ACT #225 Gloria Bauerlein, Puzzle Ventures

Our next guest is Gloria Bauerlein, founder and general partner at Puzzle Ventures. Puzzle Ventures is a new pan European 21.5 million euro fund investing in super early stage B2B companies, and it's one of the solo female GP led funds. Before Puzzle, Gloria was a prolific angel investor, but that's not why we're speaking with her today. Uniquely, she has actually sat on all sides of the cap table. As an investment banker, VC investor at TCV and Index, startup operator at Kry and Back, and angel investor, and built Puzzle to continue backing Europe's top founders with larger checks but with the flexibility of an angel.
Gloria's LPs include founders and operators that you'll have heard from, from the likes of Kry, Stripe, Coinbase, and WhatsApp, and more who've tread in the founders footsteps. They offer assistance beyond capital to Puzzle Ventures portfolio and can share valuable insights and connections with founders to help them grow.
In this episode, we'll hear more about Gloria's journey into VC, her thoughts on ownership versus allocation, tips for micro funds on sorting out the unsexy side of fund management before getting carried away with deploying capital, and how to have a culture of giving first when nurturing relationships and being collaborative in VC.