October 26, 2021

#34 Gerri Kodres 🇪🇪 (United Angels VC) on investments in Bolt & Veriff, how investor’s mind works and what mistakes do founders make when approaching VCs

1 hour 11 minutes

Gerri Kodres is a founding partner at United Angels VC and has been a tech investor for more than 10 years with investments in such companies as Bolt, Veriff, Comodule, Monese, Starship, and many others. Alongside that, he spent almost 10 years with Fortumo as a chief business officer and advisor signing clients such as Google, Netflix, and Spotify.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into tech investing by covering the investment landscape in the Baltics, the roles and responsibilities of a tech investor, the skills to look out for both in founders and investors as well as the timing of investments. We also go ‘behind the scenes in some of Gerri’s investment gems - Bolt and Veriff - to find out how they have struggled and found success.

The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps

[02:00] - INTRODUCTION AND THE ORIGINS OF UNITED ANGELS VC

Advantage of VC vs. angel investing - more money to do follow-on investments

[18:30] - UNDERSTANDING TECH INVESTING LANDSCAPE IN BALTICS

Competition in the tech investing market in the Baltics
FOMO and herd investing
Timing the right stage to invest
Managing founder relationships when also saying “no”
The investor is never in charge
Helping struggling portfolio companies
Missing out on deals

[29:00] - HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF SUCCESSFUL WITH INVESTORS

What to look for in founders
What mistakes do founders make when approaching investors
Skills for a successful tech investor
How to test for BD skills in founders
Depth of involvement for investors in different phases

[48:30] - BEHIND THE SCENES - INVESTMENTS IN BOLT AND VERIFF

Bolt
- Cutting out the taxi companies
- Conquering Africa
- Preparing for an IPO
- Europe’s first super app
- Not a winner takes all market
Veriff
- Backing a young founder
- Fixing a broken cap table
- Finding success in Y-Combinator

[1:02:40] - CURRENT FOUNDER PROFILE IN BALTICS

Current demographics of founders on the market
3rd generation of startups
Positive outlook for the Baltics

To reach out to Gerri use:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrikodres/

Website: https://unitedangels.vc/

Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/

Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/

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By Uldis Teraudkalns & Janis Zeps

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