Investment focus
I like to invest in companies that have a defendable technical advantage such as patents, software or other know-how that can't be easily replicated. I need to understand what the company is doing and what is its market. A demonstrable market need ideally is shown by first sales and pipeline. The team is highly important. It should incorporate the knowledge needed to execute the business plan, have the drive to push through the inevitable hardships involved with building a business and have a moral compass. I usually invest at a pre-seed stage but have occasionally also invested in older businesses with positive cash flow.
Rudy Fajen, Head Farmer
My main business is M&A advisory at www.consuspartner.com which I co-founded in 2006. Therefore I can only run a limited number of investments at the same time. I consider myself a nerd as my first „business“ was upgrading C64 computers with Speeddos OS at age 14, which involved a lot of soldering, so I still have a penchant for hardware startups. Via the multitude of M&A projects I’ve run in the past 25 years, I’ve seen many business models up close and in depth and hope to contribute learnings to the startups I invest in.
I’m explaining my approach in this podcast (in German) on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. I give back a little to the startup community by running the EO Accelerator program in southwestern Germany.
Affiliations
I am part of Superangels, a fund that co-invests with selected experienced angels like myself, so my investment can be doubled by them.
BAND is the largest german business angel network and provides helpful resources like a set of standard legal documents e.g. for funding rounds that can facilitate negotiations and save legal costs.
Founders Kite Club unites entrepreneurs who love kiteboarding, it’s a fantastic community that I joined in 2014.
Entrepreneurs Organization is a worldwide organization of entrepreneurs fostering both personal and company growth via group meetings. I am part of the Southwest Germany Chapter since 2019 and Accelerator Chair in its board.
