YouSaid · the spoken record

Christian Claussen

lines on the record
27
first
2015-06-24
most recent
2015-06-24
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “And essentially, among other things, one big thing was certainly the fact that this is one of these rare companies where founders bootstrap it bootstrapped the business without any additional equity financing to double-digit revenues in SAS.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Oh, that's easy. Most recent investment was just published two, three weeks ago or something. We invested in a Munich-based lead company very international called Speaks, there in the space of...”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “No, I like the Kindle or whatever derivative because you have this ink screen. That makes a big difference, I think, for readers. It's nothing for videos or color. But if you want to read books, it's great. But at the end of the day, I don't see such a big revolution there. It's just another device of how to bring books into your hands. easier. You don't have to go to shops. provisioning, the downloading is different, obviously, but I think it's going that way, I'm pretty sure.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I'm a big fan of Philip Roth, maybe every man, very nice universal story of life and all its facets, ambition, dreams, success, it was a lost regrets and disasters”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I think on the soft skill side of things, reliability, thoughtful analysis and transparency that the founders. And I think given the fact that we've got four general partners with more than 15 years of experience, there's the modesty and the humbleness of people who have lived through two entire cycles and have understood that prediction of future is a very tough challenge. On the strategic side, I think we have a specific angle on internationalization of European companies lots of know-how in that field and business model optimization.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Is there input that is meaningful and that makes me think twice? I think that gives a very good indication. The style of negotiating. Yes, obviously the BC wants a nice good deal and found as well. To me, it's always very telling how founders negotiate their way through it. And I think it goes vice versa. So I think that period, at least not the last two weeks, but the first two months or so can give you a very good indication to whom you're dealing with as long as you can be sure that this is the person who will be then following that engagement.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I always say to guys I'm interested, I say you can call up any of the portfolio companies in our portfolio, the ones that I've been working with just tell me who I give you the names and talk to them. That is something every founder should do if he's got competing offers on the table. I think another thing that is interesting is apart from these checks which are mandatory in my view is between meeting a VC the first time and concluding a deal, a closing, you typically have let's say something like three months, it's two to four months, sometimes six months. That is a great time of learning about the people you're dealing with. Is this EC? Is he making me think? Does he point to things that I know are crucial? Does he immediately he or she find the crucial things in my business model?”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “for these inflection moments, I think There's two things you can do. You can do background checks, references. That is probably the best way. Like the VCs, you're doing the same thing on your company and on yourself as a founder.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Yeah, so maybe it helps to say this is not for the purpose. This is because we have to build this massive platform. Could be. But I think the reason why people are doing that is primarily is competitive reasons, absolutely. It certainly helps, gives you a story to founders to say, listen, I have a little bit more than the other guys. And it is more, it's not less. I totally agree. If you've got some recruiters sitting there and they're idling and waiting for the portfolio company to work for them, I suppose for no additional fees, then this is great. But I believe that if you're a founder, what you need, the value that...”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “It helps explaining, I mean, yes, I know that some of the LPs are, you know, it's always funny LPs, they invest massive amounts of money into funds that we've seen that before in the first bottle. Like, oh God, we gave them $4 billion in funds, multiply that with 2%. Oh, that's a lot of money. That's not a plan.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “I prefer my portfolio companies to go to people like that instead of offering them five guys in my firm. And I'm not even saying this, I'm not even touching the delicate issue of adequate incentive schemes for the SDC support platform. Is it a long-term incentive for the investment side of things in terms of carried? Is it short-term bonuses based on whatever lead generation KPIs, et cetera? How are the in-house career path between support and investment platforms? Is there one? I think it creates a lot of internal distraction. And that's why I said my architect, I could even imagine that it might even intervene with the other side of things, the strategic value that we were talking about early on.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “new tactics in the war for talent. Look at startups like hire.com in the States. By the way, massively backed by USBCs for good reasons, I think, who take a totally disruptive approach in finding that scarce resource of the best IT programmers, experts.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I like to think about this in practical terms. I mean, if you think about marketing and sales support for your portfolio capitalism, everybody's been, and I've been, as I said, 10 years in operations and I've seen numerous of my portfolio companies trying to just to outsource lead generation to a telesales center. In most cases, you see people playing around with that and then after a while they find out that it is much better to insource that and have these activities honed to their specific needs. Now, I got one, I'll take another example, recruiting services. Oh, great. VC platforms got a bunch of recruiters. Why in hell should they be more efficient than a dedicated firm with global reach, with longstanding experience and a clear incentive scheme? And when it comes to”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I'm extremely sceptical about that. Now, everybody who's got these platforms, they will point to numerous examples where they tell you, yeah, but we found engineers for portfolio. It is our legal department is doing great, great and very quick turnaround times on Libya documentation of rounds, et cetera. Sure. I'm a simple country boy.