EUVC

This is a very special edition of The European VC called "Grilling & Myth-busting with the EIF" as we're talking to David Dana, head of ICT investments at the EIF. The episode builds on (tough!) questions sourced from our community and former guests and the lines were hot, so the episode ended up as something truly special.

In this episode you'll learn:
- The EIF's investment strategy, what they look for and what they shy away from.
- To what extent do member country contributions impact EIF allocation
- The interplay with the EIB - the European Investment Bank and how the EIF manages their (many!) different mandates
- The gaps that EIF seek to fill in the European capital market and what they're doing to improve university tech transfer - as well as what David personally loves
- What the EIF is doing to solve the lack of LPs with risk appetite and understanding of VC also touching on their initiative of raising their own private Fund of Funds.

Oliver Holle is the founder and managing partner of Speedinvest with a whopping 600M€ AUM. We're diving deep into Oliver's investment strategy, his thinking behind vertically focused teams, talent development, the state of the current market and what's next for Speedinvest. All in all, an episode packed with learnings for anyone aiming to build a true VC franchise that's recognized and sought after by founders all across Europe.

In this episode you'll learn:
- The origin story of Speedinvest & how Oliver’s thinking has evolved as he has grown the firm from 10M€ AUM in fund 1 to now 600M€.
- Oliver’s take on the current market, why he’s bullish on the future of VC & why there’s plenty room for growth
- How Oliver thinks about firm brand, talent development and incentives with the firm
- Oliver’s reflections on portfolio construction – everything from stage, ownership targets, price sensitivity, etc!
- Why Oliver believes in the value of the Platform VC and how he thinks about building it

Enis Hulli is General Partner of 500 Istanbul. Enis has founded and manages the best performing fund in the 500 Global fund family. In this episode, we're diving deep with Enis on his experience founding a 500-fund and how he has grown it from 10 to 50 M€ and exactly what Enis believes is his secret behind his fund's stellar performance.

We're of course also getting into Enis' views on the potential of the Turkish and Central & Eastern European ecosystems and his super intense approach to deal sourcing requiring all on his team - including the CFO - to source deals 50% of the time.

In this episode you’ll learn:
- How the 500 Global fund origination scheme enabled Enis to rapidly advance up the learning curve when he launched his first fund
- How Enis has built out his fund, firm and strategy from 10M€ in Fund I to 50M€ in fund II
- All about the Turkish VC & Startup landscape and how Enis thinks about winning deals by always having a prepared mind and executing with incredible speed
- Enis thinking around portfolio mix and price sensitivity and how it has changed over the last few years.
- Why Enis doesn't want more inbound and everyone at 500 Istanbul must dedicate at least half of their time to deal sourcing

Jeroen van Doornik is the managing partner of Rabo Frontier Ventures, a €200M FoF and co-investment fund with Rabobank as the sole LP. With Rabo, Jeroen leverages his unique access to tier-1 VCs like: Balderton Capital, NorthZone, HV Capital, Speedinvest, and Seed Camp as well as his ability to identify and move quickly on co-investment opportunities in breakaway portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Rabobank Frontier Ventures, @Jeroen was an investment director at the VC firm StartGreen Capital, managing its €250m venture fund providing equity, debt and project finance. He has also held investing roles at growth stage tech investment firms in energy, mobility and software and has founded a motorsports startup for eight years after a four-and-a-half-year stint at Accenture.

In this episode you'll learn:
- How Jeroen has built his investment strategy around co-investing with European tier-1 VC firms
- Why Jeroen believes venture is all about access & speed - for VCs as well as LPs.
- What Jeroen believes are the defining characteristics of good VC firms and what mistakes he sees GPs do too often
- What gets Jeroen excited about a VC

Ulla Brockenhuus-Schack is the managing partner of the Danish seed fund "Seed Capital." To many international VCs, Seed Capital is the local deal flow partner in Denmark, a result of Ulla's untiring work to champion Danish startups on the European Venture scene for more than 15 years. Seed Capital is on their 4th fund, have invested in 47 companies and their portfolio counts greats like TrustPilot, Vivino, Lunar, Cardlay and Templafy. And their exit track counts notable companies like Endomondo, Libratone, and Mofibo.

