00:23:36 · Uwe Horstmann
[00:23:36] S1: Yeah, so we've seen a lot of things. I mean, I guess we've all seen, you know, people are trying to build up massive machines and trying for detection and decision making and so on. We are always experimenting with that, but it leads to... Definitely, it helped to increase the funnel, so it helped to screen more things, but then the process still remains very quote unquote manual, and I think it will continue to do that. It will continue to be pretty like that for a longer period of time. We worked a lot, of course, on how we approach all those things mentally, how we think about investment decisions, how we communicate our thinking about startups, how we make this process interactive with potential investment targets, how we share our research with them, how we get feedback from them on what we think about them, and so on. So I think for us it's been much more about process than about making that process automated. I think it's going to take a while until we get there. For us, it's still such a human factor. It's about individuals, it's about chemistry and so on, so I wouldn't know how that can be fully automated. That doesn't mean that we don't invest obviously in making the process faster and smoother, especially also for the benefit of the portfolio of the founders, because, you know, they almost always have better things to do than to talk to us. Right? I mean, they should be building a business and not wasting the time with with VCs too much. So we obviously thrive for process optimization. And we do that, and there are great tools out there. You know? Probably everybody uses some kind of CRM system, whether it's a ticketing system or a Salesforce version or Affinity or whatever you wanna use. I think that's best practice by now that you're kinda up to speed with, with that and and and get the process... Get the trains run on time. But, yeah, the the real innovation for us, I think, happens on how do we think about companies, how can we structure our thinking, how can we come up with a reasonable way to quote unquote try to predict the future in a future that's unpredictable. You know, how how do we approach that? I think that's, that's more about it, because we don't wanna focus on business only where I have to analyze current numbers.
00:25:49 · Uwe Horstmann, Andre Degler
We want to focus on businesses where we define, like, a joint view of the future together with the team. And it's probably gonna come in a very different way. It's probably... You know, the likelihood of this future becoming reality is zero, but I think you learn a lot in the process together, and that can't be done by a computer. [00:26:09] S0: Alright. That makes sense. And, do you think... How many how many companies, do you analyze, every, I don't know, week, month? [00:26:19] S1: So it's roughly 10,000 per year. Mhmm. So... Yeah. So roughly, you know, very simply speaking, a thousand per month. [00:26:29] S0: That's just how we How many of them do you see? What do you think? [00:26:33] S1: Me, personally? [00:26:34] S0: Uh-huh. [00:26:35] S1: I would say probably 20 or so a month. So I would say it's in in the hundreds still per year. [00:26:42] S0: Yeah. Mhmm. That's still quite a bit.
00:26:42 · Andre Degler, Uwe Horstmann
[00:26:42] S0: Yeah. Mhmm. That's still quite a bit. [00:26:44] S1: Yeah. Yeah. It's still quite a bit, but it's... Like, think if the number would drop lower, I would not find job satisfaction, because that's... That is the best part of it all. Obviously, you know, time gets absorbed by working with existing portfolio companies, but it's still the best part. Still, the best part is, you know, interacting with the with the founders and then, okay. Thanks. Those... I understand the slides now, but let's let's just talk about how do you see this happening, how do you see this materializing, what do you need, what keeps you up, what is the biggest success, what are you focused in the next twelve months. I mean, it's those discussions that are much more interesting than any any cohort analysis, even though we, of course, have to do those as well. [00:27:21] S0: And what have you seen over over all these ten years in terms of geography? So has it become more diverse, where your founders, come from? And do you see any particular maybe markets, particular countries being more and more on your radar?
00:27:21 · Andre Degler, Uwe Horstmann
[00:27:21] S0: And what have you seen over over all these ten years in terms of geography? So has it become more diverse, where your founders, come from? And do you see any particular maybe markets, particular countries being more and more on your radar? [00:27:39] S1: Yeah. Definitely. So the the first question is that we don't really care that much about geography anymore. Now, of course, corona has also helped with with everything being remote. But in all seriousness, there's no reason why a cool company shouldn't be able to start to exist, to be born, or then grow in any kind of corner of of the continent. So that's fantastic, I think. That also makes our job a little bit more complicated in terms of our radar being a bit more open, not just too narrow on on certain countries. So, yeah, I think we we we see amazing stuff now happening everywhere, and being too focused on on countries is probably not not not the right way to think about this. Sometimes, you know, any reason to think hard way is that company actually based that I'm about to speak to because, it doesn't even matter much. Plus, we think, like, a lot a lot of companies also won't see themselves as rooted somewhere that deeply anymore going forward. They will be just as international, just as remote as we are operating. And that's, I think, where it becomes really, really interesting, how a remote distributed VC firm deals with a remote distributed, startup. That's, I think, where it where it gets interesting. That's where the future also definitely is headed.
00:27:39 · Uwe Horstmann, Andre Degler
[00:27:39] S1: Yeah. Definitely. So the the first question is that we don't really care that much about geography anymore. Now, of course, corona has also helped with with everything being remote. But in all seriousness, there's no reason why a cool company shouldn't be able to start to exist, to be born, or then grow in any kind of corner of of the continent. So that's fantastic, I think. That also makes our job a little bit more complicated in terms of our radar being a bit more open, not just too narrow on on certain countries. So, yeah, I think we we we see amazing stuff now happening everywhere, and being too focused on on countries is probably not not not the right way to think about this. Sometimes, you know, any reason to think hard way is that company actually based that I'm about to speak to because, it doesn't even matter much. Plus, we think, like, a lot a lot of companies also won't see themselves as rooted somewhere that deeply anymore going forward. They will be just as international, just as remote as we are operating. And that's, I think, where it becomes really, really interesting, how a remote distributed VC firm deals with a remote distributed, startup. That's, I think, where it where it gets interesting. That's where the future also definitely is headed. [00:28:52] S0: Alright. And to the second part of the question, so still, do you actually see any particular, geographies becoming more prominent in terms of where the companies are coming from?
00:28:52 · Andre Degler, Uwe Horstmann
[00:28:52] S0: Alright. And to the second part of the question, so still, do you actually see any particular, geographies becoming more prominent in terms of where the companies are coming from? [00:29:03] S1: I mean, so for us, for example, The Nordics always have been very important, and I think, they'll just grow. The UK obviously is a market that always has been very strong and continues to be strong. Eastern Europe for us is definitely like, it will always be... Yeah. It's... It continues to be high on the agenda just because tech talent and and overall proliferation of, you know, the the start up concepts now is is reaching every corner of Europe, especially also Eastern Europe. So we're kinda looking everywhere. There's there's not, like, a real, you know, secret tip that I have. Okay. This is, this this very specific region that we see a lot of growth in. I think it's gonna be across the board. Maybe some country is growing faster at some point, but, a, we don't even think about, you know, certain geographic... Geographies that way, as as I mentioned, and, b, we think there's an overall lift up effect for for pretty much everywhere. As long as you don't take really dumb political decisions, I think you will benefit from that. If you take especially smart decisions, you will you will benefit over proportionally from that. And I think that's kind of the task that that countries are now dealing with.