Venture Skipper by Karoly Szanto
Venture Skipper is a journey across the seas of innovation, investment, and leadership.
Hosted by Karoly Szanto, a lifelong sailor turned venture builder, this series blends storytelling, strategy, and straight talk.
Expect short, punchy reflections on navigating chaos, alongside deeper dialogues with founders, investors, and thinkers reshaping how ventures are built. Whether you’re steering your first startup or managing a fund, Venture Skipper helps you stay calm in high winds, make better course calls, and build ventures and people that thrive under pressure. Because you can’t control the wind, but you can constantly adjust your sails.
Available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcast.
EP11 - The Questions That Still Don’t Have Clear Answers In University Venture Capital
University Venture Capital is growing, but still lacks structure, comparability, and shared data.
This article explores the key unanswered questions shaping UVC and why faster system-level learning is critical for investors, universities, and ecosystems.
EP10 - Why University Venture Capital Hasn't Scaled - Yet
University venture capital faces challenges in attracting LPs due to fragmentation.
Discover how collaboration, shared fundraising, and structured ecosystems can unlock scalable deal flow and stronger investor alignment.
EP08 - Building the Missing Infrastructure for University Venture Capital
In this conversation, Karoly Szanto and Thijmen explore why university venture capital remains fragmented, why most university spinouts fail to attract market funding, and how better structures, shared data, and aligned incentives could unlock far greater innovation.
EP09 - Building a Collaborative Infrastructure for University Venture Capital
Karoly Szanto and Thijmen Meijer explore the need for a collaborative ecosystem around university venture capital.
A new coalition aims to connect universities, tech transfer offices, and investors through research, shared data, and community-driven venture building.
EP07 - Co-Investing in the Storm: Rethinking Capital Partnerships in Early-Stage MedTech
Karoly Szanto with Peter M. Kovacs and Thijmen Meijer on co-investors in early-stage MedTech and BioTech: skin in the game, trust over transactions, and why family offices, angels, and focused micro funds can outperform fee-driven VC models.
EP05 - Great Science, Weak Bridges: Europe’s Commercialization Paradox
Karoly Szanto with Dr. Peter M. Kovacs and Thijmen Meijer on why European university spin-offs struggle to become venture fundable and how to fix it with clear milestones, team gap mapping, and an execution first narrative.