You'll learn in this episode:
- Why Seed capital has doubled down on a narrow vertical and geographic focus
- What COVID taught Ulla & Seed Capital and how they adjust going forward building in a post-COVID world
- How Ulla has managed to attract international Top VCs like General Atlantic to their portfolio companies
- What has allowed Ulla to achieve a whopping 70% graduation rate from Seed to Series A - a stark contrast to the average rate of 20% in Europe!

Cristina Fonseca is a Venture Partner at Indico Capital Partners and one of Portugal's most successful tech entrepreneurs and a true pioneer in the ecosystem. Cristina has co-founded Talkdesk, a cloud-based help desk software that became Portugal's third unicorn and is valued at over 3 billion euros. In Cristina's own words she has: "worn various hats, be it engineering and coding, design and user experience, product management, customer relations, processes or knowledge management." And, in fact, the list could go on.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How Cristina has transitioned from founder to VC & why she believes there are no shortcuts
- What Cristina's startup experience brings to Indico and how the team at Indico complements each other.
- What Cristina has learned from Indico's move into new geographies and what to expect and invest & how to avoid getting the bad apples

We're doing something different for this episode as we dive deep with James Vanreusel, CEO & founder of Vanreusel Ventures CFO-advisor to a whole string of venture-backed startups. James resides in Silicon Valley but heralds from the Netherlands and we focus on teasing out learnings for VCs helping startups prepare for funding rounds and get ready to cross the Atlantic.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
– How to think about building out the finance department in the early stages where hustling is key
- How to help early-stage companies get funding ready from a CFO-perspective
- How to think about landing in the US and the importance of partnering with local firms
- Why it's so important to be prepared for the worst ahead of funding rounds and how to be so.

In this episode we dive deep on the wonderful Romanian ecosystem as we try to understand if Romania really is going to repeat the UI Path-success or if they were a one-trick unicorn-pony. We're talking to two of the country's favourite sons; Vlad Sarca from Sparking Capital and Cristian Munteanu from Early Game Ventures.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Romania is poised to deliver many more unicorns than just the famed UI Path
- Where to look next in Romania, who to partner with and what you should keep in mind when thinking about Romania
- Why Cristian & Vlad are bullish on Romania and all of CEE as the driving force of the next wave of VC tech success stories
- Why Cristian doesn't want to hear about founders' passions or high-browed thoughts about work/life-balance

This is the second part of our interview with J Skyler, the founder and general partner of Venture University, the world's leading investor accelerator & VU Venture Partners, a multi-stage venture capital fund focused on Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech, Frontier, Healthcare, and PropTech.

With $1.8 Billion invested in more than 250 companies, including greats like Beyond Meat, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Wish and the list goes on, we're excited to bring you the second part of our interview with Skyler.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
– Why Skyler is hoping to see European founders focus more on what's unique to Europe, impact being a pillar example
- Why Skyler thinks European startups actually have a better global outlook than what he typically sees in the US
- How Skyler thinks about partnering with the best VC funds from a co-investment as well as LP perspective
- Why Skyler would rather have an A-market with a B-team, than an A-team with a B-market & why he doesn't think operator experience is core to being a good VC

J Skyler is the founder and general partner of Venture University & VU Venture Partners, a multi-stage venture capital fund focused on Consumer, Enterprise, Fintech, Frontier, Healthcare, and PropTech. VU Venture Partners has offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Hong Kong.

Skyler is also the Founder & CEO of Venture University, the world's leading investor accelerator for individuals breaking into venture capital, private equity, and angel investing.

The team have invested over $1.8 Billion in more than 250 companies, including Beyond Meat, Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Venmo, FabFitFun, Oculus, Oscar, Wish, and other great tech success stories.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
– How J Skyler has built one of the world's leading investor accelerator programs as well as a top performing fund yielding 4x net cash returns to LPs.
- Why VC must be learnt on the job and university education is a lame duck to entrepreneurial innovators
- How VU thinks about the European opportunity & how they're approaching their expansion to our continent
- Why J Skyler is 100% satisfied with the current female & minority representation in their cohorts