The Need for Speed
The famous line “I feel the need, the need for speed” was spoken in a very cavalier and risk-oriented way in the movie Top Gun. However, for startups it is often the case that speed actually reduces risk and greatly increases the probability of ultimate success.
We recently viewed a video showing a car traveling at various speeds over a large pothole. At the slowest speed of 30km/h the car was severely jolted, damaged and nearly flipped on its side. At increasing speeds, the damage was actually reduced and at 120km/h the car sailed over the pothole with barely a noticeable shimmer. We recognized an important analogy to startups and their need to attain a certain speed to successfully traverse all the dangers than can befall a young company.
Foremost, we often observe that startups which move quickly generate significantly more opportunities than those that are driving in an overly cautious manner. If a startup only has so much time on the road and it does not know at which highway exit it will find its next big opportunity, it is logical that the more exits the startup reaches, the higher the likelihood of achieving success (or at least the next important milestone on the journey).
One classic hindrance to speed occurs when a startup spends an inordinate amount of time and energy on a single project for a large customer. These seemingly flattering projects can often be potholes in disguise, and if a startup works through the project too slowly (perhaps by extensively customizing its core offering to meet the needs of this one client) it can veer off its path, miss other valuable opportunities, and, consequently, suffer extensive damage.
A classic analogue of this hindrance is a startup working too long on its initial product before putting it in customers´ hands and receiving feedback. The slow work to perfect the product prior to (beta)launch is much more damaging to the company than receiving dissatisfied early reviews of an MVP, which are incredibly valuable to a startup and can help guide it into the fast lane.
Another common way in which startups often need to move faster is with their personnel decision-making. Instead of expending too much time trying to improve employees who do not fit well, startups generally need to separate from underperforming employees more quickly and should expect to test multiple people in order to sustainably fill roles. Often startups try to reduce the risk of being slowed down by wrong hires by screening more restrictively; however, in a talent-constrained environment, this approach also prevents startups from attaining the velocity needed to power forward and effectively cruise over problems.
Central to all the above examples (and many more that are not listed) are the benefits of the mentality that comes with driving faster. When driving faster, one must be more alert and there is no time to waste on annoying issues which, if focused upon, distract from the mission.
As venture investors, we want companies to use our investment to move fast, increasing their chances of success. We prefer to invest additional funds in the important shifts, turns and pivots that are identified through valuable feedback along the journey rather than to pay for a final coat of paint on a car that is still in the garage.
Your bm|t Team
Welcome to the Family
Altavo, a Dresden and Jena based startup in AI-based voice rehabilitation, successfully closed its € 5.0m Series A financing round on February 1, 2024. bm‑t joined a strong European consortium led by OCCIDENT and including Novalis Biotech, TGFS, and HTGF to invest in the development of Altavo’s novel Artificial Voice. Altavo’s Artificial Voice is a medical device designed to help voiceless people, for example after laryngectomy or during mechanical ventilation, regain their own, natural sounding voice. The proprietary “silent speech” technology, which has been developed in collaboration with the Technical University Dresden, is based on non-invasive radar sensing and the latest neural net architectures.
For further details on this exciting investment please read this press release: https://www.bm‑t.de/en/2024-en/altavo-concludes-series-a-for-the-development-of-its-artificial-voice/
Follow-on Investments
Jena based siOPTICA received a seven-figure investment from Radiant Opto-Electronics (ROE) – the world´s largest backlight unit assembly company with key strategic capabilities of optical & structure design. This investment accompanies and underscores a strategic alliance between the two companies, which is geared towards introducing world-leading optical solutions, particularly based on siOPTICA’s switchable privacy technologies with many applications in automotive passenger displays and consumer devices.
For further details about this high-potential investment please read this press release: https://www.bm‑t.de/en/2024-en/radiant-opto-electronics-corp-invests-seven-figure-amount-usd-into-sioptica/
Jena based Coachwhisperer GmbH offers the world’s first live communication and monitoring system for coaches and athletes, consisting of an innovative combination of hardware and software that allows coaches to seamlessly communicate with any selection of players during live training. Due to the company´s upcoming highly-innovative wearable sensors, in many ways Coachwhisperer is a combination of a med-tech company and a sports-tech company. Coachwhisperer´s “Hearable” will track players´ vital data while simultaneously performing the live-communication function. After refining the product in multiple sports, Coachwhisperer will initially place its primary focus on entering the large European Football market, where the founders possess an excellent network. This near seven-figure round, which was led by bm|t and joined by business angels, including a perfectly-suited sports-tech investor, is focused on achieving quick and broad market entry.
Investor Days Thüringen – Registration Now Open!
On June 5th and 6th, Investor Days Thüringen (IDT), the premier early- and growth-stage pitch event in central Germany, will feature approximately 50 start-ups presenting their innovations and visions. After last year´s fantastic event, we are again excited to offer our guests great live pitches, beers & brats and much more!
Click this link to see a short video of the 2023 event recap. Highlights include the event introduction from Thüringen’s Minister for Economy, Science and Digital Society, Mr. Wolfgang Tiefensee and brief interviews from attendees.
Registration is now open! Mark your calendars – we look forward to seeing you in June in Erfurt!