How did you become a writer?
I have always loved reading and writing. Concentrating on a text, I feel an incredible flow. Words and sentences align themselves in the proper order, sometimes effortlessly, sometimes only if I marshal them by force. Hours pass unnoticed until I emerge from this dreamlike state. Writing gives you a clear understanding of the topic at hand because you need to establish logical and temporal structure between things. Being able to write for a living is a dream come true and also the result of good fortune. While studying law, I began working for a small publisher specializing in private equity. This became the base for my path into financial journalism.

How did you get from there to Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the most prestigious newspaper in Switzerland?
The publisher was acquired by NZZ one day because we had created an interesting community and series of events based on our publications. Investment topics were my mainstay, and I interviewed hundreds of investment professionals. I learned a lot; After a while, I could also tell which fund managers had original thoughts and deep expertise. I also often got to travel to faraway places. I climbed down a mine shaft in Colombia, drove on a frozen Finnish lake together with a rally driver, and learned a bit of the Klingon language, all for work. Often, I covered topics before they became mainstream, for instance, microfinance or marketplace lending.

How did your evolution as a writer go, from your legal studies to a full-time journalist? Did your writing develop a lot, or are you more of a natural talent?
Writing is best learned by exercising it on the job. I had the good fortune of being coached by experienced individuals who reviewed my texts, provided me with honest feedback, and advised me on how to refine my style, which was perhaps a bit rigid coming out of law school. Clear and direct feedback is painful, especially at the beginning when you haven’t found your voice yet. I doubted more than once if I had even one ounce of talent when a text I wrote was torn apart. But this is how you learn and progress. Nothing is worse than a half-hearted review that tells you all is fine when the text is still weak. Luckily, even now at Verve Ventures, my colleagues enjoy splattering red ink over my texts. I’m thankful for their cruelty because it improves my writing.

What kind of criticism did they throw at you at the beginning of your career as a journalist?
When you learn about new topics, you become enamored with the details. But your audience doesn’t want a summary of dozens of things you just discovered. They want to be guided through a story without distraction. It hurts to leave out trivia. I was often told, “Kill your darlings.” I had a Post-it note on my screen that read: “Nobody has to read your bullshit” for a while. It helped. Sometimes I had to trash what I thought was a finished article because I approached the topic the wrong way. In this case, you need to start anew with a clear understanding of what to include and what to exclude. It makes you feel like a bricklayer who built up a wall just to be told that the house should stand in another place. However, in the end, it is only the published text and the result that count.

If somebody came to you today and asked you how they can become a better writer, what would you tell them?
Read a lot of really good writing. Read a lot of mediocre writing, too. Pay attention to why some articles are a pleasure to read and why others make you stumble. As an author, you have to guide your readers. Assume that they’re intelligent, but don’t assume that they know everything. Use strong and appropriate words, not the most complicated ones you know. Do not assume that you will ever be able to just sit down and conjure up a flawless text. Writing is rewriting, cutting, and rearranging. Put in the effort required to make reading the text effortless. Avoid pomp and bullshit, and aspire to a style that is simple and direct.

Is there still a future for newspapers?
There is a future for journalism. We live in the information age, and journalism remains a critical mission that continues to attract talented individuals. Many published articles are worth paying for. But the era of the printed newspaper is over. The good thing is that everyone can write and get paid for it, if they have interesting things to say, thanks to digital publishing platforms. You don’t need to be part of a large organization with a printing press anymore to build and reach an audience.

You decided to leave the newspaper industry and came to work for Verve Ventures. What do you do?
My work is quite diverse: I write the investment profiles that describe the startups on the platform. They succinctly inform us about the problem a startup is solving. Since we’re talking about high-tech startups here, technology has a prominent place. However, as an investor, most importantly, you should get a good sense of the kind of risk you’re taking when investing in a given startup. Then, I also go out and interview the founders of startups or other interesting people involved in innovation. I found, for example, that interviewing professors is very interesting. Newspapers should also speak with them more often. These interviews and articles we publish on our blog give startups visibility, thereby promoting what they do, but they are also meant to raise critical questions. Our readers are intelligent people who have no patience to read polished press releases. They want to know what challenges a startup faces, what didn’t work in the past, and what issues it will face tomorrow.

