20 VC 048: What Do VC's Really Add To Startups with Christian Claussen, Managing Partner @ Ventech
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2015
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Quote of the Day: "Capital is a crappy differentiator". Dustin Dolginow
Christian Claussen is a Managing Partner with Ventech, a VC firm with offices in Munich and Paris. He has 16 years of experience investing in innovation and he leads Ventech investment activities in the German-speaking regions of Europe. He serves as a board member for Picanova and TV Smiles.
In today's amazing episode with Christian we learn:
- Which value adds are most important for founders to look for?
- How can Founders determine whether VCs will carry out on their 'Value Add'?
- What are the signs of VC bulls***?
- Will we see all VCs transition to Andreesen Horowitz service based VC model?
- How have VCs offerings to startups changed over time?
- What advice would Christian provide to founders entering a round of funding?
Items Mentioned in Today's Show:
Christian's Favourite Book: Phillip Roth: Everyman
Christian's Article on VC Value Add
Speex: Online Language Training That Really Works
As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone, welcome to the number one show for all things venture capital. It is, of course, |
| 0:04.8 | the 20-minute VC with your host, Harry Stebbings. Now, on today's show, I am so excited to welcome |
| 0:10.8 | Christian Klausen. Christian is a managing partner with Ventech, a VC firm with offices in Munich and |
| 0:17.8 | Paris. He has 16 years of experience in investing in innovation, and he leads |
| 0:23.6 | Ventech's investment activities in the German-speaking regions of Europe. He also serves as a board |
| 0:29.6 | member for Pickenover and TV Smiles. Now, today is a first for the 20-minute VC. Much of our |
| 0:35.7 | audience has asked that we focus on particular aspects of the |
| 0:39.1 | venture industry. And so today I'm thrilled to welcome Christian, who wrote a fantastic article on the |
| 0:45.2 | value ad of VCs and what VCs can bring to startups. And so today that will be our first focus |
| 0:52.3 | point. And we will dive into all things VC value ad. |
| 0:57.0 | But first, we are always told it is important to build a great team in order to build a great |
| 1:02.0 | company. |
| 1:03.0 | Well, this is made so much more easy with the use of hiring screens algorithm which finds |
| 1:08.0 | the most suitable and relevant candidate for your job. It certainly made my life |
| 1:12.4 | a whole lot easier finding Jackie, who is simply fantastic. Thank you so much, hiring |
| 1:17.2 | screen. I couldn't have done it without you. But back to today's show and here is Christian. |
| 1:22.0 | Three, two, one, zero. You have now arrived at your destination. |
| 1:30.3 | Well Christian, welcome to the 20 minute VC. It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. |
| 1:36.3 | And thanks so much for having me. Really looking forward to our discussion. |
| 1:40.3 | And can you start by giving us a little background about yourself and tell us how you made your way into the venture industry? |
| 1:47.0 | Sure. I actually started my life as a VC about 18 years ago in 1997, |
| 1:57.0 | an old man by now, triggered by, actually by Netscape's IPO. |
... |
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