Join us for an exclusive Fireside Chat with Petter Made, Partner at EWOR and Co-Founder of SumUp, exploring what it really takes to build resilient teams, survive the hardest moments, and scale ambitious startups into global companies.

The startup world celebrates breakout growth, billion-dollar valuations, and global expansion. What gets discussed less often are the years of uncertainty, difficult decisions, near misses, and relentless execution behind those outcomes.

Petter Made knows that journey firsthand.

He co-founded SumUp, which grew into one of Europe’s most valuable fintech companies, serving more than 4 million small businesses internationally. He later became CPTO at Drooms, leading product and technology as the company scaled. Today, he is a full-time Partner at EWOR, working closely with highly ambitious early-stage founders.

What makes Petter’s perspective particularly interesting is his belief that technology alone does not build exceptional companies. The people behind it do.

At EWOR, the model is deliberately hands-on. Its partners are experienced founders who work directly with selected entrepreneurs, providing capital, intensive one-on-one support, and access to a global ecosystem. EWOR describes this approach as acting like an “ecosystem co-founder.”

In this fireside chat, we will explore:

• What does it really take to build a company that can scale globally?

• What did nearly running out of money multiple times teach Petter about resilience and survival?

• Which early decisions at SumUp proved most important as the company expanded internationally?

• Why do people and teams matter more than technology alone?

• What separates an exceptional founder from a simply competent one?

• How should founders build mental resilience for a journey that can take a decade or more?

• What does EWOR look for when identifying outlier founders before success is obvious?

• What do founders commonly underestimate about scaling teams, products, and organizations?

• Why do some breakthrough companies initially look unrealistic or even impossible?

• What can Europe do to produce more globally significant technology companies?

This conversation is about the part of company building that rarely fits neatly into a startup playbook: staying alive, attracting exceptional people, making difficult decisions with incomplete information, and continuing to build when the outcome is far from certain.

Who should attend: Founders, aspiring entrepreneurs, startup and scaleup leaders, angel investors, venture capital professionals, accelerators, operators, and ecosystem builders interested in what it takes to build enduring global technology companies.

The session will be moderated by Naimul Abd, Regional Director Nordics at Startup Grind, CEO of Connect Öst, CEO and Co-Founder of SweBAN, Founder of Nutty Ventures, and Nordic lead for Founder Institute and Founders Live.