60. The State of the European Venture Market

In this episode we discuss: The State of the European Venture Market. We are joined by Simon Menashy, Partner at MMC Ventures.

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We chat about the following with Simon Menashy: 

• The European VC market’s significant changes in the last few years.
• Sustainable growth prioritised over growth at all costs.
• What are the main challenges the software market is facing?
• What are realistic exit expectations? 
• What are the crucial components for a successful exit?

References 

• www.linkedin.com/in/simonmenashy

Biography 

Simon Menashy is a Partner at MMC. He specialises in AI-related investments, and has led deals such as Ably, Senseye and Signal AI.

Simon joined MMC in 2011. He is a member of the Investment Committee and co-leads the investment team. As one of the most active AI investors in the European early-stage venture market, Simon has led, sponsored or worked on close to 150 deals with more than 60 companies over the past decade.

Simon believes AI innovation will happen at multiple layers of the tech stack, and is focused on investments from the application layer down to the data pipelines that feed the models. 

Simon’s background is in tech and media strategy consulting at Deloitte. He holds a degree in Physics and Space Research and previously started an IT consulting business.

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Summary

16:49 The Evolution of the European VC Market

18:39 Navigating the New Normal in Funding

22:02 The Software Market's Challenges and Opportunities

26:13 Where should COOs be looking and how should they be pitching themselves?

27:21 Identifying Hot Areas for Investment

27:45 The Role of COOs in Today's Market

28:29 The State of Exits in the VC Landscape

30:39 Resetting Expectations for Exits

36:54 The Future of the VC Ecosystem

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy