Dirk Sahlmer

Ep.17 Drop #20Angel 🎙 The one & only Philipp Moehring, Co-Founder of Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company, joined me in the hot seat for a rare public appearance 🔥 👉 Introducing Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company FUND III ✍ 👉 Higher valuations = higher expectations 💣 👉 Giving Founders the freedom to be extreme 🤪 👉 Your access gives you your price 💰 Some Founder References on Philipp: dennis müller (Amie): "More than most, pmoe is a cheerleader. The journey is already hard enough, some VC's make it harder by sending unsolicited articles with "seen this?". He's the opposite. always fun to brainstorm ideas with him. Differentiated intros relative to others." David Budde (trawa): “He‘s been a great sparring partner and has a ton of experience. I remember, the night before our Pre-Seed closing, we found a minor but important error in our cap table. Unsure what to do, we called Phil late that evening for guidance. To me, it‘s super important to know that I can reach my investors, if it actually matters, and that they‘ll be able to help! + he’s just a really nice guy.” Milos Rusic (deepset): “Phil is amazing! He was actively involved in assembling each of our funding rounds - even in the first round where he committed before we had settled for a lead investor. He actively helped to construct our favourite setup of lead investors for that initial round. He knows everyone and his support is not limited to great intros - he really helps founders to assess and identify which investor could be a right fit for them. 100% reliable, massive value for every company. What they do is really unique.” This was a special one to do, hope you enjoy 🍿 https://lnkd.in/gTRT_SmJ 20VC, #AngelInvesting, #technology, #podcast, #entrepreneurship, #VC, #Founder, #Investing

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𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 (incl. AI GPT Sales Prompt Engineering & Supporting tools) Our successful facts: - 350 German & Austrian clients within 15 years in Europe - 280 German & Chinese Clients in whole China within 3 years - 500+ projects successful done - 5 new projects every month in sales pipline 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧: - Top sales and business development secrects - Sales Pitch & Practical Role Playing - Sales Action Plan to achieve the Monthly Goals - Cross-culture sales & business ethics - European Business Etiquettes to get not rejected - NLP and Body language - Sales AI Prompt Engineering - etc... Next open training slots middle of June 2024: contact@hackltech.com #sales #nlp #success #salesai #crossculture #salespitch #topbusiness #bd

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"As a VC for 20 years, here's a confession: I should have trusted my gut more often." Something that Rainer Märkle, General Partner at HV Capital. Shared with us at EUVC We all know VCs are supposed to be data-driven guided. We're trained to believe perfect analysis leads to perfect investment decisions. But sometimes, your gut feeling is your best friend. As a highly analytical person, Rainer has learned this valuable lesson. Intuition matters. Yes, due diligence is essential. However, take a break and look from a different perspective. Experience tells you when to trust your instincts. How do you balance data-driven analysis with intuition? Share your experiences in the comments! #venturecapital #angelinvesting #startupfunding #europe

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📰 My Cofounder is featured in two leading newspapers this morning!👏👏 My cofounder at Footprint Technologies, Carolin Kleinert, gave two interviews for #Sueddeutsche and #Tagesspiegel about a recent study of Startup-Verband that investigated the socio demographic background of #startup founders. It clearly proofs founders typically are originating from families with academic backgrounds or from parents who are entrepreneurs themselves. The majority - but not all of them. Carolin is a great example of this minority who also made it without academic parents or without entrepreneurial role-models within their core families. I am sharing a similar family background, both of my parents do neither have an academic education, nor are they entrepreneurs themselves. It is possible, but it needs more visibility and sharing of such positive examples, so that more and more #Arbeiterkinder are considering becoming entrepreneurs as a career option. This would be a benefit for themselves as well as for our society and economy! For that reason I am celebrating the two articles about Carolin's personal story! 😍 👏 👉 Please check the articles and share them! 🙏

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I love working with Version One Ventures and love this investment thesis. When I talk about Kobalt.io, I often talk about the fact that we're trying, effectively, to "create a new category" in security. That is, delivering proven, repeatable security programs to small and mid-sized organizations. Many of the elements look the same - advisory support, compliance with standards like SOC2 leveraging tools like Vanta, conducting pentests, etc. But predictable, positive security outcomes, at scale, for smaller businesses requires solving all sorts of other problems and working on things that many others don't care about when they're selling software or dealing with a point problem. I love the idea of category creation - it's sort of a "the world was different before X existed, and now it's forever changed for the better".

