EUVC

Cristina Fonseca is a Venture Partner at Indico Capital Partners and one of Portugal's most successful tech entrepreneurs and a true pioneer in the ecosystem. Cristina has co-founded Talkdesk, a cloud-based help desk software that became Portugal's third unicorn and is valued at over 3 billion euros. In Cristina's own words she has: "worn various hats, be it engineering and coding, design and user experience, product management, customer relations, processes or knowledge management." And, in fact, the list could go on. In this episode, you’ll learn:- How Cristina has transitioned from founder to VC & why she believes there are no shortcuts- What Cristina's startup experience brings to Indico and how the team at Indico complements each other.- What Cristina has learned from Indico's move into new geographies and what to expect and invest & how to avoid getting the bad apples

We're doing something different for this episode as we dive deep with James Vanreusel, CEO & founder of Vanreusel Ventures CFO-advisor to a whole string of venture-backed startups. James resides in Silicon Valley but heralds from the Netherlands and we focus on teasing out learnings for VCs helping startups prepare for funding rounds and get ready to cross the Atlantic. In this episode, you’ll learn:– How to think about building out the finance department in the early stages where hustling is key - How to help early-stage companies get funding ready from a CFO-perspective- How to think about landing in the US and the importance of partnering with local firms- Why it's so important to be prepared for the worst ahead of funding rounds and how to be so.

In this episode we dive deep on the wonderful Romanian ecosystem as we try to understand if Romania really is going to repeat the UI Path-success or if they were a one-trick unicorn-pony. We're talking to two of the country's favourite sons; Vlad Sarca from Sparking Capital and Cristian Munteanu from Early Game Ventures.In this episode, you’ll learn:- Romania is poised to deliver many more unicorns than just the famed UI Path- Where to look next in Romania, who to partner with and what you should keep in mind when thinking about Romania- Why Cristian & Vlad are bullish on Romania and all of CEE as the driving force of the next wave of VC tech success stories- Why Cristian doesn't want to hear about founders' passions or high-browed thoughts about work/life-balance

This is the second part of our interview with J Skyler, the founder and general partner of Venture University, the world's leading investor accelerator & VU Venture Partners, a multi-stage venture capital fund focused on Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech, Frontier, Healthcare, and PropTech. With $1.8 Billion invested in more than 250 companies, including greats like Beyond Meat, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Wish and the list goes on, we're excited to bring you the second part of our interview with Skyler. In this episode, you’ll learn:– Why Skyler is hoping to see European founders focus more on what's unique to Europe, impact being a pillar example- Why Skyler thinks European startups actually have a better global outlook than what he typically sees in the US - How Skyler thinks about partnering with the best VC funds from a co-investment as well as LP perspective - Why Skyler would rather have an A-market with a B-team, than an A-team with a B-market & why he doesn't think operator experience is core to being a good VC

J Skyler is the founder and general partner of Venture University & VU Venture Partners, a multi-stage venture capital fund focused on Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech, Frontier, Healthcare, and PropTech. VU Venture Partners has offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Hong Kong. Skyler is also the Founder & CEO of Venture University, the world's leading investor accelerator for individuals breaking into venture capital, private equity, and angel investing. The team have invested over $1.8 Billion in more than 250 companies, including Beyond Meat, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Venmo, FabFitFun, Oculus, Oscar, Wish, and other great tech success stories. In this episode, you’ll learn:– How J Skyler has built one of the world's leading investor accelerator programs as well as a top performing fund yielding 4x net cash returns to LPs.- Why VC must be learnt on the job and university education is a lame duck to entrepreneurial innovators - How VU thinks about the European opportunity & how they're approaching their expansion to our continent- Why J Skyler is 100% satisfied with the current female & minority representation in their cohorts

Christian Hernandez is a founding partner of the newly launched VC firm 2150, a climate VC fund focused on technology companies that seek to sustainably reimagine and reshape the urban environment by solving major problems across the Urban Stack. With a whopping 270 M€ raised in just one year, 2150 is the biggest VC fundraise for a European first-time fund ever and we're diving deep on exactly what allowed them to do that.In this episode, you’ll learn:- How a mid-life crisis led to the formation of Europe's biggest first-time fund ever- What made the difference for 2150's founding team when fundraising- How 2150's LP-base is much more than financial investors looking for returns- What's a Gigacorn, why Christian made up the term and how he hunts for them

Kjartan Rist is the founder and managing partner of Concentric, a UK/Denmark based Seed+ and Beyond fund focusing on B2B and B2B2C startups building software companies solving nontrivial problems in traditional sectors. Kjartan has been in VC for 20 years so naturally, we dive deep with him on how the European startup & VC scene has changed over the last two decades as well as his firm, his thesis and his vehement belief in being a hands-on investor.In this episode, you’ll learn:- How the European VC scene has changed over the last 20 years & why the perception of Spaniards being on siesta and the French on strike no longer applies to Europe. - Why the best founders are like cockroaches and what's underlying the current growth in European entrepreneurship- Why Kjartan hunts for startups that solve non-trivial problems in traditional sectors - What's causing the funding gap in seed+ to series B and how Kjartan & Concentric delivers value to founders in this space

In this episode we shed light on the growing phenomenon of Venture Builders in Europe which is becoming an ever more used entry path into VC for emerging managers & thus also a more common co-investor for early stage VCs to work with. We're talking to two seasoned vets from the VB world, Stephane Guinet and Michael Niddam founders of Paris/Tel Aviv/London-based Kamet Ventures. In this episode, you'll learn:- What are the strengths & weaknesses of different Venture Builder models- How Kamet thinks about idea origination and founder team creation- How VCs should think about having venture builders on the cap table- How VCs should work with venture builders both prior to and after an investment in a VB portfolio company

At just 25 years of age, Simão already has the achievements of a lifetime under his belt; Found a watch brand, check. Join corporate bank and rise to become sub-director, check. Co-found Portugal's strongest Fintech association, check. Raise VC Fund to invest in blockchain startups. Well of course! In this episode we dive deep on the ever-changing blockchain space & Simão's strategy to capitalize it.In this episode, you'll learn: - How blockchain is more than million-dollar-cyberpunks & meta-verses- Why & how blockchain is changing the traditional VC model- Why Lightshift is part VC fund, part hedge fund- Raising for a crypto fund, how to approach LPs & Simãos learnings for other emerging managers raising

Ertan Can is the founding managing partner of Multiple Capital, one of Europe's truly visionary Fund of Funds pioneering micro-VC and Seed fund investing. Prior to founding Multiple, Ertan was Investment Director at a Family Office, which led to developing his thesis for Multiple. Ertan has invested in 30 funds with a portfolio of 500+ early-stage tech companies in Europe across more than 50 sectors and hubs.In this episode, you will learn: - Why many emerging managers should think twice before raising- How to communicate to limited partners & why Ertan misses differentiation from GPs- Why Ertan really loves solo-GPs & micro VCs and how Ertan hunts for new managers across Europe- How Ertan develops his thinking around new markets & upcoming funds- Why Ertan is the opposite of a good fundraiser and what he has learned about the effect of outreaches in fundraising.