Hi Chris, could you please introduce yourself and share some highlights of your personal and professional journey?

I was born and raised in Long Island, NY. When I was 12, I realized my interest in two distinct hobbies: exercise and web development. I got my first startup job when I was 15, and it was immediately clear to me I wanted to work in the industry. When I was 16, my life was put on pause when I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Fortunately, it was removed, but the whole experience was transformative; it shaped my values and who I am today, it also planted a seed for what is my current venture, NOVOS.

I applied to one college – NYU Stern – because of my desire to learn business and entrepreneurship and to be close to my family in NY. My first job out of university was in Private Equity, but I was simultaneously working on a startup venture by the name of Hotlist, which won Stern’s business plan competition.

Can you recount the life-changing experience from your youth that led you to become deeply interested in health?

I was already interested in health from the superficial perspective of athletics and aesthetics. When I was diagnosed with a tumor as a teenager, my interest in health rapidly evolved into one that focused on biology and disease – and my newfound desire to never be forced to lay in a hospital bed ever again contemplating my mortality.

I wanted to learn why, despite being healthier than my peers according to a range of measures, I would be diagnosed with a tumor. I wanted to better understand the causes of cancer, disease and the converse, biological optimization.

It has been a long journey, almost 25 years at this point, and over that time I’ve learned a lot about my own health by digging into my biomarkers and experimenting with nutrition, supplements, lifestyle hacks and more. I continue to investigate the myriads of factors that contribute to disease (and how to minimize the odds thereof), and am consistently researching the biological causes of aging, which is the primary risk factor for most chronic illnesses, how to counteract them and more. My knowledge, and the science, are ever evolving, but I’m happy to be where I currently find myself, as a practitioner and contributor to the discussion about aging, disease and health optimization.

I first met you at Fabrice Grinda's house in New York more than ten years ago when you were running a Foursquare competitor called Hotlist. Could you share the story of that venture and the lessons you learned from it?

I started Hotlist while finishing up at NYU Stern and shortly after graduation, and I quit my job at the time to pursue it full-time. Unfortunately, the collapse of Lehman Brothers coincided with Hotlist’s fundraising efforts, which quickly introduced me to the difficulties of entrepreneurship firsthand.

Hotlist eventually raised a smaller round and, after time (years!), found product-market fit. We scaled our user base up considerably and, at our peak, had more than 220 million people’s social plans on our platform. We received numerous accolades which include ringing the opening bell at NASDAQ, being a Top 5 Finalist for Entrepreneur of The Year at CES’ Mashable Awards, receiving a Webby Award, and more.

About six years into the venture, we began connecting with prospective acquirers, including big names like Facebook and Google. Ultimately, a large company in Asia made an acquisition offer. Having no revenue (we focused on user growth) and burnt through much of our capital, we had to make a choice: pursue the acquisition or fundraise. The Board, my cofounder and I unanimously elected to pursue the acquisition.

Four months into the drawn out process, our acquisition offer had fallen through. This paired with other unforeseen circumstances led to us shutting down Hotlist.

The lessons derived from this experience were innumerable. From business to life and beyond, I was forced to confront my failures, my values, my ego (which was obliterated!) and more. Yet, along with my brain tumor, I consider this to be one of the two greatest experiences of my life, because of how much it forced me to grow.

You maintain a disciplined lifestyle, balancing sleep, sports, and work. What motivates you to uphold this discipline, and how do you manage it every day?

Life is short and can end at any moment. There is so much I want to provide to the world and experience while here. My previous experience of illness and failed entrepreneurship have inspired me to continue putting my best effort forth to minimize the odds that I’m ever laying in a hospital bed with a life threatening illness again, or that I don’t achieve my goals because of lack of effort.

When I’m confronted with temptations like staying up late (not for work), skipping my workout or ending work early, I reflect upon my values, and what I want for my future self, and have conditioned myself to reflexively realize that I put those at risk by giving in. Now, that’s not to say I never stay up late, eat dessert, skip a workout or end my week a little early, but I do so by first carefully listening to what my mind or body is telling me and considering how far astray the decision will lead me.

), the longevity company you founded. What inspired you to start it, and what are you building there?

My inspiration started at age 12, when I picked up an issue of Men’s Health magazine. This moment evolved into an interest in biological health after my brain tumor, resulting in almost 20 years of me actively integrating healthy lifestyle practices and experiments into my life, which sprouted into NOVOS when I became aware of the research into longevity and the 9 hallmarks of aging (there are now 12).

NOVOS is a human longevity platform that makes the latest advancements and discoveries in human longevity accessible and achievable for all. Put simply, we use science to keep you Younger For Longer.

We do so by being the first company to address aging by addressing the 12 hallmarks of aging simultaneously, whether that be through our patent-pending, natural formulations, our best-in-class biological age tests that keep you on track, or our free knowledge and assessments that we provide as a Public Benefit Corporation.

As we evolve, we will continually transfer knowledge from the scientific lab and medical clinic directly to the consumer, in the form of scientifically validated over-the-counter formulas, tests and free knowledge. We do so because in today’s world, it is more important than ever to be proactive about health, and it’s our perspective that addressing the biological causes of aging is the best way to confer the most health benefits to people in both the short and importantly, the often neglected long-term.

With a vast landscape of supplements available, including competition and products on Amazon, how do you view the current landscape and its future expansion? What should people consider before making a purchase?

When I started NOVOS, I thought of the marketplace as composed of two general categories: pharma/biotech and supplements, and each has its place and respective benefits. For example, pharma and biotech utilize the most advanced scientific approaches to validate their drugs, in terms of efficacy (for a disease indication) and safety.

Supplements, on the other hand, have the advantage of being able to be quick to market and no need to prove themselves to the FDA or EFSA for a particular disease indication; they have to be natural and Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS).

My vision for NOVOS is to combine the best aspects of both industries while minimizing the downsides. For example, be obsessive about the science behind our products, while targeting aging and utilizing synergistic ingredients.

To these points, NOVOS Core, our foundational formulation, is based on more than 400 scientific studies. Additionally, independent, third-party in vitro human cell studies of our synergistic formulas have found a reduction in DNA damage from irradiation and chemotherapeutics, and a reduction in the footprint of senescent cells at a magnitude comparable to the prescription longevity drug, rapamycin. A human in vivo case study also found that 73% of participants had a reduction in their biological pace of aging and 0% had an acceleration. 

At this time, I’m unaware of any other patent-pending longevity formulations with this degree of research or any other products on the market comparable to our formulation.

Additionally, we offer the world’s most accurate epigenetic biological age test kit (produced by Columbia University and Duke University researchers), NOVOS Age, and more than 125 scientifically referenced articles we publish on 

Novos Labs offers a variety of products beyond the well-known NMN. Could you discuss the key ingredients in your formula and explain why you included or excluded certain popular components?

