YouSaid · the spoken record

Alessandra Sollberger

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24
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2015-07-06
most recent
2015-07-06
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1
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  1. “So among our recent investments, well, blockchain actually business. And we said yes for the reasons I was telling you about.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Do something you're passionate about. Like, it's really, really important that you pick something that you just believe in so much that you could do it for the next 10 years rather than something that seems right or, you know, seems reasonable.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Pros intellectually and socially, it's an extremely rewarding job. And cons, well, your inbox reaches escape velocity, meaning you can't possibly answer everything.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “For sure. I think the government is already here in the UK. It's been quite active, which is great. There's definitely, you know, there's endless opportunities to do more, but I'm very pleased actually about what the government has been doing for sure.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “To learn coding. Ah, mainly online resources, so actually if you check out Brian Mentors, the website, we have some useful online resources in there as well, like Code Academy and so on, that we used ourselves as well. But I think it's kind of important to have a body as well or, you know, a friend who can actually explain to you how it concretely works like”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “I told myself front-end coding, right? And I think I shouldn't have been in the position that I would have had to teach it to myself. I think I should have, you know, I should have been taught that at school because it's so important. Obviously now it's changing, right? Which is great. But I think it needs to gain all the relevance that it deserves.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Our developers and mentors, they really enjoy. So it's great for them. And it's great for what they actually add as value to the kids and to everybody else.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Sure. So I created Brimentors a couple of years ago because I really care about the skills gap in technology and I think pretty much everybody in the tech industry has to, right? Because, you know, there's a shortage in talent and engineers. And when you think about developed economies, the main driver of economic growth is innovation, right? So technological innovation is what really drives our societies in that sense. And I think that all of us can sort of like help out the common cause because it's like, you know, it's good for everybody. And that's why I created brim mentors with the thinking of, you know, if as an entrepreneur or as a developer, I can spare a couple of hours every month or every few months to help teaching coding. Well, that's something like it's great for me actually.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Yeah, exactly. So there's a lot of things to it, right? So crypto, but it doesn't necessarily refer to the fact that you'll never be able to trace a transaction. In fact, it's quite the other way around. I think, you know, it's obviously a matter of debate and we could talk hours about that. But overall, I would say that the impact is very positive on the ecosystem overall, for sure.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “The funny thing is that actually you can see every transaction on the blockchain. So it's incredibly transparent. However, it's new, right? So if you don't know it, kind of feel like, well, how does this work like? Why do such sites like Silkfood use it? In fact, what do you think?”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “I think what we'll see is not necessarily just Bitcoin in the ecosystem. We'll see more than that. It starts like that and it's great. But yes, I do believe that it has the potential of having an enormous impact. Yes.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Right, so I mean, there's several interesting trends going on. I would say that if you see our portfolio, we are investors in blockchain and blockstream, which are kind of like blockchain related businesses. You can see in two ways across the things you can look at Bitcoin and you can look at the blockchain. And I would argue the blockchain is just much more than Bitcoin, right? There is all sort of things going on that are interesting in there, just like smart contracts. And there's like so many applications that we kind of already see happening, but we're only scratching the surface. So, and the dynamics of it, right? That also kind of very democratizing and the fact that it's a distributed database and it's decentralized rather than needing a central. authority. That's very exciting.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I'm seeing some. I would say that definitely, as I was telling you before, vertical ones that can also provide the service are very interesting. We haven't, you know, we're looking definitely for marketplace investments. Hopefully we'll find one soon. So always open to that for sure.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “But what's interesting about that is just like how the kind of like new dynamics that they can bring and their liquidity and transparency that they create and sort of like the price discovery in opaque areas, right? So for example, before eBay, it was all offline. It was very intransparent and you would never know. I mean, as a consumer, right? You would never have an idea of what's good and what's bad from a price perspective. You should just sort of like trust your gut, which is fine. But I think marketplaces are really democratizing the process sort of like the buying process for consumers or just like the kind of like affordability of that as well. So, you know, Uber's everyone's private driver. Well, that obviously is not as cheap, but still, like, you know, it couldn't exist before, right? It couldn't exist before technology.