Florian Huber

EWOR Fellows decided to take over Golden Gate Park in SF today and I’m here for it (@EWOR_official)

A 2x world champion kitesurfer was explaining wave dynamics to a founder giving billions of immigrants access to agentic legal support. Neither of them planned that conversation. That was the entire point of last weekend’s EWOR Connect Maui - our most curated, serendipitous gathering of the year. Daniel Gutenberg – who's backed Meta, Airbnb, Netscape, SumUp, and MobilEye – called it the highest future unicorn density of any event he's ever seen. We kitesurfed with champions Patri McLaughlin and @JesseTheRichman, kayaked and hiked volcanoes. The wipeouts were spectacular, and so were the conversations about what AI will do to the world as we know it over the next decade. To think this all started as a napkin idea over lunch in Zurich six months ago. A big Mahalo to Daniel Gutenberg for dreaming this up, co-sponsoring, and co-hosting – and to the team who made it happen: @florianhuber, Alexander, Petter, Quinten, @GigiBrett, Adriana, @Kaidlyne_Neukam, and @LianBoerma. The next one's already being planned. You know where to find us.

@DadaJudith @bundeskanzler @StartupVerband Congratulations, Judith! Well deserved!

Won investor of the year at the German Startup Awards. Called for drastically more compute & commitment to AI - @bundeskanzler. Thanks for this award @StartupVerband. Lots of work to do. PS: missed official award photo bc I was deep in AI discussion land 😅

@nicodhnr @minitap_ai Love it!

sell me this devtool @minitap_ai has launched minitest. Fully managed AI QA engineer for mobile, w/ zero authoring, zero maintenance. It catches the UI/UX, performance, payment issues your users would've hit, before they hit them. comment for free 2 months unlimited access and a personal onboarding from the team in the meantime enjoy my Oscar-worthy acting

The most recent professional athlete to join EWOR received a term sheet on €270M+ valuation, half a year into the fellowship. Many EWOR Fellows who’ve come from a professional sports background have gone on to raise millions. Several had no technical background or cap table experience. Some don’t even have a university degree to this day. The skills that take someone to the top of sport are similar to the ones that build companies nobody thought possible. Not talent; talent is common. The rarer thing is knowing how to lose, reset, and show up again thousands of times before anyone is watching. Athletes know something most founders learn too late: the hard part is never the result. It is the grey Tuesday morning in November when nothing is working and nobody cares yet. The moment you realise your original idea was wrong and you have to tell your team. The year you spend building something before a single person outside the room believes in it. They've been in that room before. They just called it training. Dila, Turkey’s former national fencing champion, recently raised $1M+ to fix the trillion-dollar pre-construction problem with Arctis AI. @SundarA19138, India’s former Top 3 tennis player, just raised a $6M seed from @balderton to change music creation as we know it with Mozart AI. Alfons, a former professional handball player, invented a purely mechanical street power plant that is 200X more efficient than existing solutions at REPS GmbH. @nicodhnr, a former amateur boxer, recently raised $4.1M from @MoxxieVentures and @Mercuri_vc to 10x AI-native mobile development at minitap. @RJ, an ultramarathon runner and repeat founder ($15M+ raised), is now building @onghostai, an AI-powered Hollywood talent agency. Each of these athletes knew what they were capable of long before anyone else did. That is exactly the kind of founder we look for at EWOR. If any of this sounds familiar, you already know what to do: ewor.com/apply?sc=X&ssc…

Tomorrow: 1 stage. 12 EWOR fellows. Millions being raised. EWOR Grand Pitch | START Summit Pitching Stage | 14:15-15:30 CET Last time: 750+ investors. Hundreds of 1:1 meetings booked in minutes. Tomorrow: every seat will be full. Rounds will move fast. Selected from thousands. Building for billions. If you’re at START Summit, you know where to be. Meet the top 0.1% of EWOR’s outlier fellows before they oversubscribe.