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “He's totally right. I mean, just capital, especially in markets like today, we are in cyclical markets. The VC market is cyclical like many other markets. And it is alternating and waves between a buyer's market and a seller's market. In times of a seller's market, like we see today, VCs are obviously facing more competition and just providing money is something everybody can do. So they will invent and not only invent but point to differentiating elements to win good deals. That is a normal thing.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “or put your feet on the pedal and this is then being done if you do your job correctly on the basis of meaningful KPIs and scenario planning so this is where VCs can add a lot of experience and oversight being a professional referee in personal affairs found a quorum so I think you see that in one of three portfolio companies play this professionally and create the trust that's necessary to do it.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “So in these inflection points where I believe the value add of a VC comes in, so to now name a couple of things and I listed those in my article. It's an incomplete list, but obviously it's referred to financing infection points are typically very often financing rounds. So VC's ability to close these smoothly without overly distracting management being predictable and able to lead, coordinate, syndicate, specifically in follow-on financing, which tend to be sometimes quite difficult. But then beyond financing, there are points, inflection points, where you need to discuss and implement burn rate adjustments either way.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Absolutely. I believe that this really comes from personal experience. Every startup's role to success is marked by not more than five to ten crucial turning points and the related decisions. Each of these turning points, I call these typically inflection points. They have a big impact on the final outcome of the endeavor. In hindsight, if you like, these are the junctions where the direction a company takes will decide about boom or bust or at least decide between thriving and prosper or loss of momentum.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “What I'm actually trying to do is and what I try to do with the archive is to point out that founders should see through the marketing hype and concentrate on those elements of value added that in my view really count and that will make the difference on the difficult path to build successful company in the innovation space.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Absolutely. So maybe before I answer your question, just like to point out two things because that sometimes came up in reactions to my article. A, I'm absolutely convinced that a good VC can provide tremendous value beyond the pure provisioning of equity or financing means. And B, while I remain very skeptical, and we will dive into that, about currently fashionable VC claims regarding value on the operational side of things. That's where the platform idea comes in. I do accept the fact that there are obviously cases where these platforms can be helpful. Now, this being said,”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Yeah, it's true. As you know, I wrote this article and somehow I felt I needed to be written. It indeed has triggered a quite lively civil media controversy.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “That is possible. We have one slot in our new fourth generation fund, which is a 110 million fund, with one dedicated slot that is used for seat investment. So that's called the seat pocket. And we do, alongside... Business angels who we know and who we trust we do alongside these guys 100 to 250k tickets in Cr”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Yeah, so you can on the geography between the two markets, the two territories, the two countries we are mainly active in, France and Germany, we find due to competitive issues, more competition being in France compared to Germany, which has to do with money supply, it's a lot of story, we find more of these early growth companies or opportunities in Germany where we can hop on board and in France tendency though more early stage.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Yeah, Adventek, we speak of early stage and early growth. We do both. So early stages, I'm not a big fan of this AB, et cetera, around. It's more like early stage for us is when business models are really unproven and it's just a cool story typically with some traction and not just seed, but there's some traction. And we do that. And we also do what we call early growth where you can see the initial elements being proven early of your money printing machine. So the business model has already kind of proven what typically remains unpredictable is the size of the market and the speed to scale.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Roughly into about 30 European companies, startups. Today I'm one of the four equity partners at Ventech. Ventech is a leading French VC firm where I oversee the specifically all our investments and investment activities in Germany.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “And since I became very intrigued with the mechanisms of Silicon Valley triggered by this Netscape hype and what happened there, I actually initiated a corporate fund within Siemens being a complete newbie to that story. But I wrote the blueprint, got a signature, and kicked this off in 1997. I was soon after hired away by a firm called TBM that at the time was the leading transatlantic VC in Germany with offices in Munich and Boston. So I think it was 1998 when I joined TBM and this was the time where the internet bubble, the first internet bubble was in full formation. So since then I've done this for like 18 years now. I've invested some 120 million.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Sure. I actually started my life as a VC about 18 years ago in 1997. Old man by now, triggered by actually by Netscape's IPO. I have an international WE degree in telecommunications and at that time had almost 10 years of operation experience in the European telecoms industry under my belt. So I think in 97 I was an EVP in product marketing for optical SDH core networks with Siemens Communications Group. So the stuff that people today refer to as the cloud.”

    2015-06-24 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source