In this episode, I sit down with Michael Hurup Andersen, CEO and founder of Kompasbank.

Michael Hurup Andersen is a Danish fintech entrepreneur and seasoned financial markets professional, currently serving as Founder and co-CEO of kompasbank, a Copenhagen based fintech focused on empowering small and midsized enterprises with integrated financial and operational solutions.

Coming from a Master’s degree in Finance from Aarhus University and Mathematical Finance at the University of Oxford, he has over two decades of experience across banking, trading, and advisory, he has held senior roles at institutions including Alvarez & Marsal, where he advised on M&A and private equity transactions, and Deloitte UK, where he led large teams in banking treasury and risk management.

Earlier in his career, he built deep expertise in capital markets at Saxo Bank and Nordea Markets, specializing in FX options, asset and liability management, and global macro strategies.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB
Amazon:https://podcasters.amazon.com/podcasts/a1f92635-a50e-4a0c-ac96-7daa09c4e853

In this episode, I sit down with Sevan Marian, founder and CEO of Fleet.

Sevan Marian is a French technology entrepreneur and investor, currently serving as Co founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fleet, a Paris based company developing an operating system for workspace equipment management. Founded in 2019, Fleet provides an integrated platform that enables companies to lease, manage and renew IT equipment and office furniture through a subscription model. The platform combines hardware leasing, insurance, support services and device management tools, supporting more than 1,000 startups, scale ups and SMBs across Europe.

Before becoming CEO in 2025, Marian held the roles of Co founder and Chief Operating Officer and later Co CEO, leading Fleet’s operational growth and product development. Prior to Fleet, he served as Managing Director at GoMore, a European mobility platform with more than two million members across several markets, and earlier held leadership roles at Jumia Group in Morocco, where he oversaw the rapid expansion of the Jumia Market marketplace.

Alongside his entrepreneurial activity, Marian is an active technology investor with stakes in companies such as Stripe, OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and Anduril Industries, as well as several early stage startups. He holds a Master in Management from EDHEC Business School.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB

In this episode, I sit down with Lucrezia Lucotti, partner at 360 Capital.

Lucrezia Lucotti is Partner at 360 Capital, where she focuses on Italian and Southern European dealflow across B2B and B2C software, deeptech and climate tech ventures. She oversees investments and portfolio management across the firm’s 360 Deeptech, Climate Tech and Series A funds, following a progression from Analyst to Investment Director before being appointed Partner in January 2024.

Over the past five years at 360 Capital, Lucrezia has built a strong track record in sourcing, executing and managing early and growth stage investments. Prior to venture capital, she worked at Roland Berger as a Business Analyst on due diligences and industrial plans across financial services, pharma and industrial machinery, and gained experience at Gartner and Accenture in consulting roles spanning TMT and financial services, including the design of a new internet banking experience for SMEs

A Bocconi graduate with a double degree from WU Vienna, Lucrezia combines analytical rigor with a deep interest in innovation and entrepreneurship, and has also served as Ambassador for Female Founders, supporting the next generation of European entrepreneurs.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB

In this episode, I sit down with Ken Villum Klausen, CEO and founder of Lunar.

Ken Villum Klausen is a Danish entrepreneur and fintech founder best known as the Founder and CEO of Lunar, a digital banking platform he launched in 2015. Based in Copenhagen, he has spent more than a decade building Lunar with the ambition of rethinking banking from the ground up, focusing on transparency, simplicity, and technology driven user experiences.

Prior to Lunar, he founded and led Wallmob, a mobile commerce company that was later acquired by Visma, and previously held leadership roles at digital agency Inzeit. Earlier in his career, he worked for nearly five years at Bestseller, progressing from sales roles to Brand Manager and International Retail Manager. His background spans retail, e-commerce, online advertising, and financial technology.

Klausen has been recognised with several awards, including Berlingske Business Talent 100 and Founder of the Year in 2019, reflecting his influence on the Nordic fintech ecosystem and his role in challenging traditional banking models.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB

In this episode, I sit down with Anil Stocker, CEO and founder of Kriya.

