Florian Horbach

𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩’𝐬 𝐑&𝐃 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐁𝐒𝐎 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞! If you’re a startup working on innovative projects, the 𝐖𝐁𝐒𝐎 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞 offers extra funding by allowing higher tax deductions on R&D costs. This can be a game-changer, especially if your costs are significant. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤? Under the regular WBSO scheme, companies can deduct 32% of R&D costs 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 €𝟑𝟓𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎, and startups can take this even further! With the 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞, you can 𝐝𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝟒𝟎% of your R&D expenses—an 8% higher rate. For example, with €350,000 in R&D costs, a regular company would deduct €112,000, but as a startup, you can deduct €140,000. That’s an additional €28,000 in savings! 𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐟: • Your business is in its first three years • You’ve claimed WBSO for no more than two calendar years 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐌𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐆𝐞𝐭? Try our WBSO Calculator to instantly estimate how much extra funding you can unlock for your R&D projects! https://lnkd.in/g-w6BVjt

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The SaaS industry is still growing. But much more slowly. Last month I shared an Aleph statistic. Over the last 3 years we have invested in 17 companies. Only 1 out 17 was a classic horizontal SaaS company. SaaS was the single best business model of the last cycle (2008-2021), but the category has since entered a maturity stage (see graph below). This new report from the wonderful software team at Avenir clearly illustrates it. Growth rates for the combined SaaS industry are quickly declining as we are entering the later stages of maturity. In other words, there’s already an established software company in most sectors - and there’s very little room for entirely new software categories. At Aleph we still believe there’s an opportunity to build successful SaaS companies, but new entrants would have to carve out market share in existing industries and displace existing vendors. Vertical software is one area where lesser competition makes it more attractive, but entrepreneurs in crowded horizontal markets would have to work harder than ever before. Another key takeaway from the report - there are only 72 publicly traded companies (with market cap > $5Bn) with a combined market cap of $5.8Tr. However, 56% of this value is attributed to Microsoft alone, followed by a very long tail of lesser performing companies. Moreover, only 2 of the largest 11 companies were funded after the year 2000 (ServiceNow, CrowdStrike). If you are building or investing in SaaS, you should definitely read the full report by Jared Sleeper, Hannah Bao and David Prilutsky (link in the first comment).

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Discussing growth in B2B #SaaS – in our Tiny House 🏠 Julian Ostertag, Julian Wolf and I joined ARRtist SUMMIT in Berlin last week together with 500 B2B SaaS founders, CxOs and 100+ B2B SaaS investors to network, discuss innovations, trends, and the participants’ views on the sector and share our insights on 🔵 M&A trends in software / SaaS, 🔵 what investors are looking for in the space and 🔵 decisive KPIs that make a company ready for a transaction. Many of our meetings took place in our exclusive Drake Star Tiny House located in the middle of the event site – thanks to everyone who came by and said hello or met us for a chat. Also, thanks for bringing this to life together with us, Matthias Ernst, Jannis Bandorski, Julius Göllner and Julia André. As a proud sponsor of the event, it’s great to see how the community is coming together at #ARRtist. On the evening before the event, I got to attend the Speaker & Investor Dinner – another opportunity to connect with speakers and attendees. I had great conversations with VCs from the US and the Nordics about promising SaaS players in Germany and Continental Europe and we spent the night discussing what brought us all together: Our passion for SaaS companies and how to enable their growth to foster innovation in different sectors. #InvestmentBanking #MergersAndAcquisitions #Growth

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The digital #education #industry is going through a lot of changes, many due to the incredible technological advancements of #genAI. 🤖 It was fun to catch up with Tim Burnett ✨, who is a leading voice in the industry and has started the Test Community Network to provide a place where the ecosystem can share and exchange insights and talk about emerging trends. 🎉 It was a blast talking to Tim this morning together with my good friend and business partner Bernhard Waglechner. We briefly touched on the #digital #assessment #industry, new #trends in both #technology & #regulation, how Europe differs from other markets, such as the US, and how our solution - bizExaminer - fits into all of it. 🤓 Thanks Tim for having us, and for all you do for the ecosystem. 🙏

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B2B SaaS Entrepreneurs on Mastering the Exit I wanted to let you know that I will be moderating a panel at ARRtist Summit 2024 in Berlin. The theme is ‘Mastering the Exit’, and I will be joined by three people who have as much up-to-date insight into this subject as anyone in Germany – all three are B2B SaaS entrepreneurs who have recently sold their companies: Nader El Ali, CEO of DemoUp Cliplister, acquired by Bregal Unternehmerkapital Emil Beck, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Remazing, acquired by IK Partners Manuel Hinz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Cross Engage, acquired by Spotler Group, Founder of Toroleo GmbH, acquired by Delticom AG, and CFO at DailyDeal, acquired by Google. The panel will take place on October 10 at 16:00-17:00 CET. If you’re planning on attending ARRtist Summit, do come along, it will be great to see you and we’re confident you will learn a lot from the discussion. Since space is limited, you’ll need it to indicate it as one of your preferred sessions on the online from ARRtist provides. For those not currently planning to attend, you may wish to consider doing so. ARRtist is the most relevant event for the European SaaS community, bringing together 500 high-profile Founders and CxOs with 125 top-tier investors for a day of networking and knowledge exchange. You can learn more here: https://www.arrtist.net/ Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the panel or ARRtist Summit. #manda #saas #berlinsaasweek #saasalon

