Sam Sturm

Sam is the Chief Venture Architect at Founders Factory Africa.

He leads a team that focuses on turning promising ideas into breakthrough innovations, managing Founders Factory Africa’s Venture Studio to develop new businesses from the ground up. A former teacher and aspiring filmmaker, Sam takes a design-led approach to problem solving, creating products, services, and business models that are equal parts scalable and sustainable.

As a Strategy Lead at the San Francisco-based design firm fuseproject, he has worked with a broad range of clients — from large multinational corporates to Silicon Valley startups — and led the design and delivery of the SPRING Accelerator, working with more than 75 businesses across East Africa and South Asia to drive growth at scale.

With an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a BA from Amherst College, Sam brings both a commercial and creative perspective to the venture creation process, leading to businesses that are increasingly inclusive, imaginative, and impactful.