Bartosz Lipnicki

myidea.ro/masterclassess - 101 insights about funding and a few seats available tomorrow - for entrepreneurs raising money & for new angels looking to manage the risk of investing for sustainable maximum returns

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❌ Fundraising Evolution: (Critical) Trends in Startup Fundraising in 2024 ❌ As the month comes to an end, so does the first fundraising period of the year. After weeks of intensive effort, many players are heading into their summer break. We, too, can look back on a successful first half of the year, noting not only quantitative but also qualitative improvements in our deal flow. Here are three (critical) trends that have caught my attention: 🚩 Notion Instead of Pitch Deck Some founders choose to skip a traditional pitch deck entirely when pre-seed fundraising, opting instead for a notion page that combines a data room with a pitch deck. While the benefits of flexible updates over a static document are obvious, I think it lacks personalization and impact. Much of the valuable information in a pitch deck is conveyed between the lines. 💡 My Tip: Create a small Notion data room together with a short teaser deck for the perfect information basis. 🚩 Variable Round Setup More frequently, fundraising starts without a clear target. Instead, all options are considered throughout the round, adapting based on circumstances and feedback before settling on the most suitable setup. While this flexibility has advantages, I believe every team needs clear goals within a well-defined framework to attract the right partners. 💡 My Tip: Establish a clear framework with a structured timeline to target investors effectively. 🚩 Fundraising as a Team Effort At most of my meetings in recent months, I have always met the entire founding team. From a resource allocation perspective, this is disastrous. It is important to get to know all the key players in a start-up, but all it takes is one in-depth conversation. Otherwise, valuable resources are wasted in the large number of fundraising meetings with various investors. 💡 My Tip: The CEO should centrally manage fundraising. This includes initial meetings, email communications, reference calls and closing. Involve your co-founders only in a detailed deep dive and use their resources more strategically. What experiences have you had with fundraising in 2024? How do you consider these developments? Do you have a different opinion? Let's discuss! #fundraising #startups #investment #venturecapital #datadrivenvc __ ROI VENTURES

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Back then one of the main problems I had in fundraising for my startup was not knowing valuation benchmarks. That's why ~year ago we prepared key data for every founder in Central Eastern Europe. We're preparing the 2024 edition right now, so if you see any trends in the market, we're happy to include them! :) 👉 What size of the round can you expect? At what valuation? 👉 What do you have to deliver for every round? 👉 What is the expected capable structure? And many many others. Link to the 2023 benchmarks: https://lnkd.in/de3qvJBT #benchmarks #startups #fundraising

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🚀 We are part of Silo Teams 1,16M Pre Seed Round! 🚀 It is difficult to find and attract highly qualified tech talent. Retaining them is an even bigger challenge. Silo Team solves the problem of high turnover among developers and facilitates the onboarding, offboarding and retention of developers to manage the entire lifecycle of a software developer on a single platform. That's why I'm thrilled about Silo Team's recent round. Founded by Rasmus Stjernström and Ida Stjernström, Silo Team has just received a huge boost to drive its growth with an 1,16M investment. Here's why this matters: ➡ Developer turnover costs companies big time, anywhere from $67,000 to $180,000 per developer! ➡ Silo Team is tackling this with an advanced onboarding tool, aiming to cut those costs dramatically. ➡ Looking ahead: Silo Team aims to evolve into a comprehensive platform that enhances the entire developer lifecycle by leveraging AI to streamline knowledge management and automate key workflows. The round was co-led by Pitchdrive | Early-stage VC 🚀 and Fuel Ventures 🚀 and futher backed by Genesis Ventures, StartupIst Ventures and further Angels like Michael Proszynski, Ferdinand Dietrich and us! We are very excited to be part of the mission to significantly reduce developer turnover and play a pivotal role in tech development. Marco Raggl | Patrick Funke | Laura Raggl | Julian Sachs #investments #venturecapital #startups ___ ROI VENTURES 

