EUVC

Today, we are happy to welcome Tim Draper, founder of the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. He funded Baidu, Tesla, Skype, SpaceX, Twitch, Hotmail, and numerous other well-known unicorns at the seed stage. He is a supporter and global thought leader for entrepreneurs everywhere, and a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICOs and cryptocurrencies.In this episode you’ll learn:– The origin story of the Draper empire and why Tim built and scaled via a completely different model - including a TV show that now has 11 million viewers! – How Tim thinks about succession and partnership structures as well as putting his name behind the business – How Tim thinks about Europe and what our biggest opportunity and challenge is– Why Tim thinks the EUVC LP Syndicate model is “very interesting”!

Today we are happy to welcome Bo Ilsoe, managing partner of NGP Capital. From his current base in Geneva, Switzerland he has developed NGP Capital from initial commitments of $25M to more than $1.6B investing in the US, Europe, and China. Bo has through his portfolio exits created more than $3.0B in shareholder value during his time as an investor. A technologist at heart, he believes in the positive transformative effects technology has on society.In this episode you'll learn: - The origin & development story of NGP, the highly successful global VC, backed by Nokia- Why NGP has focused on the Series A and onwards stage - How Bo thinks about innovation horizons and how it affects the investment thesis of NGP- How Bo thinks about firm building, decision making and winning as a global team of 25 of which 15 are investors and 5 partners- Why Bo believes VCs owe founders to push them and be wary of becoming too founder friendly

This is a special EUVC episode straight from the Engaged Investments conference in Prague, hosted by our friends from Depo Ventures. Shout out to Petr who was kind enough to invite us. This is the recording of the panel “Why should business Angels invest in VC?" which had the participation of our host Andreas Munk Holm; Petr Sima, partner at DEPO Ventures; Mikk Orglaan, founding partner at Fstage.vc; Vojta Rocek, partner at Presto Ventures; and Tobias Rataj, who is an angel investor.

Today we are happy to welcome Borys Musielak, Founding Partner at SMOK Ventures. They help fund top early stage entrepreneurs (checks from €50k to €1M) based in Central & Eastern Europe, focusing on software and gaming startups. We were fortunate to record live with Borys during this years edition of How To Web.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why Borys is in love with Bucharest and the How To Web (hint: it’s not only coffee!) – The hilarious story behind the name SMOK and how it ties into a small kiss, a hairy ball AND a dragon – What the Silicon Valley roots of SMOK impacts how Borys and his team acts, works and invests– How Borys thinks about growing from a 10M€ Fund I to a 50M€ Fund II and its impact on SMOK- Borys’ views and insights on the state-backed VC programs that have been run in Poland and the CEE region. - How Borys thinks about the Russian/Ukranian crisis and how the VC market is reacting to it.

In this episode, we’re happy to welcome Juan Alonso-Villalobos, Partner of Startup Wise Guys. This year, we had the pleasure of recording with Juan at How To Web in Bucharest.In this episode you’ll learn:– How the SWG accelerator works and interplays with their funds – How Juan thinks about LP profiling and why nailing this is so central – How SWG builds their ecosystem around verticalized accelerators and funds– What FinTech solutions Juan sees coming to the venture industry and how it’ll impact us

Today we are happy to introduce you to Mick Halsband, Founding GP of Lunar Ventures, a deep tech seed stage investor, backing technical founders solving problems in big markets.Mick is a past CTO and a software architect. He has two decades of key roles at startups and multinational leading tech firms. Led software development for embedded mobile, realtime systems, computer graphics, computer vision, and trading infrastructure.In this episode you’ll learn:– What's happened at Lunar Ventures since their launch last year and how founders have reacted to their position as the most technical VC in Europe – How Mick thinks about the state of deeptech in Europe and the technologies he’s most excited about – Why Mick sees Bucharest and Romania as one of the most promising deeptech hubs in Europe

Today we are happy to welcome Marvin Liao, Partner at Diaspora VC and Board member at Game Groove Capital, an International Gaming Holding Company. He was previously a Partner at VC Fund 500 Startups. Marvin has invested in over 414 Pre-seed & Seed stage startups and we were lucky enough to record this episode with him during How To Web.In this episode you’ll learn:– Why Marvin as a successful Silicon Valley investor doubles down on Europe and what he brings to his founders– A very honest conversation about the collaboration environment in Europe and the US – How the best European founders can get juiced up by seeing the US ecosystem and experiencing that they're just as good as those backed by the world renowned firms– Learnings from investing in 414 pre-seed & seed startups over the last decade and why Marvin calls himself the Forest Gump of Silicon Valley

Today, we are happy to welcome Hampus Jakobsson, General Partner at the early stage climate tech venture fund Pale Blue Dot. Prior to co-founding Pale Blue Dot, Hampus was a Venture Partner at science fund Blue Yard and a prolific angel investor with more than 100 angel investments. He is a software engineer turned founder, turned angel investor, turned VC. When not working with ambitious climate people Hampus cooks and reads.In this episode you’ll learn:– The hilarious story behind Hampus’ first entrepreneurial ventures and route into venture, all the way to founding one of the signature climate funds in Europe– The magic of being focused and absurdly curious as a VC – How Hampus walked into his first VC meeting dressed up in a suit thinking he’d fit in, only to be proven that VC is actually a group of cool people doing amazing things– How Hampus thinks as a thesis driven investor, first with BlueYard and then with Pale Blue Dot

This is the last of a four episode long special on the MENA region here at The European VC. This special series of episodes focuses on everything MENA VC, bridging the gap with its European counterparts. We intend to shed light on the ins and outs of venture in the region and promote collaboration between Europe and MENA.For this special series of episodes we welcome our dear friend and special co-host Mostafa Gado.And as a guest, we welcome Sharif, Chief Executive Officer of the Dubai Future District Fund, the evergreen venture capital fund of funds of Dubai, anchored by the Dubai International Finance Centre and the Dubai Future Foundation with an initial 1 billion Dirham in committed capital.In this episode you’ll learn:– How Sharif built a stellar operator career in Silicon Valley and came back to the MENA region with the ambition, skills and network to make a true difference– The most complete overview of what Dubai Future District Fund as one of the region’s most powerful LPs have in store for us – Sharif’s views on the state of VC in MENA, where we’re headed and how European VCs should think about raising from MENA-based LPs

Today, we are happy to welcome Peter Sandberg, Founding Partner & Managing Director of Nordic Secondary Fund, the first and only fund in the Nordics to exclusively invest in secondaries. Peter has 35 years’ experience from investments and asset management; 5 years’ experience as an early-stage investor and 30+ investments in a.o. LegalDesk & Sky. We had the pleasure to be together with Peter, recording this episode during TechBBQ in Kopenhagen.In this episode you'll learn:– The origin story of Nordic Secondaries Fund – The inner workings of one of Europe’s first secondary funds and how they think about pricing, investment strategy and negotiation– Why Peter Sandberg sees a future with much more secondary activity in Europe – Fundraising advice from a natural talent solidly rooted in the angel world– The importance of karma in venture capital and especially the secondaries market