Sten Tamkivi

Operator turned founder and product leader: Tamkivi spent over eight years as an early Skype executive, growing the original Estonian R&D centre and leading global product and engineering work, then moved into founding Teleport and later served as Topia's CPO. His career shows repeated hands‑on product leadership on consumer and enterprise mobility and collaboration products. tamkivi+2

Early-stage investor and community builder in Europe: As a partner at Plural and Skaala (and through Taavet+Sten), he invests actively in ambitious European founders, co-founds and supports accelerators (CDL‑Estonia), and frequently speaks and writes about building ecosystems. pluralplatform+2

Public service & civic‑tech advocate: Tamkivi combines private sector experience with public roles — advising Estonia's president, serving on the e‑Residency council, sitting on LHV's supervisory board and on the board of Vabamu — reflecting a sustained interest in digital governance, entrepreneurship policy and national digital infrastructure. tamkivi+2

Writer, communicator and educator: He kept a detailed public blog during his Stanford year and beyond (Sloan notes, weekly reflections), gives guest lectures and talks, and uses long-form writing and public speaking as a way to synthesize product, policy and ecosystem thinking. tamkivi+1