BIOGRAPHYAbout the speaker
Sara Lerota is a business strategist and startup mentor passionate about driving growth through innovation, partnerships, and impact-driven entrepreneurship.
Sara is the founder of Satori Catalyst, a catalyst movement that serves as the umbrella for more than 15 years of creation, partnerships, and dedication to the global startup ecosystem. Through Satori Catalyst, she empowers early-stage startups, growth-stage companies, and purpose-driven businesses and networks in the areas of strategy, partnerships, and fundraising, all over Europe and the US.
She served as a founding partner of Dealion, an invite-only network of partnerships, business growth and sales professionals, where she later continued as their advisor. She is also an active co-founder of ABSL Western Balkans.
Previously, Sara served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the Ministry of Programming, a renowned startup studio and investment firm recognized by the Financial Times as one of Europe's 1000 fastest-growing companies. Her journey in the startup ecosystem began at the first privately funded accelerator in her country, later continuing at MarketMakers, a Swiss-funded program in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she focused on investments in youth employment, gender equality, and social inclusion in IT, entrepreneurship, and GBS sectors.
Beyond her executive roles, Sara enjoys actively contributing to the global innovation ecosystem. She is an advisory board member at Thermy (AI & thermal imaging for breast cancer detection), a mentor at Hackquarters accelerator (London, Zurich & Istanbul), the Women Tech EU program (EU) and CultTech Accelerator (Vienna, Austria), and a Western Balkans ambassador for Startup Ole (Salamanca, Spain). Over the years, she has supported and coached more than 500 IT startups, specializing in partnerships, business models, and investor readiness.
Sara's career reflects her core mission: building bridges between innovative founders, global markets, and strategic partners to accelerate impactful growth.
