Creating a clean water supply from the air and sun
On today’s episode of McKinsey on Startups, our guest is Dr. Cody Friesen, the founder and CEO of Source Global, a sustainability-focused startup that is working to help solve the planet’s drinking water scarcity issues. The company’s flagship product is the Source Hydropanel, a solar-powered, self…
Fueling Mexico’s startup ecosystem with an equity-free helping hand
On today’s episode of McKinsey on Startups, our guest is Camila Lecaros, the Managing Director of MassChallenge Mexico, a start-up accelerator that is part of a global network with other outposts in Boston, Texas, Israel, and Switzerland. MassChallenge uses a relatively unique model in its work wit…
Base10’s Ade Ajao: A data-driven approach to funding more diverse founders
On today’s episode of McKinsey on Startups, we talk to Adeyemi Ajao, the cofounder and Managing Partner at Base 10 Partners. The San Francisco-based VC firm focuses on startups bringing automation technology to a variety of sectors in what it calls the Real Economy, including logistics, retail, hea…
Investing in transformative tech: EQT Ventures’ long view
On today’s episode of McKinsey on Startups, we talk to Gautam Nadella, an operating partner at EQT Ventures in the Bay Area, where he drives M&A, fundraising, and partnership efforts within their portfolio of more than 100 companies. EQT invests in a wide range of companies in both Europe and the U…
What it takes for successful startups to keep growing
In recent years, the pressure from investors on already successful start-ups to keep growing faster and faster has been intense. Reaching a $100 million valuation, a notable achievement in its own right, left little time to celebrate; the venture capital (VC) firms that invest in these companies ex…
The keys to framing a winning investor pitch
It wasn’t very long ago that venture capital was so free-flowing it seemed as if any entrepreneur with a half-decent idea could raise an initial round of financing. Those halcyon days are clearly now past us, with inflation, rising interest rates, and slowing economic growth (or full-fledged recess…
Indonesian unicorn Ajaib: Building a nation of new retail investors
Today’s McKinsey on Startups guest is Yada Piyajomkwan, cofounder and Chief Product Officer of Indonesian digital investing unicorn Ajaib. It was only a few years ago that Yada and her fellow Stanford MBA, Anderson Sumarli (now CEO), launched Ajaib with the goal of bringing investing to the masses …
Versatile’s Meirav Oren: Building the data-driven future of construction
Today’s McKinsey on Startups guest is Meirav Oren, the co-founder and CEO of Versatile, a startup that is working to bring the power of AI to the construction job site. Founded in Oren’s native Israel back in 2016 along with Danny Hermann, Barak Cohen and Ran Oren, and now headquartered in Silicon …
Plotting an alternative foods revolution
It’s no secret that plant-based foods and alternative meats have been soaring in popularity in recent years. On today’s McKinsey on Startups podcast, we learn more about this dynamic entrepreneurial sector in a guest episode from The Venture, the podcast on business building from Leap by McKinsey. …
Operator’s manual: QED’s approach to investing in fintech
Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 27:29) > On this episode of McKinsey on Start-ups, our guest is Mike Packer, a partner at QED Investors, a boutique venture capital firm focused on the fast-growing fintech sector. QED was co-founded by Frank Rotman and Nige…