Fireside Chat & AMA with Alexander Schmitt — Lightspeed Venture Partners

​🔥 Fireside Chat & AMA with Alexander Schmitt - Lightspeed Venture Partners

​Join us for an exclusive in-person fireside chat and open AMA with Alexander Schmitt, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.

​Alex is a rare breed — a founder who built and sold his own fintech company before crossing to the other side of the table.

He now leads investments in B2B and FinTech across Europe from Lightspeed.

​🔥 Due to increased demand, we've opened up more space!

​About Alexander

​Alexander joined Lightspeed's European investment team in 2022, primarily focused on B2B and FinTech investments. He's passionate about growing Europe's entrepreneur ecosystem and backing category leaders born in Europe. Before Lightspeed, he was an investor at Cherry Ventures, a leading European early-stage VC firm.

​Growing up in the rural German countryside with only a few kbit/s internet, Alex was captivated when people and technology came together to create everyday impact — a passion that led him to study at the intersection of Computer Science and Finance at Technical University Munich, MIT, and the CDTM (Center of Digital and Technology Management), and also motivated him to start his own fintech company to solve a problem he experienced firsthand in the finance industry. Having been through the journey of building and selling a business himself, Alexander empathises deeply with founders and knows how challenging the early days can be.

​"Entrepreneurs in Europe are now thinking about building category winners, not only geographical leaders. There's been a fundamental switch in mindset over the last 10 years and Europe is in an extremely strong position to reinvent itself. I want to help bring more capital into the ecosystem and back more category leaders born in Europe." — Alexander Schmitt

​About Lightspeed Ventures

​Lightspeed is a leading global multi-stage venture capital firm managing over $40 billion in assets. Founded in 2000, Lightspeed has backed over 960 companies from seed to IPO — resulting in 101 unicorns and 38 IPOs. In late 2025, Lightspeed closed over $9 billion in new funds, the largest raise in the firm's 25-year history.

​Portfolio companies include Snap, Anthropic, Stripe, Mistral, Rubrik, Epic Games, Wiz, GrubHub, Affirm, Databricks, xAI, Navan, Netskope, Glean, and many more.

​Why Attend?

​Hear and ask questions directly from a Partner at one of the world's leading VC firms ($40B+ AUM, 101 unicorns, 38 IPOs)

​Learn what Lightspeed looks for when backing founders

​Understand the founder-to-VC journey

​Ask anything — fundraising, B2B strategy, European ecosystem, fintech, and more

​Network with fellow founders and builders in Oxford

​Format

​ 🕔 5:00 PM — Doors open

​🎤 5:10–5:35 PM — Fireside Chat, moderated by Marcel Seger

​💬 5:35–6:10 PM — Open AMA / Q&A

​🤝 6:10–7:00 PM — Networking

​📍 Rhodes Trust Lecture Theatre, Saïd Business School, Oxford
📅 Friday, 27th February 2026
🎟️ Capacity: Limited to 120 — Approve-only registration

​IMP! For Q&A, please introduce yourself when asking questions.

​Organised by Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society (OxAI), Zero Founders Network, Oxford Seed Fund, OXVC, Oxford Founders Society, OX1 and Oxbridge AIx.