Visionaries Club's Robert Lacher on bridging the gap between old family businesses and the European startup ecosystem
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Visionaries Club's Robert Lacher on bridging the gap between old family businesses and the European startup ecosystem
An exciting conversation on why Europe as a whole is actually globally the biggest possible enablement ecosystem for the digitization in B2B and more. Don't miss Robert's show notes below ⏬
Robert's journey in VC is impressive. He was also one of the Founding Partners of La Famiglia when they launched their first fund, and he's since gone on to make waves with Visionaries Club. Let's talk numbers for a moment:
Visionaries Club currently manages a total of $350 million USD
$185 million seed fund
$165 million early growth fund
Headquartered in both Germany and the UK, with offices in London and Berlin, Visionaries Club has strategically positioned itself at the heart of Europe's tech ecosystem. Their focus? Seed and early growth stages, particularly in the B2B and software sectors. Robert’s investments include Personio, Choco, Miro, Pigment, Tacto, and Babbel, just to name a few.
Today, we'll dive deep into Robert's strategy, exploring why they've structured their funds the way they have, and getting his insights on the European VC landscape. Get ready for an enlightening conversation that will leave you with a new appreciation for the intricacies of venture capital in Europe. So, without further ado, let's welcome Robert Lacher to the show!
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Journey in venture
University: Studied Mechanical Engineering and business - strong passion for technology management (RWTH Aachen, Cambridge University, Imperial College London, Harvard University)
BCG & the wakeup call that there was no connection between old and new econmy entrepreneurs in Europe:
Was about to start a company out of university in 2012 but got talked into BCG in 2012 by Jochen Engert, who was my mentor during the internship and then later founded Flixbus (good friend and also part of our Visionaries family) :)
I was again working very closely at BCG with Max Viessmann, who is a next-gen family business entrepreneur taking 100-year-old company with 4bn revenues to the digital age (Viessmann Group - German manufacturer of heating, cooling and renewable energy systems)
What we figured out back then: There was no connection between old and new economy entrepreneurs - even though 90% of our European economy are family businesses. I always had the idea to build something around that – but took a little time until we did it
Founding Amaze: Left BCG and started my own small company in the mobile space (Amaze) which I sold to Zalando
Founding La Famiglia (I am still managing our first La Famiglia Fund I which also stays independent from General Catalyst):
Ended up in angel investing - out of my angel investment activities founded La Famiglia, a small EUR 40 M angel fund focusing on B2B to pool our money
We were lucky that we had been seed / early stage investors in companies such as Deel, Forto, Personio, Choco at a time when B2B was not that sexy yet in Europe
Founding Visionaries Club:
Being an “entrepreneur in VC” turned out to be my biggest passion + I thought the VC ecosystem itself was ripe for disruption so saw a big opportunity to build a “new company in VC” driven by the authentic building experience of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs
Together with Sebastian Pollock, ecommerce founder, decided to take our combined experience to the next level and founded Visionaries Club: The VC we would have loved when we were still founders ourselves.
Deep Dive and Q&A on Visionaries
We built Visionaries Club as the VC we wished existed when we were operators ourselves. What makes us a little different compared to other VCs?
1) Entrepreneur LP Network: We unite an unparalleled network of the most successful digital and family business entrepreneurs as our LPs - both together are needed to unlock Europe's full potential in B2B tech:
We believe the importance of money has decreased in Venture Capital
Today, tangible access and this authentic, hands-on entrepreneurial experience is the best possible support we can offer to founders beyond the money - one which we could never replicate as partners or just “hire” into a fund.
Digital Entrepreneur LP Network: Our founders and operators are behind companies such as UiPath, Miro, Flixbus, Mollie, Spotify, Personio, Adyen, or HelloFresh and have only just gone through the founder journey themselves. They will directly assist founders in building and scaling a successful company.
Family Entrepreneur LP Network: With our family entrepreneurs such as Swarovski, Mittal, Haniel, Stihl, Henkel, Siemens, Oetker, Fiege or Bitburger, we can provide founders with direct access to first customers for product-market-fit, and unparalleled scaling opportunities, reaching more than 90% of Europe’s most prolific (industrial) family businesses.
