Week 3: No caffeine, escapism, tips, tipping, and some new investments #3

This was a wild week.

Welcome to the weekly newsletter. A lot was going on in my life. I am still shocked and confused by some of the things going on in the US (I really like the country and some of my best friends live there). And my colleagues at APX are back from vacation, and we welcomed new companies and worked with some ideas and opportunities.

Last week I did not read as much as usual as I did not have enough time to read and think: I slept a lot more. This happened because I quit coffee for two weeks. Good experience so far. I still love coffee, but I also enjoy not having caffeine from time to time.

This is what I thought about and read:

Trends: Escapism and Saving

These days there are not too many “normal” things to do: no regular office, no weekend trips, no short or longer vacations or weekend hikes. This is because of winter but even more because of lockdown. I think all people are looking for new ways to spend time, start to work out, take walks, hang around at home, binge watch, or learn. I am trying to figure out how to turn my escapist attitude into something productive.

Something that is happening simultaneously will be interesting to observe once we are free again: During the lockdown, spending goes down (at least with me and a lot of people I talk with), and I think a lot of people will have quite some budget to spend on vacations and activities and a strong desire to do so. This might be like an explosion of social-, gastronomical-, and cultural-life when it works well. There might also be some people who will be overwhelmed with this way more multidimensional and input-heavy life. Being an optimist, I think it is worth thinking about the opportunities for startups coming out of this.

I read this:

• A super nice and handy list I got from Tim Ferris newsletter: 100 Tips for a Better Life

• 2hearts Community - Building tomorrow’s tech society with cultural diversity. My friend and colleague Onur supports the 2hearts community to create an inclusive tech society together with some really great cofounders. Check it out and join to create an inclusive tech ecosystem.

• I, unfortunately, don’t need this right now but I am confident it will come in handy: The ultimate guide to tipping while traveling

• Read this on TechCrunch: Flexible VC (There might be a paywall) - There are more and more VCs whose capital structure allows them to invest in companies that return a profit and are not looking to exit their investments. I am thinking about this in connection with the “unicorns vs. camels vs. zebras discussion” and consequences for the setup of future investment activities. Our German industry structure with our strong mid-sized and quite often family-owned companies makes this approach even more interesting and natural for a lot of potential investors.

• The rest of the articles I read are all behind paywalls. Something I will look out for next week so that I have something to share with you.

  New Investments of APX

  We invested in three new companies last week. Check them out:

• MinQi helps you to stay strong and resilient. Something that is quite helpful these times and any other time as well. Founders with strong scientific background paired with actionable practicality. I like.

• DoctorYou: Has a super strong founder team and a great idea: online consultation with general physicians. Because this is a regulated field, they are launching in Germany first and their website is in German.

• Roombles: A video shopping marketplace. A great team with a big vision. They have started to build their vision of video commerce and I cannot wait until they launch.

Have a great weekend. I hope you find something helpful and meaningful in this newsletter.

Joerg