From eastern Slovakia to McKinsey in the US and back to founding a Slovak-American company GroupSolver, together with his brother Maros. His consulting background combined with Maros’s technical skills gained in the World Bank empowered the start of the market research startup they call ”SurveyMonkey with a brain”.

Out of McKinsey, Rasto joined an Ag Biotech startup in the Bay Area, where he built a go-to-market strategy for a biofuels company. He eventually moved to San Diego, where he caught a start-up bug. He co-founded Oliver’s Planet, which aimed to help farmers in developing world get their voices heard and become partners in economic decisions affecting them. This project was supported by the Gates Foundation, and as exciting as it was, Rasto and his team soon realized that to make real impact, they need to build a sustainable business rather than seeking more grants. GroupSolver was born. And as Rasto dreamed of being a President since his early age, he became one. And if he was not running GroupSolver, he would want to switch gears completely, write a book, teach and wait until he catches the start-up bug again.

Rasto’s problem-solving orientation and hands-on attitude combined with all-times humble approach towards people inside and outside of the company created corporate culture that makes working with Rasto and working for GroupSolver a wanna-do experience. Rasto “likes to be an open book to his team” as he believes it helps build ownership and avoid surprises, especially when things are not going well.

To find out more about GroupSolver, click here.

Maria wanted to be a creator ever since even though it might not have been necessarily robots she wanted to create. She recalls having a serious problem at grammar school with understanding 3D geometry. Nowadays at Matsuko, she is developing 3D holograms using complex algorithm. Maria holds a bachelor’s degree in Cybernetics, master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence, and PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence, specialized in applying machine learning to social robotics. With her university team she was designing robots that are not programmed to perform specific tasks, but instead, they learn from their environment and act like living creatures. Interdisciplinary work, combining machine learning, robotics, design, AI, psychology and neurosciences is something that Maria has always been involved in throughout her career . And…has been dreaming of being able to be teleported.

With Maria’s increasing interest in applying knowledge and skills gained in academia to commercial solutions, she met Matus, who she later co-founded Matsuko with. With Matus' expertise in 3D and advanced game technology together with Maria's knowledge from A.I., they have been getting closer to achieving the dream of teleportation ever since they met. “Choosing people you are surrounded by and you collaborate with, wisely and with your heart” is a life motto that is simple yet difficult to apply, Maria states.

Maria serves as a role model for females studying technology, mainly in an organization “Aj Ty v IT” that helps young girls to get to know the world of IT. She is mentoring students and startupists on an individual basis as well as inspiring others by speaking in public. She has lectured at universities all over Japan and has spoken at conferences nearly on all continents. Forbes selected Maria as one of the “30 under 30” in 2014 and 2015.

To find out more about Matsuko, click here.

Yassaman, rooted originally from Iran, nurtured her passion for fashion and online retail a time before she co-founded Eyerim. She has been involved in building and growing startups from ground up since an early age. Joining Nova Founders incubator exposed her to bringing ideas to life and ”this was the major turning point to be more bold and courageous in the world of business and learning that everything is possible if you have the right intentions and people around you to help you achieve them.” This brought Yassaman further to her first contact with marketing and selling eyewear products from scratch at GlassesGroupGlobal (GGG), an online eyewear leader in Asia-Pacific. Overseeing large marketing campaigns in the role of head of marketing resulted in 200% YoY sales growth. Living in Southeast Asia and 5 years of combined experience working for major online retailers there, including the last stop at Lazada, the number-one online shopping and selling destination in Southeast Asia, gave Yassaman valuable skill-set to start her own venture. Her then colleague at Lazada, Martin, became a co-founder, leading their ways to Slovakia and using all the experience and knowledge to found Eyerim.

Yassaman’s international background, years in the industry, market analysis skills, developed business acumen and great ambitions led by personal motto “To always reach for the stars” have been instrumental for Eyerim’s growth ever since. Being great at physics at school and dreaming of building rockets is believed to serve as a fundamental base for building sky-rocketing ecommerce business out of Europe :)

To find out more about Eyerim, click here.

