These are the slides for a guest lecture Nicolas gave for the entrepreneurship initiative Thinc! at the University of Mannheim on February 19, 2014. Aimed at B.Sc / M.Sc students, the goal was to provide some background on the startup lifecycle and suggest entrepreneurship as an alternative to banking or consulting.

1. University of Mannheim, 19. February 2014
Startups &
Venture Capital
An Alternative to Suit & Tie
Zwei Mannheimer Alumnis erzählen aus der Berliner Startup Welt
Wann: 19.02.14 19 Uhr
Wo:
0189
Anschließendes Get2Gether mit Bier & Sekt
Nicolas Wittenborn

2. We sat here two years ago!
Private Equity
Master
Consulting
Master
Master
Venture Capital
Flight Attendant :)

3. Graduates now in startups
Vici
Nico
:(

4. About me
Associate at Point Nine Capital
!
I blog (a little) at heyni.co and tweet at @ncsh
!
nicolas@pointninecap.com

5. How I joined P9
Started selling iPhones online
Intern / Freelance Analyst
Joined as Associate

6. Point Nine Capital
•
Berlin-based VC ‘Startup’
•
Investing €100k-1M
•
In Europe & North America

7. The Startup Lifecycle
The Pitch
The Founding
The Financing
The Exit

8. The Founding

9. The Founding
• Idea
/ Product
Original idea
• Copy cat
•
• Team
First timer
• Serial entrepreneur
•
• Setup
Join an incubator
• Do it yourself
•

10. The Pitch

11. The Pitch: Checklist
Slide Deck
Financial Plan
MVP or first product
First traction / Proof of Concept
…

12. The Pitch: CLTV vs CAC
• Customer
Acquisition Costs
Acquisition cost per marketing channel (not blended)
• Conversion rates
•
• Net
profit per transaction
Average transaction volume
• Profit margins
•
• Retention
Repeat purchases
• Customer loyalty / Cohorts
•

13. The Pitch: Conversion Funnel
Simple Example Ecommerce
Ad Views
2.5%
2%
Visitors
Customers
x2000
CPM = €25
x50
(CPC = €1)
x1
CAC = €50

14. The Financing

15. The Financing: Sources
• Bootstrapping
• Financed
by cashflow
• Wealthy founders
• Crowd-funding
• Consumer
appeal / PR
• Equity or non-equity
• Incubation
• Ressources
• Know-how
• Venture
& network
Capital
• Angel
• (Micro)
VC

16. The Financing: Key topics
• Capital
Need
• Inventory
• Competitive
Situation
• Ownership
• Valuation
• Upside
potential
• Timing
• Right
stage
• Right fit
• Value-Add
• Dumb
or smart money
• Industry / Business Model expertise

17. The Exit

18. The Exit
• Trade
Sale / M&A
• Acquisition
by market leader
• Merger with competitor
• Secondaries
• SecondMarket
• Taking
something off the table
• Strategic
investor
• Distribution
• Exit
candidate
• IPO
• Initial
Public Offering
• Homerun! :)

19. Q&A
nicolas@pointninecap.com

20. Thank you!
(and don’t forget to)