A startup is, as all of us in this industry know, as strong or weak as the team that builds it. That’s not to say that great teams can’t fail — but hiring top talent certainly helps make that less likely.
On the latest episode of the Sifted Podcast, host Amy Lewin speaks with someone who’s spent the last several decades learning this. Michelle Coventry is VP of talent at European VC Creandum, where she’s spent a lot of time over the past year advising super fast-scaling companies like Lovable and Black Forest Labs build out their teams and figure out what, exactly, the scaling playbook should look like in the age of AI.
Creandum is, increasingly, one of the European VCs others are watching closely. Its first institutional fund (Creandum II) gave its investors a 13x return — in huge part thanks to its investments in Spotify and iZettle. But more recent funds are also shaping up to be good ‘uns: across all of its seven funds, Creandum tells Sifted it now has a realised MOIC (multiple on invested capital) of 7x.
The firm has also had some big opportunities to get some all-important returns, for example selling shares as part of Trade Republic’s secondary sale in December, at which it hit a €12.5bn and saw it become Germany’s most valuable startup. It’s also backed a sizeable stable of unicorns, including HR company Factorial, energy upstart Fuse and mobility superapp Bolt.
Today, Creandum also released its fourth report into how founder (and C-suite) compensation is shaping up across Europe. Read the highlights here.
Listen to the podcast to hear Michelle and Amy discuss:
- What it’s been like being on the other end of Anton Osika’s WhatsApps as he’s hired out Lovable’s team over the past year
- Just how drastically hiring playbooks have changed in the age of AI
- The third best interview question to ask a potential candidate
- Where not to steal talent from
- The most surprising findings from the compensation report
