CVCs könnten für weniger gut skalkierende KI-Anwendungen zum Steigbügelhalter werden.
Biases, Sympathies and Prejudices Guide too Many Business Angels (Part 2 of 3)
The Team is Key, Nothing else is The central date for Angels in assessing early-stage start-ups is their founder teams. Evidently, a very good start-up will present a very good business model, a promising market, an excellent product or service and so on. It goes without saying that a good founding team will have developed such a sound business model, … Read More
“Survival of the hippest”? Part 1 of 3
Angels are all too willing to operate on level playing field with their target entities This and my two subsequent posts in English shall be dealing with typical business angel mistakes. My “insight” originates from my own mistakes. To generalise by inferring from oneself is generally impermissible. Yet, I discussed the three issues with quite a number of other angels, … Read More
Der Business Angel – Ein Hans Guck-in-die-Luft? Teil 1 von 3
Bei den drei „typischen“ Angel – Fehlern, die ich in diesem und in den beiden Folgeblogs abhandeln werde, schließe ich von mir selbst auf andere. Das ist natürlich eigentlich unzulässig – ein logischer Fehlschluss vom Besonderen, dem Einzelfall, auf das Allgemeine. Nachdem ich mich aber mit nicht wenigen Angels in dieser Sache ausgetauscht habe, halte ich diesen illegitimen Schluss dennoch … Read More
Do VCs and Angels Sit in the Same Boat?
Part 1: “Diversification” From time to time people ask me whether investing selectively in start-ups as a “profession” is not quite an irresponsible gamble, especially if, like in my case, you have practically no other current sources of income. This question is meant rhetorically, because the people who ask and I, we know Kind Advisors Such rhetoric is usually followed … Read More
Was VCs und Business Angels verbindet – und was sie unterscheidet
Teil 1: „Diversifikation“ Hin und wieder werde ich gefragt, ob denn das selektive Investieren in Startups als „Beruf“, nicht ein unverantwortlich riskantes Vergnügen darstelle, insbesondere dann, wenn man, wie ich, über praktisch keine anderen laufenden Verdienstquellen verfüge. Dies ist eine rhetorische Frage, denn die Fragenden und der Befragte wissen beide a) dass dieses Risiko tatsächlich ziemlich hoch ist und b) … Read More
Ludwig Wittgenstein on Business Process Management
Those familiar with the Anglo-Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein know that one usually distinguishes two Wittgensteins: The earlier one who wrote the “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” (1921) and the later one who is best known for his “Philosophical Investigations” (1953). Both oeuvres contradict each other. The later Wittgenstein distanced himself from the earlier one. Put in a nutshell (grossly oversimplifying and distorting his … Read More
Angel Fallacies 3.1: Neglect of Target Market Imponderables (“Competitors”)
“So, who are your competitors?” Within the start-up ecosystem, this hyper trivial question is asking for a routine answer. It is one of those questions that usually does not raise any serious worry among start-ups asking for money. But it should. Because these standard responses follow a pattern which can be easily anticipated and usually is astoundingly poor. Variant 1: … Read More
Startups Fake Problems Revisited
My post on Monday raised the contention that many pitch decks invent or magnify problems in order to make their “solutions” appear more impressive. I also stated this was an issue particularly pertaining to Germany and less so to start-ups in America, China, France, or the UK. My third claim was that over there, investors operate on more solid empirical … Read More