Arianna Huffington, the visionary female founder and powerful business executive gives you the secrets for thriving, finding focus, and managing to be productive – yes, even in the middle of a pandemic. You’ll learn how to live your life with less stress, and set boundaries between work and home, which is especially important when they’re the same place.

Stewart Butterfield is a Canadian Serial entrepreneur & founder of Slack & Flickr. During the lockdown in March, Slack recorded 12.5 million active users. Let him inspire you how to make a living out of your love.

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When the whole world came to a sudden halt due to Corona, he speeded up the pace! Jan Frodeno, the 3 times Ironman World Champion, Olympic winner and world record holder fought the lockdown and came out stronger afterwards. Listen to what Frodeno has learned during his career in sports and what has helped him in his career in the business world as a shareholder of Ryzon, a triathlon apparel label, among other things.

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Margit Wennmachers is an operating partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a preeminent Silicon Valley venture capital firm. As a 16z's chief marketer, advising the firm and entreprenerus on their communications and marketing strategies, you can learn from her how to create a market-leading brand.

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Jeff Clavier is Founder of Uncork Capital considered one of the most active established seed funds in Silicon Valley. Since 2004 he has closed more than 200 investments in startups like Fitbit, Eventbrite, Postmates and more occasionally sold to companies like Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and AOL. At #bits20 he will talk about how to stick to commitments, even in hard times. Don't miss the chance to discuss with a real expert of Silicon Valley at #bits20.

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20 years of world class football and triple world goalkeeper: Oliver Kahn is not for nothing called „the Titan“. After retiring from professional football he became an active investor, co-founded Goalplay and serves as a board member of the FC Bayern München. With the Oliver Kahn foundation he is supporting socially disadvantaged kids through „the strength of football“. Listen to the insights he has to share about how to deal productively with successes and setbacks and how to make people and employees strong.

Tech titan Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started 5 companies before her 33rd  birthday. At #bits20 she can give you a deeper insight into how she created the specifically founder-friendly VC firm Clearbanc.

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Paul is what we here in Germany call a “Tausendsassa, a jack of all trades. As a content creator, storyteller and photographer, living in California he has worked with Lewis Hamilton, Nike and even the German national football team. Let him inspire you how to follow your passion.

Nico Rosberg is German-Finnish former Formula One driver and World Champion. After his motorsports career he started to work as an investor and founder in the field of sustainable technology and mobility and was awarded „GreenTec Entrepreneur of the Year“ in 2018. He also joined „Die Höhle der Löwen“ recently. Get inspired by his goal to drive forward positive changes for society and humanity!

A leading expert  with over 15 years experience in the payments industry, Pieter van der Does  co-founded Adyen in 2006, growing from a startup into a global operation,  averaging double-digit annual growth since 2007. At #bits20 you can ask him  how to turn your startup into a global unicorn.

She calls herself „a most unusual banker“: Anne Boden, who began her career in finance with positions at Lloyds, Standard Chartered Bank and UBS, is the founder of Starling Bank, one of the foremost digital banks in the world. It has 1.5 million customers and manages more than 3 billion in deposits. Hear from Anne how she created her company, which is regarded as a revolutionary breakthrough in online banking services.

Joko Winterscheidt is a Munich-based TV-entertainer and entrepreneur. Learn why and how he supported Andy Weinzierl with Sushi bikes and what it takes to successfully follow your weirdest ideas, even after failing.

One of the World Economic Forum's Tech Pioneers, Taavet has acted as adviser to the former Prime Minister of Estonia on the digital agenda. As angel investor and mentor for the next generation of talent, leading TransferWise's "20 under 20 programme" to support Europe's brightest teen CEO's, he will tell what it means to grow from a start-up to a leading money transfer service.

During the lockdown the boom of FlixMobility came to a sudden hold. The co-founder of one of Europe's largest mobility providers describes his masterplan for worldwide growth in 2020.

Miriam Wohlfarth, host of our "Meet the Leaders" sessions, is providing her high-level perspective from her 20-years-experience in entrepreneurship and the Fintech world.

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The Munich entrepreneur founded Dean & David in 2006. While traveling the world he developed the idea for a healthy fast food chain and wrote his business plan. He perceived the trend of the awareness of the effect of food: you are what you eat. At #bits20 you can learn how he created a successful and healthy franchise system with over 100 units which is on course for expansion and internationalization.

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Sophia Thomalla is a German, actress model and presenter. At #bits20 you will learn how and why she supported Christian Hülsewig with Schüttflix and the idea of ordering bulk material via an app.

Christian Hülsewig is founder and CEO of Schüttflix. He was responsible for the global fulfillment and distribution network at Microsoft in Seattle. Learn how his frustration with unpunctual deliveries at non-transparent prices, which were unloaded at the wrong place, formed the foundation of Schüttflix.

Questioning technology and business has often been a door opener in Andy's young career. At the age of 16, he founded an online magazine and later he set up an influencer marketing platform. He founded SUSHI bikes with the goal of bringing affordable and stylish e-bikes to the streets. At #bits20 you can learn what it takes to build a brand together with Joko Winterscheidt.

Gillian Tans advises the company’s leadership on the long-term vision and operations for the business as well as key growth initiatives. She also actively encourages women to pursue careers in tech and aspire for leadership positions. In her session, Gillian will report how the pandemic has affected a company in the travel industry and what this means in the long term.

Simon is a developer at heart and a venture capitalist in mind. German born, Simon gained operational experience building three companies for Rocket Internet between Asia, Latin America and the US before starting his Investment Career at Earlybird Venture Capital. Simon will share his experience on how to pick your investor & partner wisely and why VC is the best job in the world!

Max is German Startup entrepreneur. In 2007 he co-founded mymuesli.com together with his friends Hubertus and Philipp; he left the company in 2019 since his passion lies at the early stages of startups; in addition to being an entrepreneur Max is a keynote speaker, teaches startup knowledge, and loves to write and create content. As our moderator he will lead us through the track "The Story Behind".

The $5.5 billion payments unicorn Klarna, backed by Snoop Dogg, has proven its crisis resistance despite the world wide lockdown. Its revenues increased during coronavirus. Sebastian is going to tell how he did it.

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Previous to Penta, Jessica founded a start-up in the foodtech sector and worked as a management consultant for financial institutions and insurance companies. In 2020, Jessica has been elected by Forbes Magazine in the 30under30 list. At #bits20 Jessica will share her insights about becoming a successful female founder in the Fintech industry and tell why you should never give up.

Bastian Nominacher is a pioneer in the field of process mining technology and innovative big data analysis methods. Today Celonis has 1000 employees worldwide and is one of the fastest growing technology companies in Germany.

Niklas turned a local food delivery service into a global player and co-founded delivery hero, which is now a $100 billion dollar business, active over 40 countries, delivering 100 million orders a month. At #bits20 you can listen to his insights, experiences and how he made it into the DAX-30 Germany's premier stock index, after scandal-ridden Fintech Wirecard dropped out.

Christian raised 30 million in the middle of the Corona crisis and is on track to build Germany's next unicorn. He'll share his playbook on how he managed to fundraise in the middle of nuclear funding winter.

Sex sells during the pandemic. Learn how Claire uses the excitement for her toys to push the expansion of AMORELIE and how she navigates cultural differences for her products.

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With Wirecard gone solarisBank is on the rise & just raised a €60 million series C. Jörg lays out how one of Europe's leading banking-as-a-service platforms is using new cash to thrive in the post-covid markets.

During the lockdown Moritz had to push the fitness aggregator's business online. He'll explain how he kept subscribers and his strategy for the European expansion.

Pierre Dubuc has been working on creating the education of tomorrow for the past 20 years. In 2016, he appeared among Forbes "30 under 30" for social entrepreneurship. Let him inspire you by his mission: make education accessible.