We currently have 13 ingredients across our two formulas. For a high-level overview of our ingredients, readers can check out our Ingredients page, which includes links to in-depth articles on each ingredient.

We also have a blog post that discusses “longevity” ingredients that we intentionally did not include in our formulation and the reasoning behind this decision.

Finally, on our Approach page, we discuss the criteria we consider when evaluating ingredients for inclusion in our formulations, alongside our esteemed Scientific Advisory Board of notable longevity researchers and consultants like Dr. George Church, Dr. Matt Kaerberlein, Dr. J. Pedro Magalhaes, and others.

Here are the qualifications we use when considering an ingredient for inclusion in a formula:

Chris Mirable: Revolutionizing Longevity with Novos 

Hi Robin! Thanks for the invite, very excited to do this interview with you. I’m Jonas, I currently live in Berlin and I’m the co-founder and CEO of the AI startup Beam. I’m in my 30s now, so I’ve been in the startup world for a while and have co-founded and helped scale a number of ventures in very different industries - from the railway industry to B2C e-commerce. I’m interested in a very broad range of topics in my personal life as well, but one recurring theme over the last years was the intersection between humans and AI. I’d already focused on behavioural economics and neuroscience during my studies and it’s been fascinating to see how, within only a few years, AI has become capable of taking over the first tasks only humans were previously able to do. That trend has never been more rapid or visible than now, so I couldn’t be more excited that we’re at the forefront at this with my new company Beam. Personally, I’m a bit of a maniac when it comes to work but I really enjoy life in general. I’ve always loved sports, read a lot and, since the pandemic, have also become a semi-professional pizza maker.

You are a serial entrepreneur and your latest gig, Razor Group, even achieved unicorn status in 2021. Can you tell us how you got started in the industry?

I’d say that the accelerating point of this journey was during my studies at the TU in Munich, where I focused on Business and Electrical Engineering, and especially when I joined CDTM - the Center of Digital Technology and Management, which not only sparked my interest in entrepreneurship but also led to amazing friendships and a network that I’m very grateful for. My co-founder Aqib and I both met through CDTM before we started Beam. Many of our business angels are also from that network.

As for my personal founding journey, I experienced both, success but also things not working out. The first startup I founded was as a student selling baseball caps in the US. It started as fun project by building a Shopify store on my couch in New York on a Friday night with my co-founder. But the caps got a lot of attention, and suddenly Lewis Hamilton and Paris Hilton were wearing our stuff. As I didn’t have a lot of exposure to entrepreneurship when I grew up, it was great for me to see that building a company can work incredibly well.

The first startup I joined after university, and after a detour to the consulting world at McKinsey, was Konux, which develops predictive maintenance solutions for the railway industry. I came on board in the very early days when we started with a sensor technology that ultimately didn’t work out and required us to pivot significantly. But that pivot was successful and we managed to raise additional funds with an outstanding team. As a management team, we spent quite some time in Silicon Valley and stayed at Andy Bechtolsheim’s place for a few weeks. Looking back, the time at Konux really shaped me and my former colleagues. And I remember that, back then, AI already played a big role in our daily discussions; from the Waitbutwhy post about the road to superintelligence (worth a read!) to the details of Neural Networks used to predict vertical displacement in infrastructure. So really this is when I started to slowly grasp the huge potential of AI. And yes, my last venture, Razor, was an absolutely insane and very successful ride, too. We started in Germany and after 6 weeks decided to go the UK and another 6 weeks later to the US. It was intense and challenging, and Razor eventually became a really big company with now $500m+ in revenue. But Beam really is the type of company I’ve always wanted to build. It’s very technical and I see incredible potential at this intersection of AI and humans. I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years in this space will look like.

When I first met you a year ago, I was impressed by your speed in building products. What kind of person are you, and what strength do you bring to building a company?

I’m a bit of a nerd in that I read a lot. At least an hour a day, every single day. Books, newspapers, or scientific magazines, about topics like the rise and fall of nations, to the Industrial Revolution or even trees, “The hidden life of trees” is still one of my favorite books. And I love that we have this culture at Beam as well, where my co-founder Aqib regularly sends me research papers and we discuss what potential these new developments can have for our company. The main topic is generative AI, of course, but we’re also curious about hardware, neuroscience and everything that is related to the brain. I like learning and I’m a very fast learner. So whatever the topic, I make sure I fully dive into it which usually helps me to get really good at it. And by doing that over quite some time now, it has helped me to gain a broad and deep understanding of a lot of topics and the effect of compounding growth is really kicking in. Another element I bring to the table is 100% dedication to whatever I do. I see building companies a bit like professional sports - it’s exhilarating and the best feeling in the world to achieve important milestones with a team, and to experience the moments when things fall into place and the business starts taking on more and more speed. But it can also get tough, emotionally as well as mentally. So executing is important, but recharging equally so. Only when I recharge can I perform at my best. There is actually some interesting research on recovery experiences, and I’ve experimented a lot to figure out what helps me, from measuring glucose levels to blood tests to breathwork. I don’t drink alcohol, try to avoid sugar as much as I can, go to the sauna regularly and take long walks. Most importantly though, it’s my friends who are absolutely vital to my well-being and shape me as a person. What I love about my closest circle is the absolute trust and support we have for each other. Overall, if I’m in a bad mood, tired or lose track, it has an effect on my team and I want to avoid that at all costs and be balanced, so I really believe that one of the most important aspects of performing at high speeds is recovery.

Who are the people you work with? What would you say makes a great team?

I’m convinced that the defining characteristic of any company, especially a startup, is speed. So the people that we’ve hired at Beam, are all a bit crazy, very driven, very technical but still diverse and fun. My favorite interview question is: “What makes you get up in the morning?” and people who work at Beam all have this insane inner drive. We hire primarily for cognitive ability, passion, and a certain experience which obviously helps a lot.

The advantage of being a serial founder is that I’ve developed a better understanding of what personalities and skills we should look for, depending on where we are as a company. Right now at Beam, we’re not only hiring new talents but adding people to the team who we’ve worked with before, sometimes years ago. For example, Natalie joined us from AWS, where she led Executive Marketing for EMEA. But we already worked together back in Konux times. So it’s a bit like coming home and working together just feels very natural. Working with Aqib is also simply amazing. We’re different in a lot of aspects but share very similar views when it comes to aspiration, work ethics, and performance. It’s almost like there is an invisible connection that holds us together and guides us. It’s amazing how often we come to similar conclusions independently but also how fast we can both adapt and iterate if we have different views. Working with him just feels very natural and unbelievably fast.

Part of our team is based in Pakistan, as Aqib was born there. This has benefits in terms of costs but more importantly: We can hire the most impressive talent in a country of 220 million people. It’s a massive advantage for us and, as a consequence, we have absolute superstars in the team. I’m convinced that a great team needs to be diverse and bring in different experiences, on top of being insanely driven, very smart and very adaptive.

