WELCOME TO ANTLER INSIGHTS

In Episode 18, we speak to Nicole Quinn, General Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Lightspeed Ventures is an iconic Silicon Valley fund that has 10 billion dollars in assets under management. Nicole's focus is on early-stage consumer internet and fintech companies, with a portfolio that includes mental wellness app Calm, Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop, Lady Gaga's Haus Laboratories, cult shoe brand Rothy's, Zola and Girl Boss. Nicole talks about consumer behaviour that is going to stick post COVID, the incredible value of Influencer Marketing for customer acquisition, and shares her predictions for the next big trend in the consumer world.

For episode 17, we speak to Colin Bryar, an early employee at Amazon and co-author of the book Working Backwards: Stories and Secrets from Inside Amazon. Colin joined Amazon's leadership team in 1998 - only four years after its inception. He worked side-by-side with Jeff Bezos as his Chief of Staff (and "Shadow") for 2 years. Colin was instrumental in bringing several Amazon businesses to life, including Kindle, Amazon Prime and Amazon Web Services. After Amazon, Colin relocated to Singapore and served as Chief Operating Officer of e-commerce giant RedMart, which was subsequently sold to Alibaba. In this episode, Colin discusses the importance of always having a customer-first mindset, the benefits of Amazon's unique narrative meeting culture, his key lessons for early-stage founders, and lots more.

Welcome to Antler's circles series, where we bring industry leaders, founders, and experts working in the same  sector together to problem solve, share emerging trends and technologies. Through this series, Antler will provide unparalleled access to closed room discussions around the challenges and opportunities experienced by those innovating at the forefront of the industry.

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The step from software engineer or senior architect to CTO can feel like a quantum leap. Knowing when to make the transition, and how, is often a barrier that prevents people from taking the leap sooner.

With that in mind, Antler recently hosted a CTO panel to share first-hand advice of those who have done it, with those who are aspiring to get there.

Bahadir embodies the purest definition of entrepreneurship. From his early days in Turkey to living in the States in his youth and suddenly taking the leap and emigrating to Singapore, he has never given up on his dream: having a Global impact and improving the lives of millions. He left us thinking that we all have a role to play and that it is never too late to start dreaming big and change the world. Besides living and breathing entrepreneurship, he is a philosopher at heart, and ended this interview with life lessons that will stay with us during our entrepreneurial journey!

A conversation with Tudor Mihailescu and Valentin Kassarnig, co-founders of SpeechifAI, Antler Amsterdam portfolio company.

The founder’s series takes a deep dive into the journey of Antler portfolio company founders and sheds light on the space they are building in. This week, we spoke to Mira Gleisberg, CEO & co-founder of RespiQ.

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We love our visionaries because of their captivating and provoking stories. A visionary is extraordinary because of his/her unparalleled level of energy and enthusiasm. Charlotte filled the room with joy and electric energy from the first second, making it impossible for us not to smile. Her positivity and drive were contagious and made us realize that inner fire is the most crucial trait anyone can possess. What a force of nature Charlotte is!

A conversation with Aleks Orlic, former co-founder of Penta

Our team of venture capitalists, domain experts and entrepreneurs at Antler are always on the lookout for exceptional talent with the potential to build the defining companies of tomorrow. Read on to find out what we look for in a successful founder and how you can kickstart your entrepreneurial journey.

Welcome to Antler's circles series, where we bring industry leaders,  founders, and experts working in the same sector together to problem solve,  share emerging trends and technologies. Through this series, Antler will  provide unparalleled access to closed room discussions around the challenges  and opportunities experienced by those innovating at the forefront of the  industry.

Working in venture capital offers insights into the problems, challenges, and new markets today’s entrepreneurs are addressing at the very earliest opportunity, a window on disruption and innovation. Business models are being redefined at an ever-quickening pace, and this is particularly visible in FinTech. We recently sat down with the founders of all of our FinTech investments with the following key learnings and insights.