Every founder believes in their idea. But what makes an investor believe too? Melina Mai shares what she looks for beyond the pitch—and how she identifies the founders, technologies and ideas with the potential to become something truly big.

Melina Mai is a Principal at Big Pi Ventures, a multi-stage venture capital platform with more than €240 million in assets under management. Through its Early Stage and Growth funds, Big Pi makes initial investments up to €20 million per company. At Big Pi, Melina leads investments in AI, Robotics, Life Sciences, and Climate-tech. She is a Board Member at Bryq and Board Observer at Acumino, Alicia Bots, August Robotics and Astrato Analytics.
Before joining Big Pi, Melina worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where she contributed to strategy and operations projects for leading companies in sectors including Energy, Banking, Insurance, and Telecommunications. She holds an Integrated Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (Metsovion), with a diploma thesis focused on deep learning.