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One of the most important things is to collaborate with people that genuinely inspire you and have expertise and passion in what they do to inspire others to lead. This week, Tatjana Nebel and I had an amazing opportunity to collaborate on a workshop that enables #GPs, #funds, #SMEs and #family businesses to better realize the value of their investments, value-creation initiatives, and how to target the right investments to future-proof their activities from both an innovation and investment perspective. In a market where increasingly #SMEs are seeking to diversify their activities and work alongside innovative younger companies, #family offices that are allocating to #VC and increasingly participating in direct investments, #CVCs that have had varied results in creating value throughout the entire organization and #institutional capital that focus on #valuecreation to spur realized gains- together we see that embedding innovation and investment is critical for success. Tatjana (yes, you get the two Tatjana's) has driven #innovation leadership for some of #DACH most legendary businesses- not only at Ricola, but ETH Zürich Liip and OUTFITTERY and embeds a deep innovation, strategy and growth know-how that can take a current or future innovation and investment portfolio to the next level. We're so excited to deliver complimentary value and a different perspective to our clients together. If this resonates with you, you're seeking a 360 degree perspective on your innovation and investment portfolio and you want your leadership team to realize measurable value from a strategic and financial perspective- feel free to reach out to either one of us!

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The recent report by Index Ventures highlights a critical shift in the European startup ecosystem. Seven countries have now further aligned their laws to enable employee ownership, a move that could significantly enhance our competitiveness on the global stage. This is a promising development, but it's only the beginning. 📊 The data is clear: stock options have been a cornerstone of Silicon Valley's success, driving innovation and attracting top talent. Europe, however, has been held back by bureaucratic hurdles and premature taxation. To truly compete with the U.S. and China, we need a coordinated industrial policy, rapid decision-making, and substantial investment. What I’ve learned from my experience: 💪Empowering employees with ownership stakes not only attracts talent but also enables a culture of innovation and commitment. While on average around 20%  of a US late stage startup is owned by employees, in Europe this number is roughly cut in half. 🌍Countries like Germany, France, Portugal, and the UK are leading the way, but we need a unified approach across Europe to create a truly competitive ecosystem. The other countries moving forward come from the Baltic: Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania. 🌱Massive investment in startups, particularly in climate-tech, is essential for sustainable growth and decarbonization.In 2023 Europe's share of total global climate VC reached a record high of 43%. This shows that real commitment makes us a key global player in the market. 👉 What do we need now? It's evident that Europe has the potential to become a global leader in innovation and sustainability. However, this requires collective effort and strategic alignment. How can we, as a community, drive these changes forward? 💪 #EmployeeOwnership #StartupEcosystem #ClimateTech

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It is very easy to develop a pessimistic / negative view of the world these days - in particular when sitting in Europe. And while some developments are undoubtedly far from great, I maintain a positive view - in particular when it comes to entrepreneurship. The slowdown of the tech sector over the last 2.5 years has been sobering, yet continues to create great opportunities for innovation. Three themes emerge in my interactions with founders: Way fewer people are looking to get “this cool startup experience“: While it has never been easy to build and scale a successful venture, the heydays of 2020/21 and media coverage focusing on mega seed rounds / fast successes have made the journey seem straightforward to some. Many people wanted to “get that startup experience”, blinded by the successes that looked like “straight lines”. The struggles of the past 30 months have been a powerful illustration of how hard it is, how much dedication it takes and that success is far from certain. I now see founders thinking more binary - either they feel that it is a great time to start out now or they suddenly feel that times are too risky to start something new. This is a very healthy side effect and separates the tourists from the believers. Opportunity costs of starting something new have dropped: A lot of incredibly strong and experienced people who wouldn’t have thought of building a company 30 months ago suddenly do. We have seen founder application numbers continuously trending up all through 2022 to 2024 and we have had the chance to work with really great people that wouldn’t have started something before. I believe that this is a function of lower opportunity costs (ESOP programs are priced differently, pet projects are gone, focus is on cost not growth). Many people I speak to share the belief that there is an opportunity at their fingertips, since i) markets have been shook up and incumbents / competition have been stirred up, ii) hiring is much easier today - the amount of talent available is amazing and iii) liquidity is there - early stage investors continue to back great companies and unlike other phases there is no liquidity crisis. Founders are pulled towards healthy economics: Capital has a cost - how weird, huh? Therefore, many founders are focusing more diligently on the capital needs and burn rates that their businesses have, knowing that money is expensive. It has also pushed people in ideation stages to focus more on stuff that customers really want - and are willing to pay for. It is very clear that investors take their time to do proper due diligence, that they are more patient when evaluating businesses and that they value (future) financial health over the mere prospect of growth at all cost. All of these effects are healthy - and they will help bring forward a new generation of winning companies! ⛸⛸

