How did you join Verve Ventures (fka investiere)?
I was always interested in economic topics and studied finance in Zurich and St. Gallen. Even if the university was very theoretical, the knowledge about asset classes, portfolio theory, and investment vehicles comes in handy now. After university, I started my career in management consulting, which was interesting because I worked with different companies, in Europe and overseas, and I was in touch with a lot of different people. Early-stage companies were always interesting to me, some colleagues from the university founded startups as well. In Switzerland, when you’re interested in this topic, you can’t miss Verve Ventures. Ultimately, the passion for early-stage companies and the opportunity to work closely with different people were fundamental in my decision to join Verve Ventures. I like the contact with high-tech startups here, it is very interesting to observe how they can disrupt industries that have been unchallenged for a long time. At Verve Ventures, we’re very close to the companies we finance and our investors realize the impact these investments have on the world.

Every day, you speak with dozens of investors about different investment opportunities and also about Verve Ventures in general. What questions do you usually receive from investors?
On the one hand side, there are investors who have never invested in a startup before. Usually, they want to know what kind of risk these investments are associated with. It is very important to stress that investing in startups entails a high risk of losing 100% of your investment. New investors also want to know when they will see a return on their investment and what an exit is. According to a study we did at Verve Ventures, it takes an average time of 7 years for a startup to exit, in other words until the startup is acquired in a trade sale or goes public. This is when our investors see a return on their investment. But no matter what people tell you, most startups fail. And if they don’t fail, the chances of them becoming really successful is rather small.

What do people who already have some experience with venture capital ask?
Experienced investors usually already know about the business models, processes and also risks associated with venture capital. But at Verve Ventures, we have a different take on VC investments. Experienced investors typically want to understand the differences between Verve Ventures and traditional ways to invest in VC, such as funds or angel networks. There are many points that make Verve Ventures different, but the most important one is that we offer direct access to pre-selected, top-tier investment deals. These startups have already passed rigorous due diligence by our team. While we see more than 2’000 deals per year, we only select about 20-30 for investment. Qualified investors can then decide for themselves in which of the pre-selected deals they want to invest, and build their own personalized investment portfolio. In addition, the whole investment process is designed to be fully digital and enable a seamless investment experience. Verve Ventures has built a special legal structure to make this possible. Moreover, investors also ask in which stages and industries we invest: While we focus on technology startups, there are three segments that we focus on: high-tech, digital, and life sciences. In terms of stage, we start with the seed stage and are a reliable financing partner for the rounds that follow, including growth stage deals.

Verve Ventures offers a fully digital platform on which all pieces of information about a startup are displayed, along with a detailed and structured analysis. These are the facts. But how important is the personal connection to the investors?
In spite of Verve Ventures being a fully digital platform, we believe in personal relationships and trust as key elements of our business. This is why I offer a personalized introduction call to every investor who joins Verve Ventures. Almost 50% of new investors opt for a call, and they are very eager to learn more. We want to be open and accessible and offer the possibility to ask questions. This is a way to build trust in Verve Ventures as a company and also in our selection process. In addition, we offer investors a conference call with the entrepreneurs of the startups that we finance. Our investors value the opportunity to hear the investment pitch directly from the CEO and the founding team of the startup. This is a chance to build trust and a personal connection as well. For many investors, this is a fundamental part in their decision-making process. In particular, during the corona pandemic, these conference calls were very important, with more than 80 investors joining the calls. In spite of the corona pandemic, Verve Ventures has been raising funds like never before.

What kind of people invest through Verve Ventures?
There are many different individuals and motivations among our 4’300 registered investors, but the one thing our investors have in common is that they like to form their own investment opinion. One prominent investor group are top-level executives that have built up personal wealth and want to make investment decisions themselves. This includes CEOs and managers of top Swiss banks, industrial blue-chip companies, and pharma multinationals. Another very interesting group are entrepreneurs who have successfully sold their own business or are doing well and want to reinvest their money in the next generation of entrepreneurs. A third large group has a financial background and sees venture capital as an attractive asset class they want to explore.

