January 23; Ice-cold and busy days ❄️
From portfolio work and startups acceleration, to non-alcoholic celebrations... this was my week 🏃🏻♂️💨
Happy Sunday,
It’s a refreshing -7 deg C outside my window in Sofia right now, with a bit of snow falling and temperatures projected to drop to -15 deg C later this week. Of course this leads to one very clear outcome: Ellie and I will be back on the skis this week!
But before that, there’s lots of work going on at Vitosha. As promised last week, I’m back at sharing the stories behind the companies we invest in. To me, it’s important to straighten my thoughts on why I personally get passionate about each of our investments, as in the thick of the arduous investment process, and all the many decisions that are taken on the basis of spreadsheets, projections, fund allocations, and the like, a big part of the “why” can get lost. In the end, the biggest factor in any early-stage company’s success is what the founders envisage they can do, so reminding ourselves of that is a priority for our team. And hence, we’ll be sharing a story about one of the companies every week going forward.
This week, I decided to post about Dexycon, one of our recent investments, which has a very exciting thesis to me personally. The team is building a solution to digitalize business processes for companies in the 10-200 headcount range. It’s still largely uncharted territory for business automation, with lots of available solutions for either big companies or small teams, and very little in between. If you look however at GDP numbers in Europe, the more advanced an economy is, the bigger the income share covered by exactly those small- and medium-sized companies in the 10-200 range. In the Netherlands for instance, over 60% of net economic value is produced by SMEs, and so it’s a tremendous market to go after.
It’s not all just pure VC work though; this week we also kicked-off our hybrid Vitosha ACCELERATE program again, with 5 participating startups. It’s hybrid for two reasons; one is that, unfortunately lots of people either contracted Omicron or have housemates who did, so the availability for in-person meetings is limited. Second, we decided to structure this year’s program in such a way that we can invite our regular investments, outside of the acceleration program, to some sessions as well. It was a huge pleasure to have my friend Monica Georgieff over as our first guest, sharing her experience in helping companies sharpen their value propositions, and getting started with measurable marketing essentials.
An interesting thing I started noticing some time ago, is that I’m not alone in my urge to switch to regular e-mails here at Sunday Max. At least four other industry colleagues started doing the same, and while their blogs are very different from this one, it’s exciting to follow them, as they share really interesting personal and work-related thoughts:
Daily Reflections by Max Niederhofer
Max is a VC with Heartcore Capital and has a formidable track record in European deals in the past two decades. In his blog he muses about general societal issues, and it’s quite interesting to follow.
The Hard Fork by Marvin Liao
Marvin is well-known in the early-stage venture scene around the world, and has mentored founders in literally every city in this part of Europe. His updates are less about venture deals and more about financial independence and general observations about the world in crisis, with lots of reading suggestions, and are a pleasant read.
Just Another Wonderer by Polly Desheva
Polly has been one of the key startup community organizers here in Sofia for the last decade or more, and her updates are a mix of everything that catches her eye, from books she’s reading to technology news that excites her, and cool stuff happening in the Sofia ecosystem.
CEE Venture Rounds Review by Marcin Szeląg
Marcin is a VC with one of the oldest funds in the region, Innovation Nest based in Krakow, Poland. His, usually monthly, e-mails are the most comprehensive overview of deals happening in the CEE and are a must-read for everyone in the industry, with great analysis of trends and tendencies.
What’s really cool about this whole move to e-mails is that you have a feeling that you’re regularly in touch with people you know and like, in an intimate and meaningful way. Apart from Polly, whom I’ve seen once or twice since Covid-19 started, as we’re both in Sofia, the others I haven’t seen in person in the past two years, and who knows when we’ll meet again. But through regular emails, we’re in touch, and it feels like you’re having real conversations with people, substantive and engaging in ways that no Insta posts or stories could offer.
So, to wrap it up, lots of work, although we also don’t forget to have fun. Here we were at a bar with Ellie and friends of ours this weekend:
And of course, at the Vitosha office, it’s always work-hard-play-hard:
Thanks for checking in today and talk to you next Sunday! 😇
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