European VC Digest: Healthcare. Unicorn Founders. Time-Variant Business Models. Retail Investors. GP Commits.

Capital Call #51

This is your weekly newsletter highlighting what investors in European startups are thinking—in their own words. We are Willy Braun, Nicolas Colin and Vincent Touati-Tomas. Hit reply if you want to send us feedback!

Welcome to all our new subscribers 🤗 If, like us, you’re interested in everything that’s happening in European VC, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter to be kept in the loop at all times: @CapitalCall_. Also follow our two Twitter lists: Featured in Capital Call & Female VCs in Europe.

Josh Bell 🇬🇧 of Dawn Capital looks back at the firm’s investment in Tink, which was acquired by VISA this week, and their thinking about open banking: Building the future of Europe’s financial services: Our partnership with Tink.

Sophia Bendz 🇸🇪 and Christian Meermann 🇩🇪 at Cherry Ventures share best practices for early-stage marketing, in a very comprehensive and handy format: 10 marketing lessons for every early-stage founder.

Johan Brenner 🇸🇪 at Creandum has a try at guessing unicorn founder’s traits and main characteristics: Traits of unicorn founders — how to spot them at an early stage? 

Mary Glazkova 🇷🇺 of The Untitled Ventures offers a valuable lesson to early-stage entrepreneurs: Startups, stop paying so much for PR.

Jasmin Heimann 🇨🇭 of Macau Partners shares her thoughts (and graphs!) on the state of tech entrepreneurship in Switzerland: Thoughts on the Swiss startup & tech ecosystem flywheel.

Christoph Janz 🇩🇪 at Point Nine Capital shares the entire deal memo after their investment in NexHealth, which last week announced a $31 million Series B: Meet the underdogs taking on the $4,000,000,000,000 healthcare market

Matthew Jones 🇬🇧 at Anthemis dissects the firm’s latest investment in Loconav, transforming fleet management for good: Why We Invested: LocoNav. 

Pär-Jörgen Pärson 🇸🇪 of Northzone urges investors and entrepreneurs to stop rushing listings because of FOMO in Financial News: Why tech startups should be wary of the Spac and IPO craze.

Evgenia Plotnikova 🇷🇺🇫🇷 at Dawn Capital shares the firm’s thesis behind the Firebolt bet, at the intersection of data and infrastructure, Dawn’s sweet spot: Why we invested in Firebolt: Snowflake catapulted the data warehouse into the cloud. Now Firebolt is making it fly!

Younès Rharbaoui 🇫🇷 of The Family explains why companies that should never have succeeded benefit from arbitraging across time: Time-variant business models.

Luca Bocchio 🇮🇹🇬🇧 of Accel reveals the kind of companies his firm wants to deploy hundreds of millions of euros into over the next decade: Accel raises $650m early-stage European fund.

Elena Pantazi 🇨🇾 of Northzone shares tips on how to hire remote talent and how the firm builds value add for entrepreneurs: How startups should hire remotely: 5 tips on securing the best talent.

Maren Bannon @Maren_Bannon

I love cold pitches. But a surefire way not to get funding from @January_VC is to start it with: "Dear Sirs..."

Shakil Khan @shak

1, Many folks trying to do a startup do NOT have the luxury of a “Friends & Family round”, same applies for many folks trying to do their first fund without “X % of GP commit”. Not everyone is born wealthy or with access to spare cash from their parents rich friends.

Patrick Ryan @ry_paddy

1/ OK, here goes. I'm tired of hearing this. I spent two years at @Crowdcube. Letting retail invest in startups has been possible for 10+ years in Europe. You don't need to be HNWI. However, NOBODY IS DOING IT RIGHT...BUT WE CAN.

Sahil @shl

If retail investors are angry they can’t invest in GameStop, wait until they learn that they’re prevented from investing in virtually every early-stage startup getting built today.

• Maren Bannon 🇺🇸 Co-Founder & Managing Partner, January Ventures, Amsterdam 🇳🇱 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Josh Bell 🇬🇧 General Partner, Dawn Capital, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Sophia Bendz 🇸🇪 Partner, Cherry Ventures, Berlin 🇩🇪 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Luca Bocchio 🇮🇹🇬🇧 Partner, Accel, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Johan Brenner 🇸🇪 General Partner, Creandum, Stockholm 🇸🇪 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Mary Glazkova 🇷🇺 PR partner, The Untitled Ventures, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Jasmin Heimann 🇨🇭 Marcau Partners, Zurich 🇨🇭 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Christoph Janz 🇩🇪 Partner, Point Nine Capital, Berlin 🇩🇪 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Matthew Jones 🇬🇧 Principal, Anthemis, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Shakil Khan 🇬🇧 Co-Founder, Prima Materia, Stockholm 🇸🇪 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Christian Meermann 🇩🇪 Founding Partner, Cherry Ventures, Berlin 🇩🇪 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Elena Pantazi 🇨🇾 Head of Operations, Northzone, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Pär-Jörgen Pärson 🇸🇪 General Partner, Northzone, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Evgenia Plotnikova 🇷🇺🇫🇷 Partner, Dawn Capital, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Younès Rharbaoui 🇫🇷 CFO, The Family, Paris 🇫🇷 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Patrick Ryan 🇮🇪 Co-founder, Odin, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog