Encouraged by Alexander Graf and his critical analysis of the current digital environment I asked myself why so many irrational business seem to get an almost unlimited amount of funding. In Germany there is always Zalando as a great example of this trend. The business is so far not profitable and investments that by now […]

Over the last month we have supported a wide range of acquisitions in Germany with eTribes. On the one hand we have worked with our clients to identify targets on the other hand we are constantly asked to evaluate business ideas by VC/angle investors or by entrepreneurs who are looking for feedback. In addition, we […]

…finishing of my post series in regards to VC industry changes … Will prices for start-ups significantly change? In my opinion most start-ups will continue to raise the necessary funds in Germany. Firstly, venture capital never played a significant role here and secondly a large range of new capital sources have been developed over [...]

cont’d from last post VC funding… Does it matter whether venture capital is a failed asset class or not? Yes, some capital restrictions will apply but I would argue that there are sufficient alternative sources of capital to not significantly restrict new venture creation. Smart entrepreneurs can bootstrap, rely on angle networks [...]

As discussed in the previous post – times are tough for VC funds – but what implications does that bring? Funds need to start lasting value creation to attract new capital! As a first step I think that VCs need to reevaluate how they select investments. So far the industry has a way too high […]

Previously, venture capital as an asset class has been critically discussed by Jochen and Alex in their respective blogs excitingcommerce.de and kassenzone.de. Source: http://www.excitingcommerce.de/2012/09/vcs-und-die-hohe-wahrscheinlichkeit-des-unwahrscheinlichen.html and [...]

Google Insights for Search: Address: http://www.google.com/insights/search/?hl=de Preparation: Estimate a number of key words for your vacation rental There are a couple of important variables you can see here: Seasonality – if the search volume is impacted by seasonality you will see it going up and down as shown in the screenshot above. So [...]

Aside from being an eCFO I am also interested in personal investment decisions. Working with start-ups probably means that you are equity “rich”, cash poor and have plenty of private equity/capital exposure. In order to balance that exposure I personally invest in more “traditional” investment classes such as real estate, ETFs and large public [...]

Lawyers Depending on your business you should consider building a junior legal presence in your business to avoid having to pay high hourly rates for all legal related questions. This is especially important if you deal with legal questions, contracts etc. on a regular basis. If you do have to hire a lawyer always go […]