Martin Junker
Founding Partner
Martin is Founding Partner at Venture Stars and Managing Partner of Venture Stars PBG I & II. Before joining the VC world, Martin co-founded several start-ups as a serial entrepreneur – amongst others, netzathleten media (acquired by RTL media group). Martin studied business administration at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, in the USA and Spain. Martin loves to travel, maybe that’s why he is responsible for our travel investment Holidu. He furthermore supports the Venture Stars portfolio companies AlphaPet Ventures and Solvemate.
Florian Calmbach
Founding Partner
Florian is Founding Partner at Venture Stars and Managing Partner of Venture Stars PBG I & II. After finishing his studies at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, UCLA Los Angeles and ICADE Madrid, Florian co-founded netztathleten media (acquired by RTL media group) and several other online start-ups, amongst others Vitafy. Thus, at Venture Stars Florian still serves as a co-founder and board member at Vitafy and supports new investments such as Smart Host.
Stefan Pfannmöller
Founding Partner
Stefan is Founding Partner and Managing Director at Venture Stars. Before discovering his passion for internet entrepreneurship, Stefan was Germany’s #1 canoe slalom athlete, taking part in 2 Olympic games and wining the bronze medal. As an athlete from the heart, Stefan realized his idea of a digital Olympic village and co-founded netzathleten media (acquired by RTL media group). Today Stefan is responsible for AlphaPet Ventures as Co-CEO and supports new Venture Stars investments.
Christian Maerzke
Managing Director
Christian is Managing Director and Head of HR at Venture Stars. Before joining the Start-up world, Christian worked at the venture capital department of KfW banking group. Christian studied at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. Christian is an expert on organization building and recruiting, but has also built up particular knowhow in building and scaling stationary retail sales.
Erik Pfannmöller
Venture Partner
Erik ist als Venture Partner verantwortlich für das Deal Sourcing und berät als E-Commerce Experte die Portfolio-Unternehmen von Venture Stars. Zuvor hat er den Sport eCommerce Shop mysportworld.de gegründet und zu Millionenumsätzen geführt. Als ehemaliger Profisportler konnte Erik die Weltmeisterschaft im Kanu-Slalom gewinnen und schloss parallel sein BWL-Studium an der Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL) als Jahrgangsbester ab.

Our Team

We are a small, hungry team with many years of experience in founding and scaling start-ups and their organizations. We understand entrepreneurs, since we are entrepreneurs ourselves.