One sce\u00adnario aris\u00ading from this innate dif\u00adfer\u00adence that we peri\u00adod\u00adi\u00adcally encounter in Ger\u00admany, where smaller early-stage tick\u00adets for strong ideas are read\u00adily avail\u00adable but larger growth tick\u00adets are tougher to attract, is the temp\u00adta\u00adtion for founders to play \u203anot to lose\u2039 as opposed to \u203aplay\u00ading to win\u2039. Play\u00ading not to lose can take many forms but it is essen\u00adtially focus\u00ading on stay\u00ading alive as opposed to focus\u00ading on cre\u00adat\u00ading large suc\u00adcess. This approach is often char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adized by pro\u00adlong\u00ading the cash run\u00adway by sav\u00ading costs and wait\u00ading before push\u00ading the com\u00adpany through to the next stage of its devel\u00adop\u00adment until investors have com\u00admit\u00adted to a large investment.<\/p>\n
Although we under\u00adstand this men\u00adtal\u00adity behind a more cau\u00adtious approach to growth and cor\u00adpo\u00adrate devel\u00adop\u00adment, we believe that in many cases, espe\u00adcially with high-tech, highly-scal\u00adable ven\u00adtures, cau\u00adtion is ulti\u00admately the much higher-risk strat\u00adegy, as valu\u00adable win\u00addows of oppor\u00adtu\u00adnity can be missed. In fact, bold\u00adness in grow\u00ading a com\u00adpany and demon\u00adstrat\u00ading strong busi\u00adness momen\u00adtum at an early stage is prob\u00ada\u00adbly the sin\u00adgle most impor\u00adtant fac\u00adtor for cre\u00adat\u00ading inter\u00adest with ven\u00adture investors.<\/p>\n
The opti\u00admal way for founders to break through this dynamic, and to develop the trust that when they build a thriv\u00ading com\u00adpany that investors will come with cap\u00adi\u00adtal, is to engage with many investors from an early stage and to main\u00adtain an open dia\u00adlogue with inter\u00adested investors about the company\u00b4s progress. Founders and investors should openly dis\u00adcuss what mile\u00adstones the com\u00adpany needs to achieve for the investor to invest in the com\u00adpany. In this way, founders can build an under\u00adstand\u00ading of the vari\u00adety of investors from whom they could attract cap\u00adi\u00adtal and bet\u00adter esti\u00admate which ele\u00adments of the com\u00adpany are impor\u00adtant to those investors.<\/p>\n
Pro\u00adfes\u00adsional ven\u00adture investors have a strong appre\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtion that build\u00ading a com\u00adpany is an extremely chal\u00adleng\u00ading endeavor and that it is impos\u00adsi\u00adble to deter\u00admine the ideal path ahead of time. Thus, most insti\u00adtu\u00adtional ven\u00adture investors pre\u00adfer to invest with founders who are will\u00ading to test the foot\u00adprint of their com\u00adpany by exper\u00adi\u00adment\u00ading with var\u00adi\u00adous growth and devel\u00adop\u00adment ini\u00adtia\u00adtives, fully under\u00adstand\u00ading that some efforts will not work. In early stage ven\u00adtures there should be no fear of failed attempts rather a deep com\u00admit\u00adment to find\u00ading what works most effec\u00adtively and with open com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtions through\u00adout the process.<\/p>\n
One key devel\u00adop\u00adment which should make it eas\u00adier for founders to adopt an exper\u00adi\u00admen\u00adta\u00adtion and growth mind\u00adset is the mas\u00adsive increase in the amount of ven\u00adture cap\u00adi\u00adtal look\u00ading for com\u00adpa\u00adnies that are cre\u00adat\u00ading strong busi\u00adness momen\u00adtum, even at very early stages. This explo\u00adsive growth in ven\u00adture cap\u00adi\u00adtal and the num\u00adber of ven\u00adture cap\u00adi\u00adtal investors may make it some\u00adwhat more com\u00adpli\u00adcated to know where to start with fund rais\u00ading, but it should greatly increase founders\u2019 belief that good per\u00adfor\u00admance will be rec\u00adog\u00adnized and will attract invest\u00adment. Build it and they will come!<\/p>\n
bm|t\u2019s Th\u00fcrin\u00adgen Startup Fund (TSF) is specif\u00adi\u00adcally designed to act at an early stage and to enable founders to develop the busi\u00adness momen\u00adtum that will lead to fur\u00adther, larger-scale invest\u00adment. So far 33 of the 35 Investee-Part\u00adners in which we have invested with the TSF fund have received addi\u00adtional invest\u00adment, and the major\u00adity have raised larger sub\u00adse\u00adquent rounds with addi\u00adtional insti\u00adtu\u00adtional investors. We are proud that sev\u00aderal of these com\u00adpa\u00adnies and larger invest\u00adment rounds are high\u00adlighted in our Q3 Fol\u00adlow-on Investments.<\/p>\n
Your bm|t Team<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One sce\u00adnario aris\u00ading from this innate dif\u00adfer\u00adence that we peri\u00adod\u00adi\u00adcally encounter in Ger\u00admany, where smaller early-stage tick\u00adets for strong ideas are read\u00adily avail\u00adable but larger growth tick\u00adets are tougher to attract, is the temp\u00adta\u00adtion for founders to play \u203anot to lose\u2039 as opposed to \u203aplay\u00ading to win\u2039. Play\u00ading not to lose can take many forms [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,250],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-15960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2020-en","category-insights","tag-insights-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}