Say Hello to Michael Hinderer - b2venture angel investor
Say Hello to Michael Hinderer - b2venture angel investor
Michael Hinderer has seen a lot, both as an investor and entrepreneur. Get to know one of our most prolific angel investors.
The b2venture angel investor and chairman of our portfolio company 1KOMMA5° grew up in a household where stories of great successes and failures were part of the family lore.
“For generations, people in my family have built and lost businesses due to a variety of historical circumstances, so I always felt like I wasn’t doing anything extraordinary, but following in an established family tradition”, he says with a laugh.
“But that also meant permanently wanting to prove myself.” And that came early. At sixteen Michael started his first business, which was finding decommissioned Volkswagen Beetles from the German postal service, refurbishing and then reselling them on the private market. His brother took over the enterprise when he went to the University of St. Gallen, where he studied business and worked at the storied ISC-St. Gallen Symposium, before completing a PhD in economics and entering the world of corporate finance and private equity.
An “early-adopter” of venture capital
Michael was also an early angel investor in technology startups, in addition to his career in private equity. “In the early 1990s, the private equity world in Germany was incredibly small,” said Michael, “so small, in fact, that what we would now call venture capital was a purely private affair, something we dubbed ‘club investments’, and did on the side among friends with a few thousand D-Marks. Really out of pure conviction.”
Michael saw this as an incredible opportunity. “As the market for private equity in Germany grew, my work as an M&A advisor and principal never conflicted with my investments in startups, so my portfolio in these small cap companies just kept growing until they weren’t so small anymore.” He brings a lifetime of experience, having helped invest billions in private equity funds and transacted many investments over the course of his career in both private equity and venture capital.
“My expertise and passion center around ‘buy and build’ strategies for companies to grow,” says Michael, “and I want to be around for the long haul, so I’ve also invested with an eye toward long-term sustainability and growth.” Michael is especially renowned for his work as a board member, using his network and expertise to help companies develop their growth path, from the earliest stages on to becoming scale-ups.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, so I am always asking the tough questions when founders want to bring in new investors. Is this the right investor? What do they bring to the table, and what do they really want? Do they have the same expectations and goals as the founders? Or do they want to burnish their own reputation and aren’t really interested in helping the company in any meaningful way. When things are going well, it is difficult to fathom there being problems, but when times get tough - and they always do - it is much better if all of the investors are properly aligned.”
Why b2venture?
Michael has been working with b2venture for a long time as part of the firm’s business angel community. “b2venture is a great platform for someone like myself. Nowhere else do I have access to such an incredible network of other experts and sparring partners to understand where the market is going and what the best opportunities are. We all work together to ensure that our portfolio companies can succeed, utilizing our individual talents.”
Michael also likes being able to outsource due diligence and documentation to b2venture and trust that it gets done right. He sees himself as the opposite of what he calls a “desktop investor” and is actively involved in the early phases of portfolio companies’ development. “I like helping build teams in the beginning before moving into more of an advisory role.”
Building for the next generation
The multi-generational approach of b2venture has also been close to his heart, and he works alongside his children - two daughters and a step-daughter, who have all been involved and worked with the b2venture team throughout the years - in managing their investments and making new ones.
“It’s an opportunity to deepen your relationship with your children by having a dialogue around very concrete things you know something about - experiences and lessons they can use and build off of. It’s immensely rewarding.”
This ambition also applies to a younger generation of founders as well.
“When I saw what Philipp Schröder was trying to do in the beginning with 1KOMMA5°, I immediately knew he was onto something big. The complete decarbonization of energy, mobility and heat poses an unprecedented challenge of coordination - the base of skilled workers is too small and too fragmented, you really need to wrap up as much capacity as possible to create enough supply - that is the immediate bottleneck.” Michael was an early champion of Philipp’s approach, helping him found the company and using his network as Chairman to get the right investors on board (including b2venture, which co-led the Series A round) and to scale the company through a flurry of strategic acquisitions.
“It is a buy and build strategy with a twist. The technological component with the “Heartbeat” energy management system - the central hub of software connecting solar, battery, and heat pumps with the decentralized network - can really be the game changer that gives the company network effects. Imagine every household in Europe having their own mini-powerplant that is interconnected across the economy and can optimize energy at every moment. The vision is huge but feasible. And also very necessary, if we want to save the planet.”
Despite the economic downturn and increasing global challenges, Michael is optimistic about Europe’s prospects.
“I know the venture capital world on both sides of the Atlantic, and Europe has come a long way. There’s more than enough talent here, it’s the cultural change that has been most important and remarkable. The best and the brightest increasingly want to start companies, and I’ve grown incredibly optimistic about the European ecosystem and our ability to innovate at the same level as the Americans and the Chinese.”
