EU-Startups Podcast

In this interview, Ahti Heinla - co-founder, CEO, and CTO of Starship Technologies and one of the original engineers behind Skype - shares his journey from a young programmer in Estonia to leading one of the world’s most advanced autonomous delivery companies.

Ahti reflects on how his early exposure to coding shaped his mindset, and the lessons he carried from building Skype into scaling Starship. He dives into why last-mile delivery became the problem he wanted to solve, and how autonomous robots are changing the way goods move through cities.

The conversation explores the human side of automation - addressing concerns about jobs, the evolving role of delivery workers, and how technology can support rather than replace people. Ahti also discusses the importance of sustainability and impact in decision-making, highlighting how zero-emission delivery can reshape urban environments.

From navigating regulation in different markets to working with major delivery platforms across Europe and the US, Ahti offers a look at what it takes to deploy robotics in the real world.

What does the future of travel really look like - and how is AI reshaping the way we explore the world?

In this episode, we sit down with Patrick Andrae, co-founder and CEO of HomeToGo, to unpack the evolution of TravelTech - from early marketplace bets to today’s AI-powered platforms.

Founded in 2014 in Berlin, HomeToGo has grown into Europe’s leading vacation rental group, with over 20 million listings worldwide and a public listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Patrick shares the original insight behind the company, how traveler behavior has shifted over the past decade, and what it takes to scale from startup to IPO.

We also dive into the post-Covid travel reset, the rise of “soulcation” and wellness-driven trips, and why nature is becoming the ultimate luxury. Patrick reflects on Europe’s startup ecosystem, the increasing role of AI in hospitality, and the responsibility platforms have in balancing tourism growth with local communities.

This interview features Jordi Romero, Founder and CEO of Factorial, offering an in-depth look at the evolution of one of Europe’s leading HRTech scaleups. Based in Barcelona, Romero shares his journey from engineer to entrepreneur, reflecting on his early experience at Redbooth and the founding of Factorial in 2016.

The conversation explores how Factorial has grown into a global business software platform serving thousands of companies across more than 90 countries. Romero discusses the company’s mission to eliminate manual administrative work through automation, enabling organisations to focus more on people and decision-making.

With increasing investment flowing into AI-driven workforce management tools, Romero provides perspective on how automation, data insights, and integrated platforms are reshaping HR, finance, and IT operations. The discussion also highlights Spain’s growing role in this space, as well as the competitive dynamics emerging across Europe.

His insights provide valuable context for understanding how modern companies are rethinking workforce management in an increasingly digital and AI-enabled environment.

Key Points
- The role of AI in automating recruitment, onboarding, and employee lifecycle management
- Challenges and opportunities in scaling a SaaS company internationally
- The shift from fragmented tools to integrated, all-in-one business management platforms
- How startups can identify and solve inefficiencies in traditional business processes
- The competitive landscape of European HRTech and emerging innovation trends

In this episode, Rupa Popat, founder of Arāya Ventures, shares her vision for redefining early-stage venture capital. Rupa discusses the persistent under-allocation of capital to diverse founders, highlighting that female-led teams in the UK still receive less than 1% of VC funding - even though data shows diverse teams consistently outperform.

Rupa also dives into the world of AI investing, focusing on workflow-native, human-centred AI rather than headline models. She shares her perspective on the UK’s positioning as a European AI hub, the growing opportunities in Health x AI, and how early-stage founders can prepare for fundraises that go beyond technical spectacle to execution-led, scalable businesses.

Throughout the conversation, Rupa explores what it means to be a value-add VC today, the importance of domain expertise in building defensible startups, and the systemic challenges in the venture ecosystem. She highlights emerging sectors, including preventative healthcare, precision medicine, and FemTech, while providing actionable insights for founders, investors, and policymakers.

Key points covered in this interview:
- The persistent funding gap for female founders and why inclusivity drives performance, not just values.
- What makes a founder or founding team stand out at pre-Seed stage: lived experience, resilience, and clarity of vision.
- Emerging opportunities at the intersection of Health x AI, including preventative care, precision medicine, and FemTech.
- How Arāya Ventures trains investors through its Investment Academy to broaden who writes cheques and build a more inclusive ecosystem.

In this interview, Jan Oberhauser, Founder and CEO of n8n, talks about how a personal frustration with repetitive coding led him to build one of Europe’s best-known workflow automation platforms. From the early pain point of constantly rewriting the same code to creating a fair-code automation tool used by developers and enterprises worldwide, Jan shares the thinking behind n8n and the principles that shaped it from day one.

Jan explains the meaning behind the company’s unusual name, why openness and community-driven technology matter, and how flexibility, self-hosting, and control over data have become major priorities for businesses, especially in Europe. He also discusses why companies want to avoid being locked into a single model, provider, or ecosystem as AI adoption accelerates.

The interview also looks at the broader AI landscape, including Europe’s position compared to the US and China, the areas where the region still needs to improve, and what may separate long-term winners from the flood of startups building “just another AI tool”.

Beyond company building, Jan also reflects on surprising use cases of n8n, how users have stretched the platform in unexpected directions, and what he looks for when backing founders as an angel investor.

Key Points
- How Jan’s frustration with repetitive coding became the starting point for n8n
- The story behind the name n8n and the company’s fair-code, community-driven philosophy
- Why data ownership, self-hosting, and flexibility matter more than ever for European businesses
- Europe’s strengths and weaknesses in AI compared with the US and China
- Jan’s thoughts on the AI bubble, unexpected n8n use cases, and the founder traits he values as an investor