At the same time that Felix Capital closed its fourth and newest fund with $600 million in capital commitments, we had a conversation with Frederic Court, the founder of Felix Capital.
The expanded options are great for founders. Most European investors prefer to start their own shops where they can have more influence, according to him. The excerpts below have been edited for length and we thought they were interesting.
Over the last 18 months or so, a lot of the biggest US firms have opened shop in Europe. How does this affect your work?
We know a lot of these firms. People who are already investors in Europe are hired by them. It is good for the entrepreneurs in Europe and a reflection of the evolution of the market.
Over here, we have seen more ambition, more talent, and more capital in the past few years as Europe has begun to build not only local champions but global champions like Adyen and Farfetch, where I was fortunate to be involved from the beginning. There are more options for the founder.
There aren't enough investors with general partner level experience in Europe and the mindset is different from the U.S. Is any of the rings true to you?
A lot of this is true. It takes time to measure success in an industry like ours. I've been in venture capital for over two decades. There aren't a lot of us. There are a lot of people in this space who have been in it for a long time and have a good track record. With fewer data points of success, it is more difficult for people to find great emerging talent.
Many European investors don't just wait to be hired by American firms, they also don't just wait to be hired by American firms They want to build their own businesses. When we launched Felix in 2015, we found tremendous support from friends in the U.S., because I had no friends in the U.S. Local people wanted to nurture local co- investors with whom they could work well. It's not obvious for a European investor to join a team that's new and where decisions will be made in the U.S.
It happens. Paul Murphy worked for Lightspeed. Luciana was from London. Did you lose anyone to the talent wars?
Many people on our team are receiving calls. We talk a lot about it. Team building is one of the hardest things to do as a venture capitalist. We have a certain way of doing things and we are very much a culture of "we" versus "I". We pick our battles and we lose them together. From the beginning, I wanted a culture like that. The list of all our investors is open to the entire team. We don't want to be secretive there.
You claim that there is full transparency into your partner base. Do you mean that other firms might be more cautious about this, given that so many people have started their own businesses?
We've been very open with our investors in connecting them to different team members in order to get to know them and also to verify what I've just described to you, that we work in
It was a part of the business that I was exposed to late, and I wish I had known about it sooner. It is an important part of being a VC that is not talked about a lot. Many of the partners or investors will not get involved in raising money immediately if you join a firm that is like machines in terms of raising money. When you start from scratch, the first six months to a year to two years will be focused on raising money, so it's a key skill set. This is a choice to make.
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