How to Turn Conversations into First Customers

Name: How to Turn Conversations into First Customers
Start: 2025-12-03T17:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-12-03T21:00:00+01:00
Location: KLUSTER

Schedule

Wed Dec 03 2025 at 05:00 pm to 09:00 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

KLUSTER | Budapest, BU

Why do some startups close deals effortlessly while others stay stuck in “promising conversations”?
This panel brings together three seasoned sales leaders—Petra, Zeynep and Christian—who have spent decades helping tech startups scale across Europe, the US and Asia. From building predictable revenue engines to designing first sales motions and coaching founders through their earliest customer deals, they’ve seen the patterns, the pitfalls, and the breakthroughs.
In this honest, uplifting, and deeply practical discussion, they’ll explore what actually moves the needle in early-stage B2B sales, how:
- founders can sell with confidence (and why they often underestimate their own ability),
- to spot the difference between “interest” and a real pipeline,
- to avoid hiring sales too early or too fast,
- to turn global networks and data-driven GTM into momentum,
- and to build a sales motion that works even before you have a sales team.
The goal: to inspire founders, sales leaders, and innovators to take ownership of their commercial journey, and leave with clarity, confidence, and a few “aha!” moments they can apply immediately.
A conversation about sales, but more importantly, about turning potential into progress.
Our panelists:
Petra Kaiser🇨🇭 (Revenue Architect & Former Klarna GTM Lead)
Petra brings 15 years of B2B sales and venture acceleration experience from some of Europe’s most dynamic tech environments. She led global go-to-market at Klarna during its hyper-growth years and scaled sales teams across multiple countries, including a successful exit. Today, she helps companies build predictable, sustainable revenue engines that actually convert. She’s known for her clarity, structure, and no-nonsense approach to commercial growth.
Zeynep GABRALI Cebeci 🇩🇰 (Global GTM Strategist & Sales Leader Across 4 Continents)
With 15+ years in GTM and B2B sales across the US, APAC, Europe, and the Gulf, Zeynep is a true global operator. She’s held leadership roles in fintech, AI, data analytics, and deep-tech startups, and has advised founders from Singapore to New York on building data-driven sales strategies. Today, she runs her own consultancy in Denmark and mentors founders through programs like DutchBaseCamp, Akbank, and EIT Mobility. Her specialty: turning global expansion ambitions into reality.
Christian Voss 🇩🇪 (Fractional Head of Sales & Founder-Led Sales Specialist)
Christian has spent 25+ years in B2B sales and over 16 years in early-stage startups, including a successful exit and serving as Founding Head of Sales at German Bionic. He specializes in bridging the gap from founder-led sales to the first sales hire for early-stage B2B tech startups, especially in robotics, exoskeletons, climate tech, and automotive. Christian helps technical founders turn “great conversations” into paying customers and build simple, repeatable sales motions before hiring their first commercial team. His trademark approach is low-hype, deeply practical, and laser-focused on shortening sales cycles and validating real opportunities.
Péter Kovács (Networking Expert, Founder of Networksmith.io)
Peter is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, and the founder of NetworkSmith.io, a relationship-driven advisory helping companies access and navigate global startup and innovation ecosystems. He is also the co-founder of the Global Startup Awards, active in 154 countries, and IseeQ, an international recruitment firm. He additionally co-founded Budapest Startup Safari, one of the largest annual startup conferences in the CEE region, as well as xLabs, an education provider teaching UX/UI design, later exiting both.