Klaus Hommels: Why "Portfolios are Merely a Construct to Make LPs Happy"? | E1231

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

November 27, 2024

Duration

1h 13m

Channel

The Twenty Minute VC

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Klaus Hommels is one of Europe’s leading start investors of the last decade with a portfolio including the likes of Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, Coinbase, Revolut and more. Among his many responsibilities, Klaus is the Founder of Lakestar, his own venture fund and chairs the board of directors of the NATO Innovation Fund. ----------------------------------------------- Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:03) Adidas or Puma: How Puma Sparked Klaus’s Investing Journey (03:13) Am I a Good Investor? Dealing with Early Career Challenges (05:28) Why Klaus is an Outsourced Business Development Guy (06:57) Handling Transactional Founder Relationships (09:51) How Is Venture Misunderstood on Macro-Level Today? (11:57) Is Europe Overfunded & Lacking Quality Startups? (16:39) What Can Europe Learn from the US? (21:15) Is Defense Too Small to Build a Venture Portfolio Around? (24:04) How Klaus Views Capital Constraints Per Company (24:50) How Geopolitics & NATO Are Shaping Defense Startups (26:44) What Must the Electorate Understand About Defense? (29:48) Will Defense Winners Be Nationalized or Continentalized? (31:56) Does Europe Truly Understand & Prioritize Its Defense Needs? (40:03) How Many European Investors Are Linked to MODs? (42:55) Do Defense Startups Need Bigger Seed Rounds? (45:15) Is Founder Skill Set the Key Challenge for Defense Startups? (46:57) What Drove Klaus’s Conviction in Neko Health? (52:08) Early Investing in Spotify, Airbnb, Revolut, Facebook (58:23) What Was Klaus’s Biggest Loss and Its Impact (01:00:55) About the Timing When to Sell (01:01:57) How Do You Instill Ambition in Children from Affluent Families? (01:03:37) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode with Klaus Hommels We Discuss:

1. The Investing Rules that are BS:

• Why does Klaus totally reject the idea of price sensitivity?
• Why does Klaus hate the idea of “building portfolios”?
• Why does Klaus believe the best investments are made when there is not a fundraising round in motion?
• Why does Klaus believe that capital concentration limits on a per company basis are BS? How concentrated is Klaus happy to be?

1. Europe: What The F*** is Going On:

• Why is Europe underfinancing innovation by a factor of eight?
• Why is Europe unable to send satellites into space for six years?
• What should Europe do to become a global superpower once again? What needs to change?
• Why should European pension funds be forced to invest in venture capital?

1. The Stories Behind the $BN Returns:

• How did a dinner with Klaus’ son lead to his investing in Revolut?
• How did Klaus analysis of Friendster and MySpace lead to his buying Matt Cohler @ Benchmark’s Facebook shares?
• How did a small investment in a Swedish company, Stardoll, lead to Klaus investing in the seed round of Spotify?
• How did a conversation with Madonna’s manager lead to Klaus investing in Airbnb?

----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Lakestar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lakestarvc Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #klaushommel #lakestar #ceo #founder #venturecapital #vc

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Klaus Hommels

  guest

• Harry Stebbings

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of The Twenty Minute VC, featuring Klaus Hommels and Harry Stebbings, Klaus Hommels: Why "Portfolios are Merely a Construct to Make LPs Happy"? | E1231 explores klaus Hommels Rejects Venture Orthodoxy: Portfolios, Pricing, and Defense Klaus Hommels, founder of Lakestar and chair of the NATO Innovation Fund, discusses his unconventional philosophy on venture investing, arguing that portfolios are largely an LP-pleasing construct and that true returns come from concentrated, high-conviction bets. He emphasizes venture capital as “outsourced business development” for founders, not a financial engineering game, and explains why he is deliberately not price-sensitive when backing exceptional companies. A major portion of the conversation focuses on Europe’s structural underfunding of innovation and defense, the need for technological sovereignty (in areas like space, satellites, and AI defense), and how deep tech can reshape modern warfare economics. He also reflects on career-defining wins (Spotify, Revolut, Airbnb, Facebook) and losses, the role of luck and ethics, and what actually drives long-term fulfillment as an investor and human being.

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