Contact us

Laura Kohler

Founder & CEO

As CEO of etventure Startup Hub, Laura is the main connection between the EuropeanPioneers Accelerator and the European Commission. She’s leading the consortium partners and manages new Public Private Partnerships.

From 2012 to 2014, Laura was in charge of an Innovation Lab for new digital business-to-consumer transactions (Bevation) at Bertelsmann DirectGroup. She launched Lean Startup principles and supported the entrepreneurs, especially in the early stages of their businesses with brainstorming, business modeling and establishing Minimum Viable Products.

Laura began her career in 2002 at the Bertelsmann headquarters. In the Corporate Communications department she gathered her extensive experience in the areas of internal communications, online communications and corporate strategy, before being appointed spokesperson of Bertelsmann Book Club in Berlin in 2006.

During her MBA studies in Berlin and Cambridge, she gained expertise in corporate governance. In 2010 she became head of e-commerce business at Bertelsmann Book Club, and advanced the digital strategy of the multi-channel company.

Sebastian Esser

Head of Company Building

For the management of the Company Building activities and the further development of the startup portfolio we could win a proven startup expert as our new Head of Company Building: Sebastian Esser. He brings years of experience along as a founder of own startups like Home eat Home, as CEO of Event GmbH, and also in the fields of company building due to his professional background at Team Europe and the Coca Cola Founders Network.

Additionally, he was Director Strategic Cooperations at Vertical Media, the publishing house behind startup-media as Gründerszene or Heureka.

Maren Lesche

Ecosystem & Communications Manager

Maren supports several startups and women in tech in establishing strong marketing campaigns to create a successful brand and support sales. She is also “walking the talk”. As an advisor and business development expert for Israeli startup VoiceItt, Maren is in close contact with investors, she pitches on stage to win competitions and supports the team of 12 that is spread over three continents, in scaling up in Europe their voice and voice-pattern recognition software for people with speech impairment suffering from diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer, strokes or paralyzation.

In February 2016, Maren also joined the team of etventure Startup Hub. There she is the Communications Manager for several EU-funded programs such as Accelerator European Pioneers, Welcome and the IoT European Platform Initiative.

In her rare spare time, Maren loves to run, to cook, to read and to write. She also runs her own blog www.startupchallenges.eu. Maren is a Twitter and Instagram addict.