Finley Sieben · Maastricht, Netherlands
I co-founded MAIN, an AI and technology community in Maastricht, built and sold a digital media venture, and represented my university at an international case competition. I study International Business at Maastricht University and join neoteq ventures as a Venture Capital Intern in 2027.
Selected work
Community and international programmes at MAIN. A media business I founded, grew and sold. Case work under time pressure for Maastricht University. Supporting experience follows.
01 · MAIN · March 2026 – Present
Co-Founder & Vice President
Maastricht AI & Tech Network
MAIN is the Maastricht AI & Tech Network. I co-founded it in March 2026 and serve as Vice President. In seven months we grew an interdisciplinary community to 1,100+ members and turned academic, industry and startup partnerships into events that put students in the same rooms as operators and investors.
Building the community
We started MAIN because the talent was already here and the place to gather it was not. I helped turn three founders into a 26-person organisation across six teams, and to grow an interdisciplinary AI and technology network to 1,100+ community members within seven months. The work is partnerships, cadence and ownership, not a mailing list.
Connecting Maastricht and Hong Kong
Together with HKUST and Erasmus AI Society, we co-organised the first student-led Hong Kong AI Summit. The programme drew 600+ applications and brought 229 participants from 16 universities together with senior technology executives and investors. I was on the organising side: the relationships, the programme, and the week itself.
Official hackathon partner
Challenge Partner
Challenge Partner
Official hackathon partner
Summit partner · Hong Kong
Challenge partner · Hong Kong
Challenge partner · Hong Kong
Host Partner
Turning partnerships into initiatives
In Maastricht we co-organised the city's largest student-led AI hackathon with SpaceXAI / Cursor, bringing together 100+ participants. We hosted an executive evening with Anke den Ouden, former CEO of Microsoft Netherlands. Next is the MAIN AI Summit 2026: a two-day hackathon and industry gathering with a target of around 400–500 participants, targeted to become the largest student-led AI event in the Netherlands.
Hackathon partner · Maastricht
CursorHackathon build partner · Maastricht
Build Night Partner
Former Executive Speakers
Panel speaker · Maastricht
Target, not a result.
02 · Digital Media Venture · May 2019 – January 2021
Co-Founder
Frechen, Germany
At 15 I co-founded a digital media venture in Frechen. We grew it organically to 800,000+ followers, monetised through digital advertising and brand partnerships, and exited in a five-figure transaction before I finished school.
An Instagram-native entertainment brand, started as a side project with a co-founder. No paid acquisition. No existing audience.
We developed audience acquisition and organic growth strategies until the page held 800,000+ followers, all organic.
Attention became a business through digital advertising and brand partnerships. The work was packaging an audience into something companies would pay for.
We sold the venture in a five-figure transaction in January 2021, before I finished school.
It was my first education in distribution, commercial judgement and building something people actually wanted, then knowing when to sell it.
03 · International Case Competition · February 2026 – Present
Maastricht University Representative
HKUST International Case Competition 2026
I was selected as one of 16 students for Maastricht University’s international case competition programme and represented the university at the HKUST International Case Competition 2026. The work is the same under any clock: structure the problem, test the numbers, commit to a recommendation, and defend it.
An intensive two-month preparation course with roughly one real business case a week. In Hong Kong we worked cases for Cathay Pacific and HSBC.
Read the case under time pressure and agree on the question that actually decides it.
Size the market, test the numbers, and find the two or three facts the recommendation will rest on.
Commit to one direction, say what we give up, and stress-test it against the team’s objections.
Deliver the recommendation to a jury and defend it in Q&A.
Strategy is the part I most often took on or helped shape. A recommendation gets better when teammates challenge its assumptions, so I try to be the person who invites that.
Experience & education
Incoming Venture Capital Intern
Cologne, Germany · July–September 2027
I join the team in Cologne in summer 2027.
Work
Maastricht University
Academic Tutor, Quantitative Methods I & II
Selected as one of 20 tutors. Highest Quantitative Methods tutor evaluation, averaging 9.9/10.
BLU Agency Network
Working Student, Operations & Reporting
Reconciling programme data and building the internal reporting that keeps resourcing, coordination and KPIs straight.
Telekom Deutschland
Marketing & Event Management Intern
On-the-ground marketing and live-event execution, including EURO 2024, festivals and sponsorship activations.
Vodafone
Consumer Marketing & Management Intern
Campaign and stakeholder work across the consumer mobile portfolio.
Education
Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics
BSc International Business
September 2024 – Summer 2027 (expected)
GPA 8.80/10, Cum Laude (top 5% of cohort). Member of Beta Gamma Sigma, international business honour society.
Mahidol University International College
UpcomingExchange semester
Spring 2027
Planned exchange. Dates are upcoming.
Apostelgymnasium Köln
Abitur
2023
Grade 1.2. Advanced courses: Social Sciences/Economics and German.
About
Outside the work: boxing, which I have trained for six years, endurance sports, and a steady diet of biographies. I follow startups and AI closely. I am from Cologne and live in Maastricht.
German Native · English C1
Advanced Excel, PowerPoint and Word
Heptad Capital
Simulated fund · learning projectI started Heptad Capital to connect two things I was already spending time on: venture capital and applied AI. It is a simulated €50M fund with an AI-assisted sourcing pipeline and automated screening, used to get more repetitions: more companies sourced, more opportunities compared, more structured views over time. The goal is to learn venture by doing, using AI tools to create the repetitions, not to replace judgement.
Focus: Climate & Energy Tech · AI-Augmented Health Tech · Industrial AI for Manufacturing
I would like to hear about internships, collaborations and opportunities across startups, AI and venture capital, in Maastricht, in Europe, and further afield.