EUVC

Today we are happy to welcome Sergey Jakimov founding partner of LongeVC, a venture capital company supporting early-stage biotech and longevity-focused founders that are changing the world. Sergey is a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded 3 deep-tech ventures and raised more than $40 million in venture funding for his own ventures and as an entrepreneur in residence.In this episode you’ll learn:- How Sergey ended up doing longevity from a non-medical background- How to think about longevity as a vertical and the frontiers of the space- A deep dive on longevity techs frontiers: 1) Consumer adoption, 2) Age-related diseases (therapeutics and non-therepeutics), 3) Systemic rejuvenation of the human-being- An usually light-hearted deep dive for the EUVC show on how we can all live longer and have better lives

Today we are happy to welcome Sasha Kaletsky, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Creator Ventures, a firm that invests and collaborates with content creators. This year they closed their first $20m fund, to invest globally in early-stage companies innovating in consumer-internet.Together with his partner Caspar Lee, Co-Founder of influencer.com, a content creator with an audience of over 10 million across social channels, they help founders navigate the social media and influencer marketing landscape.In this episode you’ll learn:- All about how Creator Ventures leverages a strong network of celebrity co-investors- Why Sasha has opted for a model with celebrity co-investors rather than celebrity LPs- The direct & indirect value-add of celebrities, influencers & athletes for founders as well as VCs- What Sasha’s advice to other emerging managers is and why quality LP updates are high on his agenda

Today we are happy to welcome Enis and Kaan, General Partner and Investor at 500 Emerging Europe, who the EUVC syndicate is investing into. In this episode, we dive deep on their recent rebrand from 500 Istanbul to 500 Emerging Europe, their emerging talent thesis and the value chain drift that’s causing emerging Europe to be such an overlooked opportunity. It was an absolute pleasure to meet up with the guys at How To Web and experience exactly how hot the ecosystem and the support for what Enis is building is.**In this episode you’ll learn:– How to think about growing a 10M€ fund I to a 70M€ fund II– Why brand is the only competitive advantage in VC and how to build it– The 500 Emerging Europe Talent thesis & it’s connection to the value chain drift that 500 is leveraging– How Enis thinks about building a truly sustaining firm that may rise to dominance

Today we are happy to welcome Jean Bourcereau, President and Managing Partner at Ventech. He has joined the company in 2000, acting as a facilitator of the Partners Committee defining Ventech’s global development strategy and is a veteran driving investments notably in hardware and communications. In this episode you’ll learn:- The founding story of Ventech and how it grew out of a large bank- Why Jean and Ventech said no to 150M€ from a single LP but rather built a diversified LP base- The importance of having a solid shareholder agreement in place when there’s a cornerstone LP with big impact on the fund- Jean’s thoughts around the concept of CLPs vs CVCs- Why Ventech grew to China rather than the US & the centrality of being an active and relevant dealmaker in the region- How and why Ventech has expanded via a distributed partnership model

Welcome to a very special episode of EUVC where we dive deep with Oliver Holle, founding and managing partner of Speedinvest, for a one-of-a-kind (and super nerdy) discussion on Speedinvest’s newly launched fund 4 of 500M€! Speedinvest is one of Europe’s hands-down best seed stage investors and a household name in the industry that takes a perfectly oiled and scaled investing machine to be able to achieve. So stay tuned for some unique insights from the man who’s built it and who continues to pioneer innovation in our ecosystem.In this episode, you will learn: - Why Oliver believes a new model is needed to deliver on the promise of Seed at Scale- A rare look under the hood of Speedinvest talking everything from carry, remuneration, decision-making structures and much more- Why and how Oliver has built Speedinvest around five core beliefs: 1) VC is a team sport, 2) Expertise is essential, 3) Being pan-European has a lot of perks, 4) VC is more than picking, 5) Large portfolios managed well offer better diversification and top performance.

David Peterson and Gil Dibner of Angular Ventures discuss the founding story of their venture, the challenges faced by European start-ups, and the advantages of being a pan-European fund. They emphasize the importance of alignment, early investments, and autonomy in making deals. They also share their perspectives on investing in uncertain times and offer tips for emerging VCs.

Today we are happy to welcome Guillaume Fournier, partner at Credo Ventures, a venture capital company focused on early stage investments in Central Europe. His mission is to identify and back the most interesting early stage companies in the region, support them in their growth plans (including expansion to the U.S. and global markets) and help them to achieve their objectives.In this episode you’ll learn:- The founding story of Credo, what’s behind the name and what took Guillaume from London to Prague - and what’s made him so happy about that move- Why Guillaume would rather spare on a deal that he ends up competing with than forego the honest conversations with fellow VCs- How Guillaume thinks about building strategic VC relationships and the role of strategic LP investments- All about how Guillaume thinks about succession planning in VC

Today we are happy to welcome Alan Poensgen, Partner at Antler, a global early-stage VC active in the major startup ecosystems across six continents. Alan has an extensive experience in building and scaling technology businesses. He was previously MD and Co-Founder at Westwing, a home & living e-commerce company, and one of Europe’s few e-commerce IPOs of the past years. Before Westwing, he built the software development hub at Rocket Internet, and was CEO of a SEA e-commerce company, along with working for a VC and starting his own company in Spain.What you will learn in this episode: - The story behind Antler Berlin & how they institutionalize the friends and family round- How Alan found his way into venture and how he thinks about building founding teams- Why Antler isn't a hypothesis-driven investor and what this mean for their strategy & operations- How Alan navigates the thin line between helping and meddling- A deep dive on the multiplier effect and flywheel of serial entrepreneurs

Today we are happy welcome Charlie Graham-Brown, CIO & Co-Founder of Seedstars, a platform that educates thousands of tech founders each year and facilitates the scale-up of high growth companies. Charlie is an investment professional and entrepreneur focused on emerging and developing markets, responsible for global seed stage VC investments.In this episode you’ll learn:- Exactly what Seedstars is and how it’s grown to become one of the dominant global players in creating and funding entrepreneurs in emerging markets- How Charlie has put together an investment strategy to double down on the emerging markets and how that differs from developed marked investing- How Charlie thinks about geo-political and currency risks as a VC- How Charlie has thought about putting together his LP base to serve his goals

Today we are happy to welcome a real legend to the show; Reshma Sohoni, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Seedcamp. With Seedcamp, Reshma has not only pioneered seed stage investing in Europe, but also built what’s become one of Europe’s consistently highest performing funds. Consequently, we thought we had no choice but to dive deep with Reshma on firm building to tease out some learnings from one of the greats. In this episode you’ll learn:- Origin story, where the name SeedCamp came from- The importance of staying true to your north star and building an ever stronger flywheel around your firm- How to think about brand building, recruiting & onboarding new talent and keeping the brand lived by all team members- How Reshma thinks about their LP base, why they’ve doubled down on small ticket LPs and requiring value-add and not just money- How Reshma thinks about follow-on investments and raising opportunity funds vs single-opportunity vehiclesWith a special guest on the Quick Fire Round: Jeroen van Doornik from Pacenotes