Investment or no investment? When the type of founder decides
Dr. Jan Alberti, Managing Partner at bmp Ventures, introduces you to the 7 most common types of founders in his experience and gives you tips on how to put together the right team.

If an investment is rejected by a venture capitalist, there are often compelling reasons such as market size and market growth, competition, technology, company phase, investment amount or company location. A VC is reluctant to reveal his final decision, which is why rejections are often only briefly explained. One reason that is rarely mentioned, but is one of the most common reasons for rejection, is the team or the type of founder.
A venture capitalist is dependent on good founding teams in order to make the financed start-ups fly after several years of hard work. Of course, no one should be offended if it is said that “the team doesn’t fit”. This reason is therefore often not communicated directly.
With the thousands of projects and founders with whom a VC investor has contact, he develops a good sense of which type of founder and which team constellation can be most successful.
An investor can and will be wrong often enough. However, he must make an initial assessment of the suitability of the team. Similar types of founders can be identified time and again. On their own, they are very rarely able to develop a start-up into a great success. In combination, however, they can make a very good team.
…and what type of founder are you? Dr. Jan Alberti has encountered the following 7 types of founders most frequently during his time as a venture capitalist:
Type 1: The independent inventor
The most traditional type of founder is certainly the “independent inventor”, whose idea may be ground-breaking, but who generally wants to do everything alone, does not want to give up the patents from his private hands and lacks the commercial know-how to bring an idea to market maturity and profitability. The “free inventor” usually has not just one project that he would like to implement, but at least half a dozen. Passion and the willingness to take risks are sufficiently present – but the ability to implement and market orientation are rarer.
Type 2: Scientist and student
The “scientist and student” who wants to set up a company directly from his research activities at a university or research institute is usually inexperienced in setting up a company. However, they can certainly be credited with technical know-how and perseverance. In combination with co-founders who are experienced in the industry and commercially savvy, this can result in a very interesting mix. However, it is important to ensure the right fit of mindsets. Over the years, problems can arise between an aggressive sales person and a cerebral scientist.
Type 3: The management consultant
Former “management consultants or investment bankers” are already able to present a newly founded start-up excellently in chic PowerPoint slides on a concept basis. In most cases, they do not lack the ability to execute a business plan. However, this type of founder is rarely in a position to make an operational contribution to increasing the value of the start-up. Technical development in particular has to be purchased at a high price (agencies, freelancers) or covered by additional employees. This can quickly become very expensive, especially in the seed phase, and can take longer than planned. Fast brand development, market penetration and growth at any cost are often the focus of these founders and can be very successful in combination with more technically experienced co-founders.
Type 4: Industry-experienced employees
Another interesting type of founder is the “industry-experienced former employee in sales, product or technology” who has developed an idea or concept in their day-to-day work and has already evaluated/tested it. He now sees an existing great need on the customer or market side, but is not allowed to tackle this as part of his employment. By founding his own start-up, he now wants to implement his business idea and exploit the existing market potential.
Type 5: The service provider
The “service provider” currently provides an agency service, for example, and would like to solve the many customer requirements not only manually via employees, but also technically with the help of a platform. They usually lack the technical know-how and the corresponding financial resources. Coupled with the right technical co-founders, it can be an exciting project to develop an agency into a provider of SaaS products, for example.
Type 6: Serial Entrepreneur
The founder type “Serial Entrepreneur” is both a curse and a blessing. If he has already built up a successful company before, he at least knows what requirements a company has to meet in order to grow. Whether he can immediately lead the next groundbreaking idea to product/market fit and success is possible, but not mandatory. If he has already achieved high exit proceeds, he usually has several projects in parallel as a business angel, panel speaker, corporate consultant and recreational designer. It can be quite difficult to focus on just one (new) start-up. He is usually quite dominant in a team.
Type 7: The lifestyle founder
Particularly in start-up hotspots, you increasingly come across “lifestyle founders” who sometimes only start a project in order to be able to call themselves a founder. As a rule, the buzz word “bingo” is their only vocabulary, the valuation of their groundbreaking idea is already several million euros high and their own network of already successful entrepreneurs and US VCs is extensive.

What is the best team composition now?
On average, “former employees with industry experience in sales, product or technology” in combination with technical co-founders and an entrepreneur certainly have the best chances of success. However, the question of the best team composition can hardly be answered in general terms. All in all, the heterogeneous team must be able to work harmoniously, but not without criticism, with each other and with the VC and be able to focus very well. The enthusiasm, will, perseverance and reliability must be tangible for an investor. Building a start-up is a marathon and investors need to get the impression that the team can and wants to complete it. The founders of a start-up are therefore the most important factor for venture capitalists in leading it to success. As soon as they see a good initial setting consisting of technology, product, market and team, they help to focus the start-up properly even before it is launched in order to achieve initial success in a short space of time. If you then have a VC on board, you can count on their help in the long term, but you also have to work hard to achieve further ambitious goals.
Quelle: www.fuer-gruender.de