Humans are a tribal species. We evolved in small bands of hunters and gatherers. Close collaboration within your group and scepticism towards any outsiders was a precondition for survival. Later, humans organized in larger groups called tribes, which had more Read more…
Being an entrepreneur, particularly a founder of a fast growing tech startup, is obviously a hard job. Anybody who chooses this career is probably aware that it comes with long hours, many ups and downs and plenty of challenging situations. Read more…
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” — Peter Drucker’s famous quote summarizes well how important a strong culture is for any company’s success. Particularly tech startups have gone to great lengths in consciously shaping their culture and even exposing their cultural Read more…
I often get a bit annoyed at my computer’s user interface. Why, after all these years, are we still interacting with our computers with a primitive keyboard, a simplistic pointing device and a flat glowing rectangle of a 2D screen Read more…
A year ago I became a venture capitalist after 23 years as a startup founder and early-stage startup executive. At the beginning of 2019 I joined btov Partners, one of Europe’s most established VC firms, as a full-time investing partner, Read more…
At the beginning of this year, I switched to the other side of the table. I was an entrepreneur for almost 24 years, and I recently took on a new role as a partner at btov, a European VC firm. Read more…
Go to any early-stage startup website, and you’ll likely find a page proudly listing advisors, probably half a dozen or more. Advisors are mentioned in most funding pitches and sometimes even in sales presentations. Having a strong group of well-known Read more…
Tech startups are not exactly known as bastions of sane work-life balance. Startup jobs have a reputation of requiring very long work hours, and many role models elevate this picture: Elon Musk supposedly works 120 hours a week. Twitter and Read more…
The world of entrepreneurship is full of buzzwords. We all want to found the next disruptive game-changing hot startup, leveraging our first-mover advantage in deep tech by thinking outside the box, just before pivoting (in an agile way!) after our Read more…
Apologies for the slightly clickbait-y title. But it’s true: Everybody wants to build a platform – the term has become inflationary in startup and innovation circles. That’s understandable because successful platforms are amongst the most profitable and most rapidly growing businesses Read more…