William McQuillan is a Founding Partner of Frontline Ventures and joined us for a chat. We chatted about: How William has built a truly differentiated investment thesis for Frontline’s two funds. What William looks for in seed-stage startups and why he believes integrity is all-important and money cannot be the founder’s main driver. How William …
Meeting European VC Champions: Collaborating across the Atlantic
Shomit Ghose is the General Partner of ONSET Ventures and joined us for a chat. We chatted about: If data ethics are the next big differentiator for startups; How the European and American VC landscapes differ and what we can learn from both; How to increase your presence and establish collaborations between US and European …
Meeting European VC Champions: Collaborating with Business Angels
Michael Hansen is the CEO of the Danish Business Angels Network and joined us for a chat. We chatted about: The importance of politicians making brave strategic decisions in promoting cluster development; The story of the Danish Robotics Cluster in which the first collaborative robots were hatched, counting with two acquisitions at a valuation of …
Meeting European VC Champions: Leading Early-Stage Deep Tech
The second VC champion I had the opportunity of chatting with was Stephan Morais. Stephan is the founder and Managing Partner of Indico Capital Partners, a leading early-stage deep tech VC firm. We chatted about: How Stephan tackled raising a VC fund and what to should look for in LPs How European VCs can push …
Will remote working become the new normal for everyone?
Everyone experiences feelings of isolation or increasing distractions when embracing remote working. Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), which account for the major part (99%) of the European economy, have been particularly impacted by recent events. Dealing with increasingly restrictive liquidity reserves, SME owners are facing particular difficulties in this ongoing pandemic outbreak. The economic and …
Meeting European VC Champions: Cross-border Life Sciences investing
Recently, I had the opportunity of chatting with Marc Lohrmann, the Managing Partner of Vesalius Biocapital Fund III (VBC III). VBC III is a 120M€ venture capital (VC) fund investing in late-stage companies in drug development, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health, across Europe. We chatted about: How Marc and Vesalius work as a country …
In Europe, the startup funding graduation rate is also surprisingly low
In this post we: Present a primer on the startup funding graduation rate in Europe; Find that both European and US VC-backed companies show a steep drop off rate between Seed and Series A; Find that the startup graduation rate in Europe and the US shows exponential decay; Find evidence suggesting that Seed investments have been increasing …
Retirement and the silver economy
Societies are experiencing a problem upon retirement. People feel stripped of their meaning and purpose, which is often strongly connected to their career. This feeling of emptiness is provoked not only by the fact that someone lost his/her job, but by the fear of losing friends and a place in society. A study published in the Journal …
Safeguarding SMEs mental health in future outbreak situations
Europe has around 25 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that together represent the backbone of Europe’s economy. These account for more than 99% of all businesses in the EU. SMEs are responsible for more than half of EU-28 GDP, employ around two-thirds of the European workforce and are responsible for 85% of job creation. …
Is the 4-day workweek as foolish as it sounds?
Recent events have upended working life, changing how and where we work and live, and inspired many to guess on how economies and our lives will forever change. Some argue everything will go back to normal. Others that everything will change. I believe some things will change, to a certain extent, but that many things …