If an investment manager hands you a startup to write about, let’s take Qnami as an example, and tells you, “Here’s some quantum physics, figure it out” – how do you approach a new company you’re supposed to write about?
With curiosity, of course! This has always driven me: the desire to understand how our world works. I’ve read about quantum computing before, but I hadn’t heard about quantum sensors, the business Qnami is in. So I start to read about it. One thing I love about this job is that I’m in a unique position to learn about our world of tomorrow and write about it. I see the startups when they visit us to pitch before our investment committee. Our analysts prepare detailed reports about the technology and the markets a startup is active in. My job is to condense that information and make it digestible. In Qnami’s case, I had the opportunity to interview Prof. Maletinsky, a world-renowned expert in the field, and Quantonation, a French venture capital firm specializing in this topic. Being able to talk to this caliber of experts is very valuable. It might take years before you read something about this topic in the mainstream media.

The majority of our startups are deep-tech companies based on highly complex technological advances. How deep are you going?
Ideally, writers should understand more about a topic than what they put on the page. I can rely on the background information provided by our investment team and ask them for clarification. They’re all brilliant minds, mostly with scientific backgrounds. It helps that I’m fascinated by technology. Working at Verve Ventures feels like attending a highly advanced university that combines a wide range of topics, from genetics to robotics. But I’m a generalist at heart, which fits well with Verve Ventures’ broad investment universe.

New technologies, building fast-growing companies, new ways of doing things – those are probably the most “sexy” parts of venture investing. But aren’t the contracts, investment terms, and financial numbers what matter?
I believe most investors are well aware of the importance of these aspects, but we also have a steady stream of new investors joining Verve Ventures who have no experience with startup financing. Our investment team has extensive experience in contractual and financial matters, and it’s one of the advantages of our model that you can rely on their expertise. However, we still want to explain all these finer details straightforwardly so that private investors can invest with confidence.

Is it always clear that any good startup also has a good story?
Some startups are exciting, even if their story is not yet apparent. Especially when it’s still in the early days and their technology has various possible applications, I have to describe different development paths and opportunities. However, one thing our portfolio companies have in common is that they strive to tackle challenging and relevant problems. And good stories usually involve big challenges that allow the heroes to prove themselves.

There are areas of venture capital that are very focused on storytelling. Perhaps not yet so much in Switzerland, but certainly in Berlin and Silicon Valley, where the hunt for unicorns and famous founders is underway. There are even outright fraud cases, such as Theranos, which had nothing but the most amazing stories, including appearances at TED talks. Are you sometimes worried that the story is considered too important, that people are making investment decisions purely based on stories and not looking closely enough?
The majority of the entrepreneurs I’ve met so far in Europe have been quite cautious with the claims they make. They need to convince investors, of course, and want to portray themselves in the best way possible. But when it comes to the distinction of what they have achieved so far and what is just a rosy outlook for the future, they are quite honest, and they should be. As an investor, you’re in the business of buying that future or deciding that it is too much of a leap of faith, but this decision itself should be based on elements already in place today or highly likely to manifest themselves, not on promises. A compelling story can help people convince themselves, but it should never replace critical thinking.

You have not only explained the startups we invest in right now, but you’ve also interviewed investors. What are the favorite stories you’ve heard there?
It’s fascinating to learn about the development or philosophy of an investor. The European startup investment scene could benefit from more prominent role models and increased transparency. I understand why many investors have a healthy apprehension about bragging about their investment strategies, but I think this exchange can be quite helpful to everybody. Verve Ventures can play a significant role in this, as we bring together numerous individuals who can learn from each other’s successes and failures in this space.