Joaquim is the CEO of Typeform, the tool that helps brands & communities have meaningful conversations, through a suite of engaging easy to build and highly customisable interfaces that encourage people to exchange information to maintain meaningful relationships over time. Join his session to learn how free services must meet users’ basic needs, while also encouraging them to upgrade to the paid version once those basic needs are met.

David started his career as a musician. Expression through music soon turned to expression through product and brand design, He later met Robert Muñoz and the two co-founded Typeform. David will tell you how to create a product that users love.

Daniel recently closed $17 million in Series A to build his space platform and has since doubled his team. At #bits20 the leader of the rocket launch vehicle builder shares his masterplan to win the race for space.

Felix is an active entrepreneur and business angel and was one of the first MDs of Rocket Internet. He will share his insights into starting companies like Home24 and McMakler in the real estate industry.

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Lukas is Co-founder of PlusDental, the European market leader in direct to patient digital dental care. The German-born telemedicine startup has recently landed a 32 million euros funding round led by Hong Kong-based Ping An Global Voyager Fund. Prior to PlusDental, Lukas founded Spark Networks SE (NYSE: LOV), the operator of leading premium dating brands in 29 countries. Moreover Lukas is an active business angel with more than 40 investments. Meet Lukas at #bits20 to learn how to successfully scale up you startup!

By the age of 26 Florian co-founded Runtastic and became the CEO there for 10 years. With more than 300 million downloads Runtastic finally partnered with adidas. Meanwhile Florian co-founded the world market leader in GPS tracking called tractive.

Ralf has a strong track record in building and scaling companies in an international setting. Before joining Gympass in 2018, he co-founded Wishbird Experiences in Mexico, which quickly became the market leader for adventure gifts. Learn why he is convinced that Corporate Wellness is the future of health at work and pursues the vision of becoming the number 1 in the German market for this.

Jakob Schreyer has a strong marketing background from 6 years in Munich and 5 years in New York. Since 2011 for the foundation of orderbird AG he has been in Berlin, seven years as CEO and since 2019 as CSO and on the Management board together with Mark Schoen. With a fintech which is highly involved in gastronomy, Jakob was put to a severe test in the current Corona crisis. At #bits20, he will share his experiences how orderbrid was affected by the crisis and explain how to navigate out of this difficult situation.

Finn Age Hänsel is a visionary thinker, living innovator and motivator. Together with his Co-founder Fabian Friede, he founded a Cannabis-startup, dedicated to the medical and health use of cannabinoids. At #bits20 you can listen to his expertise on digital policy, entrepreneurship and startup issues.

Dr. Patrick Andrae is co-founder and CEO of HomeToGo, the world’s largest search engine for vacation rentals. Prior to HomeToGo, Patrick worked for Rocket Internet. At #bits20 he will tell how HomeToGo solved a chicken-and-egg-situation.

Alexander is Co-founder and CEO of smava, the leading platform for personal loans in Germany. smava is one of Germany’s most successful and biggest fintech companies with over 8 billion euros in originated loans and over 600 employees. Alexander has been an internet entrepreneur for 20 years. Prior to founding smava in 2007, he was Co-founder and CEO of the enterprise software company datango. He can tell what it takes to found the leading platform for personal loans in Germany.

Driven by a passion for innovation, Julian graduated at the top of his class from the London School of Economics, before returning to Berlin where he nurtured several successful startups for Rocket Internet. It was here that in 2016, he co-founded Tourlane, a booking platform for tailored trips, with his youthhood friend Julian Stiefel. Even though being extremely hit by the Corona crisis, his strategy was investing instead of saving. Learn more about his secrets of success even in hard times at #bits20!

At 16, Stefan wrote a book on 3D software, which secured him an invitation to join a specific computer project at the University of Vienna. After just 20 days on campus as a computer science student at the Technical University of Munich, he dropped out and founded Brainlab to focus on digitizing surgery. Within 30 years, Brainlab developed to an established mid-sized company with an annual revenue of 300 million euros. Learn more about his story at #bits20.

In 2019 Nils joined the successful German TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen” (Dragons’ Den) on VOX as a new investor. Nils works with start-ups from various disciplines, e.g. founders focused on nutrition, health or sports. Join his session to listen to his story how he came from a family business to invest in start-ups.

As founder of Fox & Sheep (2012) and HABA Digitalwerkstatt (2016) Verena is driven by a great vision: She wants all children to have access to digital education. She therefore founded the non-profit organization Digitale Bildung für Alle e.V. Listen to her story about how she turned a vision into success.

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Michael Fritz is the face behind viva con agua. They follow the aim of ensuring that all people worldwide have access to clean water, sanitary & hygiene supplies. Learn from Michael how serious topics in the world can be treated with joy.

Thomas is the CEO and co-founder of OroraTech. The company focuses on leveraging NewSpace intelligence for a sustainable earth with an initial target market in wildfire monitoring. Experience how OroraTech can protect our environment.

Previously to founding finleap, Ramin was Innovation Manager at DKB Deutsche Kreditbank AG, where he led the bank’s electronic and mobile payment innovation projects alongside PayPal, Sofortüberweisung and Cringle. Join his slot to learn more about the leading fintech ecosystem in Europe.

Dr. Wieland Holfelder joined Google in 2008 and oversees Google’s Engineering Center in Munich, Germany where Google now has more than 1000 employees, many of which focus on privacy and security for Google products as well as the Google Browser Chrome, on internal productivity and developer tools for Google, and on other future Google products and services. Google has been already enormously successful in achieving environmental and climate protection over the past decades. In this third decade Google is pursuing the most ambitious goals ever to tackle climate change. Join Wieland’s session at #bits20 and find out how Google will chart a sustainable course for our planet until 2030!

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Dr. Frank Niederländer started his career 1991 at the BMW Group as an international management trainee, he took over management responsibility from 1998. Frank was appointed Member of the Board of the BMW Foundation in January 2018.

Prior to founding Planet, Will was a Scientist at NASA/USRA where he worked on missions "LADEE" and "LCROSS," served as co-principal investigator on PhoneSat, and was the technical lead on research projects in space debris remediation. He will talk about his mission to create a searchable database of Earth's surface.

Prior to joining Creandum in 2010, Johan was a successful angel investor and Co-founder of a range of successful companies (e.g. eTrade & tradera) in his earlier years. As General Partner at Creandum Johan focuses on investments in entrepreneurs with big disruptive ideas particularly in financial services, marketplaces and Saas. Current investments include iZettle, Trade Republic, Pleo, and Vivino. Take the chance to get truthful advice from one of Europe’s most experienced venture capital investors!

Sina is an active Business Angel and has 35+ investments in early stage start-ups. In 2016 he was selected as one of Top 100 most influential tech people in the World (Wired Magazine). In 2019 he was elected to one of the “Brightest Minds Alive” in Turkey by the Forbes Magazine. He loves good ice cream, his family and esports. At #bits20 he can share his knowledge on entrepreneurship, turkish online sector, management and investment.

Morpheus Space successfully demonstrated their in-space propulsion technology in orbit, prevented a space debris disaster and attracted international high-profile investors to back their vision of heralding the second wave of the NewSpace revolution. At #bits20 you can learn how space technology has an impact on a sustainable future in space and on earth.

Caroline is an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of The Valuable 500 - a campaign to get 500 businesses to commit to put disability inclusion on their leadership agendas. Join her session to learn how Caroline succeeded in bringing disability inclusion onto the main stage at DAVOS for the first time ever with the support of global business leaders.

