Der Fall Theranos, seiner Gründerin Elisabeth Holmes und ihres Komplizen und Bettgefährten Ramesh „Sunny“ Balwani hatte im vergangenen Jahr vor allem durch das Buch von John Carreyrou, Bad Blood, und dessen medialer Weiterverarbeitung in Film und Dokumentarserien weltweit für Wirbel gesorgt. Nicht nur beinhaltet die Story alle Zutaten für einen faszinierenden Thriller. Sie bietet außerdem eine Nahaufnahme durch das Schlüsselloch … 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
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
“The Only Thing that Matters for a Start-Up”? Product Market Fit or: When Truisms and Misnomers Replace Judgement
Like everybody else in the venture scene, I do admire Marc Andreessen for his remarkable achievements in both the tech and venture territories. Yet, admiration is no adulation. If justified, criticism might pay a better tribute to the man than endless quotations of some of his more questionable thoughts. On October 12, 2009 Marc posted a, now famous, article to … Read More
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