Why Founders Must Learn Philosophy - Roman Lasker

Mikko Mäntylä

Mikko Mäntylä is the Co-founder & CEO of Realm, a Helsinki-based company building the Agentic AI layer for revenue teams. Realm transforms sales collateral, product documentation, and CRM data into AI agents that automate enablement, RFPs, and sales insights — helping teams win complex deals. Previously, Mikko served as President of Slush, one of Europe’s leading startup conferences, where he led global startup and investor relations. He has also been a Fellow at Sigma Squared Society, Board Member at Swinghill, and host of Soaked by Slush, a podcast exploring company-building and startup culture. He studied Industrial Engineering and Management at Aalto University and Engineering at the University of Cambridge. https://www.withrealm.com/ [https://www.withrealm.com/]

Akira Dunham - We need optimists and pessimists

Akira Dunham is an investor and engineer based in the New York City area, focusing on frontier technologies and advanced materials. He currently serves as a Board Observer at Natrion Inc., a company developing novel battery materials, and invests with Fundomo, where he backs early teams building in deep and frontier tech. Previously, Akira was an investor at Connecticut Innovations, supporting startups from pre-seed to Series A, and worked at AECOM in civil and infrastructure engineering. He holds a Master of Science in Civil Engineering (Transportation & Urban Engineering) from the University of Connecticut, where he also conducted research on public transit systems. https://www.fundomo.com/ [https://www.fundomo.com/]

Double Edged Innovation – Leeho Lim

Leeho Lim is a repeat founder and tech entrepreneur with deep roots in both startups and venture capital. He's currently building a new stealth venture and previously founded Encord (backed by YC, EF, CRV, and Next47) and Parlan (YC W23, backed by Sequoia, Index, and others). With a background in AI infrastructure, product, and investment banking, Leeho has experience spanning roles at Marcho Partners, Global Founders Capital, and IOST (which acquired his web3 project). An Oxford alum, he's driven by building early-stage companies with global impact. More on him at https://leeho.dev/ [https://leeho.dev/]

Why Founders Must Learn Philosophy - Roman Lasker

Roman Lasker is a Studio and Venture Partner at AnD Ventures since 2021. He’s a serial entrepreneur with a background in tech and consulting. He co-founded iCapital (automated onboarding), Uppspace (AI monitoring), and BigWheel (early-stage fund). He previously worked in business development and consulting roles. He holds an Executive MBA from Northwestern and a BA from Tel Aviv University. At AnD, he focuses on their “Super-Seed Studio” model to deeply support startups from the ground up. https://www.and-ventures.com/ [https://www.and-ventures.com/]

B. Thomas Edman: Nuclear, Compute, and Philosophy

B. Thomas Edman is a tech entrepreneur, engineer, and student-athlete at Vanderbilt University, triple-majoring in Electrical & Computer Engineering, Mathematics, and Philosophy. As the Co-Founder & CEO of Alexandrian and CTO of the Vanderbilt Fusion Project, he’s pioneering advancements in high-performance computing and nuclear fusion research. vanderbiltfusion [http://vanderbiltfusion.org]