Felix Petersen is Managing Director Europe at Samsung NEXT, a project on a mission to create breakout software & services & foster a startup culture at Samsung. Before he was CEO & co-founder of Amen, a Service for voicing strong opinions & ranking the world around you & co-founder of Plazes, one of the pioneering start-ups in the context & location based services area. Founded in 2005, it was sold to Nokia in 2008. Felix is also an active investor & advisor to companies like Soundcloud, Unlike.net, Dataminr & Gidsy. He has had numerous appearances in publications like Wired, the New York Times & many others as well as being a frequent speaker at conferences. Born & raised in Berlin, Petersen has been busy with remote data transmissions since the late eighties & has been building things on the Internet since 1996.

You might take Felix for a humanities grad student, a graphic designer, or a musician – on first glance not many would pick up on the geek genius who put himself in the top echelon of Internet start-ups.

He first got in contact with the internet as a young boy in his parents’ living room in Zehlendorf in 1988. There, with the best kind of DIY mentality & an analogical acoustic coupler, he not only managed to paralyze the familiar phone line, but also discovered the fundamental basis for an undying fascination in regards to technology & its ever changing cycle. Growing up in the 80s & early 90’s, Petersen witnessed at first hand the very turning point of the anarchic beginnings of the East Berlin Party Scene, which to this day is being celebrated.

Europe’s deep technical talent and the strength of its traditional industries — readied for automation — means exciting times are ahead. And with Samsung NEXT, Felix aims to become a dedicated partner for European entrepreneurs to build, grow and scale their startups.