One aspect of great teams that is often a bit neglected is simply: Who shouldn’t be part of it? When we build a company, we need to grow the team and get our hiring right. But we also have to make sure that we put people in the correct role where they’re at their best, and that we recognize early if we’re not the right company and work environment for them to thrive. Individual performance follows a power law, and some people are contributing 100x more than others. They do things while others fail to get it done. We need to optimize for the 100x.

Now all of this is good but not excellent, if there is no strong glue that holds the team together and guides all of us. That’s through our vision, that’s because we have joint goals and it’s because of our shared experiences, values and also the fun we have as a team, in short, our culture. We spend too much time working for it to not be a lot of fun, too.

What exactly does your current company, Beam, focus on? What is the product that you’ve been building since you founded Beam last year?

At Beam, we develop generative AI agents for businesses. Right now, our customers primarily use these agents to automate internal processes, to support their existing workforce and significantly increase the productivity of their teams. Our Beam AI agents use LLMs, have their own databases, integrations as well as functions to get work done. They can take over complex workflows by chaining different steps together, similar to the way humans would approach a larger problem by completing one step after the next. AI agents are like virtual co-pilots that are very versatile and support you in your day-to-day. They can write emails on your behalf, analyse data and create spreadsheets or help you understand complex information. These agents also create code and variables, which means they can even interact directly with other business applications. So while ChatGPT provides information, AI agents can now plan complex tasks and also get actual work done. They fit seamlessly into an organization’s work environment and help teams automate repetitive tasks and free up time for more impactful projects. Users can set up agents in two different ways: They can use templates (pre-trained agents) that we’ve already created or they can use an orchestration AI that helps with setting up these agents - this currently works for up to three-step tasks but we are working on expanding the scope as fast as possible. The overarching goal of AI agents is always to help employees get work done faster and better as well as figuring out how to solve the task best.

What does this mean exactly? How are teams, or individual employees, using these AI agents in their daily work?

While developing the technology and training the models our AI agents are based on, we noticed that even the way they approach prompts and interact with employees already adds value. We put strong emphasis on allowing the user to control every individual step while the AI offers “food for thought”. This means it’ll dive deeper into a complex task and highlight aspects you might not have thought about. Say, for instance, you ask it to create a sales presentation without providing any additional information. The AI agents will then follow up with clarifying questions about your USP, value proposition, personas, technology, or even your brand identity. If you provide more context, it will come up with a better, tailored solution faster. In the process it will guide you and give you input and ask questions. Now you can ignore that input, but sometimes this input already helps you to think differently about the task you’re about to solve. Either way, the AI agent will create a structure and content for your presentation. And, if you give it access to Google Slides, it will build the slides directly in your workspace using the code and variables it has created. Unfortunately, it prefers to use Arial as font, but luckily this is something you can easily change as a user.

The use cases we are able to solve with these AI agents are literally expanding every day. They get more complex and we can now add integrations faster. Sometimes the output is not great and sometimes it’s simply astonishing. We’ve also starting to combine multiple agents, which is super exciting but very early.

One aspect that is important to many of our customers is that we pre-train agents for workflows or repetitive tasks that their teams encounter in their day-to-day and that we offer integrations with their main business applications. This means we build these pre-trained agents for very specific use cases. This can take the form of an account agent, a sales prospecting agent or a fundraising agent, for example, and it helps our customers to get started with only a few clicks. Unless they want to partner with us to create even more tailored solutions for their company.

What did your early sales calls and customer meetings look like? Did people get the concept of generative AI and the main value for their business immediately?

In the beginning, it took us a bit to figure out the best “starting point” for a generative AI pitch and we’re still spending a lot of time listening to our customers and understanding where they’re at in their own journey. But the exciting thing is that we’re having more and more conversations, in which senior executives tell us they’re already working on an “AI-first” strategy for their company. These customers grasp immediately where Beam could fit into that strategy and it’s always a nice surprise when our meetings become very technical and we suddenly find ourselves in the middle of an in-depth discussion of the latest AI research and studies with a CxO. Overall, there is a starting point in every company, sometimes it just takes a bit longer to figure out the best way to start with. Theoretically, there are many cases in which you could automate almost everything with AI. Practically, your options to get started might be much more limited. We had to find the right balance between being very broad or focusing on narrow use cases and it’s something we’re still optimizing for. Generally, we start relatively broad in use case identification but have a laser focus to show value when it comes to the first use cases. Further down the funnel, we’re also increasingly talking about data privacy and security, and addressing any concerns customers might have. Building systems that are fully compliant with GDPR and SOC2 luckily has become a bit easier in the past years. It is crucial for our customers that we comply with all regulations and guarantee their data's security and privacy, despite needing to be super fast and agile when conducting pilots. Our approach to building agents is very flexible, so depending on the customer’s needs we can actually use different modules and providers.

You’d already started worked on Beam before the current hype around ChatGPT and Generative AI started. How do you see this trend developing? And what role does AI play in your own day-to-day life at Beam?

The main hypothesis underlying everything we do at Beam is that the power of AI is growing exponentially. That sounds actually simple, but we as humans are very bad at understanding exponential growth. Let’s take knowledge doubling time as an example. Back in 2010, medical knowledge doubled every 3.5 years. In 2020, we saw doubling time go down to 73 days. So if I learned all of the medical knowledge available in the world in 2010, by 2015 I would know 37% of the knowledge then available. This is tough, but it is something we can still comprehend. Now if I learned everything in 2020, due to the decrease in doubling time by 2025 I would only know 0.000003% of all knowledge (assuming constant growth rates). It’s something we can barely comprehend. So if we reverse this, the power that AI will have in a few years is almost impossible to comprehend, unless we look at it super rationally.

When we started Beam we talked about it but didn’t fully understand this speed if I’m being honest. Even though we as a company operate very fast and agile, we actually underestimated this insanely fast development ourselves. So at a certain point we sat together and said, well, let’s forget everything we thought was possible and be much, much, much more radical in our thinking. Let’s think from the end, let’s think how we can be exponential ourselves. And this is where we changed a lot and are now starting to see massive gains from.

AI has the power to disrupt everything humans do, especially in the corporate world, and we as a company see a lot of white space ahead of us as a consequence. Yes, there are now LLMs and generally generative AI but there are many things not solved yet that will shape the future of AI and will rewrite the rules of the game. What we need to figure out, in order to leverage this immense potential, is where the limiting factors to this exponential growth of AI are. And then give AI the capacity to solve those. LLMs will continue to increase but AI can almost create everything already. If it can’t yet, it’s often a matter of months, not years. Toolformer, integrations, individual context and self-learning (multi) agent systems will drive this next wave. We see that the combination of context and smart chaining can be insanely powerful. At Beam, we’re building for this world - the “future of work” if you will.