Sara is the Co-founder of the social business nuruCoffee and the foundation nuruWomen e.V.. In addition, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) appointed Sara in 2018 as ambassador for Fair Trade. She has always followed her heart, she inspires young girls and women and moves things with her courage. Get this inspiration too and join her session at #bits20!

That FemCare is no longer just a topic that takes place in bathrooms, but has also found its way into the investment sector has been proved by the founding of The Female Company in 2018 at the latest when the funding from Burda and the Italian Angel Capital Management was announced. Ann Sophie Claus, founder of the D2C company, is redefining female health by delivering sustainable period products & postpartum for women but pursues a bigger vision: female empowerment. Always breaking taboos, The Female Company is also well-known for its international success of marketing campaigns like "The Tampon Book" or a tutorial on PornHub. In her session she will teach you all things to know relating to social media!

After the genocide against the Yazidis Düzen founded the human rights organization HAWAR.help and (later) the initiative GermanDream. She won several awards and is member of the Federal Government's expert commission to combat causes of flight. In her session you will discover how she went from journalist to freedom activist.

Christian's company Makesense.org is a community of 100,000 citizens who support 3,000 local initiatives, tackling the Global Goals in 100 cities across 45 countries. Makesense.org also has incubators, an impact investment fund and works with governements/corporates to scale social innovation. Christian is an Obama foundation scholar at Columbia University and will talk about the huge impact Makesense has.

Ralf Rottmann, currently Founder & Managing Director at grandcentrix, is a German serial entrepreneur and technology enthusiast. His first company got acquired by Alcatel-Lucent in 2008. Only recently (November 2019) Ralf successfully sold grandcentrix, Germany’s largest system integrator focusing 100% on complex mobile solutions, to Vodafone. Since growing businesses and helping them crossing the chasm counts to Ralf’s specialities, he is the right guy to talk to at #bits20!

Karel Dörner is a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. Through leading roles at McKinsey Digital and as co-founder of eBay Europe he has played a significant role in shaping online and multichannel commerce in Germany. Karel maintains close contact with Germany’s tech start-up scene and is the proud father of four digital natives. Using the most recent research as a reference, Karel will discuss whether the marriage between corporates and start-ups can still be saved.

Kenjo investor and Board Member Noor van Boden and currently CPO at N26,  is passionate about scaling companies and creating cultures of impact. As former VP Global Head of People at SoundCloud, Noor is an HR expert on guiding organisations through hypergrowth. With over 20 years of international HR experience Noor is the woman who can tell you what counts from an HR perspective to make your startup a unicorn!

Sami Haddadin,  one of the main driving scientific and technical forces behind intelligent robots and prostheses, is director of the Munich School of Robotics and Machine Intelligence at TUM. His research deals with the fundamentals of robotics and artificial intelligence for creating intelligent machines. He was a research scientist at the DLR and Professor at Leibniz University Hannover. Moreover he is the creator of Franka Emika, which is considered to be the first robot of its kind: human-centered, intuitive, affordable and safe. Among other things, he’s recipient of the Presidential German Future Award and Leibniz Prize.

Matthias Schranner was originally trained by the police and the FBI as a lead negotiator for high-stakes situations. For the past 15 years, he and his team at the Schranner Negotiation Institute have been advising clients including the UN, global corporations and political parties in difficult negotiations. His background and his deep passion for solving the most difficult negotiations makes Matthias the one and only person, you should listen to when it’s about how to negotiate!

The e-health pioneer Gloria Seibert is Founder and CEO of Temedica, a startup that builds digital therapeutic apps to provide patients with tailored and sustainable health companions. In January they raised 17 million euros which will be used to enter international markets and to grow the team behind Temedica. Learn more about challenges arising from starting a business in digital health.

Gesa is one of the founders of Auxxo Beteiligungen and of the Evangelistas, a group of 80+ female business angels in Germany. She is also a board member of the German Startups Association and a Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First Berlin. As investor, she focuses on business models with sustainable growth as well as products and services with value for society. At #bits20, she calls for more female entrepreneurs and shares her secrets in how to empower them.

Frank Thelen is a European serial founder, tech investor, TV personality and bestselling author. As the Founder & CEO of Freigeist Capital, he focuses on seed investments like Lilium Aviation, Wunderlist, Xentral and YFood. Learn How to find the right investors and how to convince them of your idea, product and team.

Prior to joining General Atlantic in 2012, Christian was a Research Assistant at the Technical University of Munich with a focus on empirical entrepreneurial finance topics. Join his session to learn more about the State of the Nation: Growth investing in DACH.

In a world of Netflix, Spotify, Calm and many other (digital) services, more and more companies understand the value of subscription business models. In this session, Michael will talk about learnings of optimizing a B2C subscription business and shares tips and tricks for subscription companies.

Chris is a former professional tennis player, strategy consultant, corporate executive and startup founder. Now he's a performance recovery & sleep coach to CEO's, executives and entrepreneurs around the globe and creator of the Strategic Recovery System. At #bits20 he will talk about strategic recovery for founders.

Andreas comes to Snke OS from Brainlab, where he held the role of Vice President R&D Healthcare Informatics. Together with Stefan Vilsmeier he will talk European Data Space: Opportunity or Risk?

Guy gained his negotiation experience at a young age in the Israeli military service as an Israeli Defence Forces Officer. Since 2013 he has been one of the few negotiation professors in Germany and focuses on improving sales and service through holistic training and coaching concepts. Usually working with premium and luxury brands, you can learn in his session at #bits 20 how to sell & negotiate like a car dealer.

Lisa actively invests as a Business Angel and co-founded Usercentrics. Previously, she worked in Legal & Compliance at Scalable Capital. Before, she studied Law and Comp. Sc. and founded several ventures during university and high school. As moderator she will guide you through our start-up pitch.

Christoph Sollich, better known as „The Pitch Doctor“ is the world’s first, only and best „Startup Comedian“ and has already helped more than 2000 startups improving they way to pitch. Join Christian’s session to get teached about the most important aspects of pitching, and what mistakes not to make while having a lot of fun at the same time!

Pia is expert for resilience, mindfulness, embodied psychology and emotional intelligence. She guided mindful learning sessions at intrapreneur stage@ Bits 2019. This year she will talk about Mental strength - building a resilient and mindful mind in 7 steps.

While always "making money online" since school, David started his professional career as a cooperative student at former 120k people HP with stops in Europe and California. Later took he took over the revenue part to further bootstrap Billbee to a 7-(and more)-figure SaaS. At #bits20 you can learn how to work less and do more: Implementation of a 30-hour week.

Max-Josef's experience comes from building organizations such as Stylight (as Co-founder & COO), TeleClinic & Personio (as early investor and coach), CDTM (as mentor and coach) and finn.auto (as Co-founder & CEO). At #bits20 you can learn from best practices from a serial entrepreneur how to build effective organizations.

Diana is a 25 year old content creator on youtube & instagram. Besides personal and female topics, she also talks about politics on her channel.This year she published a guide for female well being and did a Cambridge certificate in Sustainability management. At #bits20 you can learn about Smart(phone) content creation for social media.

Mischa has been a part of the German digital scene for over 15 years. He is the Founder of intelliAd, which was sold to Deutsche Post/DHL in 2012. While he used to earn money with personalized advertisements in the past, he now takes care of data protection in companies. With deep knowledge in GDPR and CCPA legaltech, he is the right one to join to learn more about privacy regulations.

Carolin is a Munich founder and on the Forbes 30under30 list: After she finished her design studies in 2018 she founded Knister Grill succesfully with a Kickstarter Campaign. While joining her session you’ll learn how to bring the product from the idea, to a prototype to a mass production as well as how you can be more profitable while producing local.