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Right well, if you think about marketplaces, right, it started sort of with horizontal models like listings like Craigslist. It went to vertical ones like Airbnb. And now when you look at marketplaces, it's more than vertical. They're actually also the provider of services like Uber. Uber is in fact the marketplace or hassle. You see these marketplaces kind of like having evolved into force or something like horizontal that kind of covers everything. And then because of the adoption of the internet and everything else that has come with it, they can go more vertically in a specific area, right? So I'm sure you've maybe seen these maps where you dissect Craigslist and you see that there's businesses being created across every specific type of listing, right? Absolutely. And so I think that's kind of been a natural trend over the last, you know, decade or more, even.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “I think being up to date, you know, sort of like I like hearing people who've kind of got an overview of what's going on in terms of, I don't know, the blockchain is interesting because give me the reasons, right? And then I can see that you've thought about that. Or these other sectors, I don't really believe in it. And then I can actually argue why. And at the same time give me examples for each sector. Because it's one thing to stay theoretical, that's fine. But, you know, there's plenty of startups in whichever sector you pick. So I like to hear about those more concretely as well with an opinion. And it doesn't matter if it's a yes or a no. Like I like or I don't like the startup. It matters more that you can argue for or against it.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Sure, I think you really need to develop a strong interest in the ecosystem in terms of startups and what's going on and have your own opinions about different sectors. And within each sector, why does this business model or the other one make more sense? And how does the industry look like in five years from now and why, right?”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Right. Look, I don't think that you necessarily have only one or the other. I think you often see maybe somebody who did first the one and then went operational or the other way around. And I think you'll see increasingly more of that mix because I think it's very relevant. Why you have to define routes? I think that both of them, so being in startups or being, you know, on the operational side obviously makes you understand very concretely how businesses work, especially if it's in technology, just as much as being on the investment side or being in consulting or in investment banking that gives you a perspective in terms of how you look at companies and that sectors, you know, how you think about that.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Definitely. I think you need both. I think ideally you literally have both, right? As I guess our partners do, but you need a mix as well because when you have discussions about investment opportunities, about market trends, about all of that, you want diverse opinions. You kind of want to spark a dialogue that is not necessarily everybody thinks the same way, right? Like, in fact, kind of the opposite. So you definitely see different backgrounds coming in. And I think it's important to balance the boat.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Sure, sure. So mosaic is sort of like a Silicon Valley style ventroom. It was started because the partners who are both operators and investors over the years, they worked in US for a long time, but they're originally from here, and they kind of felt like there's still, you know, it's a great moment right now to be investing in Europe, but there's definitely an opportunity to bring a bit of that style and expertise to Europe, right? So we are Series A focused fund. Invest mainly in European companies across geographies like the UK, Germany, Sweden, Finland, France and Barz. And we're really excited about entrepreneurs with very long-term ambitious plans, about changing like the industry in the market that they pick. And with that sort of drive, right? That's what we're looking for”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Well, I think for me it's always been something that I'm passionate about. So it was relatively straightforward from that perspective. And also, you know, intellectually and socially, it's an extremely rewarding job. You meet very smart, amazing entrepreneurs who are passionate about what they do every day. It's tough to say no, but it's mainly about being able to say no as well. But you know, like just the challenge of thinking about new spaces and new ways of doing things and changing markets, it's just like for me was a no-brainer.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “And later on, you know, I studied in Switzerland, in the US, and then in the UK at Oxford, and I got experience in M&A, Goman, and I worked in private equity at Blackstone for the period before kind of like getting into venture. I also, however, got involved in tech startups during my studies and right out of that. And I think getting that type of experience is definitely very useful because you see how it really works like, right? I think as a VC, having operational experience, it's important, or just at least understand how it really feels like to be on the entrepreneurial side.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “And he was just fun, you know, and then kind of like later on during high school I got a lot into like extreme sports like windsurf and snowboard so I got licenses to teach those and I think you know it was kind of like a very useful experience but also very uncommon and I think in general entrepreneurship and VC is also about pattern recognition across I would say unusual experiences or profiles right so I think that's always useful for all of us to kind of like highlight the things we've done that are sort of uncommon”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Of course. So I'm originally from Switzerland. I grew up across various places in there. I started getting into entrepreneurship early on in a very spontaneous way, so reselling children items in front of large exhibitions, making quite a high markup, and eventually accumulating quite a ton of cash without even wanting it, right? I was 11 years old.”

    2015-07-06 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 051: The New Silicon Valley Style VC in London with Alessandra Sollberger @ Mosaic Ventures · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source