As a consequence, we as a company need to become “AI-native” as well. Essentially an evolution of a “digital-native” company. This means that everything we do internally is driven by AI, everyone at Beam uses AI in their daily work, and we become an organization where humans are not the limiting factor anymore but help to shape the future with the use of AI.

I think right now, in 2023, it’s crucial to completely rethink the way you work. If you use AI to the fullest, you will be a minimum of 5-20x more productive, depending on what you do in your job. For other jobs it will make a 1000x increase possible - it’s a lot of potential power. If you don’t use it, you will fall behind because others will use that power to their advantage.

So what you’re saying is that the future of work, maybe even in a few months, will look very different from today’s corporate jobs. What do you tell people who are still skeptical and who’re maybe even afraid to lose their jobs?

The harsh reality is that yes, some types of jobs will disappear. But jobs have always disappeared for as long as humans have evolved. And new ones have always been popping up. This time, the new jobs are Prompt Engineers, Generative Agent Designers or others. Humans are incredibly adaptive - there have been countless tech disruptions in the past and still, unemployment rates are very low. If we look back, history teaches us that in every major wave, people were afraid of losing jobs, but eventually prosperity increased. It’s easy to paint doom scenarios with AI, and maybe in Germany we tend to do so more than others, but there are many bright scenarios of a future where humans use AI as well. In my view, the only path is: we have to shape the future with AI proactively. AI is there to stay and it will get better either way. We can try to regulate it and most likely will to a certain extent, but I think it’s much better to take an active role and shape the future with AI than to be afraid of it.

Also, I believe there is a lot of work that we do every day that is not a lot of fun. So I’m really looking forward to having all my presentations and emails automated, as well as having AI by my side to think through things faster and more comprehensively. There are a lot of new workflows emerging that previously weren’t possible. An easy example: I create voice notes in our tool, have them transcribed, then use functions to optimize the text or get feedback from agents (e.g. “ask Elon whether this is visionary enough”) and only then share it with my team. It’s much better than just directly sending a potentially confusing voice memo. These kinds of “new” workflows allow us to do better work and become better humans in a consequence. This is a small example, but what about these countless Excel sheets and endless preparation of presentations? When we now do all of this automatically, we can potentially focus more on the human connection, which is amazing.

On a macro level, we’ll need to see how this develops exactly - AI will be celebrated and hyped but there will also be phases of disillusionment, much like we saw with autonomous cars. But we can learn from the past and try to think about why autonomous cars are not ubiquitous yet, and then use these principles for building products with AI that don’t run into similar obstacles. For now, I don’t think that we really understand what AI can do eventually. We’re barely scratching the surface.

Now that we’ve talked about the future of AI, and the future of our work life as we know it, let’s go back to Beam. What’s next for your startup and where will it lead to?

#8 Jonas Diezun - Building Beam

Could you please tell me about yourself and your experience in the field of venture capital?

I am a serial entrepreneur and seasoned venture capitalist with a profound stage and industry agnostic investment track record as an angel and VC. I would consider myself as a hands-on operational architect with proven transactional direct investment experience, as well as a complex understanding of venture capital fund economics and structures - I am an entrepreneur by heart and VC by choice.

I started my entrepreneurial career in 2004, ever since I founded three companies in different industries with combined 8-digit lifetime revenues. In 2013 I started my professional investment career at Mountain Partners AG and subsequently Nazca Ventures as an early-stage investor, investing across Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia – where I worked on over 125 early-stage transactions. 

I have as well invested in close to 30 start-ups and VC funds as an angel and maintained a 3-digit IRR ever since, with two portfolio unicorns and various exits and one IPO. My portfolio raised over USD 2 billion after I invested. I am sitting on various fund advisory boards, investment committees and act as a senior venture capital advisor for CVCs and corporates.

Now I am one of three General Partners at āltitude, we are closing the SME tech gap through automation and sustainability technologies, investing into early-stage B2B software start-ups jointly with my partners Videesha Böckle and Ingo Drexler.

Who should raise a fund and who shouldn't? 

From 2016 to 2022 over 14.000 new venture capital funds have been formed – though, the rules have changed over time. Limited partners professionalised their due diligence and overall expectations looking at general partners, in particular emerging fund managers. 

In 2021 and 2022 limited partner commitments peaked at an all-time high, money has been vastly accessible for all kinds of general partners from emerging to established funds over solo-, micro- and nano VCs.

2023 will be different, raising capital is reserved for the brave, experienced and persistent general partners out there, especially as we have seen a sharp decline of 73% in committed capital compared to 2022. 

An outstanding investment track record used to be the golden ticket to successfully raise a fund, these days it’s just the admission ticket to speak to LPs per se, not more and not less.

Raising a venture capital fund – especially as an emerging fund manager is never easy. Though, to be successful these days general partners will have to bring way more to the table than a strong track record with an according attribution sheet. Its more about a sharp thesis, with a unique and defensible edge, a reliable limited partner network and moreover a credible personal brand.

What are the criteria for success and what makes a great fund in terms of returns and impact on the ecosystem?

The vintage of a VC fund is a strong performance indicator by default. Recession years have been great vintage years for VC funds and private assets. Median net IRRs have been 30% to 50% higher, compared to the three vintage years prior to a recession. So timing is an important factor, though surely just one piece of the puzzle.

To build and run a successful VC fund the general partner(s) have to tailor the right investment strategy and portfolio construction, understanding the current and future market environment, aside of the following challenges (i) building fundraising momentum (ii) mastering the art of storytelling (iii) creating an unfair sourcing edge and (iv) building measurable value adding services for portfolio companies. 

Looking at the current market sentiment it seems to me that highly specialised and focused solo-, micro and nano VCs with a particular superpower with sub EUR 50m funds, as well as thesis driven and or thematic funds sub EUR 100m make the most sense. 

Especially as fund economics dramatically change with the size of the fund and of course with the fund generation. Looking at historic data of the past 20 years sub EUR 100m (emerging) funds have outperformed their vintage peers in terms of IRR and TVPI performance consecutively – especially looking at top quartile vintage performance.

As an asset class, where do you see VC funds versus other asset classes? 

Looking at 10-year IRR yields across various asset classes, venture capital has always been an outperformer – especially in the context of the private market equivalent. Over a 10-year horizon venture capital yielded 14.9% compared to indexed public markets, which yielded 10.2% or private equity (including direct and fund of funds) with 11.0%. 

Interestingly, venture capital tends to be an underweight in most investment portfolios. Family Offices are a great example, which in average have only 12.0% of the asset allocation in the best performing asset class. 

To be fair, venture capital is an illiquid long-term asset class, which needs a dedicated and tailored strategy across vintages, combining fund of fund, direct fund, primary and secondary investments.

As a GP at a fund and an Advisor to many funds, what are the top five repeating questions you hear? 

