Team
Liliana is an entrepreneur and a lead advisor in the field of emerging technologies and early-stage startups. She spent seven years leading and supervising deep tech businesses, gaining international recognition along the way.
For the past four years, Liliana has been active in mentoring and coaching founders of pre-seed and seed-stage startups. She has also served in consulting roles with important ecosystem stakeholders.
Liliana is a promoter of smart generalism - i.e., building early-stage startups with engaged and multiskilled problem-solvers. Her skill set and drive ultimately led to her founding Pipette & Chart, which has been delivering generalist power to founders all over the world since 2019.
Vladimir is an entrepreneur with a scientific background. He started his career as a researcher working with nanostructures and polymers and then went on to broaden his scientific management and productization skills through disruptive product development roles within both the biotech and advanced materials fields.
At Pipette & Chart, Vladimir’s role focuses on connecting product, business, and science. He typically helps founders align their business and fundraising strategies with product development, offering guidance from proof-of-concept all the way through product launch. He is closely involved in activities ranging from R&D planning, strategy development, and data analysis fundraising documentation to investor relations and project management.
What do clients appreciate about Vladimir? He has a rare talent for making complicated things easy to understand.
Masha is a passionate marketing strategist with experience in designing and executing marketing solutions for both early- and late-stage innovative companies. Whether you need to set up a whole marketing game plan or have a single, highly specialized request, she is the person for the job!
At Pipette & Chart, we start our work by deeply analyzing a startup company's solution, clients, business goals, and vision. We value customer feedback and data-proven tactics, which both help Masha create rockstar campaigns, even for complex, deep-tech businesses. Masha has her own unique approach that’s built upon organic tactics; overall, she is a big believer in sustainable marketing practices. Her team can help you design and execute comprehensive marketing and communication strategies, establish brands, and build value around your inventions.
Violeta developed her career in the field of Chemistry and Materials Science, particularly focusing on developing advanced polymers for added value applications. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Chemistry and Technology of Prague, University of Twente (The Netherlands), and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) thanks to an EU grant award where she contributed to international projects with intercultural teams. Violeta has extensive experience in polymers, biomaterials, nanotechnology, formulations, and delivery systems. She is keen to fill the gap between Academia and industry, bringing Science to its final application and building research synergies across Europe and the world.
Ira began his lengthy career in the mid-1970s working in government in New York. He then moved over to consulting, working with both large companies and government agencies, before finally entering the finance arena in the late 1980s. Within the finance industry, his long-time focus has been on alternative energy and clean technology; and after spending two decades working in finance in New York, he moved to Prague to pursue both regional and global opportunities in 2005. In 2009 he became a full-time resident and in 2015 a citizen of the Czech Republic.
Ira still works in finance as Senior Advisor – International Business with Prague-based Traficon Advisors, s.r.o. and as Senior Investment Banker (holding multiple FINRA licenses) with Berkeley, California-based Starlight Investments, LLC. Ira loves the energy that founders and innovators bring to business, and he works in various ways to help them succeed. He has served as a senior consultant at Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), the largest and oldest technical Czech university, and was the key initiator of the Innovation SPOT at Pragovka, intended to be the largest co-creation facility for entrepreneurial companies in Central Europe.
Ira also serves as a Trustee for the Defense & Security Innovation Hub (the Nato Innovation Hub for the Czech Republic) and as the Chief Catalyst for the recently-formed Czech Battery Cluster.
Katka is a seasoned manager with 20+ years of experience in saving, transforming, and growing businesses facing unique challenges. She has worked as an interim COO, plant manager, crisis manager, and management consultant, lending her expertise to everything from procurement, logistics, quality, and change management within the medical, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries, just to name a few.
At Pipette & Chart, Katka’s main role is to support founders through a smooth scaling process. Her work often sees her performing operations audits, setting up effective processes, and working closely with founders to manage hiring strategies.
Katka believes that efficient management and smooth workflows can offer a distinct advantage to any company, small or large. Therefore, she often acts as a facilitator between the founder and the team. Here, in addition to practical expertise, trust and empathy play very important roles.
Madina is a deeply creative thinker who offers a helping hand to both us and our clients whenever design support is needed. Together, Madina and Pipette & Chart’s team can help clients explain complex and niche technologies in a way that everyone can understand and resonate with. By carefully crafting high-converting landing pages and engaging pitch decks, Madina can help your business approach stakeholders and acquire new customers.