EUVC

Gary Leyden, co-founder and GP of Leyden Ventures an early stage fund operating out of Dubai and have invested in breakout companies like Coinbase, Superhuman, and Instacart long before they occupied the front page of TechCrunch. And importantly, he’s also the host of [🌮⭐ TacoStars](http://tacostars.org/), the largest founder social community in the UAE and is hands-down one of the funniest guys we’ve brought on to the show 😍In this episode you’ll learn- What has Gary so excited about the MENA region’s ecosystem and what he thinks everyone gets wrong- Gary’s views on fundraising in the MENA region and- The story behind Tacostars, Leyden VC and Gary’s love for rolling funds, SPVs and plug and play fund admin

Claus Rehfeld is a Danish Business Angel with a unique thesis around health tech and some strong contrarian perspectives. Claus sold his company that did business intelligence for the health care sector in 2018 and has since made 8 investments. Join us for an episode that’s certain to lift your mood. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why the Nordics is a perfect sandbox for VCs in HealthTech and a deep dive on importance of collaboration between hospitals, universities and the tech world.- The primacy of data in the future of health care and why many VCs struggle to capture the opportunity it holds- Why HealthTech should be perceived as distinct from from biotech, medtech, and digitalhealth- What’s behind the quote “founders want the glamour of startups, but not the sweat and tears” and how Claus thinks about investing and mentoring early stage founders.

Today, we’re happy to introduce you to Winter Mead, co-founder of oper8r, one of the world’s leading VC accelerators and which, since recording, has rebranded to now be operating under “Coolwater Capital”. So sorry for the confusion this might cause!Winter has also authored the book “How To Raise A Venture Capital Fund: The Essential Guide on Fundraising and Understanding Limited Partners” which is a thorough and enlightening read for any emerging VC. So do go and check that out!**In this episode you’ll learn:**- The amazing journey he’s been through to write his book “How To Raise A Venture Capital Fund”- Winter’s take on good practices for GPs trying to raise their first fund- His take on the skills of a good founding managing partner- The incredible process of co-founding Oper8r, where they strive to build the next generation of institutional VCs with their amazing program

Meet Finn Murphy, newly-named Partner at Frontline Ventures, one of Europe’s leading B2B Enterprise VC firms. Finn is a true “Product-&-Growth-Marketing-Person” turned VC - Looking to find and help grow the best new business ideas in Europe & the US. As a teenager, Finn wanted to be a professional ocean racer after which he went on to ace Engineering & Maths at Trinity College, then start a series of startups and finally go into VC with Frontline Ventures.In this episode you’ll learn:- Finn’s journey and learnings with Frontline drawing key lessons for VCs aspiring to make partner- How Finn and Frontline adapted to the bull market that has been characterising the last few years and extenuated during Covid.- How Finn thinks about collaboration in VC, how to foster it with fellow co-investors and his analysis of why collaboration seems to come and go as markets go up and down- Why being a junior in the industry can actually be a strength and why you should remember that your relationships are yours, not your fund's... until you make partner that is.

Episode #49: Cristobal Alonso, Startup Wiseguys Today, we're happy to introduce you to Cristobal Alonso, founder and CEO of Startup Wiseguys, one of Europe’s leading and ambitious B2B accelerators. Cristobal and his team have made more than 180 investments into early-stage SaaS, Sustainability CyberSecurity, and Fintech B2B startups and are set to scale their accelerator model in globally in the coming years. Welcome to an episode packed with Cristobal’s knock-out energy and bold thinking. In this episode you'll learn:- How Startup Wiseguys contrast to YC, Tech Stars and Startupbootcamp- How Cristobal leverages the accelerator model to hack VC and employ a contrarian investment strategy involving bagging early wins at Series A.- How Cristobal thinks about building a culture and org that can grow to become “YC of the rest of the world”- Why the legal team is loved by founders, what the secret is behind getting to an 80% survival rate in the accelerator portfolio and what has got Startup Wise Guys to a 50% follow-on rate.- Most importantly, where and when the Startup Wiseguys Party will be this coming year

The Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby has been capturing headlines in the VC community lately. We sat down with him at The European VC to dive into his book and shed light on some of the stand-out quotes and stories from the book. If you love VC, you’ll love this book (and hopefully also our interview with Sebastian 🤣)**Join us to learn the story behind the quotes:**Vinod Khosla: Most people think improbable ideas are unimportant. The only thing that’s important is something that’s improbable.Matt Clifford: Silicon Valley is gripped by the cult of the individual. But those individuals represent the triumph of the network.Michael Moritz, Sequoia: The great challenge at venture partnerships is that the principals must refrain from killing each other.Paul Graham, Y Combinator: Spend as little as you can, because every dollar of the investor’s money you get will be taken out of your ass.Andy Grove, Intel: John [Doerr], venture capital, that’s not a real job. It’s like being a real estateagent.

Today we're talking to Contrarian Ventures’ founding partner Rokas Peciulaitis and GP Tomas Kemtys. Contrarian focuses on Energy tech and smart mobility at the seed-stage and by doubling down on community their reputation and brand has far outgrown Fund 1’s modest 12.5 M€ AUM allowing them to punch far above their weight class and raise for a many times bigger Fund II. We have to say, this episode is an amazing inspiration for any emerging manager thinking about new ways to cement their presence in European VC. In this episode you'll learn:- How Rokas & Tomas has built a brand and community that far outweighs their fund size.- How Contrarian balances investing in the notoriously difficult interface of hardware and software & what they think about solving for frontier VC verticals- How Contrarian plans and builds the fund narrative to go from a tiny fund I to a many times bigger fund II and how they prepare for the changes it will bring to the firm.

Welcome to the inaugural launch episode of The EUVC Investment Club where we’re bringing everyone in our beautiful ecosystem together around backing emerging managers. We’re honored and hyped to bring back to the show Enis Hulli, General Partner of 500 Istanbul, one of the best performing funds in the 500 Global fund family. Join us as we dive deep on Enis’ fund and explore why we’re so hyped about Enis and his thinking. We’ve long been wanting to democratize access to invest into European VC and this episode marks the true beginnings of this. In this episode, you’ll learn: - The investment thesis and strategy that has led to Fund I’s massive success yielding a 4.7x Gross TVPI & 53% IRR- What has allowed Enis and his team to execute 40 investments in founders from 11 countries with a cumulative 500M$ annualized revenue (97% from foreign markets) and 3000 people employed.- What Enis has learned and adapted from Fund I to Fund II & why Enis doubles down on talent arbitrage and tech transfer.- How Enis thinks about firm building, why he is so wholly dedicated to deal sourcing and what his strategy is to access the best deals in Turkey and Eastern Europe

Daniela is a PhD-trained Biomedical Engineer with more than 10 years of experience in venture capital and building early-stage biotechnology companies, such as Staten Biotech - resulting in a $485 million transaction at the pre-clinical stage. Science has been at the core of Daniela's career and she's now making a true difference at BGV by coupling that with her entrepreneurial experience and eye for judging people as well as investments.In this episode you’ll learn:- Daniela’s story transitioning from founder to VC- The importance of having a strong entrepreneurial & scientific background as a #biotech investor- The growth story of @BGV from 17M€ AUM in Fund I to 140 M€ AUM in Fund IV- The amazing outcomes from the companies BGV has invested in

We're joined by the famed Al Ramadan, author of the seminal book “Play bigger: how pirates dreamers and innovators create and dominate markets” which first introduced Category Design to the world. The book has since sold more than one hundred thousand copies and been heralded by people like Marc Benioff of SalesForce and Jim Goetz of Sequoia. We’re diving deep on category design, how it has evolved since inception in 2016 and how it’s being applied by forward thinking VCs throughout Silicon Valley and the world. In this episode you’ll learn:– What is Category Design and why it’s so central to creating the major outcomes we’re all chasing in VC- What Al Ramadan would wish he had done differently when first launching the book and category of “category design” - How some of the best VCs employ category design in their work with startups- What’s next for the category of “category design” and what we should be keeping our eyes peeled for.