To be fair the challenges of most (emerging) fund managers are 90% congruent, in venture capital you can’t fast track experience, but you can surely learn from others. Most funds are struggling with the following questions: 

(i) How do I create an alpha fund strategy? 

I identified five core strategies for venture capital funds (1) The Sourcing Wizard Strategy | based on network & reputation (2) The Unique Niche Strategy | knowledge & expertise (3) Fear of Missing out Hype Strategy | Based on opportunities & dynamics (4) Platform Play Strategy | based on adding value & innovation (5) Invest Better Strategy | based on judgement & thesis. 

(ii) How do I build a consistent fund model?

In my eyes there is no golden success formular, it always depends on multiple factors, such as fund size, investment stage, investment focus and of course the target limited partner base. Fund models should be the core of each fund.

(iii) How do I create fundraising momentum and velocity?

Adeo Ressi nailed it “Fundraising is the single most misunderstood thing in VC“ momentum and a well-planned fundraising strategy is everything. To succeed and create momentum, you will need patience, persistence, persuasiveness, and you will have to be pragmatic. 

Think about first closing LP perks and a tailored fundraising strategy for different targets and closings. Relentless networking is the key to success in fundraising.

(iv) How do I illustrate my track record?

Just because a fund manager has been lucky or successful (or both) in the past, doesn’t mean that he can replicate his success into the future at scale. If you are selling your track record as a value proposition, make sure it is in line with your fund thesis and the strategy selling to LPs, aside of the most relevant part, the attribution sheet. Furthermore, there is a major difference in deploying 25k checks as an angel with your own money, over 500k checks with LP money. 

(v) How and where do I structure my fund?

Well, this is a classic. The likelihood that you have built a fund before is 0%. The process, including the administrative burden is massive. There are many sub-questions alongside your journey from law firm to fund administrator, BaFin, tax and accounting, AML and KYC to jurisdiction and general partner commitments. All of them are equally relevant.

How do you see the changes in the venture capital ecosystem, with more money, more venture, more specialized funds, and alliances? 

More VC Dollars at work, lead to lower vintage TVPI performance and vice versa. I think we will see the best performing vintages of the next decade in the next two years. 

This assumption is mainly driven by two factors. We are currently seeing a new breed of founders with a particular downmarket founder mindset, driven by operational discipline, a strong fundamental unit economics focus, and founders seek to be default alive. Furthermore, the new VC downmarket mindset, driven by profound due diligence, KPI driven investing and the latest valuation adjustments.

What are your predictions for the future?

I assume that we will see a super slow 2023 in terms of VC fundraising, a low deal count, decreasing valuations and lots of write downs and write-offs.

The market will see first signs of relief at the end of 2024, though the deal count will slightly increase early next year, already.  2023 and 2024 will be great for secondary and special opportunity funds, buying into strong assets with massive discounts.

Many investors overpaid in 2021, and some funds may suffer. What will happen to those funds? Will LPs understand and reallocate? To where will they reallocate?

2020 to 2022 fund vintages will see massive TVPI corrections within 2023 and 2024, most of them bought into the peak of overprices early-stage start-ups, which will have a hard time to close follow-on rounds with significant markups. 

Though, bigger funds will apply aggressive pay-to-play terms with above 1x participating liquidation preferences, restacking mechanisms and hard terms within follow-on rounds in their own portfolio. 

Limited partners will unlikely sell off their stakes, though they will be cautious with new fund investments for a while. Professional limited partners will further allocate across vintages, as they understand the underlaying economics of the current downmarket and the respective window of opportunity.

LP fund secondary is becoming more common. How can investors make money in this area?

The secondary market is expected to grow to up to USD 140 billion in 2023. Since 2000, the venture capital asset class has grown over 10x in size. Traditional VC firms raised over USD 1.7 trillion over the last 10 years, compared to USD 406 million over the prior 10 years. With an exponential increase in the number of VC funds being formed each year.

There are more than 4.000 LPs and another 1.500 VC funds heading towards their scheduled fund term, over 150.000 founders and early employees and more than 9.000 non-traditional VC investors such as hedge funds, universities, family offices who are actively seeking for liquidity.

I think that LP secondaries are a very particular animal. To be successful, you have to apply a blended investment strategy combining a fund of fund (40%), direct fund (30%) and direct secondary (30%) strategy mainly to diversify risk and assure a balanced risk-return profile.  

Why should emerging fund manager be part of every investment strategy from family offices, fund of funds, corporate and institutional investors?

Emerging fund  manager are all over the place, they are shaping the future of the European venture capital landscape: 

// 44% of the European GPs are first time fund manager 

// 42% of the European GPs are second or third time fund manager 

// Emerging fund manager represent more than EUR 3.7B 

// 40% of all emerging fund manager raise EUR 50M to 100M 

// 87% of all emerging fund manager are sector-focussed

// 50% of all emerging fund manager invest into (pre-) seed stage

// 65% of all emerging fund manager aim for a 20% to 39% IRR

Most of them are highly specialised and have a superpower, such as dealflow access, domain expertise, brand or network. 

Furthermore, they are willing to take the risk and go the extra mile to outperform their peers. Sub EUR 100m emerging funds yield top quartile IRRs, as of 2021, 17.7% of first-time funds had an IRR of more than 25% compared with 11.3% of vehicles that are fund IV or later. Aside of the broad set of tailored perks they offer to their limited partner.

Could you tell me about āltitude and what makes it special? How do you impact the ecosystem? Who are your co-founders? Where do you see āltitude in 10 years?

"We are closing the SME Tech Gap through automation and sustainability technologies."

We are a hyperlocal and seasoned general partnership located in major European VC superclusters. Videesha Böckle is headquartered in London, Ingo Drexler in Zurich and I am in Berlin. We are an experienced team of venture capital professionals, startup founders, super angels, fund advisors and founder coaches.

We have a joint venture capital investment experience of over 36 years and managed to deploy over EUR 100M into early-stage start-ups. We led, co-led or have been involved in collectively over 500 transactions.

We jointly realised over EUR 150M in exit proceeds with a blended MOIC of 5.5x, while having over EUR 250M in unrealized stake values with a current blended MOIC of 3.8x as VCs. Our joint angel portfolio of over 50 start-ups stands at 5.9x blended MOIC, with a 3-digit IRR - we invested over EUR 2.1M as hands-on angel investors. 

At āltitude we believe that creating differentiation is the most difficult task for a first-time fund manager. The core elements of our role as venture capitalists come down to i) sourcing ii) picking iii) winning iv) repeating. 

As an early-stage fund focusing on pre-seed and seed lead ticket entry investments (aside of our EUR 100k tickets via Open Angel and our Fellowships) we decided to build our USP around our sourcing ability and master it.

We don’t believe dealflow is proprietary, but we do believe that in a market where there are over 2000 early-stage venture capital firms, knowing when a deal is happening is more critical. We aim to create better access earlier by productising dealflow from untapped people networks. We think and operate in ecosystem layers and build an according product for each layer.

