EUVC

Max Bautin, Founding GP at IQ Capital, discusses the Cambridge Mafia in venture investing and the success of the Cambridge ecosystem. He also explores the strategy and challenges of deep tech investing and the role of advisors. The podcast highlights the thriving Cambridge ecosystem in Europe and the delicate balance of patience and impatience in entrepreneurship.

Welcome to the first episode of the special series NEUVC, hosted by Freddie Macpherson, analyst at Isomer Capital, and Linda Võeras, associate at Karma Ventures. Today we have Martin Krag with us. Martin is a partner at byFounders, a seed fund looking to back the best tech founders in the new Nordics. We spoke to Martin to hear how he rose to partner in four years, the firm culture and coaching the courage to do so, and, of course, his own secret sauce of excellence.Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction of Martin & byFounders 00:01:52 - Incentive alignment and portfolio assistance00:03:24 - Joining a Startup Venture Capital Firm00:04:44 - The importance of decisiveness for VCs00:06:07 - Using Analysts for Understanding Spaces and Sectors00:07:43 - Progression and Responsibility Levels00:09:17 - The Importance of Curiosity and Quick Learning00:10:41 - Finding Focus and Prioritizing00:12:09 - Balancing Networking and Board Responsibilities00:13:35 - The Fluid Partnership with Founders and Career Development00:15:09 - Building a Strong Team and Defined Roles00:16:42 - Calibrating New Hires for Long-Term Aspirations00:18:04 - Transparency and Core Values in VC Industry00:19:39 - Career Progression and Future at the Fund00:21:18 - The Responsibility of Partners and Youngsters in Investment Decisions00:22:40 - Avoidable Mistakes made by Junior VC Team00:24:29 - Being Patient and Calibrating Before Making Decisions00:25:58 - The Perspective of a Poker Player-Investor00:27:30 - Dreaming with the Founders00:28:57 - Diversifying Experience in the VC Industry00:30:42 - Choosing between being a VC or Founder00:32:19 - The Challenges of Being a VC00:34:14 - Building a Fund and Firm00:36:15 - Experience and Bad Judgment

Fred Destin, a venture capitalist, discusses the state of the current market, challenges in VC, and the role of religion. Topics include erosion of democracy, mental health crisis, and climate change. Emphasis on reintroducing humans and community. Also, reflection on the role of religion in society and personal exploration of the human experience.

In today’s episode, Chloe Dagnell from Isomer Capital speaks to Carmen Alfonso Rico, a self-described VC turned Angel at Cocoa. Having previously been at the consumer fund Felix, Series A fund Blossom, and Spanish-HQ’d Samaipata, Carmen is responsible for being the first investor into companies such as Hopin and SideQuestVR.Now, Carmen is leading the charge at Cocoa Ventures, an angel fund providing the first checks for founders across Europe. Investing $250k-$500k angel checks at pre-seed/seed, Cocoa supports founders as their in-house VC, helping them hack the system with independent and unfiltered insights.In today’s episode, we’re discussing everything from how Carmen actually helps founders hack the system to fund economics. And bear with us on that fund economics point, as it’s one of the most interesting and overlooked parts of being a great VC and fund manager, and Carmen claims some pretty contrarian views on how she puts her portfolio together.And of course, we couldn't resist asking the woman behind Cocoa Ventures what her favorite chocolate is 🍫 . So, if you want the hottest tip in town for the best chocolate, then listen all the way to the end 😁

Today we have Fady with us. Fady is a Founding GP at Cybernetix Ventures, a 50m$ pre-seed, seed and Series A venture fund in Boston to back North American and European companies within manufacturing, logistics, construction, and healthcare.Cybernetix are investing out of Fund 1 with a total 50m$ AUM and an established portfolio of 13 companies and notable investments including Realtime Robotics, AirWorks, Bionomous, and Kewazo.Chapters00:00:00 - Intro00:01:42 - New Beginnings in Venture00:03:44 - Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Success00:05:51 - The Impact and Expectations of Gen AI00:07:58 - The Impact of Generative AI on Industries00:09:46 - Robotics as a Technology00:11:50 - Manufacturing in the Age of Smart Automation00:13:44 - Automation in Manufacturing and Healthcare00:15:47 - Technological Capability vs. Business Model00:17:36 - The Challenges of Humanoids in the Job Market00:19:29 - Investing in Robotics, Automation, and Industrial AI00:21:31 - The Success Story of Universal Robots in Denmark00:25:31 - Considerations for Product Deployment00:29:41 - The Rise of Robotics in Boston and Europe00:31:47 - The Importance of Specialized People in Robotics Investment00:33:54 - Investing in Smart Machines for the Future00:36:11 - Investing in Robotics Solutions00:38:27 - Building a Strong Team in Venture00:40:21 - Robotics Revolutionizing Our World00:42:21 - The Rise of Collaborative Robots in the Robot Cluster00:44:04 - The Rise of Robotics in Odense

In this podcast, Patrick Murphy from Tapestry VC discusses the challenges of merging with corporate VC, the importance of stewardship in early stage venture capital, and the rise of Gen AI in revenue growth. He also talks about the benefits of repeat founders, building strong networks, and the value of co-investors in successful co-investing.

Today we present Freddie, analyst at Isomer, the venture fund of funds backing Europe's VC champions early and doubling down on their breakout companies, and Linda, associate at Karma Ventures, which is a deep tech VC in Estonia, focusing on Series A companies in the Baltics.We want to welcome you to the NEUVC podcast series, a limited edition series dedicated to those entering and on their journey in VC, sharing the insights, stories, and learnings from different voices in the industry. There are many ways into VC and a number of skills that can make you successful in this industry. Upon closer inspection, many investors possess superpowers that are super useful for finding new deals, helping portfolio companies grow and succeed, as well as getting the deal signed and sealed.The series is dedicated to exploring those unique superpowers in some of the trailblazing venture ladder climbers in Europe, drawing out learnings about how to develop them, use them and leverage them. So to this effect, we spoke to a wide range of voices, managing partners, recruiters, principals, and even marketing specialists, to provide a diverse range of opinions on how to help you improve at your job. Hope you'll enjoy!

