Post by Andy Lurling

Good founders don’t just choose capital. They choose people! A recent analysis by Robert van Geenhuizen showed that many of the most “influential” #VC profiles in the Netherlands are barely visible online. That’s interesting — not because of rankings, but because of what it signals. At the early startup stage, more and more founders (as they should) are not only evaluating valuation and terms. They are - or better should be- asking themselves: - Does this investor understands what I want to accomplish? - Does this investor has knowledge about the market I am about to enter? - Is this investor proactive? - Are they genuinely connected? - Are they willing to open up their network for us? - Do we understand what they stand for? - And not the least important one: Will they show up when things get hard? In the first years of building, capital is only one input. Access, experience, introductions, signal value, and conviction often matter more. Founders should be able to see how an investor thinks, what they care about, how they support companies, and whether they are truly collaborative partners. #Visibility is not -or better shouldn’t be- about self-promotion. It is about #transparency. It allows founders to do their own diligence on the people behind the fund. On a broader note, With LUMO Labs we believe there is still too little emphasis on the very early startup phase in #Europe. As an ecosystem, we often celebrate 'our' scale-ups, like e.g. Axelera AI — and rightly so, we really should, and again congrats @Fabrizio Del Maffeo for the journey so far! But let’s just not forget that scale-ups don’t emerge in a vacuum, as Fabrizio also knows very well 🙂. If we don’t invest attention, collaboration, and long-term commitment at the earliest stage, we risk facing a shortage of strong new scale-ups in a few years’ time. At LUMO Labs, we see ourselves as a collaborative ambassador within the European ecosystem — actively supporting founders early, connecting them across networks, and contributing to an environment where future scale-ups can actually be built. The real question is not who is most visible. It’s whether we are collectively building strong foundations today for the European companies we hope to celebrate tomorrow. #goodthingsarecoming Sven Merel Dagmar Linn-Cecilie Jorge Thomas Kuzey Meron Pim Tim Marcus Britta Henk Walter Thomas Donovan Wouter Constantijn Gert-Jan Ineke Inge Erwin Rob Madelon Nathan Warner Amanda Axel Sandro Erica Mels Sara Funda Vince Marijn Robbert Feel free to reed the article: https://lnkd.in/e35K4fWb