21/05/2026
🎙️ We caught up for a quick afternoon interview with Anikó Ivanics ahead of her fireside chat on Start it &H next week.
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Adam: Let's start with the obvious. How did we end up doing a paddock-style interview?
Anikó: Drive to Survive. I am a complete casualty. My Sundays are permanently changed and I now know an unreasonable amount about F1 drivers. It felt appropriate.
Adam: Fair. Now, you've moved countries three times for community and ecosystem building. What does that do to a person?
Anikó: It makes you endlessly curious. Always being a little between worlds, never fully belonging to one, and that turned out to be a surprisingly useful superpower. You learn to read rooms fast and connect dots across contexts that other people don't even know exist. One day you're camping with the Swedish King, the next you're interviewing the CEO of Nespresso at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Adam: That's a sentence I wasn't expecting. Okay, biggest bottleneck for founders right now. Go.
Anikó: Not strategy. Not funding. Not ex*****on. Sometimes the real bottleneck is nervous system capacity - and we don’t talk about that enough.
Adam: And what do you wish founders asked themselves more?
Anikó: Whether the company they're building is also a life they actually want. That question doesn't come up enough until it's too late.
Adam: What about investors? What are they missing?
Anikó: Questions about founder wellbeing and team dynamics. Traction is easy to measure. The stuff that actually determines whether a founding team survives the hard parts, much less so.
Adam: Hot take on the Hungarian ecosystem.
Anikó: It has matured a lot technically, and that's real progress. But the next level is becoming more collaborative, internationally confident, and visibly diverse. I'd love to see more women not just building startups, but shaping the rooms where decisions, funding, and opportunities happen. And actively helping other women get into those rooms too.
Adam: Where did your leadership style actually come from? MBA? Accelerator?
Anikó: Scouting. I still think it shaped me more than any business school ever could.
Adam: Last question: WHOOP or no WHOOP?
Anikó: If you're wearing one, there is a real chance I will ask about your biometric data and WHOOP age. Come prepared.
Adam: And should we expect your Chief Happiness Officer to be involved?
Anikó: If she is allowed, yes! Coco is almost always next to me. Born on a Greek island, grew up in Zurich, currently looking for playdates in Budapest. She is a cosmopolitan like me and she takes her role seriously.
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📅 May 27, 18:00–22:00
📍 STRT Event Space, Budapest, Lövőház utca 39.
🎟️ Tickets: https://www.tixa.hu/startup-arena-may-edition-20260527
