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Alex Bakir
GP @ Norrsken Accelerator
Alex Bakir is a highly accomplished professional with a solid educational background and extensive experience in various high-profile organizations. He pursued an MBA at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, an MA in International Relations and Economics at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA (Hons) in Geography from the University of Cambridge. Alex has held key roles in several reputable companies, including Norrsken, Flow, Rewire, Planet, and Omidyar Network. His expertise spans across operations, product management, marketing, customer success, solutions engineering, business development, and investment analysis.
Highlights
I spent over a decade in #siliconvalley - working on #deeptech and #impactVC. From 2008 to 2018 I experienced first hand the 🌊 wave of funding flowing to teams working on truly ambitious projects.
But this funding was not only pure-play VC money.... government 💰💰💰 , linked to political goals, found its way onto cap-tables up and down the 101, gov programs supported early R&D through early non-dilutive financing, and the gov became "the" early customer, in some cases, helping shape and define product releases. And this wasn't new.
⏩ Fast Forward ⏩ and by 2020 the "traditional" defence / cross-over tech vc players have been joined by the mainstream, probably best illustrated by the launch of a16z's "American Dynamism" strategy in 2023... and climate tech is booming - driven (in part) by policy (notably, the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022).
⁉ So what is going in in #Europe?
I can't wait to talk about this with Richard Ng - he is actively working on catalysing the biggest labor market shift since the industrial revolution - training the skilled workers we need to make sure we hit net-zero @ Greenworkx. How is he navigating shifting political ambitions to build the next impact 🦄 ?
💡 Come and join us The Drop to find out >> link in the comments
Welcoming Oscar Hållén and CemVision back to Norrsken Accelerator today was a true, true highlight 💫
When he started with line "the first time I met you, Alex, I was deeply annoyed with you...." I knew we were in for a barn-storming hour 🤯
When he finished with "... because I knew you were right" - having just dropped, real, lived, fresh, tangible, actionable, knowledge to 20 of the world's top impact-tech teams ( ⏩ link in comments), I could not have been more in awe.
The CemVision team has had a wild 🚀🚀 8 months -
🥇 First, they did this (see picture 2): Signed an off-take agreement with one of Europe's largest industrials (LKAB). This is one of the hardest, rarest, achievements in the #greencement industry.
🥇Next, they did this (see picture 3): Raised the largest seed round in history in this sector. Literally. Ground. Breaking.
Oscar Hållén took the time to educate us all on how he got this done. Clear, direct, to the point. This is how we get the next wave of impact 🦄 's - as fast as we can.
Thank you CemVision, we know you are just getting started.
