Did The Check Clear? Peter Schlegel on Needing Multiple Plan B's - The Venture Capital Coroner's Report

Peter Vilsholm Therkildsen Schlegel had a path. Get seed capital. Launch start-up. Join incubator. Finish program. Get capital from incubator's loan fund to build start-up. Sounded good to everyone...except one person at the loan fund. And did I mention the letter from the Danish immigration authority?

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My Guest
Peter has founded several companies, raising money from international venture capital funds and leading companies to international expansion and growth. As a consultant, he worked as a strategic adviser in four consulting firms, aiding clients grow their businesses globally. He led teams across domains and geographies, hiring and growing people of more than 15 different nationalities.

From 2008 to 2011 he was Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer for Agillic, a digital marketing agency. Then in June 2011 he left to launch Admazely. Admazely had an innovative technology that allowed small and medium businesses to take advantage of digital ad retargeting in a cost effective way.

After Admazely closed, Peter moved on to work with Magnetix, a digital marketing agency in Copenhagen for about two years. Recently, Peter began working with Responsive, an agency that specializes in creating digital experiences for its clients' customers.
The Take Home Lessons

Need for plan B - Peter notes that while he'd carefully nurtured relationships with Accelerace's loan committee, he still got blind sided by their decision. No matter what people are telling you, you must have multiple alternatives for venture capital.
Need for speed - During the very early product development phase, a rapid feedback loop is crucial. Peter believes hiring people with a somewhat longer time frame in mind, slowed Admazely just enough to cause problems.
Need for clear view of personal trade-offs - Realize that blending being a start-up founder with family life can be super challenging.
Need for a start-up founder's management skills - Peter has found that the value of entrepreneurial drive and vision in more mature companies is huge. Driving vision and momentum in a mature company can reap huge benefits.

Resources & Links

Peter's email PTS [AT] responsive [DOT] dk
Peters new company www.responsive.dk
Peter on Twitter @pschlegel
The blog post that led me to Peter
Peter on LinkedIn

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure?
From early childhood you always hear the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

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