Dr. Larissa Leitner is Co-Founder & Co-CEO of the HR Tech Startup Empion. She studied at WHU, holds a PhD in cultural analytics and worked in several start-ups before founding her own company. Her achievements have been recognized by TechCrunch, Forbes Magazine, Capital Magazine, and Manager Magazin, and she has received several awards, including Innovator of the Year and the HR Startup Award.

Empion is developing the first AI-based automated headhunting system that matches applicants and companies based on values, skills and personality traits. The startup was founded in early 2022 by Dr. Annika von Mutius and Dr. Larissa Leitner, today works with well-known clients such as Procter & Gamble, Volksbanken or Personio and has raised 9 million USD in two founding rounds from Cavalry Ventures, Redstone VC, Basinghall Partners and renowned angels from the HR tech industry.

Recently, they published their study with 400 medium-sized enterprises in the Harvard Business Manager. The result: Cultural Match increases goal achievement and EBIT margin by up to 17%. The study also demonstrates, that person-organization fit and goal achievement strongly correlate. A cultural match can bring down Time to Hires to 9 days and cost reductions of up to 61%.