Joining us today for a deep dive on the state of diversity in European venture, we have Kinga Stanislawska from European Women in Venture and Juliet Rogan from HSBC Innovation Banking.Juliet works in the investor coverage team at HSBC Innovation Banking – Providing support and access to the HSBC platform to investors and their portfolio companies.Prior to joining HSBC, Juliet spend 10 years at Barclays where she co-founded the female founders forum. Kinga is a co-Founder of the leading CEE (Poland based) VC fund - Experior VC with investments in data driven CEE startups with global ambitions. She is also an Investment Committee Member at EIC as well as the EIC Fund, the largest deep-tech fund in Europe and board member at fast growing companies. As one of Europe's first VC funds to be befounded by women, Kinga also co-initiated the European Women in VC Community which published an annual report on the state of diversity in European Venture - which we dive into today 👀 Chapters:00:00:00 - Introduction to The Episode00:02:07 - Increasing Female Presence in Tech and Venture00:04:16 - Launching the Report at TechBBQ00:06:13 - The Foundation Of The Survey 00:08:27 - The Importance of Diversity in Funding00:12:24 - The Performance of Mixed Teams00:14:53 - The Importance of Getting More Women into the Industry00:16:37 - Equity in Investments and Succession Planning00:18:38 - Affordability of General Partnerships for Women00:20:40 - The Importance of Diversity in Management Teams00:22:26 - Progression and Measurement in Impact Investing00:26:15 - Equality and Support in Venture Capital00:28:26 - The Rise of Female Emerging Managers in VC00:32:24 - Reflections on VC Accelerators & VC Lab in Particular00:34:28 - Broadening Access to Venture Capital for Women00:38:27 - Investing in Diversity for Long-Term Success00:40:25 - Personal Choice and Taxpayer Institutions in Europe00:42:32 - The Speed of Change and Female-led Startups00:44:36 - Collaboration and Unity

Today’s a special day here at eu.vc as we’re announcing our investment into Nucleus Capital 🥳 and of course, we do that by sharing with you a deep dive episode with Max and Isabella, the two General Partners of Nucleus.For those who've been with us for a while, the name 'Nucleus Capital' might ring a bell🔔. And for good reason, as we’ve been tracking the firm's journey right from the launch of Nucleus I. To big hardship, we missed the opportunity to invest in Nucleus I, so of course, we’re now buzzing with excitement as we’re binding the final knots for our Nucleus II Syndicate. Based in Berlin, Nucleus Capital is a frontrunner in the Pre-Seed and Seed venture space, dedicated to supporting purpose-driven founders who are solving systemic challenges to planetary health.Dive in with us 👀 and read the whole article covering Nucleus on eu.vcChapters:00:00:00 - The European VC Podcast Introduction00:04:10 - Pooling expertise and building a community00:08:11 - The Journey of Building Nucleus00:11:30 - Making the Decision to Work Together00:12:56 - Isabella Realizing The Worst Decision She Could've Made00:14:38 - Lessons Learned from Fundraising00:16:18 - Inflection points and supporting founders00:17:43 - Tech Bio: Software-driven models leveraging biological data sets00:19:44 - The Importance of Meta-Level and Environmental Factors00:21:41 - Building Relationships and Effective Decks00:23:30 - Differentiation and Positioning in the Startup Industry00:25:16 - Delivering Change and Driving Returns00:27:14 - Bio-based solutions for industry decarbonization00:29:17 - Sector Focus for Better Returns00:30:51 - Including Sustainability and Deep Tech Premiums in Valuations00:32:53 - Investing in Technologies for Sustainable Production00:34:23 - Repath, Analyzing Risk Exposure and Climate Change00:36:15 - Planet A Foods The CO2 Footprint of the Cocoa Industry00:39:41 - Enabling a Viable Future00:41:38 - Balancing the Portfolio#EUVC #VC #VentureCapital #Investing #TheEuropeanVC #Podcast #Tech #Startup

Today we have Andrew Noble with us. Andrew is a partner at Par Equity, an early-stage venture fund backing health tech, climate tech and industrial tech companies. Par Equity invests in the north of the UK, applies a hybrid investment model (angel approach meets VC), and focuses on B2B IP rich companies to create outstanding results.Par Equity has a total of £213m AUM and an established portfolio of 77 companies, 48 in the current portfolio and 29 exits, and notable investments including Integrated Graphene, AEM, Fuuse, Current Health, Delta DNA and ICS Learn.Chapters02:12 - From Professional Skiing to VC 05:40 - From Intern to VC - Andrew’s journey at Par Equity07:27 - The Grit of Being a Sports Athlete in Business09:10 - Launching a Self-Funded Search Fund15:37 - The Role of VCs in the Startup Journey17:43 - The Evolution of ParEquity and the Benefits of a Melting Pot Approach19:16 - Deep dive on the North of the UK Tech Ecosystem21:07 - Dislocation in the Funding Landscape22:57 - Concentration of VC $$ in Capital Cities & Investing outside of them28:45 - Success Story: Delta DNA32:13 - Andrew’s Three Biggest Learnings from the Last 10 Years34:01 - The Importance of Local Players and Existing Relationships in VC 36:00 - Investing in People in Your Region37:44 - Key Advice for Emerging Managers39:06 - Considerations for LP Makeup40:42 - A VC firm's success indicators