Paul Achleitner, Chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank, shares his exclusive high-level lessons for the next generation of young managers from his experience of having worked for four decades in leading global companies. While the course of his career in top-level positions at Goldman Sachs to Allianz Group to Deutsche Bank looks as it was precisely planned, it was very often the result of taking an opportunity, a risk and being guided by entrepreneurial intuition – which are the key ingredients of how founders should navigate the uncertain times of today.

Christian has been named by Airbus as Head of BizLab, the global aerospace accelerator in 2019. Prior to joining Airbus Christian worked as Managing Director for Wayra, the Telefónica accelerator, Director of TechFounders and cofounded 3 companies. Thanks to working with well-known companies such as Telefónica and BMW he is an expert in the field of corporate venturing but also B2B sales!

Alex Khan is a serial entrepreneur, university lecturer, keynote speaker and with 15 years of experience one of Germanys first social media experts. He helps clients to build a cohesive social media strategy. In his slot he will talk about mass seduction and will explain 5 ways to gain more followers, reach and sales with your Instagram profile.

Max deeply believes in the power of films & that developing films with strong narratives is very close to developing brands with strong narratives. At #bits20 he will talk about using the principles of film thinking for brandbuilding.

Period underwear, absorbing nursing bras and innovation for bladder leaks - true taboo topics in our society which we dare to address. Learn from Kati, the Founder of the female empowerment company ooia, how to succeed with crowdfunding when no investor is willing to step into the promising femtech and female empowerment business market.

In 2017 Kathrin joined the management board of Flaconi as Chief Financial Officer. She is responsible for the business units finance, human resources, business intelligence, legal as well as for the Flaconi concept store in Berlin. Previously she was Vice President Finance at Friendsscout24 and Head of Corporate Finance at Westwing Home & Living. One might certainly go right saying that Kathrin Nusser has achieved to become a female leader in a male-dominated domain. Join Kathrin’s session at #bits20 to get valuable insights in the benefits of diversity in the context of becoming a better leader!

Hendrikje Wagner has spent her entire professional life, connecting her passion for storytelling and sales. Her ambition is to help people and companies to become better storytellers and connect with their audience emotionally. Join her session to learn how to create Storytelling ideas with Myndset Cards in only 30 minutes! Even if you believe you have no potential to create ideas, our method will enable you to develop emotional story ideas that will leave your audience wanting more.

Prior to Opinary, Pia was working as a journalist and in product for Axel Springer. She's one of Forbes' “30under30”. In her session Pia will explain why some ads and campaigns memorable and some just slip away the second after we seen them. At the end of the slot you will have a better understanding of the key ingredients needed for a successful ad campaign.

Manuel likes to look behind the facade. What fears prevent us from our success? Why do we lack the courage to reach our goals? Why has our past so much influence on our present? His session will be about freedom and how we learn to overcome our fears, dissolve false beliefs and reprogram ourselves. Learn to lead a self-determined, successful and happy life as a free spirit.

Saina is an entrepreneur, author and lecturer. With only 27 years she founded the Business Women’s Society with the aim to connect and support women in business. Followed by many other companies, Saina is globally active and definitely one of the great female models of the startup ecosystem! In her session you will learn how to found with the right idea and to successfully establish it on the market.

Michael Holzner worked at Hubert Burda Media for 6.5 years and ended up managing a paid content app with around 25 FTEs in the finance department as Director 2.5 years. As CCO, he takes care of the platform, B2B/business development and finances. Join his session to learn more about Self Development.

This woman is revolutionizing audio content and convinced successful founders like Rolf Schrömgens, founder of trivago, of her idea: As Co-founder & CEO of femtasy, the first audio platform for women’s sexual well-being, Nina Julie is responsible for content, marketing and legal. Prior to femtasy Nina Julie completed a dual study program at the HSBA in cooperation with XING SE and worked in the Corporate Development Team on topics related to strategy & M&A. Take your chance, chat to a woman in tech and listen to her inspiring talk about self development!

Barbod is a Partner covering the Fintech and Insurtech sectors at HV. He has led HV Ventures’s early investments in BUX, Penta, Yapily and Solarisbank among others. Prior to that, Barbod covered investment roles in the public markets and in PE. In his session he will touch upon how Fintech infrastructure players are reshaping the meaning of “financial institution” and creating a more transparent and competitive landscape.

From a student apartment to a 160 million euro exit in only four years, entirely bootstrapped, without help from external investors? In his masterclass, Daniel will use Kolibri Games’ exceptional growth story to discuss the importance of failure and learning from mistakes when it comes to scaling a team and a product without VC backing. In addition, he will give insights into essential questions every aspiring entrepreneur needs to ask themselves before launching a business.

Christoph founded kartenmacherei in 2010 and bootstrapped it to 50M € revenue in 2019. Since 2017 he built startups at better around kartenmacherei. His session will give you an idea of how and when to bootstrap your startup incl. real examples from successful founders. He will as well have a look at the pros and cons of bootstrapping.

Fabian first started the company hotnest, a leading Chinese-European Marketing and Sales Automation Platform for consumer brands, in China before they expanded to Europe. In his session you will learn how to succeed in the Chinese consumer and tech environment.

Nina is a versatile leader with a successful track record of 12+ years experience in business development, sales, marketing, cross-functional teams and channel management for leading organisations including Google, SC Johnson and Unilever. She led organizations of up to 100 people, was responsible for 250 million dollar/year business and engaged consistently at C-level across multiple industries. At #bits20 you can learn how to win international customers through the power of digital marketing.

It is without doubt that year 2020 has caused tectonic shifts for digital marketing. In his session at #bits 20, Seckin will answer the questions how consumer behaviours are shifting in B2C and B2B and which digital platforms and media channels are winning. Furthermore he can give you advices on how you should think about your digital marketing team and your martech stack and how you should measure ROI in digital marketing.

Johannes founded SNOCKS together with his cousin in 2016. SNOCKS is an e-commerce startup founded in Mannheim that focuses on selling basic fashion like socks and boxershorts online. In his session he will talk about how to scale and optimize an online shop from scratch. Measures include performance marketing, conversion rate optimization as well as additional sales channels.

Roman is a serial tech entrepreneur who landed his first coup in 2005 with his VoIP startup Jajah, the very first European company to be funded by Sequoia Capital. Join his session to learn what to keep in mind when entering the US regarding recruitment and team building, cultural aspects and differences, East Coast vs West Coast and the question of with or without US investors / partners.

Pieter transformed a large, international retailer into a customer focused, full online/ multichannel retailer and is now active as investor, board member and senior advisor. He will share so insights about his focus on digital, consumer, ecommerce and gig-economy.

In 2016 Aimie-Sarah launched ArtNight, a concept for events full of art and creative exchanges. In the midst of her business ventures, she always put a focus on female empowerment and leadership. By using the example of ArtNight's overnight pivot from offline to online during the pandemic, she will give you hands-on advice on coping with unexpected challenges while building your business. More importantly, we will discuss how and why flexibility within your team is crucial to deal with changes – and how you can successfully adapt to them.

After running studiVZ, the largest German social network in the 2000s, Michael sold investments to Google, Amazon or eBay. Later he cofounded Redstone.vc, today he is the initiator of Europe´s largest industry 4.0 fund. In his session he will talk about winning corporates as clients: Best practices & war stories from 20 years of building and investing.

Vicky deals with the challenges of the start-up economy on a daily basis. She is responsible for all startup related content at t3n, the magazine for a digital future, and also contributes her PR experience to young entrepreneurs during mentoring programs. Together with Anna Alex, the founder of Planetly, she will talk about the biggest challenge of our time and how the startup economy can face it. Because Anna is firmly convinced: Profit and purpose are not mutually exclusive, they in fact belong together.

