Uppersky Podcast

Andrew Gray is an Investment Manager at Tilia Impact Ventures. He supports founders in the CEE region to develop scalable solutions to solve social and environmental problems. In this podcast episode, Andrew tells us about his role as an investment manager in an impact-focused VC firm, what's Tilia Impact Ventures, its portfolio, and vision, get to know about the mindset of VC investors, his advic...

Andrea Monti is the managing director of Founder Institute - Impact & Sustainability Chapter. Andrea has led several acceleration programs (like Hatch CoLab in Geneva, Switzerland) and helped different impact-driven startups to scale up. In this podcast episode, Andrea tells us how he arrived to work with impact & sustainability-focused startups, what's the Founder Institute and its progra...

Will Dzama is an entrepreneur and CPO of Encubate. Will loves to build digital products and has worked on different early-stage startups, software development studios, and scale-ups. In this podcast episode, Will tells us his story of working as a product manager in different companies, what recommendations and processes to follow while building a tech startup, how to validate ideas with users, an...

Sven Trautner is a Senior Innovation Manager of Munich Re. Sven loves to work towards innovation in the insurance industry with a framework called Business Building. At Munich Re, with their Business Building practice, they strengthen their partners’ value proposition combining their industry expertise, technology and capacity with the shared goal of building the insurance of tomorrow. In this pod...

Tanja Koch is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Amplo. Tanja is a mechanical engineer building bridges between product, R&D, and B2B customer success. She is dedicated to B2B growth by triggering human emotions, keeping high standards, and educating customers. With Amplo, Tanja and her team are working to make maintenance smart with a digital solution and leveraging AI. In this podc...

Renate Andersen Straume is the founder and CEO of Varig. She has studied property development and facilities management and currently focused on bringing technology as a key enabler for sustainability within the use and ownership of buildings. With Varig, they are making sustainability reporting easy for commercial real estate. During our conversation, we got the chance to talk about Renate's proc...

Hermann Arnold is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and democracy reformer. He is currently working on 42Hacks - closing the gap between climate promises and protests with actions. Also, Hermann has invested in more than 30 startups in different industries. During this podcast episode, we're talking about Hermann's journey as an entrepreneur & investor, how 42Hacks is helping to implement actio...

Pavla Lokajova is a senior copywriter & storyteller helping businesses to use storytelling to engage with their customers. She has interviewed more than 500 CEOs and written about their stories. Currently, she provides copywriting services to eCommerce, FoodTech, and FemTech companies. She loves to create long-format content like blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, and e-books to tell hones...

Shawn Drost is the CEO & co-founder of Phoenix Hydrogen based in Berkeley, California, USA. He has previously co-founded and led a company training software engineers called Hack Reactor ( https://www.hackreactor.com/ ) and has an exit of this company with Galvanize ( https://www.galvanize.com/ ). After selling his startup, Shawn decided to embark on a journey to learn more about climate chang...

Øyvind Vesterdal is the Co-Founder & CEO of Norsk Solar based in Stavanger, Norway. He has been working in the renewable energy sector for more than six years. With Norsk Solar, Øyvind and his team are developing, investing, building, and operating solar power PV plants in emerging markets (LATAM, Africa, and Asia), with a special focus on commercial and industrial clients. The company has an...

Silvan Krähenbühl is an entrepreneur and podcast host based in Zürich, Switzerland. He loves to put ideas into action with great teams and hit goals he didn’t think were possible. Currently, he is the host of the podcast Swisspreneur (Switzerland's # 1 podcast for entrepreneurs) and Enterprise Account Director at Rentouch. During this episode, we are talking about his experience building GymHopper...

Vaclav Gregor is the CEO & Partner of Soulmates Ventures. His mission is to accelerate bold entrepreneurs building a more sustainable future. Since 2020, the fund has been investing in a portfolio of companies addressing the most urgent and pressing environmental challenges. Some of the portfolio startups are Tesla Medical , Precismo , Perfect-Air , edlab, and sensetio . During this episode, w...

Charlotte Melkert is the Co-Founder & CEO of Equalture. She is on the journey to disrupt the HR market with a digital tool shaping the world of unbiased hiring. Since 2018, Charlotte has started this company with her twin sister, Fleur Melkert, and they are currently a team of 37 people with their main headquarter in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Equalture is an HR software that helps SMBs colle...

Sasha Lipman is the founder of tech2impact. She is currently leading a team of 20+ people on a mission to support impact tech founders in scaling and fundraising. tech2impact is a global digital hub for impact tech, supporting founders with needed resources and opportunities, and providing tailored guidance on corporate impact innovation. The heart of their ecosystem are founders, who build soluti...

Richard Gabor is the CEO at reWATT. He has been working in the Solar Energy sector for more than 4 years now with Solarity as a Chief Financial Officer and started reWATT in 2020. At reWATT, they are designing & implementing Solar Energy solutions for commercial entities to help with the reduction of CO2 emissions, reduction of electricity costs, and dependence on electricity supply. During th...

Julia Devecchi is the founder & CEO of naanu. She is passionate about making plant-based products. In naanu, she is making cookies that are tasty and also can provide you with 100% of your daily needs of vitamins & minerals. During this podcast episode, we are talking about the story of naanu, what is the process she recommends to kickstart a company, what are the mentors/institutions to f...

Phil Newman is the founder of First Longevity and editor-in-chief of www.longevity.technology . He focuses on bringing together innovators and investors to commercialize the companies that will form the Longevity economy.  ---- During this podcast episode, we are talking about the story of founding First Longevity, what does it mean Longevity for him, what's the current state of the Longevity...

Linda is the managing partner of Spark Works ( https://www.sparkworks.ch/ ). She is an innovation consultant, service designer and lecturer with a background in strategic design, visual communication and art. Having worked in the field of arts and visual design, she realized that her passion and responsibility as a designer go beyond the sole creation of objects and appearances, towards generating...

Michaela is the founder & design director of Butterflies & Hurricanes ( https://www.butterflies-hurricanes.cz/ ) - it's a design studio based in Prague, Czech Republic - they are helping NGOs and SMEs be more sustainable in the design of brands and their packagings. Her company is involved in different activities and social media campaigns to make the world a better place in recycling and...

Anna is the COO of Startup Guide ( https://www.startupguide.com ). She is currently making sure the business operations are running smoothly. Anna has been working in Startup Guide for more than 3 years and she is going to tell us more about her story working at Startup Guide, the process behind, tips while running the business, the exciting mission they are up to and their future plans. Also if y...