Week 26: Fundraising, Get-Together and End of School
An intense week that was mostly fine.
This was a good week. At least for me. As many people around me are getting sick (but so far, everyone with mild symptoms), the times feel weird. My week was packed with APX and New Fund topics, and I had a Berliner Stadtmission and another Board meeting on top. I enjoy the long summer days a lot.
Early Stage Fundraising
We traditionally do a Thursday Morning Meeting (TMM) with our portfolio companies. It is optional, and we choose a meaningful topic for the companies. This week Ying Ying, Oliver and I talked about fundraising these days. Ying Ying and I created a deck the evening before. We tried to put things into perspective and discussed how early-stage fundraising is working right now with the participants. In a nutshell: capital is available, investors are more careful, and you have to know what you are doing better than before. We think that proving that founders can turn dreams/ ideas into realities is still the key to successful fundraising, and it might be even more helpful than before to show that they can do it. Check out the slides and let me know what you think.
Get together
Thursday evening, we had a get-together on the roof of our office. Some of the Berlin Mentors and our portfolio companies who were in town got together for a summer evening. I enjoyed seeing everyone a lot and had some great conversations.
End of school
My sons are finishing school. They came back from a trip with their class, and they had a big party yesterday. Some kids could now join due to Covid infections, but it was still a lovely evening. I had very nice conversations with some of their teachers whom I had never met. Now the boys will get their “papers” tomorrow, and then they will be off for a summer full of traveling and hopefully excellent experiences with a few of their friends. I am thinking about how my life will change with the boys moving to other cities to attend university there. New opportunities for Dina and me ;-)
What I read and watched this week:
What kind of company do you want to build? Scale, speed, or freedom? Choose two.
This calms me down:
I want to go here:
Music for an evening with friends:
Check out the flaps and the aero kit on Travis Pastrana’s Subaru at the Goodwood Festival of Speed:
The Google Developer Cloud cheat sheet might be handy for some of you.
And I spent quite some time figuring out our new washer and dryer (a supermundane activity…) and making them talk to each other, researching a new hybrid car for Dina, and checking out some videos on the new electric car I ordered for myself. I also did some research on how to mount a wall box.
And I had some great moments with Henric, my Co-MD and business partner. We made some significant decisions and got some things done. And on top of this, check out his band’s new video “Tiny Steps” and a link to their new album “Those Windows,” which they released on Friday.
Thank you for reading my weekly newsletter, and I hope you found something meaningful. Have a great week!
Cheers
Joerg