Jasmin is on a quest to lead Gamification and Behavioural Design to success for businesses and entrepreneurs alike. With Myndset she follows her mission to add passion, value, and emotions to new ideas and solutions. In her session, she will create Storytelling ideas with Myndset Cards in only 40 minutes! Even if you believe you have no potential to create ideas, Myndset Cards will enable you to develop emotional story ideas that will leave your audience wanting more.

David co-founded sennder in 2015 after a career at Roland Berger and co-founding ‘SmilingBox’ (2014). International growth used to be reserved for large companies looking to tap into new markets, but that’s no longer the case. As the technology landscape becomes increasingly global, startups view international expansion as a crucial part of their growth strategy. In his session he will discuss topics like: the right time to consider going global, organic growth, localization. He can also give you advices on which regions to prioritize and how to build and hire a market-leading team. Meet this full-blood entrepreneur at #Bits20!

Before joining Google, Jasmin worked as a Digital Consultant and as a Market Research Analyst in different industries in London. During her session, she will explain the data behind Google Trends and explain the basic functionality of the interface using real-life examples that will prepare you to get started with finding your own insights.

Yishai is experienced hands-on and certified in online marketing with a solid track record of driving growth and leadership. He is focused on revenue and digital strategy, skilled in operations management. Join his masterclass to learn how to use Google AI to improve your performance.

Emily is passionate about Application Modernization and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) topics. In her session you will learn how Instana Inc. built their technology solution on the Google Cloud Platform with the help of our reseller DoiT GmbH - and much more.

As a Data Activation Specialist, Jean-Luc is consulting advertisers on how they can integrate 1P data into their marketing activities. Prior to his time with Google, he worked i.a. for Criteo, Dublin City University and Parisian agency AdsOnWall. In this session you will learn how the holistic automation of your SEA activities can help you achieve your business goals and save time.

Sally Helgesen, cited in Forbes as the world’s premier expert on women’s leadership is ranked number 6 among the world’s top 30 leadership thinkers by Global Gurus and was named Thinkers 50/Marshall Goldsmith number one coach for women leaders. In her session she will talk about the Power of Inclusion in a time of crisis and why it matters for men and women now and how to build an inclusive culture in a virtual environment.

Melanie Touchstone is a marketing strategist with over a decade of experience working with the innovation community. She currently leads Mailchimp's efforts to support, engage and empower startups across the world. Join her session and learn why the State of Georgia is one of the fastest-growing high-tech ecosystems in the US. Atlanta, Georgia is where creatives, universities, entrepreneurs and the world's biggest brands intersect in a place that's affordable enough to take risks.

Katja is fired up about climate + social justice and dreams of a system change toward a sustainable and equitable future. As executive director + founding member of B Lab Germany, she builds a community of responsible business leaders who share that vision. Born in a country with closed borders, she made a point of living in most corners of the world, including 12 years in NYC. Listen to how climate+ has an impact on sustainability.

Felix started DyeMansion, who turn 3D-printed parts into high-value products to make them a part of our everyday life. In his session he will share his view on 3D-printing, how this will affect our future, and our roadmap to make this happen.

Deisha leads the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s promotion of Atlanta via Choose ATL and is the Head of diversity & inclusion. She also supports collaboration among the region’s diversity & inclusion leaders in addition to advancing these topics internally. At #bits20 she will speak about success beyond the valley.

After founding Outfittery, Anna founded Planetly, which is a climate tech company that develops digital tools helping companies calculate, reduce and offset their CO2 emissions. The declared goal of Planetly is to make the business world climate neutral. Join her session to learn more about Climate Tech.

Simon is the COO of Holidu, a Munich-based travel tech company with more than 220 employees across Europe. He leads their People, Inbound Marketing and Customer Service functions. Prior to Holidu, Simon held several management positions at P&G. Holidu uses team games in various areas of the company to to increase the performance of their team and also have more fun at work! If you want to achieve that too, join his session at #bits20! In his masterclass, Simon will briefly touch upon the theory of motivation and gamification. He will also share examples of games at Holidu and outline how they increased the team performance.

Alberto started working in 2008 in retail and import-export industries and founded Satispay in 2013. In February 2018 he joined LLC - Life Care Capital  as an independent Director. In this session Alberto will show you how to face that challenge with the Identification of important markets with similar starting points after successfully establishing the product in its domestic market. Join this masterclass and learn how to use deep financial market analysis, recognize opportunities by new technologies and create a product that offers USPs to convince even opposed consumer target groups!

Margit specializes in brand protection, competition, media & entertainment law, focusing on branded content and product placement. Her session will look at the benefits of influencer marketing and the business opportunities involved with it. It will give you an overview of the strict labelling requirements in Germany and the legal watch outs to be aware of when conducting influencer marketing. The session will take a close look at some case studies from Germany with examples of famous influencers who have fallen the wrong side of the law.

Stephan represents German and foreign corporates and financial investors regarding private equity / venture capital investments and M&A. His clients include founders, financial investors and family offices, industrial, technology & media companies. Having advised entrepreneurs and investors when starting a venture, in financing rounds and periods of growth, when struggling and finally in exits for many years, he will draw your attention to some legal topics you should be aware of when starting your business and which will help you to save a lot of trouble at a later stage.

As an Industry Manager for Startups, Magdalena is working as a strategic partner with different German startups to help them accelerate their growth. Before Google she worked in several performance marketing focused companies. Successful data-driven startups like Frontier Car Group have demonstrated that they can scale their business across several markets through digital marketing. She will share how you can leverage Google’s technology and available data sources to multiply your user base internationally with limited resources starting today.

Ralf is a High Tech Entrepreneur and Business Angel since 15 years. Lacon as an Electronic Design and Manufacturing Service Company (EMS) has assisted in the past 10 years more than 50 German hardware startups. In his slot he will answer the questions: What are the learnings from the perspective of the industrialization partner? What are typical mistakes and successful roadmaps? Which valuable hints should be considered especially for the German eco system?

Anna is leading the Google Ads for Startups Onboarding program, an exclusive program for high potential startups. She and her team develop customized online marketing strategies for startups that just entered the market to set them up for success. At #bits20, she will give you hands-on-advice on how to make your app part of your customers' lives.

At the age of 18 I emigrated from Brazil to Germany. Since 2012, I have held various positions in the retail industry at MediaMarktSaturn and IQOS Retail. Currently, together with Avantgarde,  I am bringing the concept store The Latest to life.Learn from Dhi M. Nunes, how retail-as-a-service can help start-ups to have a brick-and-mortar presence whilst avoiding the risks and costs of traditional retail.

Scalable tech start-ups – this is Helmut´s passion as co-founder and CEO of UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation at Technische Universität München (TUM). He is especially interested in start-ups in the fields of additive manufacturing/3D printing as well as smart city solutions. With his  background as a founder, aerospace engineer and venture capitalist Helmut loves to help new ventures to solve strategy, recruiting, business development and future financing challenges. Helmut will share his personal tips and views for us at #bits20!

As Director of appliedAI of Future Shaper UnternehmerTUM Philipp drives the adoption of Artificial Intelligence to launch innovative businesses. He is passionate about DeepTech, in particular Quantum Computing and its applications. Philipp is engaged in fostering entrepreneurship in Munich, Germany and Europe. Moreover he strives to advance climate action: A systemic approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to minimize  the already unvoidable climate change. Meet Philipp at an virtual table at #bits20 and discuss with him Artificial Intelligence and the climate change!

Christian Mohr is Managing Partner at UnternehmerTUM Business Creators, the consulting unit for established companies. He's an experienced advisor for companies how to build innovation ecosystems and to connect with the startup world. He knows exactly what to do when startups do not think of your company at all and how to get the best out of the collaboration between diverse partners like these.

