Marcel Bruno Dridje, a British Citizen and INSEAD graduate, is today active as an international advisor to
Startup Ecosystems in the EMEA region. Marcel wears different hats that allows him today to have a 360 view
on what it takes to build a healthy and strong incubation / acceleration / investments programs.
Marcel holds different positions as an active investor by being in the leadership of these initiatives:
Sophia Business Angels, President Emeritus / European Business Angels Network, Board Member /
Mediterranean Business Angels Network, Co-founder / Maghreb Diaspora Business Angel, Co-founder /
EuropIA Capital, Board Member.
A seasoned European Sales Executive, Marcel has substantial field experience helping IT and Telecom startups
in the US and EMEA. Marcel has a broad range of experience in all aspects of sales, marketing, communication
and management with direct experience with Fortune 500 enterprises (IBM, Nortel, Lucent, Cisco, EMC, ALU)
and startups (Quantum, Andrew Networks, Pluris, Corvis, Ascend and Airespace). During the course of his
career he has held VP roles most notably as VP EMEA Corvis (first all optical router) where he grew the team
and business to an outstanding success with a Nasdaq IPO. Marcel launched his career after completing a BSC
in Electronics and Computer Science from Portsmouth Polytechnic UK. He walked away from his first position
with IBM UK as an Applications Engineer greatly relieved to embark on a career in sales.
Bi-Lingual in French and English with a working knowledge of Arabic, Spanish, Italian and German.
Three major highlights from his career include helping Airespace to be the #2 WLAN in EMEA market share
and positioned Cisco to be #1 WLAN vendor worldwide. He has helped start promoting Cisco VCE alliance
(VMware, EMC, Cisco) and the BMC OEM relationship to Kick Start their first SP IaaS Cloud offering on a
worldwide basis. He also pioneered the French ISP Internet business while leading Ascend’s insertion into
FT/Orange first ISP business to include ISDNET, OLEANE and Internetway.
Marcel left a Director position at CISCO Systems to start his new venture as a Startup Ecosystem advisor and a
Business Angel to help startups with International Business development and helping incubators and
accelerators with growing and sustaining their programs overseas.
A self-proclaimed advisor & Intrapreneur, Marcel loves new Challenges in sharing his 20 years of Tech and
Startup experience to empower startup support organisations such as incubators, accelerators and open
innovation programs to thrive internationally.
Currently he is giving Master Classes for both Junior and Senior BA associations across EMEA, including the
‘Investment Readiness’ workshops for startups and leading major advisory initiatives with European Incubators,
Accelerators and venture studios to scale up their programs.
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ZOOM IN : STARTUP INCUBATION / ACCELERATION EXPERIENCE TO DATE
MINISTRY OF PROGRAMMING BOSNIA (STARTUP STUDIO) 2022 - Present
Advisor Bosnia
• Key mission: Advised the European Bank of Development on how to fund a strategic pivoting program to a
startup studio that was losing money. The startup studio succeeded in becoming sustainable by creating a
unique added value to the founders, making the program attractive and scalable. A website link here.
JYVASKYLA FINLAND (INCUBATOR) 2022 - Present
Advisor Finland
• Key missions: Advised the incubator to develop and execute different strategic programs to scale their
cohorts regionally for the past 4 years. Developed and executed a strategy to help their scandinavian health
and well-being Startups launch their go to market into the Mediterranean region. A reference link here.
ISA BICC CORK CYBERSECURITY (ACCELERATOR) 2018 - Present
Advisor Ireland
• Key mission: Advised this cybersecurity accelerator on how to scout and onboard the most promising
European wide startups. Advised on how to brainstorm and execute an Exit strategy on their first cohort by
working hands-on with the founders on their startups. A reference link here.
MIND THE BRIDGE (ACCELERATOR) 2018
Advisor San Francisco, USA
• Key missions: Advised through EBAN (European Business Angel Network) this European initiative to help
them structure their accelerator program and bridge scale-ups with US investment. Helped with the startup-
investor matching and with the program structuring. A reference here.
THE CAMP FRANCE (INCUBATOR) 2018 – 2020
Advisor France
• Key mission: Advised the incubator to develop and execute a scouting program for french-speaking African
startups to go through a soft-landing program in the south coast of France. Initiated an open innovation
program between leading French corporates and European Startups (sector agnostic). A reference link here.
FLAT6LABS (ACCELERATOR), CONNECT'INNOV (INCUBATOR), BIAT LABS (INCUBATOR) 2019
Advisor Tunisia
• Key missions: Advised these startup support organisations on how they should prepare their cohorts for
investment readiness in front of investors (developed and executed the whole program) and have a more
attractive program complementing their existing ecosystem landscape.
