As investors, we’re always talking about the team, team, team… In our eyes and experience, team is the most important factor in a company’s success and as such, it is often the key aspect we focus on when making an investment decision. We feel the same about our own team at Peak. The backbone, spirit, and world views of our team members are the heart of our fund – together with our supportive, diverse LP base and kick-ass portfolio of founders.
(Fun fact: Our obsession with the dream team ideal composed of a “hipster, hacker, and hustler” is even immortalized in a song, written and rapped by one of our portfolio founders: Yung Wardrobe).
A lot has changed within our Peak team in the past year. With the launch of Peak IV, we expanded our presence in the Benelux, Nordics, and DACH regions, as well as our team. It’s been a year since our newest partner, Jacqueline, together with David (finance & operations) and Madeline (sourcing) walked through our door. We’re happy to announce that our team is growing once more.
This month we welcomed four new members to the Peak team. Our team of 12 looks forward to growing together with our porfolio founders and supporting more marketplace, SaaS, and platform entrepreneurs across Europe.
Without further ado, please allow me to introduce Pete, Calin, Serena, and Tessa.
Pete Christianson, Entrepreneur in Residence
Pete Christianson has joined Peak as our first Entrepreneur in Residence. He’ll be helping us scout for interesting European Startups in the CX space and advising some of our portfolio companies on their product and go-to-market strategies.
Previously, Pete was MessageBird’s first Product Manager and served in other strategic roles as it went from a bootstrapped startup of 35 to one with €100M in funding and on track for an IPO in 2021. Before that, Pete was the 4th member of a Silicon Valley-based retail technology startup that was acquired in 2016. He also recently completed his EMBA at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.
He can’t live without Ben Thompson’s Stratechery newsletter or techmeme.com. Off the clock, Pete is busy brewing his own beer.
You can connect with Pete at [email protected] or on LinkedIn. See what’s on his mind on Twitter.
Calin Fabri, Analyst
Calin will touch down in Amsterdam and join our team as an analyst. Hailing from Oslo, he’ll focus on our investment strategy in the Nordics. We’re excited to get closer to our northern neighbors. For the past 6 years, Calin has been around the start-up ecosystem in Norway and the Netherlands: first as founder, then as the expansion manager for a VC-backed company, and later on as a fundraising adviser for start-ups and mature companies.
You can find Calin playing tennis, competing in triathlons, and enjoying a Finnish Sauna. His favorite books are What technology wants by Kevin Kelly, The autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin, Walt Disney and Thomas Edison, Thinking in bets by Annie Duke, and the Foundation series written by Isaac Asimov.
Nordic founder? Sauna enthusiast? Connect with Calin at [email protected], on Linkedin, and, of course, Twitter.
Serena Doeve, Financial Controller
Serena Doeve will be joining the team as a financial controller. After finishing her double degree master’s in international financial business & Management from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and Uppsala University, she went on to work at different types of dynamic organizations. Since 2011, she has worked as a financial software consultant, financial analyst, and financial business controller supporting companies like Factset, Allianz, and Bose. Like a spider in a web, she loves to work on the edges of company strategy, day-to-day business, and long-term finance. We’re happy to have her on board with us!
You can find Serena dancing, running, or enjoying long walks on the beach with her husband and dog. She also loves to get together with family and friends. In her spare time, you can ask her anything about event management (in particular weddings) and traveling!
You can connect with Serena on Linkedin!
Tessa van der Geer, Analyst
Last but certainly never least, Tessa van der Geer is spicing up our sourcing team. After gaining some initial experience in the field of (strategy) consulting during her time at de Kleine Consultant, Tessa took off to do her double master degree in International Management/CEMS in Dublin and Milan. She first knocked on our door when writing her MSc. thesis on ‘The Gender Investment Gap in Start-up Funding.’ The interviewees and insights inspired her to break into the field of venture capital herself. As an analyst, she will be deepening her financial knowledge and taking a stand for diversity in entrepreneurship and investment.
Done with newsletters? Tessa too. In her spare time, she prefers to cook her way through the Ottolenghi Simple cookbook (check out their fishcake tacos, she recommends adding guacamole to it).
Reach out to Tessa at [email protected] and connect with her on Linkedin.
👀 Looking to get in touch?
Warm intros are so yesterday…
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again, our door is always open. We invite you to reach to our team and connect.
If you are a founder looking for funding, please do so via the form on our website; For your convenience, I also attached the form below. You’re busy building a company – and we don’t want to keep you hanging. Using this form helps us to streamline our process and get back to you as quickly as possible. We look forward to knowing more about your big idea and the team making it a reality!