We have collected 100 thoughts, resources and questions from CEOs, in four core fields of attention, for you. Reflect for yourself and see, if there is a better chance to adapt your business. Try to consider this crisis as a unique opportunity to revisit and redefine processes and ways of doing business. And, if there are synergies to leverage together we are eager to hear from you!
The recent Coronavirus crisis forced many of us into unexplored territory – everybody became a remote worker overnight. Considering our place of work is an essential part of our corporate DNA, the requirements of different generations, laws and regulations – mastering remote working is a challenge for entrepreneurs in any industry. It is a balancing act between legality, sanity, freedom, and efficiency in the new working conditions. Some of our clients adjust better, others move projects to Q3 2020 or cancel them completely. In our case that will not be necessary; we will offer the European Super Angels Club events, as well as Business Angel Institute trainings an option to be held online – we have all the necessary tools in place and have already done so in the past.
It looks highly likely that we will come out of this crisis with a new working culture. Sales estimates of video-calling and integrated communications solutions, like Grape and Phone-Automation systems, like Yodel.io, are going through the roof. Even Digital Team Österreich (an initiative from the Digital Ministry in Austria) is helping SME’s to find attractive solutions and special offers for any company in need of such services right now.
Not everyone can adapt to the new working environment equally. For most people, remote work is still a relative novelty. Even though laptops, cloud solutions and video calls are often supplementary to traditional office work, things become substantially more difficult once the entire team goes remote. It feels a little odd and you have to adapt and find ways to keep up your company culture – which can be tricky. There is certainly a lot we can learn from startups when it comes to remote work. Most millennials and startup founders practically grew up in remote teams at schools and universities. Global startups commonly have distributed teams, and some even work as digital nomads (while living on the beach or traveling the world). Some of our portfolio startups (in particular Grape, Butleroy and YodelTalk)have shared their learnings from previous years in blog articles (eg. Remote Work Checklist Guide, The World is Your Office), which we highly recommend reading).
We have summarized our personal experience, as well as learnings and insights of our startups for you in this article and hope sharing these tips for working remote from home will help you be more efficient in the coming weeks and maybe even beyond.
In order to be present and available for your team while working remotely, we recommend using a high-quality communication software. At Venionaire, we opened all our employees an account in an advanced unified communication platform named GRAPE.io. We also invite external project partners and clients to the same platform, albeit with restricted access.
We used to use WhatsApp groups for informal communication within our team; however, with everyone now working 100% remotely, we needed a much stronger solution, where we would not lose track of projects and developments. We needed to get a solution, which allows us to invite clients into private rooms and enables video chats, sharing of documents, and reduces the number of tabs open in our browsers. Switching between 5 to 10 solutions in parallel can drive you crazy really fast.
In our case, we have set very basic standards of communications – we say “hi” when we check in in the morning, we say our goodbyes before we go offline. Lunch and coffee breaks are still as important as before – therefore we encourage our team to chat during breaks and keep up social ties within the team. We use a separate chatroom for off-topic conversations and private video chats. We encourage our employees to use this for the sake of social relations and exchange while drinking a coffee.
Due to higher amounts of calls, email and chat-messaging through all kinds of channels, we encourage to plan in some “buffer-time” between meetings and in addition, introduced the concept of Timeboxing. We block times for internal meetings, for emails, for calls (internally and with clients) – this way our days and the workweek have a clear structure.This concept makes it easier for team-members and partners to engage with you, when you are ready for them.
As we cannot simply walk by our colleagues and get a sense for their current stress level and resource allocation, things need to be done differently. Every team member needs to be transparent about their work schedule, tasks and targets, and share it pro-actively amongst colleagues. For the sake of simplicity, we ask for 3 main priorities for the day to be shared. A personal checklist will naturally have more sub-tasks, however 3 topics of the day are enough to give an idea of the workload and rough schedule.
If a job or task is done – we pro-actively share it in our team chat and tag a manager to make sure this is noticed.
Unless you’re working on a deadline, limit your workday. Schedule breaks at least every two hours and save time for sports. On a normal workday you would sit in the car or public-transport for 30minutes or maybe even more – use this time for physical activity. You will be most productive, if you set yourself goals and a timeline to deliver them. Create a balance so that you can enjoy your surroundings, take time for yourself and your family, which requires your support in troubling times such as these.
Try to remember that nobody chose to be in the situation we find ourselves these days. Some adapt quicker, some slower – some struggle, some handle it more easily. This is a challenge, but at the same time an opportunity. It is important to share experiences and to listen to your colleagues when they share their personal situation and difficulties – we should all learn from each other and support each other every day. It’s up to you to ensure everyone else feels comfortable and welcome!
Praise yourself when you get something done. Working remotely is a challenge. It may look easy – looking at digital nomads and startups from the outside. Inquire deeper, however, and those who are honest will confess that they smile after every hurdle they jump over – keep on celebrating your wins and involve your team in it (even if it´s only on video) to really master remote working!
