Everything can be improved – just get started!
Dagmar Bottenbruch | Investor, Business Angel, Startup Consultant
“Many startups truly benefit society and that’s great!”
Dagmar Bottenbruch plays a leading role in the startup community in Germany. She was born in the US, went to school in Germany, and went back to study biological psychology at UC Berkeley, followed by an MBA at the Harvard Business School. She worked as an analyst in investment banking for a leading Wall Street company, and she has spent time living in New York, London, Milan and Frankfurt before moving to Berlin.
She helped to launch and run startups that included an online brokerage platform in Italy – a fintech company – before that term even existed. The team took the company public before the dotcom crisis hit in 2001. The company eventually merged with a competitor. So while this was not a spectacular success, it served as a powerful trigger for her passion for startup investing later on.
Back in Germany, she worked in investment banking again, was CEO of Rabobank Germany for five years, and started to invest in startups in order to build her own portfolio.
She made 17 personal investments and is now a General Partner of a VC Structure that helps to connect German medium/large corporates with the startup ecosystem – ultimately getting the best of both worlds connected with one another.
Interview Summary
Dagmar Bottenbruch, a leading figure in the startup community in Germany, discusses her career and investment philosophy in an interview. She emphasizes the importance of finding startups that benefit society and solve problems, as well as the need for a large potential market, strong team, and good timing. Bottenbruch also shares her personal experiences as a female investor, including her passion for number crunching and working with founders early on. She stresses the importance of resilience and not giving up when investing in startups, and describes her signature innovation case as a VC structure that connects German corporations with the startup ecosystem. Finally, she encourages everyone to get started and improve everything.
In the interview, Bottenbruch highlights the importance of startups that aim to improve society and solve problems. This is reflected in her selection of investments which focus on tackling societal issues. She also emphasizes the need for a large potential market, a strong team, and good timing when investing in startups.
As a female investor, Bottenbruch acknowledges that fundraising can be more difficult for women than men. However, she notes that there are more decks coming in from women and that women’s networks are becoming more active in helping young women succeed.
Bottenbruch’s investment philosophy also centers around resilience and not giving up when investing in startups. She advises founders to sell their ideas with confidence and understand the venture model. For founders who are not quite ready, she recommends accelerator programs as a good way to start.
Ultimately, Bottenbruch encourages everyone to get started and improve everything. Her signature innovation case involves a VC structure that connects German corporations with the startup ecosystem, enabling startups to gain access to investors and support they need to become relevant.
Bottenbruch’s investment philosophy is centered around investing in startups that aim to tackle societal challenges, with a focus on a large potential market, strong team, and good timing. As a female investor, she acknowledges the difficulties that come with fundraising, but encourages women to sell their ideas with confidence and understand the venture model. She also highlights the importance of resilience and not giving up when investing in startups, and recommends accelerator programs for founders who are not quite ready yet.
Her signature innovation case involves a VC structure that connects German corporations with the startup ecosystem, allowing startups to access investors and support they need to become relevant. Bottenbruch believes that everything can be improved and encourages everyone to get started on their entrepreneurial journey.
Overall, Dagmar Bottenbruch’s experiences and insights provide valuable advice for anyone looking to invest in startups, particularly those with a focus on social impact. Her passion for number crunching and working with founders early on, as well as her commitment to improving society through innovative solutions, make her a respected figure in the German startup community.