Axel Großklaus

Here's some fuel for all the Europoor haters: Germany just told us we'd have to fire one of our 3 founders to qualify for funding. I was in talks with a German state-backed fund of fund managing billions, with one single mandate: invest in German funds to drive innovation and economic growth in the country. They literally told me they like us a lot and are also impressed by our track record and performance so far, and even though not everyone in their team is a fan of our thesis, they believe in it. But they passed for a whole different reason: Because our all-male team of 3 people isn't "diverse enough" lol. they literally told me: hire two more female partners (impossible on the economics of a fund our size), or let one of the three of us go to make room for a quota hire. do that, and they'd strongly consider investing. I won't even get into how discriminatory this is toward men in the first place. nobody takes that seriously anyway, and honestly I don't care. but what actually gets me is something bigger: as a German, I have to face the fact that the whole world continuing to laugh at Germany and overall Europe is completely justified. a system that quietly kills the smallest, hungriest teams, the exact ones this money was created to support. and then everyone acts surprised that talent and capital keep leaving the country.