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Raise Millions: The guide to fundraising for first-time founders What’s inside the book - Chapter 1: how the fundraising process actually works - Chapter 2: the essential ingredients of a killer pitch deck - Chapter 3: building relationships with investors - Chapter 4: how to pitch to investors - Chapter 5: steps to take once an investor verbally commits Bonus resources: email scripts, templates, and a cheat sheet of our entire book This book is educational and actionable. You’ll learn everything you need to know to fundraise from the pre-seed stage all the way to your Series A. #scalerbee #startup #india #startups #investments #funding #fundraising #venturecapitalist #venturecapital #scale #pitchdeck #business #ai #generativeai #entrepreneures #entrepreneurship #scalingbusinesses #angelinvestors #angelinvesting #fund #founders #businessmodels #pitching #pitch #pitchdecks #investing #investors #investindia #investorcommunity #founderjourney #fundraise #vc

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I am convinced that fairly soon you'll only be able to make contact with valuable people through Tela (or some similar service). They're busy, they're working, they don't want to be bothered unless it actually matters. So: A message from a friend on a normal messaging app is fine. A warm intro via a colleague is fine. But a random stranger is _usually_ an unproductive loss of time, because you'll have to spend effort to figure out if the person is genuine, and not a scammer, and not crazy, etc. (and AI is going to make this infinitely worse.) So: Check out Tela. It's the future. 💎 On Tela, every message pays you. Use Tela to reduce your inbox overload. 👉 You can sign up here: https://lnkd.in/ehFQsjsH

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Series A Engineering: How does Dreamcraft Ventures support startups towards a successful Series A? 🚀 Find out in our Bits & Pretzels Masterclass in Munich on 30 Sep, which will be hosted by Nico, Founder Enablement Partner, and yours truly 🙌 We will cover how we invest and support portfolio companies. Using Hiber as a case study, I will talk about our collaboration with Michael and his team, and give you insights into how they raised their $15m Series A led by EQT Ventures 🤩 Nico will do a deep dive into crucial building blocks for early-stage startups. Based on his +15 years of experience from VC-backed startups like Trustpilot and Platypus, which he co-founded, Nico will provide hands-on advice for hiring, creating structural trust, retaining talent and building a performance culture 💪🔥 Are you going to Bits & Pretzels? Then join our Masterclass or reach out to myself, Nico or our colleague, Mads, if you want to meet up elsewhere! 💬 #Bits24 #venturecapital #vc #startup

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I'm getting unemployed 😱 The number of new SaaS startups (in Germany) decreased a lot over the last 3 years. Who started a SaaS in the last 3 years 👇 Let me know in the comment below. P.S. Thanks Aleksandra Romańczyk and the whole ARRtist and Valueships team for creating such an awesome SaaS pricing report

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Today I visited the GREENTECH FESTIVAL in Berlin with my dear friend Andreas. 💚 To make it short: Good vibes, busy floors and a big startup space. But tbh I wondered if it's really worth it for startups. I remember from my active time as an exhibitor that we weren't honest about the hard costs per lead. We argued a lot: being there is everything, you have to be seen, brand building is important, it's where the industry meets, serendipity happens, if we just get one big order it will pay off... not to forget the parties! That's all true, but the opportunity cost of attending a trade show is very high, especially for startups. And while this isn't meant to be a trade show bashing at all, here are a few suggestions from my experience, on how to make the most of it... - Train your team to proactively approach people. - Initiate a challenge to see who can get the most leads. - Prepare in advance and market your attendance by actively inviting customers. - Consider a small side event, such as a VIP dinner. - Try to book a package with a speaking engagement at the conference, that has always paid off for us. - Use the exhibitor directory for your own prospecting. - Calculate cost vs. lead conversion after the show with real data and decide whether to repeat. - Push your presence on social in real time. Good luck to all exhibitors and happy selling 🚀 ____________________________ Sharing my experience as an entrepreneur and angel investor. Investing in early stage B2B SaaS startups. Happy to connect 👋

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Founders who have raised VC funding I need your advice on a potentially tricky situation with an investor. I was engaging with what I thought was a VC firm based in Berlin to learn more about their thesis and investment categories. When I asked if they had their own fund or were an intermediary, They responded: "No, we do not have our own fund but we know investors that invest and as a result for the investment round of £1M we will ask for 10% ownership." This response raised some red flags for me. I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts on: 1. Is it common for intermediaries to request equity in exchange for connecting founders to investors? 2. Does a 10% ownership stake for a £1M round seem reasonable or excessive? 3. What potential risks or pitfalls should I be aware of when dealing with intermediaries rather than direct VCs? Your insights and experiences would be incredibly helpful as I navigate this situation. Thank you in advance for your guidance! #startup #venturecapital #fundraising #founderadvice

