Working with founders since 1999
Chiron works with accelerators, business schools, VC funds, corporate venture units and the founders they back. Led by Garan Goodman: 25 years on the investor side, from Telefónica's Wayra Germany and the METRO Target accelerator with Techstars to Frankfurt School today.
Engagements
No hourly billing and no open-ended retainers. Each engagement starts with what you need to have at the end, and is priced for that.
Workshops, 1:1 sessions and investor-readiness reviews for a whole cohort, from someone who has sat on the investor side. Funding a Startup, The Psychology of Investors, Being a Founder.
Per cohort
Senior support for your portfolio founders on fundraising, boards and the problems partners don't have time for. Protects returns without stretching the team.
Monthly, per fund
Set up a corporate venture unit that actually invests, or fix one that has stalled. Investment thesis, governance, investment committee, deal process, and your first investments.
Typically 3 months
Get Series A ready: the story, the right investors in the right order, and rehearsal until the pitch holds up under partner questioning.
6–8 weeks
From the investor side
Performance
Nasdaq listings for Sezzle and Einride, a run of trade sales, and companies still growing. They come from the programmes I ran at Wayra Germany and METRO Target, the EU funding applications we wrote at GrowGP, and my advisory work since.
Sezzle
Nasdaq-listed, valued in the billions
Buy-now-pay-later platform. Listed on the ASX in 2019, then moved to Nasdaq (SEZL).
METRO Target with Techstars
Einride
Nasdaq-listed, June 2026
Autonomous electric freight. Listed on Nasdaq (ENRD) through a $1.35bn merger.
METRO Target with Techstars
Afresh
$115M Series B, then $34M more in 2026
AI for fresh food in grocery, now in more than 12,500 store departments across 40 US states.
METRO Target with Techstars
Untie Nots
Acquired by Eagle Eye for up to €38.8M
AI loyalty and promotions for retailers. Sold to the London-listed Eagle Eye in 2023.
METRO Target with Techstars
CB4
Acquired by Gap
AI that finds lost sales in physical stores. Bought by Gap to run across its store estate.
METRO Target with Techstars
e-bot7
Acquired by LivePerson
Conversational AI for customer service, built in Munich and sold to Nasdaq-listed LivePerson.
Wayra Germany
Neokami
Acquired by Relayr, now Munich Re
Machine-learning data security. Relayr, which bought it, was itself acquired by Munich Re.
Wayra Germany
Volo
Acquired by Rocket Internet
Last-mile food delivery in Berlin, folded into Rocket Internet's Foodora.
Wayra Germany
Sophy&Co.
Close to €1M founder-funded
AI coordination for small-business finance. I advise the CEO as the company raises its pre-seed round.
Chiron, 2026
Lusoco
Final jury round of the EU's EIC Accelerator
Light-emitting inks for signs that need no power. Only about one in four full applications reaches the jury interview, and around 7% are funded. We wrote the application and took Lusoco all the way to the jury.
GrowGP: EIC Accelerator
Parkdepot
€15M Series A, over 1M parking transactions a day
AI parking management for retailers, garages and hotels across six European countries. We wrote its EIC Accelerator application.
GrowGP: EIC Accelerator
Climatiq
€10M Series A in 2025
Carbon accounting API built into more than 200 software platforms, running over a billion calculations a year. We wrote its EIC Accelerator application.
GrowGP: EIC Accelerator
Also: Parkpocket, acquired by Continental · matchinguu, acquired by Verve · Zyncd, acquired by Capacity
About
I took my first startup board seat in 1999 and have spent most of the years since on the investor side of the table.
I ran Wayra Germany for Telefónica from 2014 to 2017, then led the METRO Target Retail Accelerator with Techstars between Berlin and Minneapolis. At Stryber I was a Partner building new ventures for large corporates in retail, logistics and financial services.
Today I'm Entrepreneur in Residence at ESMT Berlin, run founder workshops at Frankfurt School, and take deep-tech companies through the EIC Accelerator. Based in Munich, working across Germany, the UK, the Nordics and Central & Eastern Europe.
Tell me what you're building or backing. You'll leave the call knowing whether one of the engagements fits, and what it would cost.