Peter has always been a pioneer in the renewable energy sector. Peter was leading very first large scale solar farm projects in Slovakia and Czech republic as a CEO of Emel Energy, continuing with clean energy production projects in Slovakia in the role of Partner at MyEnergy.

Since 2011 Peter devotes his work to development of electric mobility in CEE. He is standing behind the development of electromobility in Slovakia, by establishing SEVA (Slovak Electric Vehicle Association) with an aim to ease the cooperation between the government and private sector. At the same time, he was serving as a Director of the Association for 5 years. Despite bringing several projects and companies to life, Peter does not consider himself an inventor but he “rather supports and prepares conditions for those colleagues who are the inventors”.

Peter’s extensive experience with electromobility and passion for clean energy led him to establishing GreenWay, a charging infrastructure company with multiple innovations and a network of over 100 (and growing) charging stations across the CEE. 

Peter is a seasoned entrepreneur with pragmatic views and judgements on the projects’ economics, combined with practical experience with financial risks, passionate about discovering new business models. His visionary approach and yet humbleness increases his grandeur and makes him not only a great leader for GreenWay but also an opinion leader for the green energy sector in the whole region and, last but not least, an example for our society heading towards more sustainable planet .

To find out more about GreenWay, click here.

Bringing designs and products to life has always been Michal’s passion. Already during his Industrial Design studies he co-founded a portal DESIGNBY.sk aiming at students and professionals to promote design and to raise its value, especially in Slovakia. Michal honed his skills of an industrial designer at the product development company Snap to Grid, parallely working on his own projects aimed at enhancing knowledge sharing between designers.    

Another project that evolved into a running business is FORMLAB, a prototyping manufacturing facility that, as one of the first companies, was using 6-axis robotic milling, giving clients endless possibilities for the precise production of products. Throughout the life of being an industrial designer, Michal was constantly thinking of ways to make the process of designing easier and more effective. Together with a co-founder Pavol, they started working on their own tool, now known as Vectary.

To find out more about Vectary, click here.

Emigrating out of Slovakia in 1997 with a vision of better education, job, and life, which was progressively achieved year by year for nearly 20 years. However, all Pavol’s achievements shifted to the vision of returning back to Slovakia and creating a flourishing environment for research and science, just as experienced throughout times in Iceland and USA.

While completing post-doctorate at the Rockefeller University, Pavol observed that even though the tissues of oncology patients looked the same and the patients underwent the same treatment, the outcomes were different. Together with his  team they started researching these tissues on a molecular level and soon discovered that cancer has different profile already at the beginning and the patients should be treated differently, in a personalized manner. The topic of personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment led Pavol further to the National Cancer Institute where he enhanced the knowledge and finally decided to implement this into commercial use by founding MultiplexDX, together with Vladimir Wolf, another co-founder of the company.

Pavol, being recognized for his scientific work and publications among cancer experts around the world started getting recognition also in the world of entrepreneurs, winning several startup competitions and awards mostly in the CEE region. To mention a significant one, Pavol and his team have been listed in 2017’s New Europe 100 list of central and eastern Europe’s brightest and best citizens - the changemakers, selected by Financial Times and Google among other institutions.

Despite not being a Minister of Education, as Pavol always dreamed of becoming, he is pursuing a dream of recognized Biotechnology industry in Slovakia. Pavol is actively engaged in improving conditions for scientific researchers in Slovakia and bringing his international networks from academia abroad to Slovakia.  

To find out more about MultiplexDX, click here.

Besides being founder of several projects and companies, Juraj could be undeniably called a father of the Slovak solar energy sector. He stands behind one of the very first solar energy projects ever built in central Europe. Later he founded Slovak Association for Photovoltaic Energy, connecting all individuals, companies, and industries interested or active in the photovoltaic industry. Succeeding the Association, Juraj founded solar energy development company MyEnergy, eventually choosing electromobility as a central subject of all efforts and activities within the company. And this is when the first stone of Voltia was laid down.