About the author: Berthold Baurek-Karlic is Founder and CEO of Venionaire Capital, with many years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, corporate finance expert and early stage investor. He supports the startup ecosystem in various roles such as President of the European Super Angels Club, Board of Austrian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and General Secretary of Business Angel Institute.
UNIQA Ventures and Elevator Ventures Beteiligungs GmbH (“Elevator Ventures”), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank International, have joined kompany’s cap table alongside the European Super Angel Clubs syndication fund “EXF Alpha”.
The deal was executed with the broad support and commitment of Venionaire Group:
“Members of the European Super Angels Club initially co-invested end of last year into a convertible bond through the syndication fund EXF Alpha, managed by Venionaire Ventures. This initial investment is now followed by a strategic share purchase alongside Elevator Ventures and UNIQA Ventures. The deal brings in value and support for the further growth of kompany”, explains Berthold Baurek-Karlic, Managing Partner (CEO) of Venionaire Capital.
kompany operates the largest proprietary corporate register network in the world with real-time access to primary source data. They are the only global network to provide audit-proof commercial register information and automated Business KYC Solutions for banks, insurances and advisory firms covering more than 110 million companies in more than 200 countries and jurisdictions. The company built its infrastructure over the last five years servicing international banks and insurance companies, leading advisories, as well as compliance software providers. kompany is advancing its AI engine for automated Ultimate Beneficial Owner & Shareholder (UBO) discovery and the distributed ledger technology solution KYC on-chain (Business “Know-Your-Customer” on the blockchain).
“kompany is among the top five in the Global Top 100 RegTechs, they participated in the MasterCard Start Path Program and CB Insights nominated them among the Top 60 RegTechs in Europe. The founders built a product which is in high demand by companies across all industries. FinTechs are like vitamin supplements, while RegTech is the pain-killing medicine for organisations. We are already working hard on the upcoming growth funding round for kompany, which will catapult them to the next level”, concludes Baurek-Karlic.
A sharp mind needs a healthy body! Balancing mental and physical activities is essential, especially in a modern work environment, with so many high-level professions demanding to sit in front of a computer all day long.
Like true Austrians, we are passionate about skiing. Just take a look at the Instagram account of our Senior Partner Martin Steininger or his daughter Antonia aka “Mountaingirl”.
Now, Martin decided to combine his passion for skiing with his voluntary service as a member of the parent’s association and the alumni club of the renowned Austrian Schottengymnasium. He launched “The Racing Scots”, an initiative to form a ski racing team of students of the high school. The goal is to encourage girls and boys to go skiing together, compete against other schools, and most importantly have fun in the snow!
Besides many other great companies such as March15, Michael Petritz from KPMG Austria, Proksch & Partner Rechtsanwälte we happily support the initiative and looking forward to the first races!
If you want to learn more about the Racing Scots, please follow them on Facebook.
We know how important it is to organize the agenda from the beginning of the year in order to don’t miss anything. Let’s start by saving the dates of the most important events. 2019 will be full of technological events that will revolutionize the spectrum. There are more and more players in the field, more things to learn, professionals to meet, projects to be developed, etc. That’s why we don’t want to miss any of them, do you?
BLOCKCHAIN SUMMIT AUSTRIA: We are looking forward to the 2nd and 3rd of April. It will be a full two-day conference that will focus on the real applications of blockchain in different areas. Also if you want to learn how to start your own blockchain project or how to effectively implement the blockchain in your existing company, this is your event!
Use our promotion code and save 15% on your tickets!
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Experienced speakers, enthusiastic investors and opinion leaders will examine the opportunities and threats of this emerging technology. Don’t miss this unique opportunity!
Follow us on our social networks to get more discounts like this and be informed about other events!
Santa Claus has already come to Venionaire and has left us great discounts for the best events next year.
We are pleased to announce that next 14th of March we will once again be partners with 0100 Conferences. The event will take place in Vienna and will bring together more than 300 leading fund and asset managers, institutional and private investors, family offices, entrepreneurs and advisors from around the world to inspire and attract programmes.
Use our discount code and save up to 180€ on your ticket!!
VIE19ESAC
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Now there seems to be a lot left for the event but time flies! Don’t miss your chance to get your gift 😉
In order to the new high-tech European companies to develop and survive in an international context, they need smart investors who support young companies with knowledge, networks and of course capital. Hardware in particular is extremely difficult, but it is possible and there is a Hub for them: Dresden, Germany!
HIGHTECH VENTURE DAYS 2018 Europe’s leading investors’ conference in the high-tech sector, showcased some of the best hightech scale-ups we have seen in a long time. Berthold Baurek-Karlic, Founder and Managing Partner at Venionaire Capital enjoyed moderating the microtronics panel together with Dr. Ulrich Eisele, Osram Ventures.
