What is the importance of private investors for Verve Ventures (fka investiere)?
They are at the core of what we do and contribute two-thirds of the investment volume on our platform. Giving private investors professional access to startup investments is the idea on which Verve Ventures was founded.

How do I get started as an investor?
To get access to our investments, investors have to register and go through an accreditation process. We have this in place not because we’re obliged by law but because we want to restrict access to qualified investors. Venture capital is a highly risky and illiquid asset class. Only people that understand the risks and are able to bear potential losses should invest with us.

What are the typical reasons you hear why someone wants to invest in startups?
Many find technological innovation interesting but don’t know how to access it. Of course, you can ask your banker and they’ll tell you that with shares of ABB you participate in the evolution of robotics. But that’s not the same as investing in a startup that is working on truly cutting-edge technology. Other people want to diversify their portfolio beyond equities and bonds, and then there are business angels who want to diversify their deal flow. In fact, being a business angel and having a full-time job is hard to reconcile, and that is exactly Verve Ventures’s sweet spot.

But in a business angel club, they can invest in startups without fees.
As a business angel, you’re on your own and have to do all the work yourself. If you want to professionally source the best deals, do in-depth due diligence and handle all the paperwork necessary, that means that being a business angel is your main job. A club does some pre-filtering, but ultimately it is up to the angels to then organize themselves, conduct the DD, negotiate terms and coordinate the investment round. Verve Ventures provides all these services and on this basis, you can then reach your investment decision.

With this setup, do you see yourself more at home in the startup world or in the finance world?
I’d say I straddle both worlds. Our dialogue with investors is relaxed and informal. But when it comes to our service mentality, we are on par with a private bank serving high net-worth clients.

Verve Ventures is a digital platform but still does many events. Why?
Our online process grants transparent and efficient access to great companies. But investing in startups has a lot to do with trust. Events are a great opportunity to meet our team and to get to know the entrepreneurs raising funds. This builds confidence.  In addition to organizing events across Switzerland, we offer every new investor an onboarding call. These last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour and are a great opportunity for new investors to get a feeling for us and go over any open points they may still have. In my experience, investors really appreciate this offer, seeing that more than 40% of new investors responded to this offer and I conducted more than 200 such calls in 2018.

Isn’t that a waste of time? I mean, on a digital platform everything should be self-explanatory.
The call isn’t about explaining information that the investor can find on the website, it’s about building trust and giving the investor a feeling of who we are and how we operate. In addition, it is also a great opportunity to find out more about our investor base and get an understanding of their background and how they could support the startups we finance. There is this one example I like very much. During a call with a new investor he told me that he spent his career in retail finance and is a board member of a credit card company. Just at that moment, we had a startup in the payment and microloan space on our platform, so I told him all about this opportunity. He did not just simply invest, but ended up also joining the board of the startup. Both the investor and entrepreneur were very happy about the match. Had I not called him, that wouldn’t have happened.

What has changed since you joined Verve Ventures (fka investiere) in 2013?
The way Verve Ventures is perceived in the market has changed a lot. We grew our investment volume from CHF 1.9 million to CHF 45 million in 2020. When I joined we were a bit of an outsider in the VC landscape and struggled to explain our value to startups and co-investors. Today Verve Ventures is the most active early-stage investor in Switzerland and has become the go-to address for high-tech startups.

What have you learned in these years?
I have learned the importance of persistence. The one who stays on the ball wins. Most people give up way too fast. They forget that today, everybody just has a lot of work on their plate, and if you want something from someone and you’re not their boss, an important client or family, you have lower priority. You can’t just give up if you don’t hear back after one email, you need to write three, four, five, six times, call and send an SMS and eventually you’ll get a reply and a thank you for following up so diligently. For a long time, Verve Ventures was in the position of an underdog in the VC world, and we always had to prove ourselves. This had a huge -and in my opinion very positive- influence on my attitude.

And what do you like most about your work?
The exchange with interesting personalities, both on the investor and the entrepreneur side, is very rewarding.

You’re fluent in five languages and easily connect to strangers. Where does that ease of contact come from?
That’s just who I am, I cherish interactions with other people.  It also has to do with how I was raised and was socialized. I grew up in 4 countries on three continents and continuously had to adapt to new environments and social settings.

Why did you want to work in a venture capital firm?
I did a bachelor in Islamic studies and medieval history and a master in international relations. Then I started a classic career in international relations, worked for a multinational, for the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, for an international organization and ultimately in consulting. I quickly realized that I did not enjoy working for large organizations and wanted to work for a smaller company where I could see the direct impact of my work. So I wrote blind applications to 150 startups. Most companies didn’t write back, but a few did, including Verve Ventures. I went for a first interview to meet the team and after the second interview, we ended up in a bar and had a really fun evening. Shortly after I started working there and was in charge of PR and communications. The role has evolved significantly over time and I haven’t stopped learning. Whereas with other jobs, I got bored quite quickly, here at Verve Ventures I still constantly feel slightly overwhelmed. This is perfect, because it means I am always learning.