We are seeking to innovate early-stage dealflow by enriching the top-level funnel with pre-qualified high-end deals - instead of going after quantity or relying on network and brand alone.

We envision to build a long-term partnership over multiple fund generations re-thinking the status quo of venture capital and startup investing, while constantly refining and adopting our strategy. We aim to become a serious contender in B2B SME tech for sustainability and automation.

#7 Marc Penkala - Building conviction in uncertain times 

Hi Robin,Thank you for the interview and the opportunity to share my story, hopefully motivating and inspiring others. About myself: my name is Pascal Schroth. I am 29 years old, born and raised in Bremerhaven, Germany. I am a professional fighter and multiple Muay Thai and kickboxing world champion. I own a gym in Koh Phangan, Thailand, where I live with my wife and two kids.

Let's talk about a difficult moment in your career. In a fight in China, your opponent attempted to break your neck by lifting you (which is forbidden in Muay Thai), putting you upside down and pushing your head into the ground. How did this happen?

Everything happened very quickly. It was October 20th, 2018, the day my life changed. I am not sure if his intention was to break my neck, but I am sure he intended to hurt me badly. It was a rematch; I had defeated the Chinese fighter a year earlier, so they flew me in for a rematch. Fifteen seconds into the first round, he came into close distance and started throwing wild punches. When I threw a knee to stop him, he grabbed me on my hip, like he was going to take me down. I was surprised by this move because the fight was supposed to be under kickboxing rules, and you are not allowed to grab the opponent's hip. Nevertheless, I blocked his attempt to take me down by holding against it. After a few seconds, he still wouldn't let go, and I was waiting for the referee to break us, but he didn't say a word. At some point, I thought maybe my force hold against him was causing him to force back. So I let go, hoping he might let go as well. But when I let go, he immediately adjusted his grip, lifted me up, turned me upside down, and smashed my head first on the canvas.

"Did you wake up in the hospital? Weren't you allowed to speak to anyone? The promoters and the organization were hiding this and even trying to bribe you? What happened?

What happened to me still feels surreal. I was fully conscious the whole time. When my head landed on the canvas, I immediately felt a crack, and I knew I was hurt. I had electric impulses rushing through my body from my fingertips to my head down to my toes. I was lying on my back, the spotlights shining on me, the referee counting me out, and in the corner of my eye, I saw my opponent celebrating. In the ring, I wasn't able to move. There was nothing more I wanted than to get up, but it felt impossible. The pain rushing through my body was something I had never experienced before. My team just shouted to the ring that I should stop trying to move and let them take care of me. I got carried out of the ring with a barrier and brought into a Chinese hospital where they told me I had my neck broken, something I refused to believe since I was able to move my arms and legs. I laid in the hospital for 4 days. I entered in fight shorts and left in fight shorts. I didn't have any consultation about my situation. Not once did I talk to an actual doctor. The only information they shared was that I had my neck broken, that's about it. I had no idea on what that would mean for my life. When I asked the nurse to help me lift my bed a bit, she said: "cannot." When I asked for how long, she answered: "hmmm maybe 6 months"... they wouldn't share my location or the name of the hospital where I was in. I only had contact with my family if somebody would give me hotspots so that I would have internet access. After four days, the promoter entered the room and asked me: "how much?" Quickly, I realized he asked me for a number to make everything disappear. Obviously, I couldn't give him an answer since I had no idea how to continue my life. I had no idea if I would walk again, work again, or anything. I was in a very vulnerable situation physically and mentally.

When did you realize your neck was broken? How bad was it?

The moment I landed on the canvas, I knew something was wrong. As I mentioned earlier, I felt the cracking, but I never assumed that my neck broke. My grandmother passed away some years ago. She broke her neck falling down the steps. So growing up, I always assumed when you break your neck, then that's it.

You came back and recovered. Not only this, you went again training after some time, and you got the world title one more time? This story is like Bruce Lee; people could write a book about you. Could you tell me about the journey from arriving in Germany, the recovery, to become champion again?

After four days in China, I had my first consultation actually from a German surgeon back in Phuket. He told me I broke my 5th vertebrae in two different places, and if my bone would have moved 1mm to left or right, it would hit my spinal cord, and I would be dead or paralyzed. Luckily, they were two straight fractures, and the bones didn't move. So I had to wear a full-body brace from my head over the chest to my lower back. I had to be immobilized until my bones had healed. I was wearing the brace 24/7 for six weeks and a neck support for another six weeks.  After three months of total immobilization and discomfort, I was able to start my rehabilitation. At that time, I worked with a good friend of mine, Thomas Engberts, a Dutch physical therapist based in Phuket. He reached out to me the moment he saw I was injured and offered help. I worked with him three times a week for nine months. I broke my neck on October 20th, 2018 and made my comeback fight where I defended my world champion title in little less than a year on October 3rd, 2019. I would not have been able to recover and come back so strong if it wasn't for him. I will be forever grateful for all the time and effort he has put into me.

Wow! Let's go back to where it all started. You grew up in Bremerhaven. How did you end up in boxing, why did you go there, and what made you pursue it?

Growing up in Bremerhaven was tough. I was alone with my mom and my younger brother. I was first introduced to martial arts by a friend of my mom's who noticed that I was wasting my time drinking and smoking at the basketball court. At the age of 14, I was already smoking at home and doing what I wanted because I felt like the man of the house at a young age. When I entered the gym for the first time, I was intimidated but fell in love with it immediately. It was an old gym in an industrial area with big steel doors and loud music. Back then, I couldn't afford membership fees, so we agreed that I would work for it. I cleaned toilets, picked weeds, cleaned mats, and did anything else that needed to be done. In exchange, I was allowed to train. My passion was quickly ignited, and I knew that was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. The training motivated me to be the best version of myself. I stopped drinking, stopped smoking, and stopped hanging out with people who dragged me down. The gym and the people in the gym became my new family. I was determined to be the best, so I did everything I had to do to be the best. I went running before school, took care of my food, and tried to get my life together with the trainers' eyes on me.

At one point, you decided to fly to Thailand with 200 euros in your pocket. Did you sleep partly outside? Did you eat for 1 euro once a day at a market? Where did you train? How did you make money? What did you want to achieve there, and how did it all work out?

In 2015, I came to Thailand with 300€ and a one-way ticket. At that time, I didn't see a future for myself in Germany anymore. I was 21 years old and had reached a point in my life where I didn't know what was next. I studied sports economics and did an internship in the gym, but that didn't fulfill me and my passion. I knew I was meant to do something bigger. So I took a risk, quit my "job," and flew to Thailand to fulfill my passion and live a life as a professional fighter with the best of the best.

