How do you invest in founders before there’s a company, a product - or even an idea?

In this episode of Campus To Capital, we sit down with Michael Wiatr Aagaard, General Partner at @ Antler, one of the world’s most active early-stage investors with more than 1,300 portfolio companies across 27 global locations.

Michael shares his journey from real estate finance and consulting into entrepreneurship - and eventually into backing founders at the very beginning of their journey. We explore how Antler identifies outliers before the market does, how risk is managed on the left side of the J-curve, and why the Nordics are becoming a critical hub for Europe’s next generation of founders.

We talk about:

• From operator to investor: how founder experience shapes investment judgment
• Identifying high-potential founders at the idea stage
• Antler’s €4.5m commitment to Danish startups and the role of Copenhagen in Europe
• Investing at scale without sacrificing quality
• AI as both a startup enabler and an investor tool
• Climate tech, AI, and building companies with real-world impact
• Why founders are getting younger — and how Antler helps them scale faster
• Exit thinking in an era of longer private market cycles
• Differences (and similarities) between Danish and Swedish startup ecosystems
• Leveraging Antler’s global network to accelerate growth

Many thanks to Michael for joining the conversation.

🎧 Now available on all major platforms.