VentureFriends

Alistair Owen is a principal whose rare operator-to-builder-to-investor background—industrial engineering at BP, hands-on venture building at Deep Science Ventures, and founding multiple CleanTech startups—focuses on AI-enabled products and climate/industrial applications.

Pavlos Pavlakis pairs hands-on strategy and finance leadership at last-mile logistics marketplace Quiqup with structured real-estate finance, educating founders through guides and serving as a bridge to the VC world.

Michal Bas is a Director at Montis VC, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm investing in energy, industrial, and resilience technologies. He previously held positions at VentureFriends, a European pre-seed fund; TDJ Pitango Ventures, a Polish-Israeli Series A fund; and PFR Ventures, Central and Eastern Europe's largest fund-of-funds. Bas holds an MSc in Strategic Management from HEC Paris and a BA in Economics and Business with East European Studies from University College London.

Lily Joo is a Korean-American venture partner with 16k+ LinkedIn followers, bilingual in English and Korean, maintaining dual investing roles and uniquely positioned to bridge Europe–Asia scale-up challenges for founders.

Anna Lauring has worked in the startup ecosystem for around five years. She previously worked on the startup team at Amazon Web Services, supporting founders from Pre-seed to Series C with a focus on B2B SaaS and B2C companies. She holds an MA in Business Management from the University of Edinburgh.

Apostolos Apostolakis is an angel of marketplaces who leverages founding experience at e-shop.gr, e-food and Beat to offer hands-on guidance on liquidity and supply-demand mechanics, prioritizing founder mindset and coachability.

Fivos Tsoukatos is an early-stage lead investor writing checks of $330K–$2.8M, with a broad European seed portfolio, often taking governance roles as board observer and teaching founders through masterclasses.

George Karabelas applies a structured decision‑science approach—using formal decision‑analysis and prioritizing decision quality over outcomes—and, as co‑founder of ThinkBiz, helped build Greece’s university startup ecosystem.

Maria Piotrowska works in venture capital with a background in strategy. She previously served as a Senior Associate at ffVC, a US-European fund with $300M AUM, where she supported nine investments ranging from Pre-Seed to Series A, and earlier gained experience at Inovo VC and Boston Consulting Group. She holds double-degree master's degrees from HEC Paris and Bocconi University and a bachelor's degree from Kozminski University.

Vicky Alexiou has an accounting and finance background with more than 15 years of experience. She previously served as Assistant Financial Reporting Manager at GasLog Ltd, a formerly NYSE-listed international shipping group, where she focused on SEC financial reporting and SOX compliance, and earlier worked at PwC on assurance services for integrated audits of US-listed entities and IPOs. She is a Fellow of the ACCA and holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the Athens University of Economics and Business.