War Stories wann  sollte  man  besser  aufgeben

Background

• Liquid Labs founded February 2012

• Primary focus: FinTech

• Portfolio approach: 1 in 10 will survive

• To-Date: 9 companies built and tested

• Hit rate: 1 full blown spin-off; 2 Trade Sales; 4 Killed; 2 Ramping Up

How & Why

• 100+ Ideas Screened

• Start 3 - 4 companies a year

• 12 month runtime

• Looking for leverage

• Venture Capital Principles

• Investments have to be made comparable to angel investors

• MUST BE LEAN

When it works

• Device Ident: Anti-Fraud platform, artificial intelligence, device fingerprinting

• Started June 2012

• “Exited” Liquid Labs February 2013

• Team is larger than us

• Market leader in data pool within 4 weeks

• Leveraged asset: Online Retail channels

Sometimes you’re surrounded• Background: Consumer based platform

• “Everyone wanted it”

• Consumer behaviour dictated otherwise

• Tested online and mobile

• Launched in February 2012, closed four months later

• “The Pain” of closing down

• Closing down took real convincing that the effort was not worth it

• Four months later competitors in the space pivoted. German competitors now closed down

And sometimes…

• We have shut down things because

• strategy changes,

• competing projects,

• Wrong people,

• Financing requirements too high

• Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Be PreparedThanks. And till next time:michael@liquidlabs.de