Martin O.
Scale Your Startup | 4x Founder & Investor | €1B+ in Funding Expertise
Studied at Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
Works at Techstars
Available Monday at 4:30 PM UTC
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Martin's Coaching Offerings
Custom hourly · $550/hr
Get help with Fundraising, Ideation, and Hiring.
Martin’s Startup Founders Qualifications
Experience level: Executive
100+ people coached for Startup Founders
Having founded four companies, I’ve experienced the full spectrum of the entrepreneurial journey—one exit, bootstrapping two ventures, and raising over €1 billion in funding throughout my career. In 2019, I launched the first-ever Techstars accelerator in Italy, which quickly became one of the network’s top-performing programs. My portfolio companies have raised over $100 million post-program, with five successful acquisitions. As an investor, mentor, and executive coach, I focus on early-stage B2B companies (and sometimes B2C) across various industries, supporting the most ambitious founders worldwide. My own founder experience in Germany and Southeast Asia has equipped me to understand and guide entrepreneurs on their path to success, and I've backed companies in the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Martin can help with:
Fundraising
Ideation
Hiring
About Martin
Born in Poland 🇵🇱, raised in Germany 🇩🇪, and shaped by experiences across Europe and Southeast Asia, I invest in ambitious early-stage founders building globally relevant companies. But I’m not here to pick winners - I’m here to help build them. In 2019, I launched the first Techstars accelerator in Italy 🇮🇹 and built it into one of the best-performing Techstars programs globally, consistently outperforming larger ecosystems such as Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Miami. In just six years, the program backed founders at the earliest stages and produced a portfolio that has raised $215M+ in follow-on funding, generated 6 acquisitions, and built companies now valued in the hundreds of millions. Two of the founders I coached went on to win the Web Summit global startup pitch competition - Intuitivo (2024) and Granter (2025) - each competing against 2,700+ startups from around the world. Before Techstars, I was a founder myself, building companies in Germany and Southeast Asia. Today I work closely with entrepreneurs as an early-stage investor, mentor and executive coach, supporting companies across Europe, especially in emerging markets like Italy and Central Eastern Europe. I invest across industries - mostly B2B, occasionally B2C - always backing founders with global ambition from day one.
Why do I coach?
Because I’ve seen what happens when founders are left alone. I’ve been there myself — building companies without a clear playbook, making decisions with limited data, navigating uncertainty without the right people around me. And I’ve seen how one conversation, one piece of honest feedback, or one shift in perspective can completely change the trajectory of a company. Later, at Techstars and beyond, I worked with hundreds of founders across very different markets — from Southeast Asia to Central & Eastern Europe to Italy. And one thing became clear: 👉 The best founders are not the ones who know everything — but the ones who are willing to learn, adapt, and execute faster than everyone else. Coaching, for me, is not about theory. It’s about: helping founders make better decisions under pressure cutting through noise and focusing on what really matters pushing when needed — and supporting when it’s hard and most importantly: helping them grow into the leaders their companies need Because companies don’t scale — founders do. And if you get that part right, everything else follows.
Work Experience
Managing Director
Techstars
July 2019 - Present
Born in Poland 🇵🇱, raised in Germany 🇩🇪, and shaped by experiences across Europe and Southeast Asia, I invest in ambitious early-stage founders building globally relevant companies. But I’m not here to pick winners - I’m here to help build them. In 2019, I launched the first Techstars accelerator in Italy 🇮🇹 and built it into one of the best-performing Techstars programs globally, consistently outperforming larger ecosystems such as Berlin, London, Paris, New York and Miami. In just six years, the program backed founders at the earliest stages and produced a portfolio that has raised $215M+ in follow-on funding, generated 6 acquisitions, and built companies now valued in the hundreds of millions. Two of the founders I coached went on to win the Web Summit global startup pitch competition - Intuitivo (2024) and Granter (2025) - each competing against 2,700+ startups from around the world. Before Techstars, I was a founder myself, building companies in Germany and Southeast Asia. Today I work closely with entrepreneurs as an early-stage investor, mentor and executive coach, supporting companies across Europe, especially in emerging markets like Italy and Central Eastern Europe. I invest across industries - mostly B2B, occasionally B2C - always backing founders with global ambition from day one.
Managing Director
Techstars
March 2019 - July 2019
Corporate accelerator, focused on City of 2030, in collaboration with Arcadis, the leading global design & consultancy organization for natural and built assets. Venture Capital, startup ventures and +1 skill
Managing Director
Techstars
May 2018 - March 2019
Corporate accelerator, focused on hospitality, in collaboration with METRO, a leading international food wholesaler and operates in more than 30 countries. Director level, Venture Capital and +2 skills
Education
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
Diplom-Kaufmann, Corporate Finance, Banking, Operations Research
2004 - 2008