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I joined Dyn in 2011 during the early days when the team was small and ARR was in the single digits. That grew to 400 people and $100M within 5 years. And the key factor was: Culture. We all had that startup growth mindset. We were all on the same team. It was infectious. Of course, we had great technology and a great sales motion, and we timed the market appropriately. But it was the culture that really drove our success. And we couldn't have developed that same culture as a remote-first company. Obviously, times have changed. But I still think that, especially in the early days of a startup, being together is key. Then, as you grow, you can figure out what arrangements work on a team-by-team basis. Developing and preserving a strong culture, whether in the office or remote, is one of the most important parts of growing a startup.

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Stephanie and I just returned from How To Web in Bucharest. Even though my social battery needs to be recharged, I feel very energised: 🤩 We met several strong founders in the pre-seed and seed stage, often actually second-time founders, which makes us feel optimistic at 3VC about the next year and onwards. Truly rooting for them to figure out their product-market fit. 🤖 AI wave is an opportunity for Europe - we do have an amazing tech and research talent in the space and AI is a space where R&D matters a lot! 💼 On another note, we also had discussions around what it takes to raise Series A, B and onwards… Founders ask why are there so few Series B and C? IPOs today require a 5B market cap to float, and with compressed multiples it means companies need to reach 500M in revenue and keep growing still.. The bar is high. 😍 However, founders that are obsessed with building products that solve a problem in a big market have a true chance to succeed and build significant, enduring companies. Thanks Marius Istrate, Bogdan Iordache, Nico Schoenenberger , Radu Bozga, Felix Martinez and others for great discussions on the stage! See you next year!

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2024 is coming to its end, and I am writing here about a book from 2022! Still super relevant, with timeless lessons, insights and great stories. I read Sebastian Mallaby's "The Power Law" this year and absolutely loved it. Strongly recommend. Here are my three key takeaways: 👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏽👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻 A small group of people can change the world: 70% of the companies born in Silicon Valley trace their origins back to Fairchild Semiconductors. 🔬🧬 Deep tech is fundamentally different: capital does not equal growth. 💰🔮 Big successes in venture capital are all about uniqueness: the best startups have unique talent and intelligence, and the top-performing funds and firms have unique approaches. Has anyone here read it? Any thoughts, insights or favorite passages? Share below and let me know. Additionally: what is your favorite book about VC?

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I recently sat down with DeepL CEO Jaroslaw (Jarek) Kutylowski on Unsupervised Learning. DeepL is an AI translation platform that most recently raised at a $2B valuation and supports over 100,000 businesses worldwide. Jarek shared a ton of insights on the past, present, and future of AI translation. Here were some standout moments: 🤖 Large Models vs. Specialized Models Jarek emphasized that while large language models grab attention, DeepL's focus on specialized, high-quality translation for business use cases has allowed them to thrive. "Smarter models with better architecture" are key, not just brute force scaling. 🗣️ The Promise of Synchronous Speech Translation One area Jarek is particularly excited about is the potential for real-time, seamless speech translation to revolutionize global communication. Though significant technical challenges remain, this could someday be like Star Trek’s Universal Translator -- always on and ready to work. 🌍 Preserving Linguistic Diversity in the AI Era "I think the world, through the fact that we're getting better and better translation capabilities, might actually go more and more into a mode where local languages are going to become more and more important." Ubiquitous translation, in other words, could paradoxically increase the value of local languages, as people seek to maintain cultural identity and connections in a globalized world. 💻 Building an AI-Powered Data Center As a pioneer in the space, DeepL has had to construct much of their infrastructure in-house. Jarek shared insights on the trade-offs of operating their own data centers versus leveraging cloud providers - a dilemma many AI companies face. 📊 The Art and Science of Data Labeling A key part of DeepL's high-quality data labeling is their ability to closely monitor and manage the individual annotators working on their tasks. By keeping a tight feedback loop with their annotators, DeepL can quickly identify and address any dips in quality, ensuring the data they use to train their models meets the high bar required for their specialized translation use cases. 🏆 How DeepL Beat the Giants "Competition is good. It really creates the best outcome for the user." Jarek explained how DeepL's rivalry with industry leaders like Google Translate drove them to be "fast to the market" with innovative solutions, leveraging deep in-house expertise and a relentless sense of urgency. Check out the full episode if you're interested in the cutting edge of AI and language tech, and the future of translation. YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dvGwviSF Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3NJrs3u Apple: https://apple.co/4f3reju

