Earlybird Venture Capital

They give you money without endless negotiations. They also have a lot of funds available. They put capital into hundreds of businesses. I also have to give them credit for supporting and going into high-risk profile start-ups like crypto. They are more advanced than some more commerce banks. That comes with a price though.

They go in early (like to invest in seed rounds or later series A) as is also in their name. However they show some creditor behaviour but when it comes to following rounds, they use their power from the board to put the conditions of the next rounds that are completely only in their favour not in the favour of the start-ups. For instance they might force you to raise on an exaggerated valuation which other investors would not agree with and then when you fail to close the round and you run out of runway they would swoop in and close the round for themselves on a much favourable valuation. Be careful with giving them controlling power. My personal opinion is that they are pretty predatory and it puts a lot of stress on the organization.

Be more supportive of the founder's teams. The way you run Early Bird is not a nice business

I've been working with Earlybird for the first time in my current company, now over 3 years. They did our Series A as lead and participated pro rata in our Series B. Most important for me was their prior experience with other financial services companies in Germany (namely Interhyp, which was on the most sucessful IPOs ever in the Internet space). What I like is their cooperative and supportive way of working together. I cannot judge the whole team, but Christian Nagel (partner) is a great strategic advisor on our board. Given my prior experience with other VCs, this is a nice surprise. Even if things get tense and problematic, they keep a cool head. Especially given the case that we were looking for someone who supports us on a mid-term strategy level. I can really recommend those guys. If you want to ask me directly, go ahead.

I'm a serial extrepreneur and I have done two rounds of funding with EarlyBird, with two different companies. The first company was funded by EB in 1999 and led to a successful exit. My second company was funded by EB in 2009. All in all I can say is they were extremely professional throughout the entire process on both counts. Secondly, I've always been getting a lot of support, with contacts, strategic input, and as sparring partner. They are a very enthusiastic team once they're on board. Until that point, they are very critical, selective and know how to do their due diligence but that is to be expected from a top international investor.

We pitched at Earlybird in Munich for our Series A. The whole process from first meeting to termsheet was very professional and well structured. Throughout the whole process, they gave honest and direct feedback. After the initial pitch they voiced some concerns and arranged follow-up meetings with other partners of the firm to clarify those questions (which we successfully did). It was a pleasure to communicate with each other in this open and constructive way.

At the beginning the appeared vey efficient and well organized: we had a couple of phone calls with them two weeks after sending them the first documents. After that we received a mail with some questions and requests from their side before to go pitch. We answered them and then ...nothing. No more calls mails or contacts