With these two entrepreneurial groups, we are bridging the information asymmetry of “what’s possible” in the technology startup space and “what is actually needed” in the industrial space.
2) We have been entrepreneurs ourselves before:
We are ourselves entrepreneurs at heart. We have gone through the entrepreneur's journey. We have directly lived and experienced it.
It is this joy of building that gets us up in the morning. Thus, we do not see ourselves as investors, but rather as co-entrepreneurs to the founders that we back.
3) We are not just investors, but entrepreneurs ourselves obsessed about building the best product for founders and "disrupting the VC market":
People never speak about the “company-building element” of a VC firm. But in the end it is the “company” that you build as a VC that makes or breaks what a founder can get from a good investor.
As a team, we are obsessed with building Visionaries to endure and become the partner of choice for the best founders.
4) We have a laser sharp focus on B2B:
We have invested in more than 50 B2B SaaS companies and B2B marketplaces giving us unparalleled insights into the dynamics of B2B
Together with our B2B portfolio, we had >5K interactions with our industrial family entrepreneur LPs on the application layer of SaaS.
We are a small investor in Miro, and Andrey is also an LP in Visionaries - a great example of a “self enforcing circle of life” in the startup ecosystem :)
Andrey is a perfect example in many ways:
Great entrepreneurs can build great companies independent of cycles and where they are located: He started Miro in the small city of Perm with the simple idea of bringing a whiteboard into a browser (RealtimeBoard) and build it into the leading global visual collaboration software: This is an encouraging role model for any entrepreneurs not to complain about their ecosystem but just start building
He turned a personal obsession of art and design into a product
He has become a great angel and LP sharing his insights being one of the best product driven founders with our founders
He also shaped s16vc into a great angle syndicate
3 biggest learnings from last 10 years of life
Follow what you love doing and don’t compromise on it (Ikigai - Japanese concept about the reason to live)
Bad things happen for good things to come: Do not let lost points affect your focus: Setbacks and failures are simply tests for how badly we want our dreams. Whenever I thought that something didn’t work out, it was just the exponential starting point of something better!
Prioritise attitude over resume skills in hiring (Visionaries doesn’t hire traditional VCs but former entrepreneurs and operators / people eager to grow in the industry)
Celebrate misfits and not coach them into conformity
Advice for young people in the VC industry.
Follow what you love doing and don’t compromise on it (Ikigai) / Turn passion into obsession
Never compromise on team setup: Trust your guts!
Decide what entrepreneur you want to be: There are maybe a thousand ways to build great companies
Have a maniacal sense of urgency as operating principle
Tips & tricks for emerging VCs fundraising.
Be a painkiller and not a “nice to have” vitamin for a founder’s cap table:
VC has turned into red ocean (an existing market with gradual improvements and many competitors)
An emerging manager needs to have a clear differentiation in its strategy to justify its existence
Storytelling: What makes you different? And why will you succeed?
Be obsessed with the “product Venture Capital”:
For an LP to invest in an emerging manager is like a GP doing a seed investment: When I back a founder I want to feel that they are obsessed about the product —> I would want an emerging manager to be obsessed about and ambitious enough to build a category-leading value proposition and the best fund
The truth is: It is incredibly hard work at the intersection of company building and investing! VC market is incredibly competitive! It is tough to stand out! And it is very difficult to find good talent!
Start small
Be patient and hustle
Most counterintuitive learned in venture.
Manufacturing serendipity:
VC is about manufacturing luck: In the end, the core of a VC’s business is manufacturing serendipity and thus proactively creating your own luck
I think the best venture capitalists consciously create their luck by having a ruthless sense of urgency to follow the heat of opportunities: they work systematically to boost the odds that serendipity will strike repeatedly
Never underestimate the effect of compounding
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Visionaries Club's Robert Lacher on bridging the gap between old family businesses and the European startup ecosystem