“And remember, it’s not a judgement of your performance, it’s just we don’t need this position anymore.”
After selling the chain of clinics business twice, I got fired from day 1 to day 2 with the typical capitalist view, you put your things in a box and leave the premises in 2 hours type of thing. This put me in a very difficult position of trying to redefine myself as a business person, so I took a step back.
20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:
5 years ago I joined one of my most recent investments, because I felt it has the potential to become something big. I raised about 120 mn in financing for our firm and it’s going well, fingers crossed.
You need a very tall building or a very slow elevator for this [elevator pitch]
I went into pharma, initially in Austria and then Switzerland. And Switzerland was so boring, I needed to go back home.
Joined a chain of clinics in Romania, sold the business to PE twice, made a little bit of money from ESOP. So this turned out very well and I had a little bit of money. So I decided why invest it prudently in real estate and stuff, when I can invest it similarly in small companies that will grow big.
I have the same 2 kids and the same wife I had at INSEAD, so that’s quite a success.
Nowadays I am teaching strategy, entrepreneurial growth to MBA students, I am teaching a fintech course as well.
On topic: Fintech, start-ups, fund raising, entrepreneurial endeavours
B2C, crypto, blockchain which are not in very good shape, and then the more traditional SaaS, B2B – the only thing that has changed is the multiple you get in the valuation. It just takes a little bit of time to adjust to the current reality.
Everything is pending on the bigger markets resuming tech IPOs for fast growing, loss making companies.
The base scenario is that we will be able to converge to breakeven with the money that we have and we would do it by the end of 2024. We’ve moved from 80% growth with significant loss, to 50% growth with very clear convergence to B/E.
We need to grow 5 to 10x more to even be considered for an IPO.
I don’t think it’s difficult frankly [being an entrepreneur] – it is so much fun.
The younger students and graduates are much smarter than we were and I think they’ve realised that our prudent way of joining a company is just a path to some sort of plateau, that is kind of convenient, but is just that.
My advise to everyone is not to get trapped in some sort of cosy job that pays the money and gives you no more thrills. We could build things that are meaningful. And every time I failed, it proved to be a kick in the butt that makes you leap forward. So don’t worry that much about the potential failures in the process, it is more about enjoying the opportunity to build something that is going to impact people in some way.
Our security net is pretty high and is given by what we know and how the CV looks like, and how employable you are if eventually the sh*t hits the fan. And you can aways jump in a secure job, maybe slightly less attractive that the one you would optimise for if that was your target.
All THINGS INSEAD AND GIVING BACK
INSEAD – kind of detached me from the imposter syndrome.
INSEAD brainwashed me in a very efficient manner, a person [me] came out that was willing to do things that are new and different and trusting himself a lot more.