Christo Thekkel

Operating as a bridge.

I operate as a bridge, connecting technology and geopolitics, APAC and EMEA, and capital and coordination.

Across three continents, I have learned to read systems that rarely read each other — from diplomatic institutions and established organisations to venture ecosystems and frontier technology — and to translate what one world knows into leverage for another.

As an Operating Partner working across technology and venture, I partner with founders, funds and institutions to build across emerging technologies and markets, particularly where category boundaries are still being drawn.

Some of the most consequential opportunities live between domains rather than neatly inside any one of them.

That fluency was built the long way: through graduate work at Oxford, Erasmus and Peking University; diplomatic service in China; institutional grounding at PwC; operator years at Startupbootcamp; and frontier work through Eikyō and Kernel.

That range allows me to move between emerging systems and established institutions — and to work with both.

A letter before we work.

To those building what comes next,

01 / Between worlds

Opportunities lie in the interconnections.

My work has often sat between things: technology and business, founders and institutions, Europe and Asia.

The opportunity is rarely explained by looking at just one side.

A promising connection is only the beginning. What follows is less visible: understanding different incentives, finding a shared purpose, and turning a conversation into work that someone can take responsibility for.

The introduction is not the work. The work begins when the people and possibilities around the table can become something real.

That is the spirit behind Eikyō: not another vantage point from which to advise, but a practice for getting involved where ideas need an operating partner.

02 / Techné

Craft before scale.

Make it work. Then decide how it grows.

The founding principles of Eikyō put techné — technology understood as craft — before scale.

For me, the useful question is not simply how large something could become. It is what deserves to exist, and what it would take to make it work well.

In a venture, that may begin with validation. In a programme, it may mean building the team and delivery structure. Between organisations, it may mean making a partnership operational rather than leaving it as a shared ambition.

Different situations ask for different contributions.

The work starts by being precise about which one is needed.

03 / Grounded in practice

A shared endeavour.
A clear responsibility.

Much of my work has involved bringing people, organisations and ideas into a structure where something can actually happen.

At Startupbootcamp, that meant leading an impact-focused FinTech accelerator with ING and an operational team around it. Earlier, in China, it meant developing a platform for public-private collaboration.

The settings were different, but both placed coordination close to the centre of the work.

I would advise against treating introductions as an outcome, or mistaking a compelling narrative for an operating plan. A relationship matters because of what the people involved can do together — and because each understands their part.

Shared endeavour works when responsibility is clear.

Past experience is a basis for a conversation. It is not a promise that every situation will follow the same path.

04 / Building together

Let’s begin with the present.

“The present, accurately seized, foretells the future”
— V. S. Naipaul

Perhaps you are deciding whether an opportunity should become a company.

Perhaps the right organisations are already at the table, but the work between them has not started.

Or perhaps a programme needs someone to bring its parts together.

Tell me where you are, what remains uncertain, and what needs to happen next.

We can begin there — in the conditions that exist now, rather than with a polished pitch or predetermined future.

Because what comes next is shaped by what we choose to build from here.

Onwards,Christo