#23 Jasper Masemann, Partner at HV Capital | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann

This episode features Jasper Masemann, partner at HV Capital, one
of the most iconic VC firms in Germany. HV Capital invested in
more than 200 companies, including market leading companies such
as Zalando, Delivery Hero and Flixbus. He shares insider tips for
first-time founders, such as the dilemma of bootstrapping or
initial hiring without an HR person, and reveals the main
criteria that they take into consideration before making
investment decisions. Our discussion also covers the recent
developments in the European Venture Capital space.


https://www.hvcapital.com


https://www.linkedin.com/in/janbrinckmann


https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmasemann





0:00 Introduction


0:50 Jasper's road to join HV Capital


3:50 Why Jasper started a venture first before joining VC


7:15 Should a first-time founder start with a scalable project
which can be VC backed?


10:45 Is bootstrapping a better way to get experience at first?


12:25 Why you have to make mistakes with your startup


13:35 What is the core ingredient of a successful venture?


17:25 Why Jasper enjoys to do early investments - but why other
companies need some traction so that Jasper invests


19:10 Customers have to be willing to pay for your product


22:13 The importance of customer acquisition and pricing
strategies


24:25 Discussion about churn


25:40 Biggest mistakes from which Jasper learned


28:15 How to hire a great team as a founder when you do not have
someone for HR


30:05 Why you should use headhunters and how to find the right
one


31:20 Current developments in the EU VC space - is there a
bubble?


36:40 What is sustainable for a startup - should you always
listen to the VC trend projections?


38:40 Quick fire round: who you admire the most | most useful
software for entrepreneurs that is underappreciated | something
broken that entrepreneurs should see differently | life-long
dream


42:07 Closing