#158 Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Seedcamp

Today we are happy to welcome Carlos Eduardo Espinal, Managing Partner at Seedcamp, arguably, Europe's leading seed fund, first launched in 2007 to support European entrepreneurs truly compete on a global scale. With investments in over 460 companies including publicly listed Romanian-founded, UiPath, Wise and unicorns Revolut, wefox and Pleo. Carlos is a published author, fellow podcaster and made it onto Forbes Midas List of 2022 as one of the most influential VCs in Europe in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. You are in for a treat.

In this episode, you will get a rare look into the top four funniest objections that Seedcamp and Carlos have had to endure from LPs on their journey to building Seedcamp to the hallmark it is today.

Objection #1: "Your fund model will break when it goes from 5M to 20M€"
Objection #2: "You're just spraying and praying and your portfolio will be far too big for you to manage"
Objection #3: "Why don't you just invest in the winners?"
Objection #4: "Who led deal X, Y and Z and how will you retain that person and keep him/her motivated?"

And some extra reflections by Carlos on opportunity funds, VC decision-making and incentive structures and firm management.