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The SaaS industry is still growing. But much more slowly. Last month I shared an Aleph statistic. Over the last 3 years we have invested in 17 companies. Only 1 out 17 was a classic horizontal SaaS company. SaaS was the single best business model of the last cycle (2008-2021), but the category has since entered a maturity stage (see graph below). This new report from the wonderful software team at Avenir clearly illustrates it. Growth rates for the combined SaaS industry are quickly declining as we are entering the later stages of maturity. In other words, there’s already an established software company in most sectors - and there’s very little room for entirely new software categories. At Aleph we still believe there’s an opportunity to build successful SaaS companies, but new entrants would have to carve out market share in existing industries and displace existing vendors. Vertical software is one area where lesser competition makes it more attractive, but entrepreneurs in crowded horizontal markets would have to work harder than ever before. Another key takeaway from the report - there are only 72 publicly traded companies (with market cap > $5Bn) with a combined market cap of $5.8Tr. However, 56% of this value is attributed to Microsoft alone, followed by a very long tail of lesser performing companies. Moreover, only 2 of the largest 11 companies were funded after the year 2000 (ServiceNow, CrowdStrike). If you are building or investing in SaaS, you should definitely read the full report by Jared Sleeper, Hannah Bao and David Prilutsky (link in the first comment).

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🎙️I recently had the pleasure of joining Max Ostermeier on his podcast, the Startcast Podcast. Max invited me to share my journey as a founder – from the very beginning to where we are today with MVP Factory. In our conversation, we delved into the lessons I've learned along the way, my perspective on startups and the mindset shift of Zebras vs Unicorns, founding in times of crisis, and some of the incredible projects like Yarded we're working on at MVP Factory.
 Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just curious about our journey with MVP Factory, listen in and share your thoughts with me. We covered a lot of ground, from the early challenges to the innovative solutions we're bringing to life today:
 🔹 The pivotal moments in my entrepreneurial journey 🔹 Insights on building and scaling startups  🔹 Behind-the-scenes stories from MVP Factory projects  🔹 How joining Ness Digital Engineering enables us to drive more innovation A big thank you to Max for the invitation, the great conversation, and your patience (it took us a while to find an appointment). I'm looking forward to part two ;) I hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed recording it! 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: ▶️Spotify | https://lnkd.in/ddhf9ywf ▶️Apple I https://lnkd.in/dFmBuVG5 #Startcast #Startups #MVPFactory #Innovation 

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🚀 Buying is the new recruitment + TURBO for development In today's fast-paced business world, German SMEs are finding success through strategic partnerships with startups, even on a smaller scale. 🌟 Let’s consider the example of “CarTech”, a Berlin-based startup that developed an AI-powered platform for optimizing used car sales. In 2024, Auto 1 Group, a major European used car trading platform, acquired CarTech. The integration of CarTech’s technology streamlined Auto 1 Group’s processes, improved pricing accuracy, and expanded its market reach across Europe. This successful acquisition played a pivotal role in Auto 1 Group’s transformation to dominant players Excited to explore similar opportunities for your SME? Join us at the Bright Future Event, where we'll dive into real-life examples of German SMEs teaming up with startups and the game-changing results they've achieved. Exited to meet: Andy Zurwehme (eROCKIT AG), Paulina Tsvetanova (CEO & Founder PAULINA‘S FRIENDS Couture) ,  Mathias Tholey  (NU Company, Schokolade) and many more.... But wait, there's more! I'll be sharing practical tips on how startup teams can seamlessly integrate into SME environments, fostering innovation and driving mutual success. Check out: www.spitze-bleiben.de Thanks Ulf Leonhard for organizing. Don't miss out on this chance to unlock the potential of collaboration and propel your business forward. See you at the event! ✨ #BrightFuture #SMEs #Startups #BusinessGrowth #Innovation #Management #HumanResources #Technology #Future

