Sam Laakkonen
Education
Alliance Manchester Business School
Bsc, Management Science 1992-01-01 - 1996-01-01
The University of Hong Kong
Exchange Year, Business, Politics and Cultures of the Pacific Rim 1994-01-01 - 1995-01-01Work Experience
COPULA VENTURES
Current
COPULA VENTURES
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)
Current
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)
European Commission
Current
European Commission
University of Helsinki
Current
University of Helsinki
K42 Limited
Current
K42 Limited
Passion Capital
Current
Passion Capital
Techstars
2019-04-01 - 2025-06-01
Techstars
Techstars Miami
2022-09-01 - 2022-12-01
Techstars Miami
Codibly
2019-08-01 - 2020-07-01
Codibly
whatimpact
2016-04-01 - 2019-02-01
whatimpact
Skills
Summary
Sam started his career as a management consultant in the City of London. He was then lucky to be headhunted to his first startup, FirstMark Communications Europe, which raised the largest telecommunications Series A round in European history, $1.5 billion. He has since been an early employee at Spotify, privately invested in 25+ startups, had 3 further exits from his own companies, helped 250+ startups accelerate growth, and works as an expert for the European Commission to distribute EIC equity and grant funding. Sam has been active in the Techstars ecosystem for a number of years, having been an Entrepreneur-In-Residence for Techstars Amsterdam, and a Lead Mentor on a number of programmes including Techstars Lisbon, Techstars Korea, Techstars Boulder and Techstars Energy in Oslo, amongst others. Over the last couple of years his focus has increasingly shifted onto sustainability and impact, and how technology can be leveraged to protect the planet and to improve the quality of our lives.
