1. early stage investments by entrepreneurs
BUSINESS ANGEL / MICRO VC
Learning from my best failures
Nicolas Berg, Serial Entrepreneur, Redalpine Venture
Partners
START Summit – St. Gallen – March 23, 2013

2. Speaker & panelist: Nicolas Berg
 Serial entrepreneur with 10 startups (1984-2013)
e.g. founder of Borsalino 1998, sold 2000 at 20x multiple to Ringier
e.g. CEO Questli since July 2012
 Full time angel investor in 16 startups (2000-2006)
e.g. Investor & Country Manager XING 2004-2010
IPO at 30x multiple 2006
 Redalpine Venture financed 20 startups (since 2007)
Built portfolio of 20 European high innovation startups with Redalpine I & II
5 portfolio companies ranked among 20 Swiss top start-ups in 2012
 Lecturer, jury member and journalist
venturelab; Venturekick, SVC, Heuberger, Suvorov Award
Die Zeit, Bilanz, NZZ, Bilanz, HandelsZeitung, Sonntag etc.
Entrepreneur, angel investor, VC, supporter
Copyright Redalpine Venture Partners AG, Switzerland 2

3. Redalpine in a nutshell
 Manages Redalpine I CHF 20M micro VC fund (2007-2015)
 Manages Redalpine II CHF 60M micro VC fund (2012-2020)
Seed/early stage in continental Europe
 Most innovative sectors in Europe
Technology/New Media and Life Science
 Fund thesis
European seed/early stage offers potential for superior exit multiples
Best choice in Switzerland – strong links to Germany and Russia
 Convincing track-record
Institutional approach to seed/early stage investing
Copyright Redalpine Venture Partners AG, Switzerland 3

4. Why learning from failures?
 Failures easier to analyze than success
 Sometimes you win and don„t know why –
just luck or in a good flow?
 You need to fail to get closer to the edge
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5. What investors are looking for
 Team, team, team
At least 2 extraordinary personalities that can
IMPLEMENT milestones of next 2 years
 Disruptive idea, technology or business model
 Attractive market
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6. Motivation of investor
 Profit opportunity (e.g. exit multiple of 30x feasible)
 Adrenaline
 Being active & useful
Network
Knowledge
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7. Close to reality distortion, psycho
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8. Selectively focused, autistic
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9. 1. Stubborn and autistic
 Resistant to advice – or asking mom, dad and
grandma till she gets the answer she wants
 Says “smart investor” but thinks “just give me
the money for MY company, sugar daddy!”
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10. 2. Naïve model pupil
 Reacts and obeys to any advice
 naïve, model pupil or weather vane
 Definitely not an entrepreneur!
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11. 3. Selectively honest, dishonest
 Communicates only good news instantly
 Not honest
 Secret agenda
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12. 4. Con artist, scammer, manic
 Communicates only good news instantly
 Not honest
 Dubious genius
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13. 5. Egotist, no team player
 Poor alpha animal, can‟t delegate
 Never recruits strong team member
 Non empathic, poor motivator
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14. 5. Money driven, not by results
 Exit, salary, participation and bonus in focus
 Vision, cause and results only second priority
 Self marketer
Copyright Redalpine Venture Partners AG, Switzerland 14

15. Grow big stars, scout many talents
Swiss football teams have 2 options:
 invest $40m to buy Messi or Ronaldo
 try to earn $45m extra with him or
 invest $5m to scout & train 20 young talents
 sell the best one for $20m
Copyright Redalpine Venture Partners AG, Switzerland 15

16. Act pro-active, don‟t follow crowd
And ice hockey player can either:
 skate to the spot where the puck is now as most players or
 to the place where the puck is going to be (Wayne Gretzky)
Invest as pro-active as a hockey star is playing
Copyright Redalpine Venture Partners AG, Switzerland 16
Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/wayne_gretzky.html

17. www.redalpine.com
www.facebook.com/redalpine
www.twitter.com/redalpine
«You miss 100%
of the shots you
Redalpine Venture Partners AG
don't take.» Pfingstweidstrasse 60
CH-8005 Zürich, Switzerland
Wayne Gretzky,
Hockey legend phone +41 44 271 15 30