You literally wrote the book on how people don’t talk enough about what they want to do with their wealth. Is there not enough of an open culture to discuss these topics here?
I think in Switzerland, it’s often obvious enough whether people are wealthy or not, as people live so closely together that there’s no need to display it. And among the truly wealthy, it is generally frowned upon to brag about money and flaunt it. They’re usually not the ones who cruise around town in expensive cars. I think it’s quite positive when people don’t have to consume ostentatiously to prove who they are, as this leaves more resources to invest in solving problems or supporting causes that matter. However, the downside of the typical Swiss attitude, “you have money but you don’t talk about it,” is that many people refrain from discussing important issues of wealth, even with their families. Wealth is closely tied to values, and this is the subject of the first book I wrote. While some families view wealth primarily as a safety net, others see it as a resource that enables them to take calculated risks and move the world a bit in a more sustainable direction. In Switzerland, wealth preservation is a very dominant topic, and it’s also what private banks market themselves with. Now, it’s sensible to take care of your money, but you also need to make sure that you can build new fortunes. And putting your capital to work out there gives young talents the space to build new things. Startup investments aren’t that complicated anymore, and we work to make this message heard.

What kinds of investors would you like to hear more from?
Traditional media focus on people who are already famous. In every country, you will find families with names that have become brands. What I would like to read more about are individuals who are passionate about a specific topic, regardless of whether they are famous or not. When I speak to the investors in Verve’s network, it is very clear that these are active investors. They do not delegate their thinking about what their wealth should achieve to a banker. Because more often than not, if you don’t think for yourself, returns become the only measurement of success. Isn’t it equally important where these returns come from? With venture capital, you can achieve outstanding returns but also support innovation and entrepreneurship. What I also want to read and write more about are successful founders who invest their hard-earned money into the next generation of founders. Their experience is also incredibly valuable to first-time founders.

You are also a startup investor yourself and have made numerous investments. What are the criteria for you, what makes you trust a startup enough to give them your money?
Diversification is the principle by which I invest, and this is quite easy to achieve with the number of deals we have coming along. I’ve invested in both more mature startups with good traction and early ones that still have significant development risks. To capture different market dynamics, I also diversify across industries and countries. Some topics, such as novel ways to treat cancer, are particularly important to me for personal reasons. Now, life sciences and many other topics require a significant amount of time and effort to comprehend. And even then, this is just a basic comprehension of the main concepts and risks. But it’s a fascinating way to spend time, if you’re a curious person. If I only invested in what I understood 100%, I’d be left with investing in a hot dog stand. Startup investments for me are a way to express what problems I think need to be tackled and which spaces I need to explore.

What kind of stories would you like to tell in the future?
Just covering our investments keeps me busy. If I had more time, I would write broader thematic articles about the changing nature of essential industries, drawing on the knowledge gained from the startups we fund, our internal expertise within the investment team, and knowledge exchange with our co-investors.

Can you still spill some secrets about good interviewing?
Don’t do interviews before lunch. Hungry people can’t think, and there is scientific research that suggests judges are more likely to hand out harsher sentences for similar crimes before lunch than after lunch. Don’t sit directly opposite the other person, a former FBI agent told me. It makes the situation confrontational. An excellent question that makes people think is: “If the company at which you work were a person, how would you describe that person?” I shamelessly stole this from a friend – stealing interesting questions is also a good trick. However, I try not to rely on a pre-made set of questions and instead have an active conversation, following up where it gets exciting. Never ask questions that can be easily answered by googling, and prepare thoroughly for the interview. The most important thing is to listen to what the other person has to say and observe how they say it. If you hear yourself talking a lot during an interview, you’re doing it wrong. And if I don’t understand something at all, I ask: “For the benefit of our readers who are not familiar with that concept, could you explain it in a more simple way?”