Meet the team of Speedinvest Heroes

“The moment when you connect with another person and challenge him/her towards a new set of possibilities is what I love the most!”, says Maria.
This social skillset, practiced over many years in various leadership positions and professional trainings (such as a Master degree in Mediation) is a crucial asset for Speedinvest Heroes. Building out our network of talents and then quickly matching the potential of a given candidate with the right opportunity in our portfolio, is where Maria excels like no one else.
Maria’s personal working history starts 1992 in the early internet area. As the GM of one of the first big dot.com success stories coming out of Austria (Datenwerk/Blue-C), she saw her company grow to an agency group with more than 200 employees across Europe, including an IPO at the “Neue Markt”. Having sold her stake early enough before the bust, Maria continued her entrepreneurial path that included managing a research think tank on Artificial Intelligence (long before the hype), spending time in Silicon Valley and, eventually, helping to found Speedinvest as the first business angel fund in Austria.
With this sort of CV, Maria does not need to believe all the hype we see today around startups. At the same time, she is highly aware of the massive disruption digitalisation brings to our personal and business live.
Heroes is a natural platform for Maria’s skills, combining her appetite to rethink old business sectors such as HR with her focus on the human element in business. Building healthy companies will always be built on finding exceptional talent. And as we all know, this talent is spread thin and wide, so a true commitment to diversity, low entry barriers and continuous education will be a crucial element of any HR strategy.
For Maria, having gone through many diverse roles and businesses, this approach comes natural. as does her positive attitude towards people in general.

Having started his career in the investment banking sector, Lukas discovered his passion for combining big chunks of data, econometrics and his social skills to solve complex solutions. A set of forensic skills, translation skills (software engineering team vs. normal people) and a good sense of diplomacy are the pillars of this professional career.

While working with data throughout his career - from investment banking (RCB), data analysis (Google) and growth hacking & people management (Improove) - he always followed a simple rule (Winston S. Churchill) - “I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself” - pointing out that working with data can be as creative as painting a portrait.

As he is known for his consistent good mood and his high energy level, he thrives in a fast-paced digital environment as well as in his local climbing gym. Cooking, wine, wine again and lots of sports are the basis of his personal life. You will always find him looking for an excuse to move your regular Jour Fixe outdoor or trying to convince you to go for a quick 10k run with him instead of your weekly 1:1.

Jennifer describes herself as a very open, communicative and curious person who enjoys exploring the unknown and facing any challenges that come with the territory. For this reason, it has always been clear that she wants to work with people to be inspired by their individuality and diversity.
Studying Psychology was the first important step she took towards developing her future in this direction. In her Master’s studies, she focused on work- and organizational Psychology and subsequently entered the field of HR. In order to achieve a holistic picture of HR Management during her studies, Jennifer worked for various national and international companies offering services for Compensation and Benefits, Human Resources Development, Recruiting and Executive Search.
It was in cooperation with Roland Wadl (QMC), one of the managing partners, which finally enabled her to enter the startup world and brought her to Speedinvest Heroes. Setting up this new HR Company has been an incredible experience for Jennifer. From the start, it has been an absolute pleasure for her to be a part of the founding team and build a unique company that focuses exclusively on the needs of startups.
She says: “Working with startups has given me an entirely new perspective. I am inspired daily by the huge amounts of creativity and commitment involved. At Speedinvest Heroes, we want to find the best possible employees so that the startup founders are relieved of this task and can focus on other key aspects of growing their companies.”
As a Psychologist, it is in Jennifer’s nature to want to work with and get to know different people and to recognize and promote their potential.
Speedinvest Heroes is a brand new and exciting chapter. Let the journey begin…

His goal is to make the HR journey for everyone enjoyable, simpler, and faster. Life-long learning is also one of Ben’s core characteristics, who did his Masters degree and MBA while working. He wrote his thesis about technology in talent acquisition.

The combination of a Master degree in Clinical and Health Psychology, curiosity for different cultures and a positive attitude, is what makes her passionate about recruitment in an international market.

If you want to know more, Nele is always happy to have a chat over a cup of tea!

Since she has known Maria Baumgartner for quite a long time - Maria introduced Si Heroes to Elma. It did not take much convincing for Elma to join the Heroes Team in 2017 as an HR Assistant.

“Speedinvest Heroes has given me a new direction and the opportunity to develop myself in many ways. What I enjoy the most is working with such an ambitious and diverse team”

To keep herself fit she occasionally goes out for a run, what doesn’t really excites her, therefore she finds her drive playing volleyball.

Elma adores eating, sleeping and drinking beer and if possible all of that at the same time ;)

Before coming on board, she gained practical experience through various internships and working as an assistant manager for a local gym.

At Heroes, he tackles the challenge the other way round by finding the perfect candidate for every position. When he’s not on the campus or in the office, there’s a high chance you’ll find him whether doing crossfit, yoga or drinking wine.

Knowledge and experience paired with innovative ideas and the willingness to cooperate are his prior ambitions when it comes to business.

As a dog owner and passionate athlete, he spends lots of his leisure time in nature doing sports. Furthermore, he supports Hungarian animal welfare organizations.

After a short interlude at a Innovation Consulting firm, Simon started as a Hr Consultant at Speedinvest Heroes, where he now focuses on project management, especially for grant applications where he especially loves the ideation part.Simon is always eager to talk about ideas and generally very open minded – unless it’s about the serious matter of food. Besides, in his free time he loves to go surfing and of course play football.

She has diverse work experiences from Digital Marketing and Management Consulting to Customer Service, therefore she can leverage her skills from a wide range of fields and look at a project from many different angles. She also considers herself a creative mind, amongst many things she likes to indulge her passion in poetry or online creative design.