Hendrik Brandis

Hendrik Brandis, Earlybird Venture Capital

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Hendrik Brandis is co-founder and partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, a leading early-stage investor operating across Western and Eastern Europe from offices in Munich, Berlin and Istanbul.

Hendrik is an advocate of European venture capital as an asset class, and walks the walk. He recently led the first all-European round of financing for a space rocket company, Isar Aerospace. We discuss the European venture opportunity, innovation, Earlybird’s development (2020 was ‘the best year’ in their history), fund structures and governance, and supporting immigrant entrepreneurs.

 

 

Positive new initiative to scale goodwill in private capital

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First global private equity & venture capital initiative to recognise individuals

Applies network-effect to goodwill through a viral platform

Say ‘thank you’ to people at all levels of the investment value chain

London, UK: Fund Shack, the global private capital channel, today launches Value Creators 2021, a positive new initiative that allows private equity and venture capital professionals to acknowledge people they know professionally to be Value Creators.

The online service enables professionals at all levels of seniority, and across the private equity and venture capital value chain, to recognise and be recognised as Value Creators for their achievements during 2020, by colleagues and contacts. They can then seamlessly post their support on LinkedIn, allowing their network to Like, Comment or leave their own testimonial.

The platform will be live from 14th December to 16th February. At the end of the process all Value Creators above a threshold of support will be listed on Fund Shack as 2021’s Most Respected Value Creators. Value Creators will be grouped by region – the Americas, EMEA, Asia-Pacific – as well as by function and experience.

It is the first ever comprehensive effort to acknowledge value creation, where it happens, across the entire global private capital value chain.

Ross Butler, CEO of Linear B Media and Fund Shack host, said: “Most of the value from the $4trn in private capital under management is not created by ‘star managers’ or mavericks, but through a team effort, and that includes those making fund investment decisions, direct investments, operations support, and the whole ecosystem of expert advisors. The Value Creators is a way to show appreciation and acknowledgement to anyone whose efforts have helped to create exceptional value.”

“Private capital professionals are like anyone else – a genuine compliment from a respected colleague is something you cannot put a price on.”

The initiative has been organised by Fund Shack, the global private capital channel for alternative investment professionals.

Regine Wilber, Digital Director of the Fund Shack Value Creators, said: “The conversations on Fund Shack give a real human-touch to investment institutions and brands that, to many people, are otherwise faceless. They help to make trust scalable. In the same way, the Value Creators platform has been designed with one goal in mind: to harness goodwill and make that scalable too.”

Private capital executives can be recognised, depending on their role and experience, as Chief Value Creators, Consummate Professionals, Deal Heroes, Portfolio Sages, Ops Ninjas or Trusted Advisors.

The Value Creators platform is live at vc.fund-shack.com until February 16th, 2021.

Contact: Nikita Malik

About the Value Creators 2021

The Value Creators 2021 is a new initiative that allows private capital professionals to show appreciation for the value creation of others. They can be colleagues, advisers, investors… anyone involved in the PE value chain at vc.fund-shack.com. Choose a category that fits the individual’s position and role. Write nice words. Submit. We will secure consent. You can post your support on LinkedIn, where others can Comment and Like. Value Creators above a threshold of support will be listed on Fund Shack as among 2021’s Most Respected Value Creators.  It’s goodwill, scaled.  The Value Creators runs from 14 December – 16 February.

vc.fund-shack.com

Vania Schlogel, Atwater Capital

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Vania Schlogel is managing partner and founder of Atwater Capital, a Los Angeles based international private equity firm specialising in media and entertainment. Vania is a Goldman Sachs and KKR alumna, she was CIO of Jay-Z’s entertainment agency Roc Nation, and she now sits on the boards of media & entertainment companies across the US, Europe and Asia.

 

 

 

The Milton Friedman New York Times Corporate Social Responsibility Debate

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Fifty-Years on, four of the world’s leading thinkers on Corporate Social Responsibility debate the merits of Milton Friedman’s controversial 1970 New York Times opinion article entitled, The Social Responsibility is to Increase Profits.

Read: https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/archives/a-friedman-doctrine-the-social-responsibility-of-business-is-to.html

The panel: Professor Brad Cornell, Professor Joanne Ciulla, Professor John Kay, Professor Guido Palazzo. Presenter: Ross Butler.

Avi Turetsky, Landmark Partners

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In June 2020, Landmark Partners and New Mexico PERA published a paper outlining a new methodology for calculating private equity performance in dollars, called the Excess Value Method.

In this discussion, co-author Avi Turetsky, talks about how the method was conceived, how it works, can be applied, and the outlook for its adoption as a measurement and incentive payment tool for the global private equity industry.

 

 

Wol Kolade

Wol Kolade, Livingbridge

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Wol Kolade is managing partner of Livingbridge, an international mid-market firm, headquartered in the UK and with offices in Melbourne and Boston. Wol joined the firm’s predecessor in 1993 and he led the buyout of the firm in 2005. We spoke on July 20th 2020.

 

On Covid-19 impact:

“We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s an enforced shutdown of circa a third of the economy with no real plan and little or no notice… [but] our portfolio looks ok.”

“It’s no use wishing for what was. You just need to adjust.”

“There’s no prize for not taking government support.”

“The whole way we look at health and health security has changed. You need to play into that area and understand, in five years time, what might happen. The whole emphasis of healthcare has been on treatment.”

 

On opportunity:

“The joy of being in the entrepreneur-driven market is that things are always reshaping and reforming.”

“We’re changing what we do, how we consume, how we deliver services, it’s super super exciting.”

“On the US Eastern seaboard, there are 50,000 private companies that make profits of $1m-10m. There is so much to do.”

Mark Tluszcz

Mark Tluszcz of Mangrove Capital Partners

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Mark Tluszcz is co-founder and CEO of Mangrove Capital Partners. Mark is one of Europe’s leading venture capitalists. He was the first investor in Skype and is currently chairman of Nasdaq-listed Wix, which is trading on Nasdaq at $11bn, and I recommend his blogsite, dare to dream beyond.

Audio-Only Podcast here.

And iTunes.

Ross’s favourite bits:

“Do it in Europe, stay home and believe in yourself.”

On Skype: “The only criticism I have of myself … is that maybe we should have been more generous in parsing the options. We’ve changed that now. At Wix we have 250 dollar millionaires [or one out of eight employees]”.

On Covid-19: “Our number one message: make sure you have enough capital on your balance sheet, however you get there… enough cash until December 2021.”

“It takes 5-10 years to build companies, so what is three months in a 5 to 10 year journey. We will look back and say this was a blip in the life of a successful fund.”

On healthcare: “We think we can automate what a general practitioner does.”

“Flo is a great example. I don’t think any doctor above 40 would have thought it was a good idea.”

On dinosaurs: “The keyboard is gone in 5 to 10 years.”

“We think there is going to be, somewhere in the world, a Netflix for voice.”

On investing: “Anyone you finance now will remember you forever.”

ESG’s conceptual flaws

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ESG – Environmental, social, governance… ‘issues’ is an industry in its own right, claiming $30trn in aum.

But how logical is its conceptual underpinnings? Does it reinforce moral behaviour or preclude it?

This conversation with leading private markets adviser and social responsibility author Cyril Demaria offers a deep and first principles analysis of how ESG plays into the many complexities and ethical decisions faced by investors and fund managers.

Podcast / audio-only version here.

Or subscribe via iTunes.