Anil Stocker is a UK fintech entrepreneur and investor, best known as the CEO and co-founder of Kriya, formerly MarketFinance. He founded the company in 2011 to provide UK businesses with frictionless access to B2B payments, credit and embedded finance, and has since overseen the deployment of more than £4 billion in credit through invoice finance, business loans and PayLater solutions.

Under his leadership, Kriya raised over £50 million in equity and more than £500 million in debt from institutions including Barclays UK, Northzone, Mouro Capital, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and the British Business Bank, before being acquired by Allica Bank in October 2025.

Before founding Kriya, Stocker worked in private equity at Lehman Brothers and later at Cogent Partners, focusing on alternative investments and post-crisis portfolio restructuring. He holds a first-class degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Finance alumnus, and is an active angel investor across fintech, SaaS and climate-focused startups.

With him, we will discuss the ups and downs of launching a fintech company, but also how tricky it is to sell it to a big player, what is coming after an exit, and the difference between being an investor and a founder.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB

In this episode, I sit down with Sir Gabriel Holbach, partner and CPO at 0to9.

Sir Gabriel Holbach is Partner & Chief Product Officer at 0TO9, where he helps founders turn early-stage ideas into scalable, user-centered fintech products. With over 13 years of experience in product design, UX strategy, and digital brand development across fintech, healthtech, and SaaS, he combines creative vision with operational precision.

Before joining 0TO9, Gabriel co-founded Penta (today Qonto), one of Europe’s leading SME-focused digital banks, where he led product design from MVP to 50,000+ users. He built and scaled design teams, managed agile squads, and developed a cohesive user journey from onboarding to dashboard through a reusable design system. Later, at Index Health, he led UX strategy and design systems, improving product–market fit to 68% and reducing customer acquisition costs by 66%.

0TO9 is a fintech venture builder and investor aiming to launch 1,000 profitable European fintechs by 2045. Founded in Sweden in 2025, the company provides entrepreneurs with capital, compliance, talent, technical, and operational support needed to start and scale licensed financial companies in months rather than years. 0TO9 operates under European financial services licences, allowing its portfolio companies to launch regulated financial products immediately.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB

In this episode, I sit down with Nik Talreja, CEO and founder at Sydecar.

Nik doesn’t come from the usual bankers/financial institution background. He started as a lawyer in New York, working at firms like Olshan Frome Wolosky and Weil Gotshal and Manges. He discovered startup pretty quickly, working with founders on term sheet and funding round, so he decided to move to Palo Alto.

In California he started working at Cooley as a lawyer again, but the entrepreneurial vocation was too strong. He joined Talis partner as a co-founder, where he wanted to use his experience as a lawyer first hand, managing his studio, then to Spiral Therapeutics, changing industry entirely, as director of finance operations.

Finally, he founded Sydecar, coming from years of experience in angel investments and rounds in startups. Sydecar makes it simple and efficient for venture fund and syndicate managers to form Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) and funds by automating banking, compliance, contracts and reporting. Founded in 2021, Sydecar is on a mission to build the infrastructure that powers private markets.

With him, we will talk about the two faces of the US startup ecosystem, comparing Silicon Valley to New York, but also his business angel experience, the set up of startup in Texas and his experience raising funds for startups and VC.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB

In this episode, I sit down with Martin Della Chiesa, CEO at Skaleet.

Martin comes from a corporate finance and investment background, starting his career at Accuracy first, with a focus on strategy and financial services, and later on at Long Arc Capital, where he climbed the corporate ladder from associate until principal. At Long Arc, he discovered the passion for investments in high growth tech companies, backing multiple times between Paris and New York.

He joined Skaleet in 2023 as board member, and eventually became CEO in 2024, stepping in with a very operative role. Skaleet is a core banking solution designed with a logic of perpetual evolution, cloud-based, modular and 100% API, managing the technical infrastructure for over 30 high level financial institutions clients across EMEA.

With him, we talked about the journey from investments to a very operative role, the struggle of being a CEO, but also hiring and the upcoming challenges he sees in fintech moving forward.

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ApplePodcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/it/podcast/builders/id1767562838?l=en-GB