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Startup Competition
Startup Competition Finals
Join the finalists of our startup competition as they take the main stage to present their innovative products and teams. The winner will be selected by the judges of the startup competition and announced by the Michael Fertik, Managing Partner and Founder at Heroic Ventures
Oct 12
16:00 - 16:15
Main Stage
Alexander Schmitt
Head of Speech Technology #HeyMercedes, Mercedes-Benz

Alexander Schmitt has over 15 years of experience in Voice Assistants, Voice AI research, and product development. He began his career at the University of Ulm, joining Germany’s first spoken dialog system research lab in 2007, where he pursued a PhD on AI-driven Speech Dialog Systems in collaboration with New York-based SpeechCycle Inc.
In 2012, Alex joined Mercedes-Benz, contributing to research, advanced engineering, and product development for next-generation in-car voice assistants and emotion AI. A prolific author, Alex has published over 60 international papers in voice assistant-related fields. He currently leads the development of the next-gen #HeyMercedes Voice Assistant, working with a talented team of software developers, data scientists, and product owners to push the boundaries of conversational AI.
Arjun Patel
Director of Product, N26

Experienced product leader from London but currently based in Barcelona (having arrived via Hong Kong and Berlin!). Has worked across several industries: Banking, Insurance, Telco, Travel and Gaming in predominantly high volume B2C digital roles.
Currently managing Banking Foundations at N26 which covers all customer identity topics, customer support and internal tools for operations staff.
Michael Fertik
Founder & Managing Partner, Heroic Ventures

Michael Fertik is an entrepreneur and business leader, currently recognized as the founder and partner of Heroic Ventures (Heroic VC). Heroic VC is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies with innovative technologies and transformative potential. Michael’s expertise in online reputation management and data privacy has shaped his career and made him a sought-after advisor and investor. Prior to Heroic VC, he co-founded Reputation.com, a company specializing in digital reputation management.
Leonid Mishkind
SVP Content Developer

Leonid is the technical product owner for Chatbots and Voice Assistants working for Vodafone Group. During his time working with Vodafone, he was responsible for launching Vodafone services with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. His team was responsible for the launch of the first Google Assistant integration for a telecommunication company in the world – a great achievement and collaboration with Google. Leonid is a great enthusiast and believer in the AI technologies and thinks AI is revolutionizing our world and already now starts to have a significant impact on every aspect of our lives.
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