Co-founder breakups. Pulled term sheets. Universities stealing IP. The parts that never make it to LinkedIn, until now. The raw, unfiltered reality of the journey from 0 to a million ARR, what it takes, and what founders actually did to succeed. We asked founders what resource they needed most. Today we're launching it: “Been There, Done That”, EWOR's new podcast series dedicated to sharing raw, unfiltered founder stories. Not success stories told from a comfortable 15-year distance. Not "10 lessons from scaling to $100M" from someone who forgot what the messy middle felt like. What founders wanted were honest conversations from people still in it – the hard calls, the failures, the moments that shape companies but rarely see daylight. The first episodes feature a rocket scientist who had a mental breakdown after SpaceX and EWOR rejected him twice, a physicist whose university role models tried to steal his invention, and a founder who had five minutes to go from being emotionally crushed to pitching a famous investor. These are the kinds of conversations that typically only happen behind closed doors, between EWOR Fellows and their coaches. Now they're out in the open for everyone. We hope these stories make your company harder to kill. All three episodes are live now. Listen here: ewor.com/podcast/?ssc=X…

The EWOR Grand Pitch returns live to START Summit. This Thursday, March 19 (14:15-15:30), 12 EWOR fellows will take over the Pitching Stage – the same outliers who attracted 750+ investors and booked hundreds of 1:1 meetings within minutes following last week’s virtual Grand Pitch. This is the last chance to meet them before rounds oversubscribe. A preview of who you’ll see: 001 Julian Rothenbuchner | Tumbleweed | SpaceTech 002 Owen Zhang | Global Citizens | LegalTech 003 Othman Kabbaj | DueDeal | FinTech 004 Maya Polackal | EOMIND | AI Infrastructure 005 Ravi Teja Chadalavada | Sapios | Autonomous Systems 006 Adam Lababidi | @Migma_AI | MarTech 007 Alexis Vincent | K42 | FinTech, AdTech 008 Florian Scherl | explaino | Enterprise AI 009 Jean-Pascal Lutze | NoMaze | AgriTech 010 Richard Mincher | Forg3D | IndustrialTech 011 R.J. Napolitano | Ghost | Advertising, AI Services 012. Alfons Huber | REPS GmbH | EnergyTech The last Grand Pitch room filled up fast. You've been warned ;) Thanks to our partners at START Summit for spotlighting EWOR Fellows onstage as part of the official agenda for the second year in a row: David Kandler, Leo Braun, Timon Singer and Hannah Tassia Noll.

It doesn't matter whether you were born in Syria, Stockholm, or San Francisco – if you're one of the top 0.1% of founders, you get in front of the world's best investors. One hour from now, 12 founders do exactly that at the EWOR Grand Pitch. Don’t be late – the Grand Pitch isn’t a marathon. It’s a sprint from the start. Those meant to be there already have the calendar invite.

Next week, 12 founders who are going to change the world will present at the EWOR Grand Pitch. The last founders to stand on this stage have raised $4M avg rounds, hired their first team members, signed their first customers, and scaled rapidly – in months, some even in weeks. This stage is only the starting point! Among the dozen founders from Syria to Stockholm to San Francisco: 001 The founder who made landing on Mars 100x cheaper with his first space company at 16. Now making getting to space 5x faster. €8M in the pipeline with zero publicity. 002 The Forbes 30 Under 30 physicist who spent 6 years inventing a mechanism that turns streets into power plants, 200x more efficient than anything that exists. 003 The Harvard researcher who spent a decade mapping how the brain perceives reality - now building an AI model that perceives images better than Google and sound better than Shazam. 004 The ex-Goldman banker who left finance, raised $15M+, then scaled a Sequoia-backed company from $0 to $100M+ GMV. Now building an AI Hollywood talent agency with 10,000+ creators and 105M+ combined followers. 005 The repeat founder who built London's first Hyperloop pod with a 70-person team. Now building AI that automates engineering design. Already in paid pilots with a top 3 European defence company and a British supercar OEM. 006 The 3x immigrant credited with increasing Google Photos retention by 2200%, whose co-founder worked with Steve Jobs and holds the only FDA-approved patent on long-horizon agents, now automating immigration cases end-to-end. The question was never whether these founders would get to this stage. It's who moves fast enough to invest when they do. 11 March. 5:30 pm CET. Invitation only. Decision makers only! Those meant to be there already have the calendar invite.