Electrification of transport is undoubtedly Juraj’s mission, and he devotes every minute to achieve this goal. Not only within his worktime but also outside of the Voltia office. In spare time, Juraj is working on retrofitting an antique Porsche into electric race car. His special passion, though, is restoring vintage race cars made by Skoda, many of them considered jewels from behind the Iron Curtain.

Juraj’s life credo “everything is possible and limitations exist only in our heads” made him dream of many products that were actually developed over time and are on the market now. One of those is personal flying vehicle, which he still hopes to be a part of one day. Also, especially these days he gets very excited about the upcoming 3D personal transport.

To find out more about Voltia, click here.

Katarina is renowned in both academic and business world. Based in Berlin, Katarina led her own real estate agency and consultancy for nearly 20 years. Throughout the time, she went on to share her knowledge, especially from the subject of business and finance where she was at home, with the university students. Up until today, she is a professor at the Department of  Business Administration and Engineering at HTW Berlin, teaching accounting, corporate finance and controlling. Her personal quest is to enable students to understand and effectively communicate the languages of numerical data.

Katarina has always been fascinated by new technology developments and their use in real-life scenarios, possibly due to her combined entrepreneurial and academic experience. In the recent years, the focus of Katarina’s research and teaching activities has been on the blockchain technology, which use cases she has been researching, taking into account financial aspects. Meeting her two Ukrainian co-founders with strong technical background, facing several problems when moving multiple times a life from country to country, led them to establishing a blockchain reputation platform for tenants and landlords, called SIMMST. And again, she quests to pass on the learnings from an entrepreneurial life at SIMMST to her students at the university.

When asking Katarina to name her most valued self-characteristic, the answer is ambition. When Katarina wants to get an understanding of something, she will “learn and train until she gets it”. And curiosity, which she believes is the key not only to pursuing her academic research but also to building a startup company.

To find out more about SIMMST, click here.

Igor decided for technology as his lifepath during high school times when he made a choice to pursue university degree in computer science over history, both being his favorite school subjects at that time. He was fascinated by the dynamics of technologies development, gaining even greater significance during the European political changes of ’89, and did not let go Igor off this path ever since. 

Igor built his first company focused on computer security while still at the university. After 7 years the company was merged with data and communication security company ARDACO, where he served as CEO for another 7 years, also overviewing technology projects acquisitions, particularly within EU frameworks scope. This valuable experience brought Igor to Brussels where he represented Slovak R&D activities in European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling. At the same time he became a Board Member in a non-profit Agency for Geothermal Power Engineering where he is actively involved up until today. 

Having been passionate and active in the renewable energy field evolved in 2008 into founding Geothermal Anywhere, now called GA Drilling. Igor has been serving as the Company’s CEO since its early times, not only shaping the strategy but also leading communication with investors and industry partners. In ten years, GA Drilling has attracted XX in public grants and xx as private investment. 

Igor’s biggest learning and business advise at the same time is to be courageous and persistent when things do not work out, and to simply experiment until it works out. Because in today’s dynamic world, “not moving means dying”. When naming the largest technology challenge, Igor believes it is to actually make a use of a constantly developing technology in a way that would truly improve the quality of our lives, equally among all layers of society.  

To find out more about GA Drilling, click here.

With a degree in environmental technology from University of Greenwich, Santtu’s career in cleantech was a natural progression. With more than 20 years of experience in cleantech, sustainability and building international networks under his belt, in 2013 Santtu and his two co-founders, Janne and Rado started Solved - now the world’s leading on-demand sustainability advisory service and collaboration platform. Solved makes it possible to quickly mobilize experienced multidisciplinary teams using its network of 2500 experts and engage them in a project through its expert-on-demand product in a frictionless manner.