Who can join Verve Ventures as an investor and how does the model differ from other ways to invest in startups?
We ask people who want to register for a self-declaration that they are qualified investors according to the laws of their country of residence. In Switzerland, this means that you need either financial assets of at least CHF 0.5 million and financial knowledge to understand the risks associated with such investments, or otherwise, more than CHF 5 million of assets. It is also part of my job to approve incoming investor applications, we have about 20 new investors joining Verve Ventures each week. As soon as you are accredited as an investor, you can start making investments with a minimum of CHF 10’000 per investment. With CHF 100’000, you can build your own portfolio of 10 startup investments, which is a great value proposition. In comparison, if you want to invest in a VC fund, you usually need to commit to an investment in the hundreds of thousands CHF, which is not really an option for a lot of investors and for others, it’s just not interesting to leave the investment decision with a fund manager. In contrast to business angel clubs or networks, Verve Ventures has already conducted professional due diligence before investors may decide to invest in them. This is also a major difference to crowdfunding platforms, where you may find hundreds of investment opportunities that have not been properly assessed in advance. The reason why people join Verve Ventures is that they get access to pre-selected, high-quality investment opportunities and can decide themselves in which deals they want to invest or not.

Does that mean that only investors from Switzerland are allowed to invest?
No, we accept investors from every country in the world except for US persons. We do have a growing part of our investor base that is international, most of them from the neighboring countries France, Italy, and Germany, but also from overseas. Recently, we financed a startup from Belgium. At the same time, we also observed a lot of new signups from Belgium. People learn about Verve Ventures if they’re interested in specific deals, read the interviews we publish, or if they just googled startup investing. Another important factor is word-of-mouth, and I’m happy that many of our investors recommend Verve Ventures to other people they know.

When it comes to the satisfaction of the investors with Verve Ventures, what is your personal ambition?
Our goal here at Verve Ventures is to make investing in startups as simple as possible and to make all necessary information available for investors to make an informed decision. Oftentimes, there are questions related to the startups in particular, but also regarding Verve Ventures in general. My ambition is that every investor feels comfortable in his or her investment decision and ultimately, is happy with the investment he or she made. So it is very rewarding when we can answer questions efficiently and to see on a daily basis that investors are committing to invest in the startups that we select.

What if an investor decides not to invest in a given startup, does that make you sad?
Absolutely not, not every investor and every startup fit together. In some cases, investors are also just curious to learn more and after they spend some time studying the deal, they decide to pass. The individual decisions are an expression of the individual backgrounds, risk appetites and experiences as well. I prefer to see an investor passing on a deal where he or she is not really sure than observing an investor that decides to invest in a deal that he or she might regret later.

How fast do investors decide?
This is, again, very different from one person to another. Some know very rapidly that this is a case for them, others need more time and information to analyze a case thoroughly. In general, after an investor tells us that he or she is interested in a case, they usually reach their final decision within 14 days.

You have several calls per day and still, you’re able to keep your smiling voice. What’s your secret?
As we have investors with interesting and very diverse backgrounds, these calls are all very varied thematically. Speaking on a phone is different than writing an email or talking to someone in person. It takes some effort to find out what the motivation of someone is and how you can help them. But the most important thing is not to shy away from grabbing the phone. Even talking to a person that is unhappy about something is a great way to reconnect with them. It helps, of course, that I’m quite extroverted and like to talk to people. Maybe that has to do with my Brazilian roots. But it’s also good not to be constantly on the phone, I try to have a good mix every day between investor calls and my other responsibilities. In addition to the calls and meetings with investors, I also help to shape our investor relations strategy. This includes tasks such as tracking investment KPIs, designing sales funnels, and even drafting specs and working together with our IT team. I really enjoy this diversity in tasks and daily activities. But most of all, I really love working together with a lot of different people.