Lars Rasmussen

Lars Rasmussen: Panathenia 2.0 & the Google Maps Origin Story

Lars Rasmussen joins live from Athens with the Parthenon as his backdrop to explain Panathenia, a modern reboot of the ancient Greek innovation festival, returning May 27–29 after a 3,500-person, 44-country first edition built by a student-run team modeled on Slush. He tells the Google Maps origin story — the dot-com crash, a killed VC deal, and 'Where 2' being bought by Larry Page — and the lessons he brings to Athens: people can do more than they think, belief matters, and failure often means something better is waiting. He also mentions his new enterprise-AI seed fund Florent and the view that Athens is at an ecosystem inflection point.

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