Billion $ Story

Founder

SPRYNT

Sold workshops led by professionals from Amazon, IBM and Google to corporate clients and startups.

Co-Founder

June Fund

$100M VC firm headed by Google's Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler

Principal

Heilemann Ventures

Investment Team

iZettle

Operations & Business Development

Deloitte

Made pretty slide decks and spreadsheets very few people ever looked at.

Consulting

I help startup founders raise $1-10 million from VCs with a Billion $ Story | ex-VC at $100M firm by Google board member

Fundraising can be brutal.

After talking to 4,000+ founders over the last 10 years,

I’ve discovered three core problems most of them face (and how to solve them):

1/ You can’t book enough investor meetings
2/ Investors don’t see the potential of your business
3/ They pass on you with bullsh*t feedback or ghost you

Each of them alone could end your run.

If these sound familiar it’s likely because you’ve taken fundraising advice from the wrong people.

And that has resulted in an absolute grind of a fundraise.

Something you don’t care to repeat.

I get it because I’ve been there.

And it’s not your fault.

The internet is a noisy place, and those with no experience often speak the loudest.

Why should you listen to me then?

Because I’ve experienced fundraising from all angles:

→ I was a VC
→ I’ve raised money myself
→ I’ve helped 100+ founders raise $1-10 million rounds

And I can tell you why it’s been a grind for you…

Because venture capital isn’t like most markets.

It’s top-heavy.

It’s feast or famine.

I was a VC for a $100M firm led by one of the most powerful men in tech

…and I’ve seen the reality:

A few outliers get more money than they could ever spend. The rest fight for table scraps.

Because VCs only look for one thing:

Future billion $ companies.

Outliers.

They want founders who can bend reality to their will.

Ordinary pitch advice, generic deck templates, and cookie-cutter narratives won’t cut it.

If you follow the ordinary path, will that make you look extraordinary?

Never.

You’ll drown in a sea of sameness with 90% of pitches.

To create something unique you need an intense approach.

That’s why my help is tailor-made for founders:

1/ I’ll show you how to get 80-100 warm investor connections and book meetings

2/ Together we’ll craft your unique Billion $ Story that will make investors chase you

3/ You’ll learn how to apply my tactics and investor psychology to create conviction and FOMO and close your round

Does it work?

Here’s what my client Frank Gu - currently building his second billion $ business - says:

"Uli is an amazing storyteller, period.

If you're anything like me and tend to overthink things with that extra critical and logical voice in your head, do yourself a favor and book a session with Uli immediately.

He will make your story shine, you won't regret it!"

Interested?

Just DM me “billion$story” and let’s have a chat

Uli Kuenzel

Stealth

Utopia Music

As the Chief Strategy Officer (also interim responsible for group corporate development for 20 months and marketing for 6 months), I lead the growth strategy planning and execution to the acquisition of 15 companies, resulting in massive growth in traction, reputation, revenues, and operational capabilities.

Utopia Music is a Swiss-based technology company that leverages big data in order to enhance the global music industry through increased revenues, reduced costs, accelerated payment cycles and improved insights, while creating an ecosystem where music & tech foster creativity & joy.

Chief Strategy Officer

Utopia Music is a Swiss-based technology company that leverages big data in order to enhance the global music industry through increased revenues, reduced costs, accelerated payment cycles and improved insights, while creating an ecosystem where music & tech foster creativity & joy.

In my role, I'm helping product and commerce in finding the best strategy for helping the industry prosper.

Product Marketing Director

Rollock

As member of the Rollock board, I provided council on the group direction related to product, marketing, positioning and growth.

Member of Board

OP Financial Group

Responsible for OP Financial Group's innovation portfolio, including internal innovation activity (Hoksaamo), startup engagement program, IPR, academic collaboration, emerging technology research and internal startups.

Together with my colleagues, we built a team of 250 people that explored 60 novel business ideas. Out of the experiments, we earned 20 awards and found 10 new business lines that were integrated with the mothership.