I flew to Bangkok where I met P'Gae, who was my first trainer back then. I had no money, so I rented a bed in a hostel, shared a room with 6 people, and ate the cheapest food on the street I could find. I didn't need much, as long as I could train twice a day and follow my passion. I got my first fight after about 4 weeks of training, a kickboxing fight in China, which was great for me since I was already a European kickboxing champion. I won the title in the Netherlands in 2014. I won my first fight in China via KO in the second round and got a lot of attention for my performance. There, I met a promoter who was based in Pattaya. He said to me that I had a lot of potential and I should come with him. He could give me regular fights and open the doors for big stadiums. Since I had nothing to lose, I went with him and moved to Pattaya for 9 months. Under his wing, I did several more fights, both local and international. I fought several times in China, Vietnam, and big stages in Thailand like Max Muay Thai, Thaifight, and the famous Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok. When it came to money, it was quite simple: if I fought, I would get paid. If I didn't fight, I had no money. So, I basically lived off my fights from hand to mouth.

You met your today's wife somewhere and told me she cared for you while you were training. You have been a team for a long time. Could you tell me about it?

I met my wife in 2016. After staying in Pattaya for about 9 months, I moved to Phuket where I met my wife. At that time, I wasn't really interested in something serious because I thought women and kids would stop me in my career, and I was really invested in the sport. We started off as friends. I told her about my hopes and dreams. I was a young, hungry guy trying to make it. She told me at that time that wherever the sport would bring me, she would always be there and support me as long as I wanted her on my side. Never before had somebody said something like this to me. To me, she seemed too good to be true. I was still broke, but she believed in me and supported me. She told me I had the potential to be somebody. When we would eat, she would pay. She created my first logo, my website, team shirt - you name it. She believed in me from the very beginning when nobody else did.

You trained with Gae as one of your first trainers way before he became famous. You recently introduced him, Superbon, and others again. From a retro perspective, how did the time go for you differently, and how in similar ways?

That’s right. We are still good friends. Sometimes I wonder where I would be today if I would have stayed with P’Gae and didn’t move to Pattaya. But I don’t want to live in the past and think about what could be or what would be if, because I am happy with my life as it is now, and I believe everything in life happens for a reason. We remained good friends, see each other regularly, and both grew bigger with the sport.

Are you a world champion in K1 and Muay Thai? In several boxing associations and weight classes. Recently you lost and then again recently you became a world champion? How do you, again and again, find the energy and will to go after this? What drives you? Where is this coming from?

Yes, I am holding several world titles in Muay Thai and kickboxing. In 2016, I won the King's Cup in Bangkok, a Muay Thai tournament to honor the latest king. I won that tournament and became King’s Cup champion 2016. I am one of three foreigners in history who ever won this tournament. So that, for instance, was more worth than my first world champion title, which I won in Nürnberg roughly a year later in November ‘17. In my comeback fight in October ‘19, I fought for the WKU World champion title - 72.5kg K1 rules. I successfully defended that title for several years until November 2022. After I lost the title, I changed my weight class to -70kg and challenged the champion, and knocked him out on February 18th, 2023. So, I am again the current WKU World champion K1 - 70kg, and I will make sure it stays this way.

For me, what drives me is the fire inside of me. For me, it’s not just a sport; it’s a lifestyle. All my life, everything has been about fighting. It's like an obsession. Now, as a father as well, I am leading by example, so I want to teach my kids that they can achieve anything in life they put their mind to, as long as they put in the work. It’s the mindset that separates the best from the rest.

You are pursuing a dream. You told me that you want your children to grow up at the beach. You have two kids and are making a living in Ko Phangan, Thailand. Did this happen according to plan? How much of it was coincidence versus following a mission or passion?

I don’t believe in coincidence. I believe that everything in life happens for a reason. I am grateful for everything every single day. After breaking my neck, I didn’t want to postpone anything in life anymore, so we decided to have kids. Now living here in Koh Phangan, a tropical island in paradise, I can provide a lifestyle for my kids that I couldn't give them anywhere else in the world. Seeing them happy means the world to me. Growing up, I never dared to dream of having a family like I have now, owning a gym in paradise, building my own house. I am truly blessed. Growing up in Bremerhaven where the unemployment rate is 49%, dreams are non-existing. Nobody dares to do something non-ordinary. I am truly happy that we managed to break that cycle and create a beautiful life overseas. Coming to Thailand in 2015 was the best decision of my life.

You own a gym called MAA (Martial Arts Academy) in Ko Phangan. It has an ice bath, a bar, and tons of space to train with different trainers. I know you are planning to have more, like a small hotel or a pool. What is the plan?

Yes, that’s right. In total, the gym land is about 5,000m2, 15 meters from the ocean. We offer lots of different classes for all levels. We are planning to expand the gym with different facilities as well as accommodation and a pool. Everything is being done step by step, but ultimately, we want to provide a training experience for our customers that they will never forget.

Is this already a business? You have marketing; you do Instagram and create content and reach. You have merchandise. What is the vision here?

Yes, it is. The goal is for the gym to be completely independent. Ultimately, we want to be able to offer a complete training experience where you don’t have to leave our land anymore. At the moment, we are still in the beginning stages, building up our reach and starting to get noticed by people all over the world. As of now, I haven’t invested a single euro in advertisement. We have a lot of returning customers who share their training experience with their friends, so we are basically only advertising by sharing raw experiences, which I am really proud of.

Why make your sport your business? When did you know your passion became a business, and when did you go from being just you to scaling up? How does one make themselves scalable?

I always knew I was going to open my own gym one day. The question was always just when and where. I love the sport, and I love sharing my knowledge with people. When we opened the gym, we created a place where people come together from all over the world, all of them having something in common: the love for the sport. Everybody trains for different reasons, some for self-defense, some for fitness, some to boost confidence, and some to be able to compete. Seeing all of them in the gym, having a good time, connecting, building friendships, and enjoying themselves in the end is all that matters.

Many believe one would separate someone as brutal as Muay Thai from family or business. But you and I know the opposite is the case. It is a sport full of respect, trust, and growth. For most Thais, this is a national sport and a family-first business. What do you think makes Muay Thai unique? Why would you encourage everyone to train in this sport?

Muay Thai is a national sport in Thailand, just like football in Germany. It's a sport loved and highly respected by the whole nation. Training Muay Thai will do anyone good. You get to experience a different level of body awareness, dealing with stronger and weaker persons, improving your own physical capabilities, and gaining a stronger mindset and confidence which reflects in your daily life. Plus, it’s a lot of fun to also just release some tension from our day-to-day life.

Many great business leaders train a lot, go to Ironman, and train hard. How important do you think sports are? How should someone add them to their daily routine? How to build consistency, and how important is this in daily life and leadership?