Having experienced both worlds before, Susanna now advises established companies and startups on how to successfully engage with each other and has co-authored several studies and contributions on the topic. At #bits20 she outlines practical tips and hints for both start-ups and established SMEs / German Mittelstand on how to better connect and build successful relationships.

Andreas is a computer scientist and a technology enthusiast. He is Partner at Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners. He has long-term experience in artificial intelligence and knowledge-based systems and loves to work with technical teams on their product strategies. Andreas has also built up the technology scouting and startup coaching operations at UnternehmerTUM.

Martin is an experienced entrepreneur & sales professional. Over the past 15 years, he has founded, grown, and advised several B2B SaaS startups. He is a founder of Ciara, a digital conversation assistant for productivity-driven inside sales teams. With his software, he also supports his customers in enterprise sales which is extremely difficult due to long sales cycles and difficult customers. At #bits20, you’ll learn how to build your sales organization and how your next investor will evaluate your sales success.

Björn helps startups to tackle strategic challenges using Google data. Pre-Google, he worked as a VC investor for Lufthansa and Paua Ventures. He holds an MBA from ESADE Business School and a Transport Management Master from The University of Sydney. #bits20 is your chance to get real-life examples for how to best use data to push your startup to the next level.

Lara is President & CEO of NOW Corp, a company she co-founded to free small businesses from the burden of being a free bank to their customers. Lara experienced this challenge firsthand - not finding a solution, she launched NOW Corp. At #bits20 she will speak about success beyond the valley.

Hanna is Head of Strategic Partnerships at Usercentrics, where she's responsible for the acquisition and enablement of partners. She has worked for companies such as Google & Salesforce and has extensive experience in the SaaS industry. Hanna will talk in her masterclass about the emergence of a new marketing discepline

Jan is Partner at HV Holtzbrinck. Prior, he was COO at WOOGA, a Berlin-based developer of mobile games. Since 2007 he has been an angel investor and invested in more than fifeteen companies. Examples include Audibene, Blacklane, Jodel. Jan is a master in customer acquisition, marketing, and operations - and he'll speak and share thoughts about that!

After working in financial services at KPMG for two years, Judith joined the Deals practice at PwC in 2017 where she is responsible for the collaboration with start-ups in Southern Germany. She supports young companies in all aspects of financing and business management consulting and networks them with suitable contacts to ensure all-round support. In her session, she prepares you for common pitfalls when approaching price negotiations.

Luisa's journey at PwC started six years ago in Brazil, but it was only after moving to Germany in 2016, that she got closer to the startup ecosystem. Working closely with corporates, she has a good understanding of the investors' needs and helps you to enter the price negotiation process.

Michaela works as an Expert for Google Search Automation and Audience Solutions and consults advertisers and agencies in Central Europe on how to leverage Automation across their Marketing strategy. She has been with Google for 8 years and is a real expert in investing time right to get the most valuable outcome.

In 2016 Johannes founded SNOCKS together with his cousin. Two years later, in 2018, their other cousin Romy joined them and since then she is Head of Snocksulting, a Full-Service Amazon Consulting Agency. Together with Johannes (Founder of Snocks) Romy will  talk about how to scale and optimize an online shop from scratch.

The Ankerkraut CEO Stefan (trained autodidactic programmer and graphic artist) always wanted to be his own boss - by founding the spice manufacturer Ankerkraut in 2013 he finally made his passion to his mission. The family-run business has since then become one of the big Challenger in the German spice market. With Ankerkraut they have already won  several awards (finalists at EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020, place 27 at Gründerszene Awards 2019). Meet Stefan and his wife  at #bits20 and learn what it needs to build a successful fmcg love brand!

From PR into the food industry: Prior to joining her husband Stefan founding the company Ankerkraut (spice manufacturer), the educated agent for audiovisual media Anne worked as PR manager for the popular german hardcore band Scooter. Ankerkraut was founded in 2013 and has since become the “Love Brand“ and #1 Challenger in the German spice market. Only recently EMZ Partners has invested a considerable amount in Ankerkraut (sums over ten million). Meet the founder couple of a multi-million company at #bits20 and learn what it needs to build a successful fmcg love brand!

Since 2014 Kathrin has been shaping the working life at Testbirds as Head of Human Resources and supports companies and individuals as a systemic coach in the area of personality and organisational development. Her expert topics are new work and purpose. Learn from Kathrin how important the personnel is in a company and which character traits are important!

Florian Leibert ist a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, who pioneered engineering at Twitter and AirBnB. He founded his own company, MesoShere, and raised over 50 million dollar. Currently he is General Partner of 468 Capital, a next-generation Venture Capital Fund. He has tremendous background in tech and software and will share his knowledge around this at #bits20.

Anne co-founded a human centered business consultancy. As partners & challengers they are using empathy as a human superpower  to accompany people & businesses to find their way. Besides, she is working as a trainer for the Google Zukunftswerkstatt. At #bits20 she openly discusses the topic of business formation under gender specific characteristics and encourages the underrepresented groups how to communicate confidentially to tackle this challenge.

Tommy founded his first company idbeer.de, the largest mass customization website for beverages, in university and sucsessfully exited it in 2013. He joined Uber as one of the first employees in Germany. Today Thomas is Founding Partner at Vsquared Ventures, a deep tech early staged VC based in Munich. If he is not busy hunting for deals, you’ll find him surfing at Munich’s riverside spot Eisbach or at this year´s Bits and Pretzels Networking Week!

As Partner at HV Holtzbrinck Ventures Jasper focuses on B2B models with a strong software or data component. He leads AI-focused investments for HV in Verbit.ai, Ultimate.ai, i2x.ai and Zeitgold.com as well as in software applications like Vectornator.io and LegalOS.io among others. Prior to joining HV he was also engaged as an angel investor in more than 10 companies (e.g. McMakler, HeavenHR & FitReisen). Keen to understand what type of AI could really make sense for you? Join the skilled AI expert at #bits20 and gain valuable insights!

Anna-Katharina  is Vice President  Account Management at trbo GmbH. Since 2017, she's responsible for customer support at the technology provider for dynamic onsite personalization, optimization and testing. In her session Anna will talk about Usercentrics and the Opt-in Optimization algorithm

Karoli is the co-founder of Jobbatical, a startup on a mission to make immigration smart. Forbes named Jobbatical one of Europe's 10 Most Exciting Technology SMEs For 2018. In 2020 the EU Council named Karoli one of 8 most inspiring women in Europe. In her masterclass Karoli will talk about Culture add vs culture fit - what moves your organisation forward!

Jan Michel is has been advising startups on scaling strategies and performance marketing for several years. Before joining Google, he worked as a CFO of a startup and consultant at McKinsey. In this session, he will deep dive into how you can best leverage the so-called "fullistic" approach and show you how to re-invest the time you saved to grow your business.

Lena is a consultant and business coach, focusing on digital culture, innovation & ecosystems. She is lead coach of the de:hub initiative, a network of 12 hubs that connects innovative startups with established companies and scientific excellence. At #bits20, she is the right one to listen to to know more about how to build a fruitful ecosystem.

Ute is a media industry expert with over 10 years executive experience - developing sales/ marketing strategies and establishing new business units with strong and substantial growth path. Ute Henzgen has been Sales Director at IP Deutschland since March 2013 and is responsible for acquiring new TV customers for online startups as part of participation models. Since June 2019 she has been in the same position at Ad Alliance. Listen to her expert advice to count on TV accelerate your business and learn what you have to pay attention to.

Mirko is Co-founder and CEO at Instana, the leader in application performance management for containerized microservices applications. Mirko spent two decades in the technology industry focusing on application performance & modern software development.

