Scaling Europe
00:09:41 · Sebastian Johnson, Margarethe Böhme
[00:09:41] S0: And what... You know, because you're you're sort of closer to founders in many ways, I'm curious to, like, what what do you see as your unique advantages? So you talk about some of the the bigger firms in Europe getting a bit comfortable, maybe a bit slow. You know, where do you see your advantage in kind of seeing the best deals in the new Nordics? [00:10:01] S1: I would say that, like, the advantage of being young is that you have to prove yourself. End of day. I might be like... Many might see it as okay. Maybe that's not an advantage. It's the opposite. For me, it is. Because we... Basically, just as I mentioned before, we approach Wave. This is our company. This is our start up. So anytime a founder wants something, we take that as input to our product. Like, what do we have to do better? What kind of connections can we get them? What can we hustle for them? Like, that's the kind of mindset that we always have. And I think that's, like... I think that's a pro. Like, even though we might not always have, you know, the most senior networks out there, we will work to build them for our companies. And I think that many investors that might have been in the game for a bit longer, especially the more comfortable ones, mid sized funds, they don't really... They haven't had the reason to do so because they might be super well connected in a certain area. But for us, it's like we are in it. We're going to prove ourselves. We're going to prove our place on this cap table. Because, of course, when you're young, you get questioned more often.
00:10:01 · Margarethe Böhme, Sebastian Johnson
[00:10:01] S1: I would say that, like, the advantage of being young is that you have to prove yourself. End of day. I might be like... Many might see it as okay. Maybe that's not an advantage. It's the opposite. For me, it is. Because we... Basically, just as I mentioned before, we approach Wave. This is our company. This is our start up. So anytime a founder wants something, we take that as input to our product. Like, what do we have to do better? What kind of connections can we get them? What can we hustle for them? Like, that's the kind of mindset that we always have. And I think that's, like... I think that's a pro. Like, even though we might not always have, you know, the most senior networks out there, we will work to build them for our companies. And I think that many investors that might have been in the game for a bit longer, especially the more comfortable ones, mid sized funds, they don't really... They haven't had the reason to do so because they might be super well connected in a certain area. But for us, it's like we are in it. We're going to prove ourselves. We're going to prove our place on this cap table. Because, of course, when you're young, you get questioned more often. [00:11:09] S0: Yeah. Okay. So there's like a certain hunger or fire to of like being the underdog. [00:11:14] S1: Exactly. Right?
00:11:14 · Margarethe Böhme, Sebastian Johnson
[00:11:14] S1: Exactly. Right? [00:11:16] S0: But you built this team and you're part of a team of the youngest investors in Europe. And becoming a VC is often something that happens later on in someone's career. Normally they've built something, they've operated or whatever, right? They've exited the classic old route of banking or consulting. How do you screen for great team members at Wave? What do you look for for the next generations people, the next managing partner? What are they gonna look like? And how do you screen them?
00:11:46 · Margarethe Böhme, Sebastian Johnson
[00:11:46] S1: I think there are a couple of things that we we always look for, and it's number one. Like, the absolute most important thing is always agency. Like, has this person shown that they are exceptional and have high agency? So, like, if you look across our team, like, most of us have built things before. Like, I've started companies. My colleagues have. Some have exited them. Like, all of these things point towards you wanting to build something and that you're kind of like a dog with a bone. And that is super important to me. And then, like, on a separate note, funnily enough, something I I learned from my parents, so something you can take from from an older generation who are more from a corporate background. Always hire people that are better than yourselves. Because end of day, like, there are things, like, with our, like, most recent hire, for example, Arthur, he's great. He's been at, different venture firms. He's worked at our portfolio company, and he's an AI engineer. And I was like, this is absolutely perfect for what we want to build. He has a different set of knowledge than other people in the team. So always look for, like, where are the gaps in order to make this the best performing fund on Exactly. [00:12:55] S0: Interesting. Okay. High people better than yourself. And then if if there was advice that you could give to other people, right, who are relatively, you know, maybe like a similar age to yourself and the team who are really interested in an eventual career, what would be your advice to them?
00:12:55 · Sebastian Johnson, Margarethe Böhme
[00:12:55] S0: Interesting. Okay. High people better than yourself. And then if if there was advice that you could give to other people, right, who are relatively, you know, maybe like a similar age to yourself and the team who are really interested in an eventual career, what would be your advice to them? [00:13:10] S1: It's funny, actually. I, I think that a lot of people think, you know, I need, like, x y z in terms of qualifications in order to get anywhere. And in my opinion, that can be further from the truth. Like, every single, like, job or, like, company or anything I've done, it's been because I've gone out and I've, like, reached out to people and asked, oh, could you help me with this? Or I wanna learn this. So, like, with, the company I started when I was 17, I started just cold calling, like, two fifty people who were in the industry. And I was like, I don't understand why this isn't happening. Can you explain it to me? And I think that led into different connections that got me a job when I was 18 operationally at a startup. And that got me the job at the venture firm after. So I think just be super proactive and show that you want to learn and, like, be out there because there's no way to stand out from the crowd otherwise and just show that you're excited about something. Like, of course, everyone wants to work with somebody who's, like, motivated, excited, and ambitious.
00:14:17 · Sebastian Johnson
[00:14:17] S0: Yeah. It's really... We... I hear that a lot from, like, startups as well. It's like the tradition... Whatever the traditional route is in that career is like it's going out the window. You want a job at a startup, it's like applying for the applying by the form or whatever is like the last way that you're going to get into the role. I want to talk about the New Nordics. I think it's phenomenal moment you mentioned Tandem, Lovable, Legora. A lot of these are Stockholm based. Are there any like, what are the other hubs we should be looking at? Is it Helsinki? Is it Copenhagen? Like, where are the other places where you think, okay, this could be the next Stockholm, the next big hub of the New Nordics?