Andreas Deptolla lived in Boulder, Colorado for about ten years, where he co‑founded the HR‑tech company ThrivePass, among other things. In 2023 he joined Atari as CTO, and today, as President of Atari Europe, he runs the video‑game icon’s European business from Münster. On the side, he talks about artificial intelligence in his podcast Born & Kepler. Joining him is Dominik Lohle, who in 2025 co‑founded the Münster early‑stage fund May Ventures together with Maximilian Derpa. Prior to that he invested in young tech startups at the High‑Tech Gründerfonds.
In this episode of the Startup Contacts podcast, the two discuss what sets the startup worlds in the US and Germany apart—once from the perspective of a founder and tech manager, and once from an investor’s viewpoint.
What it’s about
- what makes founding a startup in the US different from founding one in Germany
- how risk tolerance and attitudes toward failure differ on both sides of the Atlantic
- how investors here and there view young startups
- the role AI plays for the next generation of founders
- why ambitious startups can also grow internationally from Münster
Watch the episode on YouTube (42 min.)
More about Startup Contacts you can find at startup-contacts.de.
