With wefox we were the fastest European fintech in history to achieve a billion dollar valuation. We raised $1.4bn in only seven years and most recently had a $4.5bn valuation. We built a company with more than 1000 employees and more than $800m in annual revenue in hyper speed. Is this still a model for the future?
In an era where startup culture, buoyed by venture capital, dominates the business landscape, one could be forgiven for thinking that the old guard – family owned businesses built over generations – are a relic of the past. Companies like Miele, Viessmann, and Bosch, household names in Germany and across the world, stand as towering counterarguments.
These companies were conceived in the minds of ambitious entrepreneurs and painstakingly constructed over lifetimes. The growth of these stalwarts was never meteoric or flashy, it was slow and methodical, propelled by reinvested profits rather than infusions of venture capital. They stand as enduring examples of businesses that, despite lacking access to growth funding, have made their mark on the global stage, one strategic move at a time.
This approach, carried with it numerous advantages. Full ownership and control remained with the founders or their families, instilling a culture of financial discipline that was sewn into the fabric of the company. Guided by long-term vision rather than the ebb and flow of market trends, they were able to focus on the quality of their product and foster a healthy work culture.
In our fast-paced tech world, the lure of rapid growth and expansion has brought venture capital to the forefront. The rites of business are far shorter for startups than they have ever been for traditional companies. Today we build global companies in just a few years. But, as with most things in life, this shortcut comes at a price.
Taking venture capital funding also leads to equity dilution, reducing the founder’s control over the company they have painstakingly built. With it comes a pressure for rapid growth and high expectations from investors. The focus on sky-high valuations often overshadows the company’s profitability and culture, creating an environment rife with short-term thinking and stressful fundraising cycles.
Venture capital fuels an unprecedented acceleration in the growth of startups, generating the most valuable companies globally within a few decades — a feat traditionally accomplished over generations. However, this rapid scaling up and intense pressure for success creates a challenging environment for both founders and VCs. This dynamic mirrors the physical stress of high G-forces, where rapid acceleration can cause disorientation and fainting—a stark analogy for the mental strain induced in this high-stakes arena.
The challenge of today lies in striking the right balance between these two worlds. While refraining from taking any venture capital might not be feasible anymore, on the flip side, excessive reliance on such funding can dilute the core essence of a company.
Entrepreneurs must find the delicate equilibrium between leveraging external funding for accelerated growth and maintaining the foundational values and autonomy of the business. It’s a dance between adopting the spirit of the venture capital age, with its risk and speed, and the enduring, grounded principles of traditional family businesses.
In conclusion, while venture capital can propel a company into hypergrowth, it is equally important to appreciate the disciplined, steady growth achieved through reinvesting generated profits. In this dynamic interplay between the old and the new, the companies that strike the perfect balance will be the ones that will shape our future – the soul and financial discipline of a family business growing at the speed required in today’s time.
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