best failures of startup investor startsummit_march 2013

Learning from my best failures

early stage investments by entrepreneurs

BUSINESS ANGEL / MICRO VC

Nicolas Berg, Serial Entrepreneur, Redalpine Venture PartnersSTART Summit – St. Gallen – March 23, 2013

Speaker & panelist: Nicolas Berg Serial entrepreneur with 10 startups (1984-2013)

- e.g. founder of Borsalino 1998, sold 2000 at 20x multiple to Ringier

- e.g. CEO Questli since July 2012

Full time angel investor in 16 startups (2000-2006) - e.g. Investor & Country Manager XING 2004-2010

IPO at 30x multiple 2006 Redalpine Venture financed 20 startups (since 2007)

- Built portfolio of 20 European high innovation startups with Redalpine I & II

- 5 portfolio companies ranked among 20 Swiss top start-ups in 2012

Lecturer, jury member and journalist- venturelab; Venturekick, SVC, Heuberger, Suvorov Award- Die Zeit, Bilanz, NZZ, Bilanz, HandelsZeitung, Sonntag etc.

Entrepreneur, angel investor, VC, supporter

Copyright Redalpine Venture Partners AG, Switzerland 2

Redalpine in a nutshell

Manages Redalpine I CHF 20M micro VC fund (2007-2015)

Manages Redalpine II CHF 60M micro VC fund (2012-2020)

- Seed/early stage in continental Europe

Most innovative sectors in Europe- Technology/New Media and Life Science

Fund thesis- European seed/early stage offers potential for superior exit

multiples- Best choice in Switzerland – strong links to Germany and

Russia

Convincing track-record Institutional approach to seed/early stage investing


Why learning from failures?

Failures easier to analyze than success Sometimes you win and don‘t know why –

just luck or in a good flow? You need to fail to get closer to the edge


What investors are looking for

Team, team, team- At least 2 extraordinary personalities that

can IMPLEMENT milestones of next 2 years Disruptive idea, technology or business

model Attractive market


Motivation of investor

Profit opportunity (e.g. exit multiple of 30x feasible)

Adrenaline Being active & useful

- Network- Knowledge


Close to reality distortion, psycho


Selectively focused, autistic


1. Stubborn and autistic

Resistant to advice – or asking mom, dad and grandma till she gets the answer she wants

Says “smart investor” but thinks “just give me the money for MY company, sugar daddy!”


2. Naïve model pupil

Reacts and obeys to any advice naïve, model pupil or weather vane Definitely not an entrepreneur!


3. Selectively honest, dishonest

Communicates only good news instantly Not honest Secret agenda


4. Con artist, scammer, manic

Communicates only good news instantly Not honest Dubious genius


5. Egotist, no team player

Poor alpha animal, can’t delegate Never recruits strong team member Non empathic, poor motivator


5. Money driven, not by results

Exit, salary, participation and bonus in focus

Vision, cause and results only second priority

Self marketer


Grow big stars, scout many talents


Swiss football teams have 2 options:

invest $40m to buy Messi or Ronaldo try to earn $45m extra with him or

invest $5m to scout & train 20 young talents sell the best one for $20m

Act pro-active, don’t follow crowdAnd ice hockey player can either: skate to the spot where the puck is now as most

players or to the place where the puck is going to be (Wayne

Gretzky)

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/wayne_gretzky.html


Invest as pro-active as a hockey star is playing

«You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.»

Wayne Gretzky, Hockey legend

www.redalpine.com

www.facebook.com/redalpine

www.twitter.com/redalpine

Redalpine Venture Partners AGPfingstweidstrasse 60CH-8005 Zürich, Switzerland

phone +41 44 271 15 30

best failures of startup investor startsummit_march 2013

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