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Reading tip for all startup founders with fundraising plans in DACH: Investoren Report 2024 by Startup Insider. This report provides valuable insights into the venture capital landscape, and is a must-read for anyone looking to secure funding. Plus, it includes bonus material from IRIS on the latest developments in our ecosystem. Get your copy here: https://lnkd.in/dU-5AMPz #startups #founders #VC #LP #fundraising

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𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒃𝒆 𝒂 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒐𝒓 𝒂 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒆? To avoid the latter, asking good questions matters when relocating. I've changed countries twice, and most of my friends are expats. In my profession, I’ve supported countless expats on their journey. Hint: moving is almost never a walk in the park. Here are my personal top 11 questions to consider: 1. Do I prefer a productivity-oriented or family/friends/leisure-oriented culture? 2. Is there already an international/startup community? 3. Can I commit to learning a new language? 4. Is Amazon available? 5. How important is sunshine to me? 6. How quickly can I visit my family? 7. Can I easily go for a ride, swim, or hike in nature? 8. Can I get a decent flat white? 9. What’s the welcome culture and political sentiment like? 10. Can I afford the same or even better living standards there? 11. Will I be able to comfortably raise kids? What questions are in your top 3-5? What am I missing? 👉 Swipe the carousel for additional thoughts.

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🚀 Top SaaS startups in Germany 🚀 Germany's SaaS startup scene is booming, with innovative companies leading the charge. Here is a sneak peak at the top 20 🔥 : 🌟 Celonis: A process mining leader that tracks software data to improve company operations. 💰 Funding: $2.4B 🌟 Personio: Develops HR management and recruiting solutions for startups and SMEs. 💰 Funding: $724.3M 🌟 Forto: A digital freight forwarder and logistics management platform. 💰 Funding: $593.4M 🌟 Mambu: Provides a SaaS banking engine for innovative lending and deposits. 💰 Funding: €387M 🌟 Contentful: Offers a headless content management system for multi-channel content delivery. 💰 Funding: $349.6M 🌟 Billie: Reinvents working capital management for small businesses. 💰 Funding: $349.2M 🌟 Taxfix: Simplifies tax filing with an intuitive, chat-like interface. 💰 Funding: $330M 🌟 Staffbase: Provides an internal communications platform for companies and employees. 💰 Funding: $307.1M 🌟 Moss: A corporate credit card designed for comprehensive business spending. 💰 Funding: $203.6M 🌟 Atheneum: Connects businesses with experts through a B2B Research Technology platform. 💰 Funding: $200.7M 🌟 Jedox: Simplifies planning, analysis, and reporting with a cloud-based software solution. 💰 Funding: $140.6M 🌟 Pricefx: Offers a full suite of price management solutions adaptable to business needs. 💰 Funding: $131.3M 🌟 SAP LeanIX: Manages Enterprise Architecture and multi-cloud environments with a SaaS solution. 💰 Funding: $120M 🌟 Camunda: Develops a BPM platform for designing and automating business processes. 💰 Funding: €107M 🌟 finleap: An international fintech company builder. 💰 Funding: €101.5M 🌟 Xentral ERP Software: A lean ERP cloud software centralizing business processes. 💰 Funding: $94.6M 🌟 Parloa: A Conversational AI platform for automating customer service. 💰 Funding: $92M 🌟 BRYTER: Provides a no-code platform to automate expert knowledge. 💰 Funding: $89M 🌟 DataGuard : Helps businesses operationalize compliance and build trust. 💰 Funding: $81.7M 🌟 AnyDesk Software: The fastest remote desktop software for new usage scenarios. 💰 Funding: $77.7M Check out the list for the remaining startups not mentioned here! 🚀 #saas #startups #insights #funding

