The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: From Selling 75% of Trade Republic for €600K to Raising $1.3BN at a $5.3BN Valuation, The Biggest Fundraising Lessons Having Raised $1.3BN From the Best in the World; Trade Republic CEO, Christian Hecker and Creandum General Partner Johan Brenner

Feb 16, 2024

Christian Hecker, CEO of Trade Republic, and Johan Brenner from Creandum discuss topics such as selling a majority stake in Trade Republic, fundraising lessons from top investors, board management strategies, missed opportunities, hiring practices, and Trade Republic's potential as a leading financial partner in Europe by 2034.

56:57

Creator website

Episode guests

Christian Hecker

Johan Brenner

AI Summary

Highlights

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Finding individuals aligned with the company's mission is crucial for a successful venture capitalist-founder relationship.

Trade Republic shifted their marketing focus from performance marketing to channels like affiliate marketing, influencers, and brand marketing.

Influencer marketing became one of Trade Republic's most valuable marketing channels.

Deep dives

Building Trust in the Venture Capital Industry

One of the main challenges in the trade republic journey was hiring the first person. It was difficult to find someone who believed in the vision and was willing to join the team with limited funding. However, this hire was crucial as they became an ambassador for the company. In hindsight, the team realized that it is all about the founders and finding individuals who are aligned with the company's mission. Building trust with founders is essential for a successful venture capitalist-founder relationship.

Word of Mouth Growth and Customer Loyalty Drive LTV

01:13

Rethinking Marketing Strategies for Better ROI

01:14

Innovative AI Accounting Solution with Live Dashboard

00:44

Lessons from Raising $1.3 Billion in Venture Capital

01:14

Introduction

4min

Early Years and Funding Challenges

12min

Targeting Young Customers for Recurring Deposits

17min

Thoughts on Robinhood coming to Europe and board management lessons

3min

Effective Board Management

10min

Missed Opportunities and Lessons Learned

6min

Hiring Ahead of the Curve and Envisioning the Bull Case for Trade Republic in 2034

5min

Christian Hecker is the Founder and CEO of Trade Republic, the company making it easy and inexpensive for everyone with a smartphone to invest. To date, Christian has raised over $1.3BN for the company from the likes of Sequoia, Founders Fund, Accel and Creandum to name a few. Previously, Christian worked in Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Investment Banking department.

Johan Brenner is a General Partner at Creandum. Johan has led Creandum’s investments in iZettle (acquired by PayPal for $2.2bn in 2018), Trade Republic, Klarna, Pleo, Neo4J, Vivino and more. Johan was previously a repeat entrepreneur, founding one of the first online brokers in Europe in 1997 (sold to E*TRADE in the US), then JobLine (sold to Monster), Bookatable (Michelin) and Tradera (Ebay).

In Today's Episode with Christian Hecker and Johan Brenner We Discuss:

1. Selling 75% of Trade Republic for €600,000:

How did Christian come to sell 75% of Trade Republic for €600K?
How did Johan and Creandum solve this challenge when they invested?
What are some of Christian's biggest pieces of advice on cap table construction?

2. Raising $1.3BN From the Best Investors in the World:

What are Christian's biggest fundraising lessons from raising $1.3BN from the best in the world?
How did Doug Leone and Sequoia come to lead Trade Republic's round? What was the meeting with Doug like? What questions did he ask? How did it go?
How important of a skill does Johan believe being a great fundraiser is for founders?

3. Scaling into Europe's Next Decacorn:

What are the single biggest issues that arise when scaling so fast? What breaks first?
Does CAC increase with time or decrease?
Why did Christian decide to stop paid marketing on Google and Facebook and stop spending $100M+ there overnight?
Why is Christian so bullish on influencer marketing? What works? What does not work?

4. Europe: A Hub for Innovation or a Retirement Home:

Does Christian believe that young people in Europe work hard enough?
What are the biggest challenges to scaling teams in Europe?
Why does Johan believe the biggest challenge in Europe is the lack of exit markets?
What can Europe do to improve and increase our chances of being successful?

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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: From Selling 75% of Trade Republic for €600K to Raising $1.3BN at a $5.3BN Valuation, The Biggest Fundraising Lessons Having Raised $1.3BN From the Best in the World; Trade Republic CEO, Christian Hecker and Creandum General Partner Johan Brenner

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Building Trust in the Venture Capital Industry

Rethinking Performance Marketing

The Power of Influencer Marketing

Trade Republic's Value Proposition: A Bank Account for Wealth Creation

Lessons from Raising $1.3 Billion: Building Relationships and Expanding Vision

Word of Mouth Growth and Customer Loyalty Drive LTV

Rethinking Marketing Strategies for Better ROI

Innovative AI Accounting Solution with Live Dashboard

Lessons from Raising $1.3 Billion in Venture Capital

Get the Snipd
podcast app

AI-powered
podcast player

Discover
highlights

Save any
moment

Share
& Export

AI-powered
podcast player

Discover
highlights

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: From Selling 75% of Trade Republic for €600K to Raising $1.3BN at a $5.3BN Valuation, The Biggest Fundraising Lessons Having Raised $1.3BN From the Best in the World; Trade Republic CEO, Christian Hecker and Creandum General Partner Johan Brenner

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

Building Trust in the Venture Capital Industry

Rethinking Performance Marketing

The Power of Influencer Marketing

Trade Republic's Value Proposition: A Bank Account for Wealth Creation

Lessons from Raising $1.3 Billion: Building Relationships and Expanding Vision

Word of Mouth Growth and Customer Loyalty Drive LTV

Rethinking Marketing Strategies for Better ROI

Innovative AI Accounting Solution with Live Dashboard

Lessons from Raising $1.3 Billion in Venture Capital

Get the Snipdpodcast app

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Save anymoment

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