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What does it take to be a good investor? It comes down to three key responsibilities: Sourcing, Selecting, and Investing. At SIA - Startup Investor Accelerator, we've got the sourcing covered — startups come to us! 🚀 We start with a pre-screened pool of 60+ high-potential impact startups across the US and EU. Your journey begins with the exciting task of selecting the startups that align with your values and vision. This is where we define what kind of investors we are. It's about more than just capital; it’s about contributing your insights, expertise and passion to help these startups thrive. Together, we’ll choose the finalists and enter the due diligence phase, where your experience and curiosity will drive the decision-making process. But the best part? We invest together! 💸 You’ll be part of a community, learning from each other, sharing experiences, and ultimately supporting impactful startups with the potential to change things for the better. Are you ready to start your angel investing journey? Join us and let's do this 🚀 👉 Applications are open until 19 September! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eWzUbCVX (or just reach out to me directly) John Sechrest Astghik Zakharyan

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A mentor equips startups with the tools, insights, and confidence to pitch effectively, turning intimidating scenarios into opportunities to win investor trust and support.

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h1 took a few months to build but our new founder co-pilot was years in the making. In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, we launched an initiative to help founders polish their decks and strategize their next raise with Hi Ventures feedback. Our objective was simple: support as many entrepreneurs as possible with professional, one-on-one feedback as they prepared to talk to investors. Every week, our team took turns reviewing decks. It took hours, but over the past four years, humans at Hi have reviewed hundreds of decks. Founders received tailored feedback and a list of potential investors that fit their opportunity. We know it's not much, but on the margin, it may have made a difference—especially for founders without easy access to capital or mentors. As LLMs got better, more consistent (and easier to program!), Jimena Pardo decided to productize our initiative. Together, we built h1. This simple co-pilot does everything humans did and more. It’s consistent, instant, and always available. It’s not as good as a call with a VC associate, but it’s a start.As we go deeper into becoming better VCs and exploring the potential of AI, this has been an amazing learning experience. Take a look at h1.0, link in comments. If you have time, test and send your feedback. We hope h1 is helpful :)

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This meme has to stop! As I think about 2024 - probably the one asymmetric view I have is the potential in European tech. I know there is a lot of doom and gloom about Europe and the UK (which might be true from a macro POV) but the tech startup scene continues to thrive. Companies are of global quality, ambitions are generation defining, and the funds and talent are here too. For every doom and gloom, the reality is that outside of the US very few geographies have produced companies like a Spotify or a Revolut or more recently Mistral. In Q3 2024 alone, European startups managed to secure $10 billion in venture funding, notably higher than pre-pandemic levels, underlining the continent's enduring appeal to investors. The sectors driving this growth include AI, FinTech, defense-tech, and biotech, with standout investments like $640 million for France's AI lab Mistral and $500 million for the UK's Revolut (employee share sale). I met 500+ founders last year (we keep track) and I'm pretty convinced that quality of the top decile founders and teams is no less than what one might find in the US. There is of course a critical issue at hand: the exit market in Europe is underwhelming, with a significant portion of exits being acquisitions by Silicon Valley companies. This trend effectively turns Europe into a shopping mall for SV, potentially draining value from the region. But maybe that changes this decade? Nevertheless, for investors, Europe still remains a fertile ground for innovation and early-stage investments, with seed and early-stage funding holding steady. To truly keep the value within Europe, European governments and financial institutions need to step up which they aren't really (at this point). The European tech ecosystem is starting and growing its tech champions - upto the government to retain them as markets are inherently global 🇪🇺🚀 I'm bullish, and excited to see what 2025 holds. Happy holidays all!

