Alina Klarner - Building Impact Startups, Rethinking VC & Avoiding *ssholes

Alina Klarner is the founding partner and GP of Impact Shakers Ventures, a €17M early-stage fund backing diverse founders tackling climate, social inclusion, and impact infrastructure across Europe. Impact Shakers has invested in 25 startups across eight countries and catalysed nearly five times the capital it deployed through co-investors including General Catalyst, World Fund, and European family offices — all built on a flywheel of community and ecosystem building. Before impact, Alina spent over a decade in private equity — which she then left in 2020 after investing a first £850 angel check to back five female founders. She never looked back. In this episode, we also talk about: 🔹 Her definition of impact — systemic change rooted in lived experience, not chasing whatever wave is trending 🔹 "Impact or profit? Both. Always." — why she's tired of the false choice 🔹 The stealth gigafactory in Northern Germany that's profitable on a fraction of Northvolt's funding 🔹 Why she runs "a very strict no-assholes rule" now that the fund is her own 🔹 Why VC isn't the only path — grants, angels, revenue-based and steward-ownership funding are some of the many examples Where to find Alina: - LinkedIn: <https://www.linkedin.com/in/alinaklarner/> - Impact Shakers: <https://www.impactshakers.com> Where to find found: - Newsletter: https://www.foundhamburg.com - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foundhamburg - Kyrylo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyrylokorsun - Hugo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugopaquin In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Alina Klarner & Impact Shakers (02:08) From private equity to impact — the 2020 leap (02:50) "Putting the first euro on the table is the hardest" (03:31) Doing all the work while the PE guys made the decisions (04:51) Meeting Janka on LinkedIn & a year of "co-founder dating" (05:32) How the fund works — the community-capital flywheel (06:53) Defining impact: systemic change rooted in lived experience (08:13) "Impact or profit? Both" — killing the false choice (08:53) Is impact just a label that comes and goes? (10:58) The state of impact in 2026 — "a phase of growing up" (11:55) Hamburg's momentum & the new House of AI (12:59) Community as a business lever, not just a nice-to-have (14:21) How a remote fund builds real connection — retreats & residencies (15:43) Why Spain — and the last three investments (17:04) The European impact map: UK, Germany, Spain (18:27) What makes her invest: "the people" (19:07) "If you're not in it with your full heart, we won't invest" (19:47) "Storytelling sounds very American" — the authenticity take (21:08) 90% of European exits are under €100M (21:48) A 16-year average time to exit — "that's insane" (23:09) Why spraying money across 90% failures "doesn't sit right" (23:49) "The goal is not VC funding. The goal is to build a business." (24:45) Hamburg's ecosystem: emerging, ambitious, challenger (25:53) Under-the-radar companies more people should know — Ligno Pure (27:14) The stealth gigafactory vs. Northvolt (29:57) Why every European country has its own impact specialism (30:39) PE vs. her own fund: "a very strict no-assholes rule" (31:20) Impact Shakers' four-year plans & building the impact economy (32:41) AI two ways: impact for AI and AI for impact (35:26) Her #1 advice for impact founders (42:19) Beyond VC: grants, angels & revenue-based funding (43:45) "It's not a bad business — it's just not a match with VC" Referenced: - Humara — physics-based software for waste-plant design (Impact Shakers led the €1.2M seed) - Lignopure — lignin as an alternative to fossil-based materials (https://www.lignopure.com) - Katapult Future Festival (Amsterdam) & The Drop (Malmö) — her no-panels event picks (https://katapultfuturefest.com) - House of AI Hamburghttps://www.house-of.ai/hamburg - Zebra Investment Night https://hamburg.impacthub.net/zebra-investment-night/ For inquiries about sponsoring the found podcast, email [kyrylo@foundhamburg.com](mailto:kyrylo@foundhamburg.com)