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Investing in restaurant software sucks! So why did 20VC lead the Seed round for allO, the all-in-one software platform for ethnic restaurants!? 👉 Team - Cancan Liu, Teodor Rupi & Benedikt von Lewinski are absolute execution monsters. Deeply understand the customer segment they are servicing... so much so that they actually waited on tables for free to work closely alongside their customers 👉 Clear ICP - churn is big at the lower end of the restaurant market and so they target customer generating a min of €500k ARR, which is not the focus of incumbents and at much lower risk of churn and much higher expansion potential 👉 Product - they have released 450+ updates in the App Store in under 12 months. Their feature shipping velocity is insane 👉 Numbers - servicing 200+ locations in Munich, grown ARR and ARPU 10x and 4x respectively in the past 12 months Fun story, I spent time in Munich, door stopping 30+ restaurants pretending to be a restaurant owner setting up a new location in Munich - "I heard about this software called allO, do you think it's worth me looking into" - honestly, never seen so much customer (and waiter!) love for a software product like I did for allO ❤️ And check out the co-investors in the round - 20Growth, 20Product, Daniel Khachab, Claire Hughes Johnson, Mario Götze, Dr. Martin E. and many more. And a special shout out to Abdul Afridi for seeing their potential early and being a true champion on the inside! $5m Seed round LFG!

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📣 Google Consent Mode v2: Did you miss our recent webinar with Google on that topic? If you'd like to deepen your understanding of GCM v2 and learn how to implement it effectively, you can now watch the full video here (in German): https://lnkd.in/dceY4UnZ #consentmanager #webinar #google #googleconsentmodev2 #dataprotection #cookies

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💌 saas.wtf newsletter update: +24 subs vs. last week 🫠 Could be better, but I was on vacation and therefore less active here (= less promo). Minimum goal for this year is to get to 5k subs. Let's see. ➡️ Newsletter KPIs (YTD): Net new subs: +754 Open Rate: 55.7% CTR: 5.7% Unfortunately, the LI posts in which I share my progress and announce new articles no longer generate as many new subs as a few months ago. I'm looking to use more freebies (templates etc.) as lead magnets, but I can't get around to creating any at the moment. At least not any I'd be satisfied with myself. There will also be more content collaborations. Any other things I could try? ➡️ Latest article: Micro M&A for SaaS Startups At a time when growth has become more difficult, it is worth trying ways off the beaten track. Small, strategic acquisitions can be one of them. This article is about “Micro M&A” as a growth hack and shows how buying small indiehacker projects, newsletters, etc. can potentially: 1. Drive more traffic to your website, 2. Generate more leads, and 3. Enhance your product offering. Link below - enjoy reading! If you have any specific questions about such acquisitions, feel free to reach out! #saas #startups #growth #growthhacks #mergersandacquisitions #newsletter #newsletters

