Beginner's Mind

Some books explain how the world works.

Influence explains why people move.

Why someone takes the meeting.
Why an investor leans in.
Why a customer trusts.
Why a team follows.
Why a board stays stuck.
Why a founder keeps defending a decision that stopped making sense months ago.

Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is one of those books that becomes more valuable the longer you build, invest, s...

Most leaders think negotiation begins when both sides sit down to talk numbers.
 By then, trust, incentives, timing, internal alignment, and first impressions have already shaped the outcome.
 That is why smart founders, executives, investors, and board members can have the right facts and still walk away with the wrong result.

In this episode of Beginner’s Mind, Stefanie Schubert explains why negotiation is not a last-minut...

Most people still treat climate solutions as a cost.

Wanwipa Siriwatwechakul argues that this is exactly why so many leaders miss the real opportunity.

The next industrial era will not be built by patching old systems, but by redesigning them from the ground up.

In this episode of Beginner’s Mind, Wanwipa explains why industrial decarbonization is not mainly about sacrifice, compliance, or adding expensive fixes to yesterday’s infrast...

Power demand is rising faster than the systems meant to support it.
AI, electrification, and industry all need stable energy, but the dominant story sold to the public was far simpler than reality.
 In this episode, Bret Kugelmass explains why the real bottleneck was never just climate ambition, but how the West misunderstood energy itself.

For years, nuclear was framed as too dangerous, too slow, too expensive, and politica...

Most investors think they’re rational.

Most founders think they’re disciplined.

Most boards think they’re strategic.

They’re usually wrong.

In this episode, we unpack Fast Forward Thinking by Luis Pareras — a physician turned deep-tech venture capitalist who distilled decades of investing under scientific uncertainty into 40 brutally structured rules.

This is not a summary.

It’s a decision upgrade for founders, operators, board members, ...

Most biotech breakthroughs don’t fail in the lab.
They fail when science meets manufacturing reality.
And by the time this bottleneck appears, tens of millions are already sunk.

This episode examines the most under-discussed failure point in modern biotech: the gap between scientific discovery and scalable, usable healthcare solutions.

While science has never been stronger—and big pharma excels at market access—companies that...

Nine out of ten startups fail, yet Europe keeps funding them the same way.
Governments replace judgment with bureaucracy, capital replaces experience, and failure is misunderstood instead of learned from.

This conversation exposes why venture capital is a profession, not a policy tool — and why getting this wrong quietly kills innovation.

In this episode, Jim Pulcrano, Adjunct Professor at IMD and longtime venture investor, ...

Most goals don’t fail because of laziness or lack of ambition.

They fail quietly — buried under daily noise, competing priorities, and forgotten intentions.

By March, even the most meaningful goals have slipped down the list… replaced by urgency, meetings, and excuses.

In the last years, whenever I work with companies or people in my executive coaching a pattern showed up frequently.

In private life: marathons abandoned, educations pos...

Breakthrough science has never been stronger — yet patients still miss life-saving therapies.

Despite decades of innovation, most precision medicines fail at the last mile of healthcare delivery.

The problem isn’t discovery. It’s how science, capital, and systems are aligned — or not.

Possessing elite science is no longer enough to win in the multi-trillion-dollar biopharma ecosystem.

As innovation shifts from West to East and from tre...

Most founders obsess over ideas.
Breakthrough companies obsess over inflections, conviction, and structure.

This episode unpacks Pattern Breakers by Mike Maples Jr.—a book that quietly explains why most startups never break out… and why a small minority reshape entire categories.

But this isn’t a book summary.

It’s a thinking upgrade for founders, operators, board members, and investors navigating the most fragile phase of company...

The world has grown quiet about climate change. Too quiet.

We scroll past floods, fires, droughts… and move on with our day.
As if the problem solved itself.
As if we’ve earned the luxury to look away.

Janos Pasztor (full episode) has spent 40 years inside the rooms where climate decisions are made — from serving as UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change to advising presidents, prime ministers, and global instituti...

Europe leads the world in discovery — yet too often, its breakthroughs never become global companies.

Billions in research funding turn into patents, not products.

While others build empires from ideas, Europe risks becoming the world’s laboratory — brilliant, but broke.

That’s the paradox at the heart of this conversation.

In this episode, Karl Nehammer, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and former Chancellor of Aus...

Most founders dream of raising millions. Few survive the 153 “no’s” it takes to get there.

Behind every biotech breakthrough lies exhaustion — late-night calls, failed rounds, and investors who walk away at the finish line.

What separates the ones who make it isn’t luck or timing — it’s resilience built into process.

In this episode, Jason Foster, CEO of Ori Biotech, shares how he transformed relentless rejection into a billion-dollar...

Imagine waking up to find your company’s most valuable IP leaked—not by hackers, but by the very AI tools you trusted.
This isn’t a distant scenario; it’s happening inside pharma and biotech right now.
And the cost isn’t just financial—it’s patient lives, broken trust, and an industry on the edge of losing credibility. 

In this episode, Kat Kozyrytska shares how leaders can act before invisible risks become catastrophic. Fro...

Most founders obsess over products. Jensen Huang built a $3 trillion company by obsessing over inevitabilities. 

This episode unpacks The NVIDIA Way by Tae Kim—the definitive account of how NVIDIA went from near-death startup to the world’s most valuable chipmaker. More than a history, it’s a manual for founders and VCs navigating the messy, high-stakes stretch between Series A and IPO. 

But this isn’t just about NVIDIA. 

It’s about y...

How do you succeed in a business where being wrong is the norm?

Marc Penkala has lived both sides of the table: as an entrepreneur who built, sold, and failed with companies—and now as a venture capitalist running his own fund. What makes his story different is the radical honesty about what actually drives success in venture: failure, timing, and taking risks that look stupid at first.

This Spark20 episode distills Marc’s hard-earne...

Here’s the harsh truth: If your business model can’t survive a spreadsheet, it won’t survive the market.

Every year, ambitious founders pour months into product, pitch, and brand—yet the single biggest reason startups die isn’t funding, it’s flawed modeling.

What are the four variables investors use to spot winners before anyone else?

In this episode, investor and hands-on builder Alex Oppenheimer (Founder & GP at Verissimo Ventur...

Why do Europe’s brightest founders still feel forced to leave for Silicon Valley—no matter how much money or talent we pour into the region?
 Every year, ambitious startups across Europe and CEE struggle to scale—not for lack of ideas, but because of invisible barriers that keep global success out of reach.

Is it really just about capital—or is there a deeper mindset and playbook that only a handful of founders ever discover?

In ...

Still trying to optimize your health with guesswork and generic advice?
Most people settle for “one-size-fits-all” supplements and hope for the best-missing out on the breakthroughs that only real data and personalization can offer.
In a world flooded with empty promises, few realize how quickly tailored, science-backed solutions can transform energy, focus, and longevity.

Enter Vadim Fedotov—ex-pro athlete, CEO, and co-foun...