Ben Wilkening speaks German, English, Bulgarian, and Russian, and his years living and working abroad—including helping Russian tech startups break into the German market at the Skolkovo Foundation—shape his focus on backing founders with migration backgrounds who he says are often overlooked despite their talent. At Earlybird, he has pointed to a growing number of highly qualified migrant founders, many with STEM or business degrees earned in Germany, and works to connect them with more investor attention through events like Vision Lab demo days.