From Early Operator To Founder
From Early Operator to Founder — with Lukas Zörner
📍 General Catalyst Berlin | Event in English
📆 Monday, May 26
🕖 7:00 PM Doors Open | 7:30 PM Event Kickoff
🎤 Hosted by Early Builders x General Catalyst
Capacity is limited – sign up now to reserve your spot.
No recording. Drinks & snacks provided.
About the Event
Join us for the next edition of Early Builders Berlin as we welcome Lukas Zörner, fintech founder and operator, for an intimate conversation on the journey from early operator to founder.
Lukas will share what he learned building and scaling fintech powerhouse Penta, how he navigated the post-acquisition phase as MD Germany & CPO at Qonto, and what ultimately led him to co-found Integral, his new venture reshaping tax, payroll, and accounting through AI for Germany’s Mittelstand.
The conversation will be moderated by Samuel Beyer, investor at Integral's early backer General Catalyst, who supports early-stage founders across Europe.
Whether you're an early operator, thinking about taking the founder leap, or simply curious about the playbooks behind Europe’s next generation of leading ventures — this one's for you.
🔊 Speaker
Lukas Zörner
Co-Founder @ Integral | ex-MD & CPO @ Qonto | ex-Co-Founder @ Penta
From scaling business banking for 15,000+ companies to building again with AI
🎙️Moderated by
Samuel Beyer
Investor @ General Catalyst
Backing early-stage founders across Europe
📆 Agenda
7:00 PM – Arrival, drinks & mingling
7:30 PM – Fireside chat & audience Q&A
8:30 PM – Drinks, bites & networking
🚀 About the Host
General Catalyst is a global venture capital firm backing visionary founders from seed to growth stage. With offices across the U.S., Asia and Europe, the firm partners early with startups driving transformational change in sectors like AI, SaaS, fintech, healthcare, and climate.
In Europe, General Catalyst has been actively investing in the next generation of category-defining companies, such as Helsing, Mistral AI, and Monzo, supporting founders from day zero with deep operational support and long-term capital.
The firm’s portfolio includes global names like Airbnb, Stripe, Canva, and HubSpot.
Driven by a mission to build responsible innovation, General Catalyst brings together builders, operators, and investors to support startups throughout their entire journey.
🧑🏽🚀 About Early Builders
Early Builders is a community of Europe’s top early-stage startup operators – Chiefs of Staff, Founders’ Associates, First PMs, and early Growth leads – coming together to share knowledge, sharpen skills, and build lasting networks. Founded in Paris in 2023, we have now landed in Germany and will soon launch our first community in London.