fnGlobal Keynote & Roundtables with Matthias Schmitt (October 2, 2025)

What if the biggest barrier to your startup's success isn't your product or pitch—but your own inner state?

Join Matthias Schmitt, founder-turned-coach and Entrepreneur Magazine–featured speaker, for a transformative session that goes beyond the standard startup playbook. From co-founding a €20M wealthtech platform and building Europe’s largest student winter festival, to experiencing burnout at 29 and embarking on a journey through meditation, indigenous wisdom, and trauma-informed coaching, Matthias reveals how inner growth became his ultimate advantage.

This session dives into the silent struggles many founders face—imposter syndrome, work-life imbalance, and the pressure of tying self-worth to startup performance. Matthias shares how nervous system regulation and trauma-informed leadership tools can unlock clarity, resilience, and sustainable success. He’ll explore how to maintain momentum while cultivating self-awareness, and why personal growth isn’t a distraction from building—it’s the foundation.

Whether you’re just starting out or navigating a high-growth phase, this conversation will help you rethink success—starting from the inside out.

Opening Remarks @ 9:30am PT

Join us for opening remarks with Dina Wagner, Head of Member Success at Founders Network, to get the latest updates from the Network and opportunities for getting involved.

Keynote Speaker @ 9:40am PT

Matthias Schmitt is a transformational coach, seasoned entrepreneur, and keynote speaker known for helping founders and executives unlock peak performance without sacrificing personal well-being.

He has co-founded three successful ventures, including Wealthpilot, a B2B2C FinTech SaaS platform serving over 100,000 customers and raising over €20M, and Skigaudi, Germany’s largest winter festival brand for students. With deep experience leading sales teams, scaling operations, and navigating high-stakes growth, Matthias knows firsthand the pressure founders face at every stage of the journey.

But after reaching the top, he burned out. That pivotal moment sparked a personal transformation that led him to study indigenous wisdom traditions, meditation, NLP, behavioral science, and trauma-informed nervous system coaching.

Today, Matthias coaches high-performing leaders and delivers impactful keynotes across Europe and the U.S., inspiring audiences to redefine success, lead with self-awareness, and scale sustainably. His signature keynote, “Emotional Mastery: The Secret Key to Peak Performance Without Burnout,” offers actionable strategies for resilience, clarity, and meaningful growth.

Whether he’s working with startup founders post-exit or advising executives on leadership transformation, Matthias helps people turn success into significance—starting from within.

Stage-Based Roundtables @ 10:30am PT

Community Partners:

Jeff Erickson

Jeff leads the Partnerships Team at Forecastr — a leading FP&A software company that helps startups create kick-butt financial models to impress investors, confidently raise capital, and effectively run their businesses better.

Jeff serves on the advisory boards of several startup companies and is an active angel investor. He's passionate about startups and enjoys working with founders and mentoring entrepreneurs.

Jeff is an experienced entrepreneur and was the founder and CEO of a successful consumer goods company that he rapidly grew from $1M in sales its first year to over $40M in annual revenue in its fourth year of operations and was ranked #138 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies.

Prior to founding his own company, Jeff was a partner at Beanstalk Partners where he led the sales and business development activities. He also served as the National Sales Director for a venture-backed tech startup where he generated over $45M in client contracts and developed the company’s channel partner program.

Jeff has a degree in accounting and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah. After receiving his MBA in Finance from the University of Utah he served as the Vice President of Investments for Sentry Financial Corporation.

Blake Caldwell

Blake Caldwell is the CEO & Founder of FoundersBoost. He has 350 alumni, 100 new startups a year, 8k newsletter readers. He's driven by his passions to create and build community. He's also the founder of 2332 Collective (music production & festivals with the goal of bringing music to West LA) & The MoGuard (consumer product cup attachment protecting glorious mustaches).

FoundersBoost is a free pre-seed & seed stage mentorship driven pre-accelerator helping promising tech-startups with accelerators, investment, and revenue.

Guests Are Welcome!

Please bring a guest! Every member can bring one (1) guest to each event. Each guest must be a full-time tech startup founder so they can bring new perspectives, skillsets, and experience to your chapter.

All guests must be full-time tech startup founders and you can register them directly on this function page. See How to Register a Guest here.

Confidentiality Policy:

All information shared within Founders Network is strictly confidential. We are built on a foundation of trust, and the community takes confidentiality seriously. Investors, members, and staff all share experiences and opinions off the record. In this roundtable forum, we continue to model our fnValues of Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity and Inclusivity.