Today, I am pleased to welcome Stephan Heller, founding partner of AlphaQ Venture Capital (AQVC), a global VC fund of funds with an innovative semi-liquid evergreen structure, focused on early-stage VC funds and co-investments. Stephan is a next-gen owner in his family’s enterprise, a serial entrepreneur, an active angel investor with over 20 direct investments, including Talon.one, Surge Fitness and Caya. He led Intel's European Startup Program and co-founded Intel Ignite, which was voted the best early-stage DeepTech startup accelerator; founded FinCompare, a fast-growing fintech platform for small and medium-sized enterprise financing, which was acquired by Germany's largest banking group; and created Watchmaster, a re-commerce platform for new and used luxury watches.
Venture capital (VC) is Stephan’s passion and domain of expertise, and he shares his views on where VC stands today as an asset class and what trends are shaping this corner of the investing universe. He then delves into how enterprise families are engaging in VC today and discusses the challenges, opportunities, advantages, and drawbacks facing multigenerational families who choose to be active as venture investors.
Stephan offers a number of practical suggestions for families and family offices – he posits that families should develop a deep understanding of both the external factors (e.g., the VC value chain and the major trends shaping the industry) and the internal needs and preferences of the family (e.g., risk appetite and liquidity requirements, to mention a few). He recommends some useful tools and analyses families can employ to study and evaluate these internal drivers and external forces.
As many families are interested in or drawn to venture but don’t necessarily have the capabilities to be competitive and efficient as investors in this space, Stephan describes some of the tools and channels for family enterprises and family offices to access VC effectively and profitably.
Don’t miss this instructive conversation with a successful rising-gen investor and an expert professional in venture capital – the asset class that hold the potential for most differentiated and attractive returns for families in the long term.
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