European VC Digest: Stripe. No-Code. Angel Investing. The SPAC Goldrush. Ordinary Investors.

Capital Call #36

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.

Chris Brown 🇩🇪, an operator working with the Point Nine Capital portfolio, is sharing talent best practices: Talking Talent once you’ve raised your Series A.

Nicolas Colin 🇫🇷 of The Family discusses Stripe’s success and if it could be emulated today without being based in the Bay Area: Could a Stripe today succeed without Silicon Valley?

• Also by Nicolas, check out these notes on Moneyball in Consulting Services. 

Miruna Girtu 🇷🇴 of SyndicateRoom writes about the pitfalls that rookie angel investors could avoid if only they knew: Angel Investing: What Experienced Investors Wish They Knew When They Started.

David Grimm 🇬🇧 of the UCL Technology Fund explains why deeptech startups have very different needs from a funding perspective: Want to build a deeptech startup? Throw out the VC playbook.

Pietro Invernizzi 🇮🇹 of Stride VC teams up with Makerpad’s Ben Tossel to explore the fast-growing space of no-code: Decoding the no-code / low-code startup universe and its players.

Julie Kainz 🇦🇹 and David Arndt 🇦🇹 of Dawn Capital discuss the future of data infrastructure, deriving lessons from a well-known precedent: Snowflake 2.0.

Elena Pantazi 🇨🇾 of Northzone gather some learnings talking with Chief People Officers of the portfolio: Operator Workshops: Designing Organisations that Scale.

Matt Wichrowski 🇩🇪 of Fly Ventures spoke with Maddy Cross, one of Europe’s best minds on early stage startup talent: First On: Talent with Maddy Cross.

Johan Brenner 🇸🇪, Frederic Court 🇫🇷, Brent Hoberman 🇿🇦🇬🇧, Klaus Hommels 🇩🇪, and other European investors tell Sifted’s Isabel Woodford why they’re hesitant about SPACs: European VCs are still wary of joining the SPAC goldrush.

Eileen Burbidge 🇺🇸🇬🇧 of Passion Capital walks the walk about having more individual investors allocate capital to VC as an asset class: Passion Capital opens up its latest fund to 'ordinary' investors.

Gil Dibner @gdibner

The best VC investments: barely manage to raise seed, struggle to raise their Series A, but the Series B and beyond are over-subscribed.

Gil Dibner @gdibner

Secret of early-stage investing in a four easy steps:

Beata 👾 @axeliaklein

Best practice fundraising data room: 📚 Deck / Memo 👩‍💻 Product video (e.g via Loom) 📈 Financial plan (12-24 months ahead) 📊 P&L (for the past 12 months if applicable) 🚀 Traction sheet (retention, MRR growth, pipeline etc) 📃 Q&A docs (with most FAQ) 💯 Cap-table

Mattias Ljungman @Ljungman

1/ At $31bn @Klarna Europe's most valuable start up - its scaling took time but like all good things its success is compounding. My relationship with Klarna started 9 years ago when we @atomico invested into the firm. It was an untraditional transaction & I love driving those.

taavet hinrikus @taavet

1/ Almost 25 years in the making… I'm teaming up with @seikatsu on all things investing related going forward. We've both been angel investors for a while, next investments will be coming from the two of us together.

• David Arndt 🇦🇹 Venture Capital Investor, Dawn Capital, London 🇬🇧  LinkedIn 

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

• Eileen Burbidge 🇺🇸🇬🇧 Partner, Passion Capital, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Chris Brown 🇬🇧 Independent Consultant, Point Nine Capital, Berlin 🇩🇪  LinkedIn

• Nicolas Colin 🇫🇷 Co-Founder & Director, The Family, Munich 🇩🇪 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Frederic Court 🇫🇷 Partner, Felix Capital, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Gil Dibner 🇺🇸🇮🇱 Founder & General Partner, Angular Ventures, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Miruna-Ioana Girtu 🇷🇴 Venture Partner, SyndicateRoom, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• David Grimm 🇬🇧 Investment Director, UCL Technology Fund, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn

• Taavet Hinrikus 🇪🇪 Angel Investor, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Brent Hoberman 🇿🇦🇬🇧 Co-Founder & General Partner, First Minute Capital, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Klaus Hommels 🇩🇪 Founder & CEO, Lakestar, Zurich 🇨🇭 Twitter | Blog

• Pietro Invernizzi 🇮🇹 First-Cheque Investor, Stride VC, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Julie Kainz 🇦🇹 Vice-President, Dawn Capital, London 🇬🇧  LinkedIn| Twitter

• Beata Klein 🇸🇪 Associate, Creandum, Stockholm 🇸🇪 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Tim Levene 🇬🇧 CEO, Augmentum Fintech, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Mattias Ljungman 🇸🇪 Founder, Moonfire, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter

• Haakon Overli 🇬🇧 General Partner, Dawn Capital, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Elena Pantazi 🇨🇾 Head of Talent and Portfolio Development, Northzone, London 🇬🇧 LinkedIn | Twitter | Blog

• Matt Wichrowski 🇩🇪  Partner, Fly Ventures, Berlin 🇩🇪 LinkedIn I Twitter | Blog