, his company BULPROS had recently merged with the German giant ec4u, forming DIGITALL and setti...