Week 24: Fundraising, SuperVenture, reality distortion, enough time, and paper files
An intense week comes to an end today
Hey! I hope you are doing fine! My week was intense. Lots of meetings, decisions, a big conference, a minor surgery for my wife (which went well), and many things were going on. That’s why this newsletter is a bit all over the place. But as I want to share with you how I feel, this is what this week was like.
Fundraising and SuperVenture
This week was a lot about fundraising. SuperVenture and SuperReturn conferences were happening here. They are aimed at GPs and LPs: People looking for capital for venture and private equity funds and people who invest. For the first time, Henric and I participated.
We always like to “hack” conferences, and for SuperVenture and SuperReturn, we did this together with friends raising a late-stage secondary fund. We did one obvious thing: we organized a dinner with potential investors, and we did one non-obvious thing that allowed us to have some excellent meetings around the conferences. We put a trailer in front of the hotel where the conference was happening. We rented a lovely Airstream trailer, put our logos on it, and put it in front of the hotel (thanks to Moritz for figuring out where to get it and how to “reserve” parking spots). The trailer allowed us to be independent of the meeting facilities in the hotel's conference center. I do not know about you, but these classic conference hotels and their light and air situations tire me quite quickly. So I spent quite some hours in and around a trailer in front of the palace hotel in Berlin this week.
Another observation: it works well to talk to people we already know, and it is quite a challenge to connect with people we do not know yet. I think fundraising will play quite a role in my future life, and I think some of my colleagues will join our efforts in the following weeks.
The dinner was terrific. So many great conversations. A lovely setting in an exceptional location and brilliant food by Osmans Töchter
Enough Time
For most of my life, I have been trying to figure out if I am an introvert or an extrovert. And I think this binary categorization does not fit me, and it needs a more differentiated categorization:
I enjoy deeper conversations, and when I am at events or other gatherings, I usually like to have a deeper conversation with one or a few people. I am not so interested in small talking (and I am also not good at it). But I draw a lot of energy from a deep conversation.
This brings another challenge: At dinners and events - especially when people I know and like are around - I am usually overwhelmed: I would love to talk to everyone and feel sad when it is impossible. I enjoy the conversations with the people I sit next to or stand with, and I feel like missing out on great conversations I know I would have with the other people present. But when I have to pick, I choose the deeper conversations over the small talk. And I feel sad that I cannot talk to everyone.
Reality distortion
Let me state the obvious: It is impossible (yet, ever?) to fully understand reality. So we must abstract and select what we want to consider in our perception and plan and influence present and future realities. The ability to envision a future reality where they have already been successful makes some founders particularly strong.
When we started alando/ ebay, we thought and talked a lot about how it would be and feel when people have developed a new, much more “liquid” understanding of owning things. People would think about buying, for example, a tent and its price in a new way: It’s not so much the purchase price they have to consider but the price and the money they will get for the tent after using it for one season they have to consider when making a purchase decision. In retrospect, I think we succeeded a bit with our dream, but there is still a long way to go toward a more circular approach to owning things.
The iPhone is an example of something that changed many lives of many people on this planet and allowed for many new ecosystems, businesses, and whole industries around it. For founders, it is essential to envision the world where they have been successful because this helps to execute, set priorities, and focus and motivate. There are some challenges in this, though, and the biggest challenge is to stay connected to the “real” reality:
If you are not part of the reality of the people you are building your company/ product for, it will become challenging to invent something meaningful for them.
You need to be able to recognize weak signals (or strong signals) around you when you select what to consider for planning and execution.
When fundraising, you need to be able to share your vision/ big goals/dreams (however you call them) with investors, and you need to be able to connect them with the present reality and short-term developments.
I think systemic and connected thinking offers excellent tools for this.
Digital vs. Paper archives
Today I scan every critical piece of paper I get with my cellphone and have a well-working digital archive. I started doing this when the cameras in phones and scanning tools were powerful enough to create good documents. With the power of OCR, I can find anything fast in my archive.
Before, I filed everything in folders (good) and boxes (bad). We have a space that is filled with these folders and boxes. This is a place I'm not particularly eager to go to. It is incredibly draining for me to go through the folders and, even more so, the boxes to find the document I need. I will spend some time in this space today to find some old contracts and documents. Wish me luck. And while I was writing this, I had the idea to ask the twins if they wanted to make some money for their upcoming long post-Abi vacation by sorting and digitizing the boxes.
What I read and viewed
Where does all the wealth go when asset prices go down? a good newsletter about shrinking valuations and moving capital
Soulbound Tokens might be a tool to document achievements, certificates, and the potential and challenges that come with them.
Challenges of SAFEs in Startup financing
I started learning about DAOs to understand them and figure out what can be done with them.
Was your 2021 like this?
I found this video very relaxing:
And I want to go to Vietnam:
Thank you for reading my newsletter. Please share it with friends. I hope you found something meaningful.
Have a great week!
Joerg