janbeckers.com » Entrepreneurship

Exciting new Start-up: HitFox soon launching with a mid 7-digit invest from 4 strong VCs

jan — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:10:46 +0000

Since April this year I have been founding together with Tim Koschella and Team Europe a very ambitious Start-up:

HitFox is very soon offering Deals on Games and Game Equipment.

I`m really proud of the very strong team: 25 people based in Berlin that we handpicked after a heavy screening of more than 250 applicants.

Besides I`m happy to cooperate again closely with Team Europe – the incubator where I have been Venture Partner before and with that I co-founded SponsorPay and Madvertise together.

We recently got pre-launch a medium 7-figure investment from Holtzbrinck Ventures, Hasso Plattner Ventures, Tengelmann Group and Kite Ventures – I`ve been personally co-investing a medium 6-figure amount.

We launch with the first Deal in Germany during Gamescom and will quickly internationalize to other European and american countries afterwards.

Exciting times ahead

Business Update – A new venture ahead and some good investments behind me

jan — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:10:54 +0000

After not having published anything since almost 9 months it`s time for a short business update:

1. I left SponsorPay Management after 15 months of rapid growth. (Not really “news” for my close contacts )

- In July 2010 I left SponsorPay to take a sabbatical after I had built up the company for 15 months. My original contract as Interim Managing Director had been designed for 6-12 months. We later extended it to have me building up our USA Operations before I leave the company.

2. SponsorPay continued to grow and got new investors on board.

- SponsorPay continued the growth path under my successor Janis Zech and CEO Andreas Bodczek. (Now about 75 employees and growing further.) Most recently Nokia Growth Partners invested about $5 Mio alongside existing investors. I`ve been selling a part of my SponsorPay shares in that transaction.

3. I made several new pre IPO investments:

- Facebook.com (Bought employee shares in several transactions since june 2010.)

- Linkedin.com (Bought employee shares in one transaction in October 2010.)

- Slightly increased my position in a new financing round for SaaS-for-Lawyers company GoClio.com.

- Invested alongside my Team Europe Ventures partners in online food delivery platform Lieferheld.de. (big news ahead )

I`ve invested medium 5 to medium 6 digits amounts / in all companies. This is also the size I am looking for new investment opportunities.

4. My other major portfolio companies have been growing nicely as well:

- Madvertise.de profited from the strong growing mobile market and serves now 700 Mio Page Impressions per Month after 60 Mio one year before.

- Absolventa.de also developed very well and has now more than 1200 companies using their recruiting service.

5. I`m soon starting an exciting new company together with my partners from Team Europe Ventures…

6. I have an exciting opportunity for one or two very analytical future entrepreneurs !

This a big chance to develop everything that it needs to become an internet entrepreneur (know-how, network, reputation, access to capital and talents) within 1-3 years of very close collaboration with me and Team Europe Ventures. I also look for an entrepreneurial intern.

Please contact me already if you are interested. More TBA soon…

Madvertise: Series A Round with Early Bird and Team Europe Ventures

jan — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:01:13 +0000

I am happy that Madvertise today announced a Series A Round with Early Bird and Team Europe Ventures invested a medium 7-figures amount in Madvertise Series A round.

Madvertise is a quickly-growing Mobile Advertising Start-up that I co-founded as Venture Partner with Team Europe in September 2008.

Since then the strong operational founder team around Carsten Frien has reached good initial traction in the young but very fast growing mobile advertising market in Europe.

Recent US-based Mobile Advertising acquisitions of Admob (750million $ from Google) and Quattro Wireless (300million $ from Apple) give a good direction for the exit

More info:

Techcrunch: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/mobile-ad-network-madvertise-secures-series-a-round/

Handelsblatt: http://blog.handelsblatt.com/webwatcher/2010/03/30/madvertise-sichert-fianzierungsrunde/

Gründerszene: http://www.gruenderszene.de/news/earlybird-und-team-europe-ventures-investieren-siebenstelligen-betrag-in-madvertise/

Personal Brands4Friends Exit – Tengelmann buys 10% from existing investors

jan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:06:55 +0000

Large (offline)-merchant Tengelmann bought 10% of Brands4Friends from existing investors around Team Europe Ventures and including me.

Thanks to the invitation from non-executive co-founder Lukasz Gadowski I had invested a small amount during the seed round in summer 2007.

Even though no transaction details are public it is no secret that all seed-investors made a fantastic multiple

The private shopping club made already 80m € revenue in 2009 – just 2 years after the company had been founded.

Congratulation and thank you to the founders and management and I wish you all the best for the future and further growth of Brands4Friends!