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Let's dive into how we at s16vc approach '𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬'—the most frequent request type, which accounts for about a third of all requests from our portfolio founders. Typically, it goes along the lines of, “Do you know a stellar [product designer] based in [Berlin]?” So, most often it's an opportunistic ask for candidate referrals. Occasionally, founders ask to refer a trusted hiring agency or an advisor to help build their internal people function. On even fewer occasions, it's a request for a reference check of candidates through our community. At s16vc, we've chosen to do a lot deals vs. 1-2 big-bucks bets a year, support all portfolio companies vs. the chosen few, have many individual LPs vs. a couple institutional ones, engage our large community to help founders vs. rely on an in-house group of operators, host a lot of community gatherings vs. one AGM. We appreciate it’s very ambitious. Three years & two fund generations into s16vc's existence, we already have 59 portfolio companies, 92 portfolio founders, and 152 LPs. Now, fast forward ten years into the future? No wonder one of our founding principles at s16vc is “Do things that scale.” This principle pervades everything we do. In the context of 'Hiring & References' support, we ask ourselves, “Can a VC fund help source candidates at scale?” And next, “Should it?” Our belief is that, yes, it can—with the right investment of resources. But should it? As with any strategic bet, you have to focus on your unfair advantage. For some funds, it's a sizable AUM, allowing them to get some great minds to work with their portfolio companies. For others, it's a strong brand name that drives traffic to job boards on their websites. s16vc’s biggest asset is our community. As I often say, we do everything as a community. Hence, for us, the real question is, “Can we source candidates at scale through our community?” The answer is, we may or may not be able to do that; for now, we haven't yet found a scalable way to assist with candidate sourcing. This explains why 'Hiring & References' requests comprise the largest portion, 38% of all requests that didn't progress past the 'Qualification' stage. However, there’s still plenty we as a community can and do help with: * Sharing the most precious people who we have worked with within the community; * Connecting to the most relevant and trusted recruiting agencies and freelance recruiters; * Job description & scorecard review; * Finding a bar raiser for the final interview; * Connecting to advisors who can help build the in-house hiring process; * Finding a trusted connection within our community for a reference check.

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Siddhant Mittal is one of the best people I coached. We had a coaching session a while ago, and he had implemented a lot of my feedback. I really enjoyed his presentation in ProductCamp Berlin 2024! Of course I pointed out a few important things he could do to step up his skills to the next level. I firmly believe he will apply them well and will become one of the best Presenters in Delivery Hero very soon! If you want to know what my feedback to Siddhant and how it can apply to you, book a free presentation coaching session with me. Link below

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Learn from OpenAI’s playbook: Prioritizing key projects and empowering a mission-oriented team are essential for startups aiming to make a significant impact 👇 ➡ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗲: Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI and Brad Lightcap, COO at OpenAI 🔌 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿: Harry Stebbings, Founder at 20VC ✏ “20VC: OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap on The Future of Foundation Models” ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗜 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲: "There are two strategies to build on AI right now: [...] (1) to assume the model is not going to get better and then you kind of build all these little things on top of it; [...] (2) to build assuming that OpenAI is going to stay on the same rate of trajectory and the models are going to keep getting better at the same pace." ⭐ 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀: "At any given point in a company's life, there's only one to three things that really matter. And that spills over into how we run the team because [...] if we can align on what those things are, [...] then it helps me to translate down to the teams that I'm building." ⭐ 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆: "I think people criminally underrate how important it is and how much return you really get on just giving people access to the technology. [...] Someone who used to spend two days doing something now spends two minutes doing it and is freed up to do 85 other things in their daily life." ⭐ 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆'𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: "I watched what has happened to other tech companies when they just become the place you want to work because it's a good resume item. [...] I think companies that lose their mission orientation and get taken over by mercenaries usually come to regret that." ⭐ 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀: "Find a way to make sure that there's this very flat and even playing field when it comes to how you look to the team for perspective, decision-making, judgment, and creativity." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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Is the conventional wisdom about startup growth even close to the truth? Marc von Brockdorff challenges the status quo with insights drawn from his journey co-founding Hotjar, a SaaS powerhouse that reached a whopping €15M in ARR. One take that stands out: stop trying to solve problems you have no personal stake in. Too many entrepreneurs chase ideas because they look good on paper, neglecting the core of their own experiences and needs. A product must resonate with you, or it’s a tough uphill battle. Another point that deserves a spotlight is the distinction between building a product and running a business. Turns out, those two roles require entirely different skill sets. Many founders cling too tightly to their original vision while losing sight of essential business metrics. Understanding your CAC, churn, and LTV is not just a suggestion; it’s a necessity. If you think you can launch a product, sit back, and watch the profits roll in, think again. Feedback isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the lifeline of your growth. This isn't just theory; it's backed by lived experience. For those looking to navigate the rocky landscape of entrepreneurship, heed the lessons from someone who's made the climb. What do you think? Is it time to reconsider what we accept as startup gospel? https://lnkd.in/ev9u3atp

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