The founder is the driving force of the startup: from the investor’s perspective, they cannot be replaced.

When evaluating startups for investment, Wanderer Capital places strong emphasis on assessing the attributes of their founders. Our evaluation goes beyond analyzing the uniqueness of their idea or the educational and professional achievements that contributed to the creation of the original concept for a startup bringing something new to society and the world.

Founders are key for us not only because of what they have invented and what they are working on, but also because of what they can potentially achieve with our support. Wanderer Capital is not a passive investor. We want to dedicate our time to the startups we invest in and help them connect with the right contacts and promote their business. Even at the investment selection stage, we evaluate startups based on the quality of their founding team. The quality of the team mainly depends on the founders’ ability to see the project from a long-term perspective and their willingness to adapt to current developments.

We care about the startups we invest in, but it cannot happen without the founders!

Many startups have failed because their founding teams were unable to adapt to changing market conditions. These founders set a vision for their startup at its founding and decided to follow it under all circumstances. However, the market changes, and entrepreneurial success can only be achieved through perseverance and adaptability to market shifts. It is not enough to watch just your specific market segment because while you are building strategy and developing a prototype of a new technology or service, a new market may be emerging that will make the segment you planned to target irrelevant. If you observe everything around you, you might discover this new opportunity and shift the efforts of your skilled team—originally prepared for the initial project—to capture the entire emerging market rather than just a fraction of the existing one. Creative destruction should be viewed positively, and you must be ready for it.

Investor is a partner, not an enemy

Many founders see investors as a necessary evil they must endure due to lack of capital on their journey to achieving their goals. Wanderer Capital does not enter startups passively like most funds. We care about the projects we invest in and do everything in our power to help push them toward success. If we see the market has changed—due to creative destruction or other factors such as the pandemic—we try to steer startups correctly.

A startup without founders is like a body without a heart

Wanderer Capital and other funds do not invest in startups because of cool or catchy names or flashy presentation materials. Even the product or service that the startup aims to bring to market is secondary because whether the project will be completed and successful depends primarily on the founders. Without founders, after investment, the startup remains just a concept with no one to realize it.

An investor may have money and contacts, but cannot realize the idea! At Wanderer Capital, like other investors, we have our own projects and are busy. We have no interest in stealing others’ ideas, only in advancing them within our possibilities and enabling them to achieve global success. But without founders, it will not work!

Author of the article: Michaela Královičová

Tags: wanderer capital , founder , startup , investícia , venture capital , podnikanie , early stage , michaela královičová