Director, Head of OP lab

Responsible for OP Financial Group's innovation portfolio, including internal innovation activity (Hoksaamo), startup engagement program, IPR and internal startups.

Director, Head of OP Lab and IPR

Created and operated an innovation unit that is focused on supporting OP financial group in transformation. Responsible for internal innovation program, exchange program to Silicon Valley, startup partnership program as well as a series of internal startups that are being incubated and accelerated in an internal startup program. We seek for the next big thing that has an impact to finance industry. Team grown from 20 to 150 people running 25-30 projects.

Head of OP Lab

Business and Product Development for OP Bank Group Mobile Banking, Mobile Insurance and Mobile Realtor solutions.

Lead product development for various programs incl. Pivo mobile wallet development (http://pivolompakko.fi).

* Presentation at NextWeb Service Design event in Berlin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0QApvdjaQw
* Interview by OP-Pohjola: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvKY6iPEy7A

Business Development Manager

HelsinkiEats Podcast

Podcast that covers great Helsinki-based restaurants and great Helsinki-related IT companies/experts

Host

Speedinvest

Represented OP Group's investment interests in Speedinvest, contributing to the evaluation of potential investment targets and opportunities.

Member of Board, SpeedInvest f

Labs Podcast

Hosting a podcast called "Labs" about corporate innovation labs. Labs covers the life inside corporates that are doing their best to master transformation through innovation. Interview series contains many 150+ year old corporates that are breaking billions of revenues across several industries including banks, maritime, forestry, pharmacy and advertising.

Wantlet

Responsible for the product strategy, management and marketing of the Wantlet/CasCard products. Wantlet drove Social Commerce innovation in an unique way. 

See some of my work for Wantlet here: 
* R. Scobleizer interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fmA-inqvyo
* DEMO 2011 presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1u11gb1eBk
* Startup America interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNd4UqqtYsc

VP, Product Management

Zeighted

Build a concept from zero to a functional mobile app with thousands of users. Made it to the Slush 2011 top 7 startups without co-founders or help. 

Zeighted represented a new category of mobile-based social travel-guide/games for discovering new experiences.

Oulu Open Hack

Organizing a hack event at Oulu, http://ouluopenhack.org

Organiser

Creating New Growth

As a Chief Strategy Officer, Innovation expert, and experienced leader, I specialize in driving growth through strategic planning, M&A, product development, and corporate development. With over 30 patents filed personally, and established IP portfolios of over 50 patents across 3 companies, I have a proven track record of creating and scaling new businesses.

As the CSO of Utopia Music, I helped scale the business from 52 people to 1,100 people, while growing revenues from zero to over hundred per annum. I lead 3 teams: Corporate Development (15 acquisitions, 8 people), Marketing (31 people), and Strategy (18 people, including innovation lab, IP portfolio and strategic planning).

At OP Financial Group, I built an innovation team and culture of 250 reports that created 60 new business concepts, tested them in practice and earned 20 awards (including Fast Company, Red Dot Design Award, and others), created 10+ patents and established a network of banks' innovation labs around the globe.

I have an extensive experience in Product Management, Product Evangelism and Business Development, I have built and managed products that reached over 300+ million customers monthly, including the Nokia Search (partnership with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Yandex and 28 yellow pages), Nokia Chat (XMPP chat) and apps for Facebook and Twitter on Nokia devices.

I have a B.Sc. in Software Engineering from University of Rovaniemi and have received numerous awards for my work including Fast Company Design Award, Blue Arrow Award, and Red Dot: Communication Design Award.

I am a skilled communicator, having given 100+ public talks, created 100+ podcast episodes, and handled 10+ interviews with the press. I am also a strong leader, having hired 350+ people, conducted 1500+ job interviews and managed 300+ people.

I have domain expertise on Music, IPR, Copyrights, Insurance, Financial services, Blockchain, AI/ML, Platform Economy, Real-time internet solutions, Payments, Search technologies, Social Experiences and Advertising.

Let's create new growth together. Connect with me on LinkedIn!I

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Uli Kuenzel

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