Roses are red. Sleep is a myth. Your "quick call" ran 3 hours. And your cofounder just quit. Violets are blue. Your runway is tight. You’ve pitched 47 funds, and got ghosted last night. Your inbox is full of "let's circle back soon". Your product launch crashed on a Friday afternoon. Your metrics look decent. Your traction is real. But every VC wants "Just one more deal." Your board wants a pivot. Your team wants a plan. Your "warm intro" went cold before it began. Some people get chocolates, some people get flowers – but you want unicorn founders in your corner for hours. Not mentors who vanish. Not advice from a slide. But people who've scaled it and stay by your side. €500K. Weekly calls. No cohorts. No fluff. For the 0.1% who know that Valentine's isn't enough. We’re not your Valentine. But we will text you back at 2am.

@naval @grok How likely is it that this bill proposal becomes effective without major changes?

If you are the founder of a highly valued illiquid startup, set some time aside and read this entire article. The act is designed to bankrupt you and to personally punish any appraiser or accountant who disagrees.

𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹. Generic wisdom is 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. Transformative mentorship, the kind that changes trajectories, is rare. Today, we're launching EWOR’s 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟭𝟬𝟬 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 – an initiative to recognize the mentors who actually move the needle for exceptional founders. Not the famous names giving keynotes. The ones with battle scars and exits who challenged you when no one else would. Who pushed back on your roadmap and made you rethink everything. Who helped you ship when it felt impossible. 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝘆 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟬. 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𝘈𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘯. 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴. This is less about awards, and more about recognizing who's real. Submit your mentor now: ewor.com/the-global-top…

EWOR's acceptance rate has dropped from 10% to 0.1% in 2.5 years. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁? EWOR Co-founder and CEO @DanielDippold will answer this question live on Tuesday, 4 November, from 7-8pm CET. No script. No polish. Just the truth about what it takes to get into one of the world's most selective founder fellowships. In this webinar, Daniel will share what makes a successful EWOR application and how the fellowship actually works – investment terms, mentorship from unicorn founders (SumUp, Adjust, and ProGlove), the Grand Pitch, the ecosystem, what's coming next, and more. Bring your questions – the tough ones, the real ones. We'll answer them. Thinking about applying or want to understand what we've built? Join us: us02web.zoom.us/j/89625353200

The best founders don't fix broken systems. They replace them entirely. EWOR Fellows Elias Malm and @moel1024 just raised $6.6M in seed funding for Epiminds, led by @lightspeedvp Venture Partners, with participation from EWOR, Entourage, and several exceptional angels. Epiminds is building the operating system for marketing in the age of AI. A multi-agentic system that analyzes, executes, and learns in real time, empowering marketers to work smarter and move faster. June 2025: Elias joined the EWOR Fellowship. Months later: agencies managing 250+ brands adopted the Epiminds platform. Less than a month after pitching at EWOR's Grand Pitch: $6.6M seed closed with top-tier investors. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱. From prototype to real commercial traction to multi-million funding – 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴. This is why EWOR exists: to back founders who don't accept broken systems as inevitable – and deeply supporting them to rebuild those systems with up to €500k, weekly 1:1 mentorship from unicorn founders, and bespoke support tailored to their own journey. Congratulations to Elias, Mo and the Epiminds team. Read the full story in @Forbes: forbes.com/sites/charlief…

@Justdoitalex @aprycotmedia @BTCZitadelle Rockstar!

Es hat mega Spaß gemacht. Danke für den tollen Support. Und die vielen Buchkäufe. Und die tolle Community. @aprycotmedia @BTCZitadelle

@PEF_info Thanks for sharing!

🇪🇺 €58,984 in notary fees for a German Series A; hours of readings, weeks of delays. 🇺🇸Meanwhile, US startups sign a DocuSign, and funds arrive in days. Europe’s fragmented bureaucracy hampers agility, offering 27 local hurdles instead of a unified EU Inc. A single, streamlined 28th entity is vital for competitiveness. Look at Thinking Machines Lab: a $2B seed round, $12B valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz. Delaware’s singular mindset keeps the US ahead.

@SBetschinger 4 Billionen! Nicht Mrd.