berlin
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Alexander Kuebel
He sold duplicate Panini stickers at seven, met his co-founders at university, and learned to turn ugly integration work into infrastructure. Now Kombo's CEO is taking that very specific obsession from Berlin to New York.
Tony Verutti
Tony Verutti is the CEO of Betterguards Technology, a German sports-tech company whose adaptive ankle brace uses a micro-hydraulic piston that stays loose during play and locks in a split second when the ankle rolls, then releases. A lifelong athlete who tore his ACL four times and grew up in a physical therapist's household, he took the top job in April 2023 and pushed the product into the NBA, NFL, NCAA and Olympic teams, backed by the NBA's Launchpad program. His pitch: athletes shouldn't trade mobility for protection, and gear should be built on science, not tradition.
Neel Popat
Neel Popat is the CEO and co-founder of Popcorn, a software-first 'next-gen telco' that sells one global eSIM phone plan with unlimited talk, text, and data across 180+ countries and no roaming fees. A British-Indian former finance professional turned serial founder, he coded a viral message board at 13, studied mathematics at LSE, spent a decade inside investment funds, then built the crypto-investing app Donut through Entrepreneur First. When Donut's custody partner Genesis went bankrupt, Popat fought through the wind-down and returned 100% of user funds before channeling the lessons into Popcorn.
Ali Albazaz
Ali Albazaz is the founder and CEO of Inkitt, a San Francisco-based AI-powered publishing platform that uses reader engagement data and algorithms to identify and publish bestselling fiction. Born in Baghdad and raised in Germany, he bootstrapped Inkitt from a Berlin startup after 140 investor rejections into a $400M+ valued company with 33 million users across three platforms: Inkitt (writer community), Galatea (immersive reading app), and CandyJar (video entertainment). Inkitt has raised $116.8M in total funding, including a $37M Series C led by Khosla Ventures in February 2024.
Michael Jaszczyk
Michael Jaszczyk is the CEO (US) of NEWWORK Software, a Berlin and Palo Alto-based startup founded in 2023 by former SAP and Workday veterans to rebuild enterprise software for the AI era. With over two decades of technology leadership - including 15 years at GK Software SE where he rose from CTO to Chief Digital Transformation Officer and CEO of GK Americas - he is a recognized thought leader at the intersection of AI, cloud computing, and enterprise workflow automation. Jaszczyk helped pioneer retail AI as far back as 2003 through the Metro Group Future Store initiative, and today leads NEWWORK's mission to replace legacy ERP, CRM, and HR systems with AI-native, agentic platforms that understand business requirements and generate working solutions in minutes.