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“It very clearly shows we, as Europe, fail to support innovative deep tech companies through the growth phase. There is no such thing as a growth market in Europe". But the answer to that is not governments bailing out badly run VC backed companies who've failed to deliver numerous times. Simply being a deeptech company isn't reason enough to merit support. Also, it's not like Europe suddenly became a tough market for growth. Every VC that really knows European deeptech knows that most of the funding and most of the revenue will inevitably come from outside Europe. The VCs and board members for Lilium and Nortvolt just look naive. That's part of the growth curve of Europe not having a deep roster of investors with experience in deeptech. Live and learn. "Lilium could be easily comparable to Tesla." Nope. No. No, no, no. For sooo many reasons, no. A trillion dollar market cap company run by (like him or not) the most important entrepreneur of his generation versus a company that has failed to deliver on everything every damn time. "Lilium, until recently one of Europe’s top tech bets". Again, no, it was not. Northvolt though might be an even bigger shitshow than Lilium. Appropriate that this article talks about "disaster" as that's exactly how one of Northvolt's investors described the company to me over beers recently. 🍻 https://lnkd.in/eGCaN7RS

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Dear Community, if you like to read what are the trends of 2025+, below a good summary article. Two of the trends, are below. At the InnoQube Batch 1, we had a startup from of each. If you are an investor or company, these are two technologies you can't escape. Trend #5 is like in the past mobile Apps. Every company will have one! Check this company www.grizoon.com (Swiss) , which can make AI Avatars with your own face! or this company https://workkiai.com/ (Finland) that has amazing technology. So, my dear European friends, take your Checkbook out and Invest! you want to get in early. Companies: embrace these technologies and don't wait to be the last. DM if you like their contacts Trend #5 AI Avatars: Simulate human interaction across channels Trend #6 Deepfake Defense: Counter AI-powered attacks https://lnkd.in/gsMdRsjt InnoQube Switzerland Bündner Stiftung INNOZET Canton of Graubünden

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I will be at Sifted Summit again next month, with my weirdly distorted head, doing female founder office hours for Alma Angels with 49 other investors for 100 founders. 🎟 Get your ticket to Sifted Summit with 15% off with the code Alma15 - link in comments - and Sifted will contact you to register. During the day, I will most likely just find a spot and stay there. Please come and say hi. Roxane Sanguinetti 😃 David Fogel Willo® Runna The Maydays AndAlso Improv #founders #startups #venturecapital #buildinginpublic #investinginpublic More at unbundled dot vc.

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As the New Year holidays approach, ITLeaders is excited to announce an open recruitment for new startups to join our venture studio. Together, we will make 2025 unforgettable, offer the world something truly new and valuable, and perhaps even change it! Who are we looking for? Startups from any country that aim to enter the UAE, KSA, or MENA markets and are at least at the MVP stage. Your startup should demonstrate undeniable and unique potential in the UAE and MENA markets, as well as the global market. We place almost no limits on industries and are happy to welcome projects in FinTech, HealthTech, DeepTech, PropTech, Web3, Gaming, Telecom, and many others. What can you expect from us? 1. Assistance in entering the UAE and MENA markets and utilizing their infrastructure and opportunities. 2. Assistance in organizing investment rounds to attract private investors and funds. 3. Assistance in developing your startup by securing new partners and customers. 4. Ongoing advisory support throughout our collaboration. From there, it’s on to new investment rounds and scaling into the global market! We’re selecting only the top 10 startups! Send your proposals to: @klopenko or [email protected] Our main criterion is that we must be as confident in the potential of your idea and business as you are — or even more! #itleaders #startups #investmentuae #investmentstartups #venturestudio #venturecapitalfund

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