Dr. Jutta Steiner is dedicated to building a better internet. Before starting Parity, She was responsible for IT security and partner integration within the Ethereum Foundation around the launch of the public blockchain in 2015. Jutta ia also co-founder of Project Provenance Ltd, a London based start-up that employs blockchain technology to make supply chains more transparent. In Juttas session you will obviously learn about blockchain technologys and about everything that stands for this concept

Lewin joined DoiT from Google Cloud where he led the Digital Native Customer Segment. His mission is supporting digital native companies in their pursuit of growth. Spending time with his wife and kids, Yoga, sport, and travelling are his passions.

Hiroki is CEO & Co-founder of the Series E startup GoCardless, a global leader in recurring payments. Founded in 2011, the company now has over 55,000 customers and processes 15 billion dollar of payments a year. Hiroki studied Maths at Oxford University and worked at McKinsey & Co. Don’t miss the chance to get valuable hints on steering your business through an crisis, from this payment fintech expert, at #bits20!

Céline, one of the most well-known business influencers on LinkedIn started to feed her personal profile with self-created content focusing on the latest innovations, startups and tech-trends. Since then, her LinkedIn experienced dramatic growth in followers and now compromises a large community of 60.000 professionals with a weekly reach of more than 250.000 people. She got awarded twice with “LinkedIn Top Voice” for her work. With her company „The People Branding Company“ she helps multinational brands and professionals harness the power of personal branding in order to drive influence and reach. Join her session and learn how to use LinkedIn best for your Startup!

Sophie is Digital Manager at Wall and sesponsible for the implementation of national campaigns in DOOH advertising as well as the promotion of the digital rollout in Germany. As heading the startup program Nurture in Germany, Sophie's main goal is to support startups to scale up by giving them much needed out of home visibility! Besides this, she is curious about driving forward the digitalisation of outdoor advertising.

Bernard Marr is an internationally bestselling author, futurist, keynote speaker, and strategic advisor to companies and governments. He advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations on strategy, digital transformation, and business performance. For this event Bernard will be exploring tech trends of the future on behalf of Box. Let yourself be surprised what the future brings.

Since 2018 Ilenia is Head of Brand & Content Marketing at fashion & lifestyle search platform Stylight, after being part of the PR world for 9 years. She disliked SEO until she realised that there's a wonderful world behind keywords & search intent. From reader to buyer: 5 "reasons why you should invest in shoppable content to help your eCommerce business growth".

As partner at Index Venture Martin pursues the mission to help Europe’s most ambitious founders build iconic companies. In doing so he focuses on startups that develop must-have products that operate in large markets like transportation, food, finance, health, and SME.  Martin has worked directly with founders of famous companies like Bird, cargo.one, Cowboy, Deliveroo, KRY, Revolut and Personio. At #bits20 he will show you what you have to keep in mind when building and running teams across borders.

Oliver, Head of Investor Relations at DWS, build-up DWS’s independent Investor Relations activities pre IPO. In his role, he is responsible for establishing an external network with analysts and investors during the IPO process as well es Equity Story refinement and execution of various IPO roadshows. Furthermore, he is advising CEO & CFO on internal and external reporting materials, communication standards & investor engagement incl roadshows, AGM and conferences. Being head of the execution of all investor relations activities post IPO, he will explain to you what it means to be a listed company.

Desiree is the Group Sustainability Officer at DWS Group, where she is responsible for driving the firm’s overall sustainability strategy in its role as fiduciary and as a corporate. By way of background, Desiree has over 20 years of experience in investment banking and impact investing, with a strong focus on product innovation and expansive distribution strategies. Prior to DWS, she was a Managing Director and Head of Impact Investing at ZAIS Group, a specialist credit asset manager. Before this, she held senior positions in the structured credit groups most recently at JP Morgan and previously at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. Her track record of product innovation includes several award-winning and market transformational products such as the development of the JECI, the first tradable credit index, which she and her team evolved into iTraxx and CDX, as well as a series of impact securitizations. Desiree has a B.S. with honors in Economics from The London School of Economics. She is also a member of the Board of MMCC, one of New York City's largest community  centers. Join her table at #bits20 to learn more!

Adib Sisani is Global Head of Corporate Communications of DWS Group. In that position he manages the dedicated DWS Communications team and the overall messaging and reputation management for the publicly listed asset manager. Adib started his career in political communications, including serving as Deputy Director of Communications to the German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs. Adib has vast experience in reputation management as well as corporate, change and crisis communications. He joined DWS in 2017 from Goldman Sachs, where he served as Communications Officer for Continental Europe and Russia. He previously worked as spokesman for Citibank in Germany throughout several phases of corporate change. Adib is a graduate of the University of Heidelberg, holding an MA degree in Political Science, English Linguistics and Public Law. He grew up bilingual, living in New York and Germany. His session at #bits20 will cover a the importance of a holstic approach to corporate communications.

Toon has a long career in consumer electronics, IT and internet Industry. He was executive at large companies like Philips Consumer Electronics, Compaq Computers and GN Store Nord and smaller companies like Jobline and Tomorrow Focus. Since 3 years Toon is the CEO of tado° to scale and expand the company. Exchange with him to get your startup on the road to growth!

Malte draws on six years of experience in exterior design at Audi and has been Venture Development Manager at the Audi Denkwerkstatt for four years. In his slot you will receive first-hand experience and hands-on methods for building a consistent vision and discuss it afterwards. Malte vividly explains the process of a vision and why this is crucial for a solid long-term success story of a business unit.

Tilo Bonow is founder and CEO of PIABO, Europe's leading PR partner for the digital industry. As a long-time entrepreneur, communications expert and investor, he supports his clients in achieving their growth targets such as Github, Shopify & Stripe. As PR CEO Tilo is aware of the big influence of professional communication for building trust in a company: At #bits20 he will show how to communicate strategically & how to reach important target groups such as investors, customers or leads.

Louise is Head of Research Consulting at Appinio and a lecturer for Business Psychology at  Fresenius University. At Appinio, she supports a wide range of companies in the development and implementation of their market research projects. In the masterclass, Louise will teach you how to develop products customer-focused quickly and cost-efficiently with real-time market research.

Omar is the founder and CEO of Arabesque Group. He has 20 years' experience in international banking, having held senior positions at UBS, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. He joined Barclays Bank in 2004, where he was responsible for a multi-billion dollar revenue budget and over a thousand staff. In 2012, he initiated a values-based asset management project at Barclays, originating the concept and developing it into Arabesque. Established independently in 2013, Arabesque is built on the two disruptors of modern finance - ESG and Ai - to deliver sustainable intelligence for investors, corporates, and capital markets. By combining big data, machine learning and AI, Arabesque's group of companies provide sustainable, transparent financial solutions.

Amanda is Engagement Consultant at Impact Management Project. She co-facilitated the Impact Management Project to make it easier to talk about, measure and manage impact and is a key coach for the RESPOND Accelerator. Amanda focuses on maximizing impact with funds, corporations, policymakers & entrepreneurs. Learn some tips, tricks and wisdom from around the globe about how to understand and improve your impact performance - and ensure you're doing less bad and more good for people and the planet as you scale your business at the #bits20!

Bernadette Meehan is Chief International Officer at the Obama Foundation. A former Foreign Service Officer, she served as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs and National Security Council Spokespersonunder President Obama; Special Assistant to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; and at U.S. Embassies in Colombia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates.

When it comes to leadership in times of a worldwide crisis, Hildegard is your number one expert. She is Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG since July 2019, has experienced what it feels like to lead a huge company in these challenging times. Listen to what Hildegard has to say about trust and leadership in crisis. Together with Cawa Younosi she will share her experiences, amongst other things, about the hardest, but at the same time most important value – trust in each other. Trust in your brand, trust in your company as an employer and as a boss and trust in each employee while living new ways of working.

