Alexander Beresford

My meeting with Peter Thiel — co‑founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, and the first investor in Meta — was one of the most impactful conversations of my career. Time and again, I’m reminded of his insight: “All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.” This perspective continues to shape how I evaluate opportunities, design growth systems, and think about differentiation. The companies that thrive aren’t just “better” — they’re unique, solving problems in ways no one else can. Crucial to place our bets thoughtfully, and even more, to know when to pivot. | #Growth #Strategy #GoToMarket #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Entrepreneur

14

Why I rarely introduce my portfolio to German VCs It’s not personal. Mostly. It’s cultural. Most German investors don’t invest - they administer risk. They benchmark. They love to correct. They can’t help it. They explain why something doesn’t “fit the strategy.” When I introduce a founder, it’s not a cold message. It’s warm capital meeting warm ambition. But too often, the response is a small lecture on how outreach “should” be done. They respond to trust with etiquette. That’s not feedback - it’s hierarchy management. Reclassifying a favor as an intrusion. It’s a mindset difference. Many German VCs are still controllers, not visionaries. They prefer frameworks, compliance, and benchmarking to risk intuition. They optimize for procedural correctness, not insight. That’s why they lecture - it’s procedural authority disguised as advice. They operate in a low-context, compliance-driven, domestically anchored system. I operate in a high-context, foresight-driven, international space. With the U.S. ecosystem getting noisier, Germany could become a major hub. But it’s not ready. Vision doesn’t fit into a checklist - and that’s exactly why most visions leave the country. Too many VCs don’t sense opportunity - they wait for peer validation. It’s a bureaucratic version of venture capital: heavy on forms, light on foresight. So before my German VC colleagues freak out, ask yourselves: Are you willing to expand your horizon? Stop being: → Benchmark-driven (“Does it fit our strategy?” instead of “Is there hidden upside?”) → Dependent on peer validation (“Who else is in?”) → Obsessed with process literacy instead of future literacy. I love to hear new stories. Of course I prefer investing in something I can understand - but I also want to learn. I look for movement. I want to be surprised. And please, please, please - stop sounding like boots on ground. You can’t build the future if you start every conversation by correcting it.

130

52 commentaires

Engaged investors spend hours every week inside fundraising spreadsheets. The ones founders send to unlock their next round. Same target investors. Different formats. Different columns. Different notes. So the work becomes: • Copying and pasting • Rebuilding context you already know • Re-adding notes no one else can reuse Then the team piles in. Initials appear. More columns. More chaos. This is where a fund should move the needle. You know the investors. You are often the best-connected person in the founder’s network. Warm intros are ~11x more effective. That leverage should feel powerful. Instead, it feels slow. This is why we have been building Raise. To remove one of the biggest friction points in venture. Solve it once and you unlock faster rounds for founders, stronger outcomes for funds, and real MOIC for LPs. If this sounds familiar, happy to compare notes.

20

2 commentaires

6. How to invest at preseed or seed by Harry Stebbings 1. Focus on Founder&founder quality 2. You need to be completely unhinged 3. So obsessed that’s uncomfortable to be around Great podcast by Wouter Teunissen (Biography Podcast) Full list of insights from Harry Stebbings recent interview: https://lnkd.in/dXMKqWfS

10

The easiest mistake a founder can make is building for the world as it looks right now. Because by the time your investment is live, the world has already moved. That’s the reality of enterprise today: → Regulations shift overnight. → Teams reorganize. → New tools rise and old ones fade. If the platform you selected can’t absorb those changes, it won’t last. Stability doesn’t matter if your organization is not adaptable. What matters is resilience. And resilience comes from modularity. From designing systems that bend without snapping, evolve without imploding, and give organizations the freedom to adapt on their own terms. Because the only guarantee is change. And the only systems worth building are the ones ready for it.

6

I have invested in over 40 businesses. Here is what that taught me (and what I wish I had known earlier): Not every company that looks right on paper will grow the way you expect. One instructive investment was in a EUR 20m revenue enterprise software company. Strong recurring revenues, enterprise customers, blue-chip shareholders, and a solid product. Every box was ticked. Within 12 months, growth did not materialise… Revenues that were supposed to increase stayed flat and the burn-rate was still there. What saved us was the structure. Because payments were tied to revenues, not a fixed amortisation schedule, we continued receiving monthly distributions, protected our exposure, and the company did not default, as royalties don't require bulky amortisation payments that cannot be fulfilled. Without default, we exited cleanly at 18% gross IRR and 1.2x. Under a traditional debt structure, that story ends differently. Lesson 1: Structure is your first line of defence. The second came from the opposite situation. We backed an enterprise automation company when revenues were below €1m. The product-market fit was undeniable. We stayed close, kept deploying as they grew rapidly, and by 2025 revenues had surpassed €20m. It was a win-win. The company could grow without dilution and without the strain of bulky amortisations, and our royalty income kept on increasing. Whenever management needed more capital, they came to us instead of going to the market. Lesson 2: Aligned capital builds relationships for future rounds. Both cases confirmed the same underlying truth. Royalty-based capital scales with growth and protects against the downside. I believed that before these investments, but what they taught me is that conviction alone is not enough. You need a structure that enforces it. That is the constant across 40 investments.

16

2 commentaires

Founders are separating noise from signal with Leon Eisen, PhD’s clarity filters: 1. Pattern test 2. Incentive check 3. Specificity 4. Stage match 5. Decision owner 6. Constraint fit Take advice from investors you can execute to generate momentum, not perfection.

6

1 commentaire

Founders rarely exit because of the money. There’s always another hidden reason. After hundreds of conversations with sellers, I know what really matters: It's rarely about the cash. Here's what actually drives founders to exit: · Burnout from years of 24/7 stress · Wanting freedom to pursue new projects · Family priorities shifting over time · Mental health taking a backseat The money just makes the next step possible. What they really want is their life back. One founder told me: "I built this app to create freedom, but it became my prison." Another said: "I realized I was missing my kids growing up for push notifications." These conversations changed how I approach every deal. If you're feeling trapped by your own business, it’s more common than you think. Sometimes selling isn't giving up - it's getting your life back. My DMs are open if you want to talk. Follow Orel Bleytman for more insights about the real side of app exits.

28

1 commentaire