The HIGHTECH VENTURE DAYS address the potential of European high-tech innovations and their capitalization as a two day match-making format for the decisive growth phase. Last 17th and 18th of October in Dresden, forty selected startups had the opportunity to present their projects to national and international investors, within the beautiful venue of Volkswagen Glaspalast.
The focus was on high-tech businesses from the areas of environmental & energy technology, ICT, micro- and nanotechnologies, life sciences, mechanical & plant engineering, materials science and transport & logisticst.
The exchange of different opinions and angles on the topic of innovation in various areas contributed to broadening perspectives of all those that took part. And that is exactly what a successful technology innovation event should be all about … we are looking forward to partner up with this great event again next year.
Bits & Pretzels is a 3-day event for founders, startup enthusiasts, investors and business incubators.
Venionaire is a proud partner of the Bits & Pretzels festival and we can support you with an exclusive 10% discount on the actual prices. Just head over to the website of Bits & Pretzel through the link below and select your preferred ticket!
(The discount is automatically deducted)
The “Steve Jobs of the automotive industry“, Henrik Fisker, design icon and electric car pioneer, has joined forces with our joint venture motec ventures in an advisory capacity. motec ventures is an innovation platform and investment company with the aim of shaping the future of mobility as a link between European SMEs and high-tech start-ups. The cooperation was founded by us and e&Co AG, a leading consultant and investment company in Germany.
Fisker will support motec ventures managing directors Berthold Baurek-Karlic (CEO Venionaire Capital) and Geza Brugger (CEO of e&Co AG) through regular exchanges on technical and entrepreneurial topics – and Fisker Inc. will also invest in portfolio companies of motec ventures. “Henrik Fisker is, from my perspective, the Steve Jobs of the automotive world: a strong visionary and full-blooded entrepreneur with experience from both successful projects, as well as those that brought challenges and lessons learned. We are very much looking forward to working with Henrik and are pleased to have gained an experienced icon in the automotive and mobility industry”, says Geza Brugger, Co-Managing Director of motec ventures and Principal at e&Co.
Read the full story here:
Digitization turns our world upside down – new business models, new organizational structures, new management, increasing automation and experimental strategies based on data. Corporate management, controlling and marketing demand completely different skills today, then just 10 years ago. Business is changing in all means and this can be felt most clearly in marketing. Growth Hacking, the evolution of marketing – in many cases still smiled at as a “buzzword” – is eating Marketing for breakfast. NO – this is not about social media or another goofy new tool, Growth Hacking really is a totally new approach to digital marketing.
Growth Hacking describes a discipline that combines various methods of digital marketing with the goal of efficient growth. It’s all about improving your so-called “NORTH STAR METRIC” – the one and only, most important, KPI – which is crucial to the success of your business. A Growth Hacker is an interdisciplinary marketing manager who understands virality, PR, SEO, SEM, product design (basics), UX, marketing tools (technology stack), email marketing, content marketing, funnel marketing, behavioral psychology, brand positioning, and storytelling. These disciplines are traditionally organized in separate departments in larger organizations – Growth Hackers combine those and act across them.
Growth Hacking comes from startups, which are forced to grow as fast as possible with little human and financial resources. The better a startup may hack its growth, the faster its value increases and venture capital funds will, therefore, fund them round over round. Only those who are at the top in the race of start-ups receive venture capital and can thus continue their international triumphal march.
However, corporations and medium-sized businesses are also fascinated by the new methods that “conventional” agencies usually are not able to provide, yet. Growth Hacking does not require large teams, but creativity, speed, technical know-how (simple programming skills) and strong data analysis skills. The challenge lies in finding and developing this know-how or to hire it.
Unfortunately, there is still far too little experience in our latitudes with this discipline and the best work is often done at one or in a startup. The industry is clearly losing out in the “war of talents” in this area. In most cases one will have to invest in the targeted training of young talents – the first structured training courses are slowly emerging (see Growth Base in cooperation with Lauder Business School).
Data is the greatest blessing of digitization, it allows targeted analytical action and is the basis for automated decisions. Growth hackers love data and use a so-called “technology stack” that helps them to work as efficient and automated as possible on the basis of true data. Check out the automated workflow of a SaaS company (e.g. CB Insights), in my opinion, is a perfect example of automation.
Marketing Stack Automation Flow by CBinsights.
The process improves best through ongoing analysis of data and iterative experiments. Texts, colors, the arrangement of links – everything plays a role – and growth hackers are constantly testing and experimenting how they can optimize the so-called “conversion rate”.
If you’ve got an appetite for more – then it’s best to buy a few books, experiment a little yourself and work step by step to become the next Growth Hacker yourself. I’ll be happy to give you reading tips and link you to professional growth hackers from our network if there is a need.
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Venionaire Capital exclusively invests through the European Super Angels Club, for more information and application please go to the website. We do not accept direct investment proposals via this website.