Marius has 10+ years of experience in leading and accelerating field organizations at tech startups and AWS in Europe and the US. Being through the startup roller-coaster himself, Marius and his team are empowering young founders and growth startups to build, transform and scale successful businesses on AWS. He is a technologist at heart and believer in the power of data and machine learning.

Stephan leads Amazon Web Services specialist team for the Financial Services industry in the EMEA region. Before joining AWS, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for Operations & Technology and the Head of Structural Reform at Barclays Investment Bank in London. Prior, he worked for more than eight years at McKinsey&Company, where he advised Financial Services companies in Europe and Asia.

Cawa was 14 years old when he fled from Afghanistan to Germany. First he taught himself German, later he studied law and opened his own shop, one of the so-called “Büdchen” in Cologne, Germany. Today, Cawa is the Head of HR Germany and Member of the Management Board at the Software Giant SAP in Germany. His innovative mindset, always challenging the status quo, and strong focus on execution make him not only a thought leader in his field and industry, but also a mentor for everyone who wants to create their own path successfully.

Marcel Münch is an expert for tech and innovation from China. Today, many future trends can be observed in China and some of these trends even got a boost with Corona. So make yourself future-ready and learn about one of the most difficult, yet insightful and exciting markets at Bits&Pretzels. We will be covering cross-industry trends from automotive, ecommerce and beyond and extract what we in the West, can learn from China.

Chinese customers are open, curious and technology oriented, which is one of the key drivers to the rapid development of new business model and digital services in China. Ming, as the Strategist / PMO China at AUDI AG and previously the Senior Research Analyst at Audi Innovation Research (AIR) Beijing, decodes Chinese customers’ needs and integrates them into strategic projects at Audi’s headquarters. Listen to how Audi collaborates with start-ups and develops successful customer-centric products “in China, for China.”

Lennart is the Director Research & Intelligence at the Lufthansa Innovation Hub – the leading digitalization unit of the world’s largest aviation corporation Lufthansa Group. He also leads the online market-intelligence platform TNMT.com as Editor-in-Chief. For both roles, he and his team of tech analysts located in Berlin and Singapore produce unconventional, data-driven market intelligence on the most relevant industry trends to reveal the driving forces behind the radical shifts affecting Travel and Mobility Tech. Prior to joining Lufthansa, Lennart worked in management consulting at Bain & Company. His fields of expertise cover corporate innovation, digital transformation, startups, venture capital and digital business modelling.

Matthias Brendel is Head of Audi Denkwerkstatt, which was awarded „Germanys best innovation lab“ 2019 and 2020. He is experienced in development of drivetrain technology from research and predevelopment up to series production. Matthias and Lennart Dobravsky, Director Research & Intelligence at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, give an exclusive look behind the scenes of two awarded corporate innovation hubs. They both interact at the interface of a global corporate player and the start-up ecosystem in the context of mobility and can therefore share first-hand experiences from both “worlds”.

Nicolai started his career working for three years as a freelancing consultant for automotive brands, such as Audi. He gained experiences and learned the business of Marketing & Sales of OEMs at both the headquarters and importers level, while living for 30 months in Mumbai, India. Back in Germany, he joined AUDI AG to define the brand strategy and became executive assistant of the director of sales strategy and digital business. In 2017, Nicolai joined Audi Business Innovation GmbH to strengthen stakeholder management and to enforce strategic endeavors, such as MOBIKO. Today he heads the field “Business Innovations,” a team of innovative creators of digital services and future business models.

Nicola started her career working for five years for an automotive supplier in Stuttgart after studying at the Technical University in Munich with a focus on economics and mechanical engineering. She gained first experience within the corporate VC and strategy departments with spin-offs of corporate start-ups. Back in Munich she joined Audi Business Innovation to jump start the idea of a mobility budget solution for employees – now known as the mobility start-up MOBIKO. Together with her two co-founders she decided in 2019 to take over full responsibility within the spin-off and joined MOBIKO full-time as Co-Founder and Head of Sales.

After four years of experience at AUDI AG headquarters, Anna got the opportunity to work between the corporate and the start-up world as co-project lead for establishing Audi’s innovation hub (Audi Denkwerkstatt) in Berlin. She then joined the Berlin resident team as head of (headquarter) relationship management, always trying to combine the best of and for both worlds. Having been back at Audi headquarters for one year now, she is looking forward to sharing her insights and examples of how she makes use of them in her role of leading the HR innovation team.

Christian is CEO and Co-Founder of Chargery, a company which enables highly efficient operations for shared mobility providers. When Christian first sat together with his co-founders Paul and Philipp at the beginning of 2017, they were united by one particular thing: Their vision was and is to make our cities more livable in the long term. Together with their ingenious team, they have been able to successfully turn their idea into reality and continue to develop it further with never-ending joy and enthusiasm. Today Christian and his global team are already driving the future of mobility in several countries in Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK.

Jakob is the founder and CEO of Tracks, a Berlin-based tech company that aims to make road freight transport more efficient and ecologically sustainable. Always looking for creative solutions to problems, Jakob started his career with the successful founding of two start-ups in Denmark and Germany, which he sold to private investors. He then accepted an offer from the Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg, where he focused on building an innovation team, making strategic forecasts on the future of mobility, and developing a modular interaction space in Berlin.

Thomas is an early stage tech investor and combines this effort with a profound understanding of the perspective target industries. He specializes in AI/Machine Learning investments as well as microprocessor and sensoring technology, and relates to industries such as mobility, manufacturing and automation. Having successfully built and sold several tech companies, Thomas now concentrates on his investment work plus various supervisory and advisory functions in the corporate context. Listen to how Thomas applies his understanding of the convergence of tech development and forward-looking business models to create a cutting-edge investment pattern.

How do you build a brand to make it more valuable? – A question that almost every founder has probably asked him- or herself. Henrik, Senior Vice President Audi Brand at AUDI AG, is an expert at shaping the new Audi brand identity with his huge entrepreneurial spirit. Because of that, Henrik will hold a keynote on the seven steps of building a brand and will show how brands change over time. Of course, he will pass on some of his personal experiences to you so your brand will become more valuable – even in these challenging times.

Sean is Chief Information Officer at OakNorth, the next-generation credit science platform. Prior to joining OakNorth, Sean was one of the first commercial engineers at Palantir Technologies in Europe where he led trader oversight partnerships with large financial institutions, particularly Credit Suisse, which led to being co-head of the JV called Signac.

20-year-old Philipp Kalweit is Germany’s most sought-after hacker and renowned IT security expert. His main focuses include public relations and education, holistic security audits and interdisciplinary consulting.  In his masterclass Philipp will show you how to increase the value of your own startup or IT product through cybersecurity, specifically through penetration testing.

Peter has been working for Deutsche Börse AG for ten years. Since April 2017 he has been Head of the Deutsche Börse Venture Network. The network supports growth companies from early to later stages in getting access to growth capital - both nationally and internationally - and offers customized services. At #bits20 you will get the chance to ask Peter all about his thoughts on the influence of the corona pandemic on growth financing and get advices what really matters for you, as startup, in the current situation.

Sacha is a restructuring partner in the Munich office of Kirkland & Ellis. He advises on investments and divestments in all instruments of the capital structure, distressed M&A and corporate and financial restructurings. Sacha's masterclass will focus on options newly available for distressed start-up companies. Where it used to be new financing round or insolvency, the "preventive restructuring framework".

Brian is the VP of the Future Forum, a consortium launched by Slack to help companies reimagine work in the new digital-first world. Previously, Brian was the VP & GM of Platform at Slack, where he oversaw Platform strategy and execution. Slack integrates with enterprise tools from companies such as Google, Oracle, and Salesforce, as well as more than 2,200 other tools and services.