I recommend everybody to do sports. I think it’s truly necessary to have a healthy work-life balance. The most common excuse for people is that they don't have the time to train. But you have to prioritize yourself, if you make the time to train, it will only do good. Not just for the person themselves but also for their whole surroundings. If the tension, stress, and energy are relieved in the gym, you will feel much more in balance and content with yourself. You feel proud to have achieved something, and your physical performance is starting to increase, so does your confidence.

"What's the plan for the future? Where do you see MAA and Pascal Schroth in 10 years?"

Good question. I’ve learned not to look too much into the future. As of now, we are extending the gym and enjoying the journey of life.

Will you ever fight in "One Championship"?

Maybe. I was already in negotiations with them in 2018, prior to when I broke my neck. At that time, I had two fights already confirmed, one in China where I broke my neck and a world championship title fight in Germany. One Championship wanted me to cancel both of them in order to fight for them (a one-fight deal). I told them I couldn't do that and suggested finding another timing after the fights. In 2020, they hosted an event in Bangkok looking for fighters, but when I proposed myself to them, they declined, saying that I neglected them in 2018 and they wouldn't want me anymore.

"We have been training together; we did sparring, and you have been my trainer. Will I ever be capable of beating you? ;-)"

#6 Pascal Schroth 

My many passions and experiences have made me an entrepreneur, thought leader and philosopher. My personal journey has granted me the ability to recognise uncommon insights about people in complex & challenging positions, the true nature of leadership and how it ultimately impacts communities and corporations. I feel blessed that I am trusted to share these insights with others who seek support and guidance with their own personal and professional journeys. 

Simultaneously, my partners and I have successfully launched a tech start-up, bringing MMA to the metaverse. Recently we were selected to join the IBC accelerator and we will be launching our POC in September supported by many of the world leading tech companies solving the challenge of bringing Real-time XR sports to an immersive environment. This combines my 3 loves, animation & VFXs, combat sport and epic storytelling. It's’ basically a real life ‘Mortal Kombat’.. Or WWE on steroids, but not limited to as it encompasses the future of sports entertainment as a whole.

And then there is a whole different side of you as well, isn’t it?

Spiritual Experiences and the study of jewish mysticism have profoundly changed who I am. My daily spiritual practice and journey of self discovery is rooted in the study of Kabbalah. I run workshops, events and retreats together with my partner under the name 

You have often been a great friend and sparring partner to me as you bring some spirituality into my life and, likewise, a healthy lifestyle. You live in Portugal, swim in the ocean in the morning, eat healthily, live in the countryside, and do sport. How did you manage to get there? 

Just as you said, Robin, I too love sharing and exploring ideas with you. I love to challenge my world view. Having you as a mirror is powerful as you bring some deep introspection. 

I have always desired this lifestyle, but I was for many years reluctant to embrace it. The process of confronting my fears and blockages internally has allowed for this kind of balanced lifestyle to unfold quite naturally. 

However this wasn’t always the case and the journey wasn't a clear and easy departure from my old world. Some of the limiting beliefs and values brought about by my upbringing were deeply lodged into my subconscious mind. Like many of us, I harbored many unconscious biases about happiness, success, self value, a life worth living, and achievement along with many other things.

I had to overcome the fear of leaving the comfort of my old life and risk leaning into the unknown with total trust and faith that it was safe and aligned with my highest aspirations.

How much was coincidence versus conscious decision-making on wanting this life?

For me there’s no coincidences; the foundation of my life is rooted in my spiritual practice. The process of doing my internal work, brings inner alignment and that in turn affects the outer alignment that is perceived. It can appear as blessings or chaos to others, what truly matters is our experience of our reality, the enlightened understanding of our relationship to the totality of creation itself. 

This is what one means when we speak of ‘Grace’, and very much what you would describe as following the path of the soul. Walking with the sense of being guided by an inner compass. 

There's a term ‘Sintropy’ which describes the guidance of a force pulling us forwards, corverging on some unknown place in time. It is not identifiable in the realms of the senses but acts as an invisible thread pulling us in the right direction.

The methods I utilize and teach to my clients serve as a vantage point of seeing, observing, reflecting and responding to life.  For example, where in our lives are we self sabotaging and how do we correct it? From this place we can make the incremental changes necessary to improve our professional and personal lives over time. This involves daily small conscious shifts over a period of many days, weeks, months and years. 

This is a constant process. Remembering the top of one mountain is the foot of the next. There is no place to arrive, only to strive. It is never ever about the destination however much we focus on that end goal. Ultimately if you have a strong connection with your deepest truth, then it acts as a guiding principle from which we can build and shape a life beyond our wildest imaginings. What appears to be luck and coincidence is the essential force of life itself acting on our behalf. 

To pursue this life, you left things behind. A more prestigious life than you were living in London back then. In retrospect, was it the right decision, and what would you do differently? What did you sacrifice?

Previously in London I was living a very comfortable lifestyle materially. However, once I fully embarked on the spiritual path, I quickly realised that I’d never experienced such a profound level of fulfillment. That shifted my attention to what I most valued and desired.

I don’t feel I sacrificed anything or left things behind. The fulfillment experienced from having a grounded spiritual practice is unlike anything else. It nourishes all aspects of one's life.

I mostly wake up at 6.30am, follow a kabbalistic meditation and study until 8am. Then run to the beach for a cold swim and cleanse in the sea, some yoga and workout. Followed by a healthy breakfast. 10am start taking calls for clients, and/or planning and organising our upcoming retreats. Afternoons I usually speak with my team in the US whilst we build the tech for the IBC accelerator, managing our consortium of partners.  Evenings are dedicated to study and spiritual connection. Finishing in the evening with a movie, reading, or vocalising through music with my partner, who is a singer/songwriter.

I feel you have success because you create routines. 

Routine offers a framework to life. When I hear routine I hear, to ‘Root In’, life, like a tree, has roots through which it grounds and elevates. Through routine, be it at work, with family, health, community, etc, achieve the same results, to ensure that life can flow more harmoniously . What one chooses to ‘root in’ in order to create a routine is a key factor to success. How do we therefore measure success? A life fully lived to the highest potential is a life fully aligned with the calling of our deepest truth and purpose. 

How important are routines and discipline? 

What is the ultimate purpose of a routine? The purpose of a routine is to ultimately be ROOTED IN the natural flow of life, to cleave ourselves to the force of creation itself. The great sages and masters would identify this enlightened experience as the awakened state. 

When we are in alignment with life and in flow with this force there is no sense of doing as we are in the being state, so things unfold quite naturally. What is needed is experienced effortlessly and manifests tirelessly. This is called the awakened state, ‘sitting in the lap of the divine’. When we remove ourselves from the process of ‘doing’, through our daily practice, we lean into life more to be guided by what IS. This is the governing force of creation and of our lives. 

This is the key factor to creating happiness, fulfillment and blessings in one's life. Everything carries a metaphysical blueprint that we can connect with to access the root cause of life . 

With a daily focus on my inner world and my inner work. 

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