Madvertise.de – Deutschlands erster Mobile Advertising Marktplatz ist live!

jan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:00:52 +0000

Madvertise.de ist das Mobile Advertising Netzwerk, das ich im Oktober 2008 in meiner Funktion als Venture Partner bei Team Europe Ventures als (non-executive) mitgegründet habe. Mein expliziter Dank für den auf den Tag plangenauen Launch gilt dem IT/Produkt-Team insbesondere Pan (Katsukis), Martin (Karlsch) & Thomas (Hille) die einen super Job gemacht haben. Mobile Advertising ist in Asien, Amerika und Afrika! bereits ein Riesen-Thema. Kein Wunder, weltweit surfen bereits mehr Menschen vom Handy im Internet als vom Desktop oder Laptop… In Deutschland steckt das Thema dagegen noch in den Kinderschuhen, setzt aber gerade mit dem steilen Wachstum des mobilen Internets zum Sprung an. Das schöne daran ist, dass es derzeit bei überschaubarer Szene noch relativ leicht ist die Key Player des Mobile Marktes in Deutschland kennenzulernen und sich zu vernetzen. Madvertise.de ist hier vor allem auch dank starker Supporter & Investoren in etablierten Mobile Companies und Agenturen gut aufgestellt vom Wachstum und den zahlreichen vorhandenen Kontakten zu profitieren. Was im Mobile Advertising Markt möglich ist, zeigt das Mobile Advertising Network Admob.com. Kaum 3 Jahre alt, und von Sequioa und Accel gebacked, liefern die Kalifornier jeden Monat mehrere Milliarden Impressions aus und freuen sich über Umsätze im guten 8 stelligen Dollar-Bereich.

Absolventa freut sich ein Jahr nach dem Start über den 100.000sten Absolventen!

jan — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:13:28 +0000

Ein Jahr nach dem Launch kann ich mich zusammen mit dem Absolventa.de-Gründer-Team rund um Christoph, Pascal und Henning über den 100.000sten Absolventen freuen Damit ist ein großer Teil der jährlich ca. 230.000 Absolventen zu finden. Insgesamt 600 Unternehmen von Daimler über Google bis hin zu zahlreichen Mittelständlern haben im selben Zeitraum die Plattform genutzt um Hochschulabsolventen und Young Professionals zu finden. Das Team hat sich seit der Gründung im Oktober 2007 von 3 auf 30 Mitarbeiter gesteigert. Obwohl die Finanzkrise natürlich nicht spurlos am Recruiting-Markt vorbeigeht, hat Absolventa es geschafft sich fest im Mindset der Recruiter und Absolventen zu verankern. Neben der Lebenslauf-Datenbank, werden inzwischen zahlreiche weitere Leistungen und Produkte rund um das Kerngeschäft angeboten. Für Start-ups gibt es übrigens Sonderkonditionen

Gruenderszene.de relaunched

jan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:12:46 +0000

Gruenderszene.de the entrepreneurship blog where I used to be a frequent contributor has just relaunched. I like the new design as well as the idea to integrate a lot of experts that write about issues in their fields of competence. After being busy with daily business I`ve already planned to take some more time the next months to write at least some detailed articles again…

5 days at Seedcamp in London

jan — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:10:56 +0000

Since Tuesday I am in London where Oliver invited me as mentor to Seedcamp. Seedcamp is an event where 20+ start-up companies from all across europe compete to get seed-funding (50k € each). It was great fun for both the start-up teams and mentors and also a good opportunity to connect with entrepreneurs and investors from Europe and the U.S.. Between the mentoring sessions I took some time for sightseeing…

Yesterday we have been at the Techcrunch Party in the aqua river brasserie near the Thames. Marc Lewis, a creative entrepreneur from the UK, joined the party on his Segway. It was totally fun to drive, especially since it was already a little bit later that evening…

Now it is already a little bit later on friday evening and London nightlife is calling me intensely…

Team Europe Ventures takes off

jan — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:27:09 +0000

After several months of planning today Lukasz announced the official launch of Team Europe Ventures:

”The internet conglomerate ‘Team Europe Ventures‘ holds interests (usually minority stakes) in more than 50 internet companies.

The investment focus thereby lies in the field of consumer-orientated internet companies and the following stages:

co-foundation of companies
seed stage investments as co-investor or lead investor
so called Series A or Series B investment rounds (mainly co-investments)

Geographically, the activities of Team Europe Ventures include Europe as well as North America. Core markets are Germany, Poland, France, United States and United Kingdom.

Depending on the form of an investment (lead or co-investment), Team Europe Ventures supports its portfolio companies actively or passively. Active support thereby can be far reaching, mainly including the fields of strategy, distribution, human resources as well as finance. US-companies can be actively supported in entering the European market.

The goal of Team Europe Ventures is to become one of the leading internet companies in Europe. Furthermore, the company wants to contribute to a stronger entrepreneurship culture in Europe.

Team Europe Ventures has been founded by Lukasz Gadowski who is the founder Spreadshirt, co-founder of StudiVZ and an active business angel.”

I strongly believe in the team and vision of Team Europe Ventures and will support Lukasz as “Entrepreneur in Residence”.

Article on Gruenderszene.de about success and risk factors of start-ups

jan — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:54:29 +0000

On Gruenderszene.de, which is Lukasz Gadowskisgerman blog about entrepreneurship, I wrote a longer analysis on the probability of start-up success and on the different factors of risk which can lead to start-up failure. Most important risk factors are in my eyes:

1. Risk of market entry barriers

2. Risk of (lack in ) resources

3. Risk of the idea (including technology and market risc)

4. Competition risk

5. Team risk

Depending on the business idea, risks in law and economics could also play an important role.

Anyway it is incredibly important to screen the risks of potential business ideas very thoughtful. All different kinds of risk should be evaluated separately. A failure of unsuccessful web2.0 start-ups is often that they underestimate the amount of entry barriers (especially network effects). If your (potential) business includes network effects you should estimate the necessary critical mass and calculate if your resources are enough to jump over this barrier. 1 day of detailed risk analysis could save you a lot of struggle later with adapting the business or even prevent you from spending some years of your life on the wrong idea…