#34 Gerri Kodres 🇪🇪 (United Angels VC) on investments in Bolt & Veriff, how investor’s mind works and what mistakes do founders make when approaching VCs

Gerri Kodres is a founding partner at United Angels VC and has been a tech investor for more than 10 years with investments in such companies as Bolt, Veriff, Comodule, Monese, Starship, and many others. Alongside that, he spent almost 10 years with Fortumo as a chief business officer and advisor signing clients such as Google, Netflix, and Spotify.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into tech investing by covering the investment landscape in the Baltics, the roles and responsibilities of a tech investor, the skills to look out for both in founders and investors as well as the timing of investments. We also go ‘behind the scenes in some of Gerri’s investment gems - Bolt and Veriff - to find out how they have struggled and found success.

The topics covered in this episode with Timestamps

[02:00] - INTRODUCTION AND THE ORIGINS OF UNITED ANGELS VC

• Advantage of VC vs. angel investing - more money to do follow-on investments

[18:30] - UNDERSTANDING  TECH INVESTING LANDSCAPE IN BALTICS

• Competition in the tech investing market in the Baltics
• FOMO and herd investing
• Timing the right stage to invest
• Managing founder relationships when also saying “no”
• The investor is never in charge
• Helping struggling portfolio companies
• Missing out on deals

[29:00] - HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF SUCCESSFUL WITH INVESTORS

• What to look for in founders
• What mistakes do founders make when approaching investors
• Skills for a successful tech investor
• How to test for BD skills in founders
• Depth of involvement for investors in different phases

[48:30] -  BEHIND THE SCENES - INVESTMENTS IN BOLT AND VERIFF

• Bolt
  • Cutting out the taxi companies
  • Conquering Africa
  • Preparing for an IPO
  • Europe’s first super app
  • Not a winner takes all market
• Veriff
  • Backing a young founder
  • Fixing a broken cap table
  • Finding success in Y-Combinator

[1:02:40] - CURRENT FOUNDER PROFILE IN BALTICS

• Current demographics of founders on the market
• 3rd generation of startups
• Positive outlook for the Baltics

To reach out to Gerri use:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrikodres/

Website: https://unitedangels.vc/

Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/ 

Support for this episode comes from Nexpay > https://paynexpay.com/

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Find out more on https://www.pursuitofscrappiness.co/