Michael Hinderer has seen a lot, both as an investor and entrepreneur. Get to know one of our most prolific angel investors.
The b2venture angel investor and chairman of our portfolio company 1KOMMA5° grew up in a household where stories of great successes and failures were part of the family lore.
“For generations, people in my family have built and lost businesses due to a variety of historical circumstances, so I always felt like I wasn’t doing anything extraordinary, but following in an established family tradition”, he says with a laugh.
“But that also meant permanently wanting to prove myself.” And that came early. At sixteen Michael started his first business, which was finding decommissioned Volkswagen Beetles from the German postal service, refurbishing and then reselling them on the private market. His brother took over the enterprise when he went to the University of St. Gallen, where he studied business and worked at the storied ISC-St. Gallen Symposium, before completing a PhD in economics and entering the world of corporate finance and private equity.
An “early-adopter” of venture capital
Michael was also an early angel investor in technology startups, in addition to his career in private equity. “In the early 1990s, the private equity world in Germany was incredibly small,” said Michael, “so small, in fact, that what we would now call venture capital was a purely private affair, something we dubbed ‘club investments’, and did on the side among friends with a few thousand D-Marks. Really out of pure conviction.”
Michael saw this as an incredible opportunity. “As the market for private equity in Germany grew, my work as an M&A advisor and principal never conflicted with my investments in startups, so my portfolio in these small cap companies just kept growing until they weren’t so small anymore.” He brings a lifetime of experience, having helped invest billions in private equity funds and transacted many investments over the course of his career in both private equity and venture capital.
“My expertise and passion center around ‘buy and build’ strategies for companies to grow,” says Michael, “and I want to be around for the long haul, so I’ve also invested with an eye toward long-term sustainability and growth.” Michael is especially renowned for his work as a board member, using his network and expertise to help companies develop their growth path, from the earliest stages on to becoming scale-ups.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, so I am always asking the tough questions when founders want to bring in new investors. Is this the right investor? What do they bring to the table, and what do they really want? Do they have the same expectations and goals as the founders? Or do they want to burnish their own reputation and aren’t really interested in helping the company in any meaningful way. When things are going well, it is difficult to fathom there being problems, but when times get tough - and they always do - it is much better if all of the investors are properly aligned.”
Why b2venture?
Michael has been working with b2venture for a long time as part of the firm’s business angel community. “b2venture is a great platform for someone like myself. Nowhere else do I have access to such an incredible network of other experts and sparring partners to understand where the market is going and what the best opportunities are. We all work together to ensure that our portfolio companies can succeed, utilizing our individual talents.”
Michael also likes being able to outsource due diligence and documentation to b2venture and trust that it gets done right. He sees himself as the opposite of what he calls a “desktop investor” and is actively involved in the early phases of portfolio companies’ development. “I like helping build teams in the beginning before moving into more of an advisory role.”
Building for the next generation
The multi-generational approach of b2venture has also been close to his heart, and he works alongside his children - two daughters and a step-daughter, who have all been involved and worked with the b2venture team throughout the years - in managing their investments and making new ones.
“It’s an opportunity to deepen your relationship with your children by having a dialogue around very concrete things you know something about - experiences and lessons they can use and build off of. It’s immensely rewarding.”
This ambition also applies to a younger generation of founders as well.
“When I saw what Philipp Schröder was trying to do in the beginning with 1KOMMA5°, I immediately knew he was onto something big. The complete decarbonization of energy, mobility and heat poses an unprecedented challenge of coordination - the base of skilled workers is too small and too fragmented, you really need to wrap up as much capacity as possible to create enough supply - that is the immediate bottleneck.” Michael was an early champion of Philipp’s approach, helping him found the company and using his network as Chairman to get the right investors on board (including b2venture, which co-led the Series A round) and to scale the company through a flurry of strategic acquisitions.
“It is a buy and build strategy with a twist. The technological component with the “Heartbeat” energy management system - the central hub of software connecting solar, battery, and heat pumps with the decentralized network - can really be the game changer that gives the company network effects. Imagine every household in Europe having their own mini-powerplant that is interconnected across the economy and can optimize energy at every moment. The vision is huge but feasible. And also very necessary, if we want to save the planet.”
Despite the economic downturn and increasing global challenges, Michael is optimistic about Europe’s prospects.
“I know the venture capital world on both sides of the Atlantic, and Europe has come a long way. There’s more than enough talent here, it’s the cultural change that has been most important and remarkable. The best and the brightest increasingly want to start companies, and I’ve grown incredibly optimistic about the European ecosystem and our ability to innovate at the same level as the Americans and the Chinese.”
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