Complexity masquerades as flexibility— but it often creates the very fragility it claims to prevent. No one likes high fragmentation and complexity. Many small vendors lead to inefficient purchasing decisions, and someone needs to train you on all these new machines and vendors. You could start releasing design documents on usage patterns. Or perhaps there … Continue reading Why Layers Lie: Careful with Overlays in Defense Resilience
Every call I get that question: "What about AI?". Yes, what about it? If you have any summer interns they'll probably make some proposals how to automatically source and select investment winners with AI. With investors -- LPs and GPs alike! -- I rather like to talk about "AI Infrastructure". Because most of them have … Continue reading AI Infrastructure for Investors – How to Start
For some reason, just because I'm German, everyone seems to think that I know the impact of the war in Ukraine onto capital markets. I don't. Well, I didn't. Here we go: Bifurcation of economies; return of regional networks and economies; strong US dollar; bifurcation of energy markets; increased military investments
Last night a dinner discussion turned again to private equity markets, blockchain, stablecoins, and money. The argument went that public markets had less risk because they have stricter audits, governance. In private equity, you also have to find a buyer and negotiate a price and terms of your private equity stake. Stocks that are traded … Continue reading How to think about risk in Blockchain, Private Equity, Public Markets
When I came out of my own startup in 2002, I decided to focus my efforts on public land preservation and low-income housing. I signed a bunch of different (financial) products, and quite frankly didn't know much about US products, closed-end funds, and tax implications. When I had to restructure our family trust, I had … Continue reading $125M Evergreen Fund
I often ask entrepreneurs during pitches "What's hard to make this a successful company?" I am particular about this one. I am not asking "what's difficult." Difficult is fundraising, hiring great people, finding customers, making customers pay on time, getting renewals, opening a new office, etc. "What's Hard" is something that hopefully the entrepreneurs are better … Continue reading What’s Hard and What’s Not as a VC.
