Mentors 2024

Learn more about our mentors and get inspired by their projects

Olga Ivanova
ex-Customer Experience Director at Citymobil

Overall professional experience of 10+ years, including 4 years at the C-Level, 5 in taxi aggregators, and 2 in management consulting.

Olga has hands-on experience in building complex operational processes and customer experience functions in fast-growing businesses. A passionate leader capable of combining both an open and creative team environment and an efficient data-driven approach to process management. Olga has a strong background in project management, process optimization and organisational changes obtained in industry leading companies.

linkedin.com/in/olga-ivanova-b478bb54
Zhanargul Izimova
Strategy and Operations, Eurasia Advisory, PwC

Zhanargul Izimova leads the practice of digital transformation of financial institutions at Strategy&, part of PwC in the Eurasia region. She has more than 15 years of management experience in the financial industry, banking business and more than 8 years in digital business transformation. Graduate of the University of Glasgow with a degree in Economics, Banking and Finance. Graduate of IMD Business school and INSEAD with Digital Transformation certification. In 2018 and 2022, she completed a professional internship in Silicon Valley as part of the Techwomen Program from the US State Department. She is a mentor for the STEM Technovation and Techgirls programs to support girls. Zhanargul is interested in tennis, coaching, and travel.

linkedin.com/in/zhanargul-izimova
Rukayyat Kolawole
Founder and CEO PaceUP Invest

Rukayyat is the founder and CEO of PaceUP Invest in Germany, France, and Nigeria; a Wealth Tech empowering women and underrepresented communities financially and help with wealth-building irrespective of their income towards attaining a responsible and sustainable future for themselves and their generation through financial education and investing.

Rukayyat has over 16 years of experience in the financial industry: Investment banking, Investment Management, and Capital Markets in Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg, Reuters, and BMCE International London. She was a former VP Capital Markets and Treasury at BMCE Bank International London covering EMEA, Americas, and APAC. She is a transcultural communicator and leader having worked on international assignments throughout her successful career.

inkedin.com/in/rukayyat-modupe-kolawole-cfa
Egor Fedorov
Chief of Staff at inDrive

Egor is the Chief of Staff of the global ride-hailing service inDriver. It currently operates in over 700 cities in 47 countries. As an experienced professional with skills in managing, marketing and strategy, Egor challenges commonly accepted business models while in search of new and innovative ideas to help move us forward as a global society. Egor is a member of the Forbes Council, the American Marketing Association, the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

linkedin.com/in/fedorovegor
Dmitry Sedov
CFO at inDrive

Dmitry Sedov is Chief Financial Officer in inDrive from February 2022.

He is leading the finance division of the company and is responsible for developing and executing the finance division’s strategy, overseeing accounts preparation, budgeting, forecasting and financial analyses, raising equity and debt financing, as well as preparing the company for an IPO.

linkedin.com/in/dmitri-sedov-60b49141
Elena Mazetova
ex-Vice-President of Legal at InDrive

Elena Mazetova is highly experienced legal practitioner with a diverse professional background in large IT companies with key focus on dispute resolution, M&A/corporate law, compliance, international law and global expansion projects. Elena also has experience of working for law firms where she was advising tech start-ups and investors on various matters related to fundraising, shareholders’ disputes and legal due diligence of strategic investments.

linkedin.com/in/elena-mazetova-60367a19
Nikita Yuriev
Investment Director, ultra.vc

Nikita has been working in the venture capital industry for 14 years. During this time, he has invested in various sectors, including robotics, IoT, AI, CloudTech & DevOps, and AdTech/MarTech startups. Additionally, he co-founded an AdTech startup and boasts a successful track record as a startup mentor. Nikita has played a pivotal role in helping 30 startups discover their product-market fit.

During his tenure as an investment manager at IIDF for 5 years, he invested over $10 million and tripled the portfolio's value. For 2 years, he was instrumental in building a startup studio at Havas/IPG, where he contributed to the creation of 20 marketing and direct-to-consumer companies. Presently, Nikita serves as the Investment Director at ultra.vc.

linkedin.com/in/nikitayuriev
Julieta Trotta
Creator - Doer - Passionate - Builder

Juli Trotta is professional, proactive, easy to work with. She has leadership, planning and strategy skills. She is a very persevering and dynamic person. With more than 10 years of professional experience in areas of Marketing, Communication, Branding, PR, Events, both online and offline, in financial companies, Telecommunications, Cultural, among others, B2B/B2C/B2B2C.  From Buenos Aires, Argentina, living in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

linkedin.com/in/julieta-trotta-446b699
Bruno Paim
Head of Product at Cromai

With 6 years of experience in digital product development, Bruno has focused on building and shipping SaaS enterprise solutions. Bruno can offer mentorship in challenges regarding digital product design and frameworks which founders could apply in order to experiment and learn fast. In the product management field, Bruno can share his experience with product roadmaps, product development and versioning for incremental releases. On top of that, user experience in AI empowered products is a theme he has pursued in those years and he is ready to discuss topics such as: setting the right expectation for users and dealing with AI errors is key to product success.

linkedin.com/in/brunopaim