In this insightful episode of The Brand Called You, host Stephen Ibaraki speaks with Thorsten &quot;Thor&quot; Claus, Founding Partner of the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), venture capitalist, technologist, engineer, and educator.<br>From dismantling discarded electronics as a curious child in Germany to leading investments across Silicon Valley and Europe, Thorsten shares lessons from a career spanning hypergrowth startups, global venture capital firms, and the pioneering NATO Innovation Fund. He discusses the importance of curiosity, servant leadership, supporting diverse emerging fund managers, strengthening transatlantic technology ecosystems, and balancing venture investing with hands-on engineering in advanced manufacturing.<br>Whether you&#x27;re a founder, investor, innovator, or lifelong learner, Thorsten&#x27;s journey offers practical insights into building resilient organizations, embracing continuous learning, and creating meaningful impact.

Thorsten: Venture Capital Leader & Innovator | From Deutsche Telekom to the NATO Innovation Fund & Thinkstorm Ventures

The Brand Called You

Thorsten, thank you for coming in. You have just a marvelous background from your early roots in Germany and education and information technologies and then technology leadership roles and hyper growth startups to investments. You've done just really marvelous things throughout your lifetime.

In so many different areas and found areas that we're going to mine some of that. So thank you for coming in and sharing your insights with our audience. Oh, thank you so much, Stephen Ibaraki, for having me. It's really a pleasure. I'm looking forward to this interview. It always brings out unpredictable things that I didn't even think about or I didn't even notice. So I'm very much looking forward to it. So I'm going to interchange between Thorsten and Thor because sometimes you're the only story.

It's fine. So, so Thor, you know, what were the inflection points in your life that made you who are today? And it could have been when you're three or five years old. It could have been mentors inside, outside the family. It could have been challenges, things that were really difficult and it shaped you in a particular path. And I really, because you've got such a marvelous professional life, but also personal life as well. What really made this wonderful person you are today?

Absolutely. That's very kind of you to say. I think the, the first thing that I remember that really changed the way I looked at things is that my parents let me be very curious. I think it's like, I noticed that when I was probably six or seven years old and I was at a children's birthday party and the other parent always said, don't do this, don't do that.

Thorsten: Venture Capital Leader & Innovator | From Deutsche Telekom to the NATO Innovation Fund & Thinkstorm Ventures

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Thorsten: Venture Capital Leader & Innovator | From Deutsche Telekom to the NATO Innovation Fund & Thinkstorm Ventures

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.