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Let's dive into how we at s16vc approach '𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬'—the most frequent request type, which accounts for about a third of all requests from our portfolio founders. Typically, it goes along the lines of, “Do you know a stellar [product designer] based in [Berlin]?” So, most often it's an opportunistic ask for candidate referrals. Occasionally, founders ask to refer a trusted hiring agency or an advisor to help build their internal people function. On even fewer occasions, it's a request for a reference check of candidates through our community. At s16vc, we've chosen to do a lot deals vs. 1-2 big-bucks bets a year, support all portfolio companies vs. the chosen few, have many individual LPs vs. a couple institutional ones, engage our large community to help founders vs. rely on an in-house group of operators, host a lot of community gatherings vs. one AGM. We appreciate it’s very ambitious. Three years & two fund generations into s16vc's existence, we already have 59 portfolio companies, 92 portfolio founders, and 152 LPs. Now, fast forward ten years into the future? No wonder one of our founding principles at s16vc is “Do things that scale.” This principle pervades everything we do. In the context of 'Hiring & References' support, we ask ourselves, “Can a VC fund help source candidates at scale?” And next, “Should it?” Our belief is that, yes, it can—with the right investment of resources. But should it? As with any strategic bet, you have to focus on your unfair advantage. For some funds, it's a sizable AUM, allowing them to get some great minds to work with their portfolio companies. For others, it's a strong brand name that drives traffic to job boards on their websites. s16vc’s biggest asset is our community. As I often say, we do everything as a community. Hence, for us, the real question is, “Can we source candidates at scale through our community?” The answer is, we may or may not be able to do that; for now, we haven't yet found a scalable way to assist with candidate sourcing. This explains why 'Hiring & References' requests comprise the largest portion, 38% of all requests that didn't progress past the 'Qualification' stage. However, there’s still plenty we as a community can and do help with: * Sharing the most precious people who we have worked with within the community; * Connecting to the most relevant and trusted recruiting agencies and freelance recruiters; * Job description & scorecard review; * Finding a bar raiser for the final interview; * Connecting to advisors who can help build the in-house hiring process; * Finding a trusted connection within our community for a reference check.

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🤖 🛒 Digital shopping turned into something good 🚀 According to the Gartner B2B Buying Report, most (43%) purchasing decisions in B2B purchasing are made without the influence of the salesperson. Gartner calls this "self-service digital commerce". The problem with these purchasing decisions is that there is a 1.65 times higher probability of regretting these decisions. This is probably due to the fact that many vendors do not publish sufficient descriptions of the products and product value on their e-commerce sites. In other words, it can be said that shoppers have a tendency to use digital shopping channels, possibly to avoid what they perceive to be too much influence from sellers. However, if buyers regret these decisions, the tables should be turned and they themselves should use digital procurement tools to get the ideal price and terms after researching the product or service beforehand. In this way, the seller can once again clearly emphasize the value of the product/service, but is limited to the value for the customer due to the competitive situation with other suppliers. Modern procurement and especially sourcing software combines the digital purchasing process with strong negotiating advantages through the creation of competition (aka Game Theory). 💯 Contact me if this sounds interesting to you. #sourcing #procurement #digitaltransformation SourcingDNA https://lnkd.in/dtzMntQ4

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Congrats to Wayve for raising 1 BN dollars. It shows that autonomous driving is still on track and people believe in the technology. Wayve.ai develops their own software stack based on an E2E AI approach. This means the whole Software Stack is AI based. Unique in this world as most companies use AI only for Perception. More you can find here: https://lnkd.in/eq7NzMR4 It is very exciting, economical and promising for the future. There are risks though, which can be solved. Technologies like this are unique and create big challenges for engineers in Safety, Verification and Validation. I am personally happy to see that there is movement in Autonomy and people do not stop believing in safe and efficient mobility! https://lnkd.in/e7f9jg9p

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🎙️Podcast alert: Had a great catch-up with Kai on 🤝𝑪𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒂𝒍🤝 this week (🇩🇪) After our first session last year, we again talked about the latest developments in the SaaS and M&A market. Topics we've covered: ➡️ Our approach with saas.group, ➡️ Where we stand and what our goals are, ➡️ Current SaaS and M&A market trends, ➡️ How to properly value a SaaS business, ➡️ Role of AI in SaaS and M&A, ➡️ And more... You can check it out on all relevant podcast platforms. Links to Spotify and Apple below: 🟢 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gn8RaVpD 🟣 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/g3kBWSBW Enjoy listening! 🙌 @ Kai, Anja + team: Thanks again for having me. Happy to speak again next year and see how good or bad my predictions were.

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