#2 Pavel Mucha: leading as founding partner a €250M+ multi-stage venture capital firm and championing Eastern Europe
Founding partner of ENERN, European multi-stage venture capital firm with +€250M AUM and portfolio companies like DocPlanner, Rohlik and Bnext
We are Pol Fañanás and Gerard García, two friends passionate and curious about tech, startups and VC sharing bi-weekly high value views from people creating the future. Thanks for reading !
Pavel Mucha is one of the founding partners of ENERN, a multi-stage venture capital firm investing across Europe, based in CEE with +€250M AUM and portfolio companies like DocPlanner (healthcare platform with +$140M in funding from Target Global and Goldman Sachs, among other investors), Rohlik (one of the leading online supermarkets in CEE) and Bnext (top Spanish mobile-first neobank with +$42M in funding from DN Capital and Speedinvest, among other investors). He is also an Included VC supporter. Previously, he was in CEO, executive and consulting roles in Europe and in the U.S., including a good chunk of years at McKinsey & Company, global leading management consulting firm, trusted advisor of some of the world's most influential businesses and institutions.
Summary
👤 Brief intro: born in the mountains, happy father, consultant, CEO, VC
🥇 Win: freedom both relationship and economic wise
🚫 Fail and lesson: choices about with whom you tie yourself with are critical
🚀 Ideal founder: customer obsessed, hugely hungry for endless scale
💸 Ideal investor: patient curiosity, leading with questions, gentle help
📈 Markets: SaaS in healthcare, self-development, housing & construction
🦄 3 startups: Rohlik.cz, Better Uptime, LetsBuild
👍 3 investors: Piotr Kulesza
📖 3 books: "The Righteous Mind", "Crossing the Chasm”, "Rework"
And now, let’s take a closer look !
Could you give us a brief intro about you and your origins?
On a personal level, there are two main factors that I believe had a significant influence on who I am and my life as a whole. First, being a happy father of 3, 1 daughter and 2 sons. Second, being brought up in the mountains impacts you as the conditions are just less predictable there.
From a professional angle, I started with building internet service providers, yes, at the infrastructure level, playing with IP and transport protocols, and sometimes even the physical layer. Only after that, I moved up into the application layer - 20 years ago I was more into how data travel over Internet, what it takes to deliver an email reliably. Between this time period and venture capital, I spent 6 years at McKinsey on three different continents to end up becoming CEO of a classifieds business. I was lucky enough to build experience through very different roles - of entrepreneur, executive, consultant - before arriving into VC.
Now I've been backing founders in Europe during the last 10 years, with a flexible multi-stage approach. From pre-product market fit to post-product market fit, seed and Series A rounds, and even a little bit bigger. I like variety, it gives me energy and I can not operate limiting myself too much in specific stages. I really like and sometimes encourage that our portfolio founders invest as angels too because playing outside your day-to-day business building focus broadens your horizons and just makes you better back in your business.
What would you say has been the biggest win in your life?
The biggest win is achieving freedom both relationship and economic wise. I work because I wish to, not because I have to. I spend time with people because I wish to, not because I have to. I realize I have been lucky enough to achieve the freedom to have both, so yes, this is by far the biggest win.
Related to the above, and your biggest failure?
Back in the distant past, I badly misread the character of a business partner and consequently went through some really dark days. It damaged my ability to trust other people and impacted negatively my health and economic condition. Additionally, it took time to recover. Lesson learned. Very valuable. It is a kind of experience that I do not believe you can come back in a split second. However, on a positive note, it is a strong forming moment. It trains you invaluably to sense and make clear choices about with whom you tie yourself on one rope in the future.
What is your ideal founder profile?
Founders obsessed with customer pains and customer experience. Founders who really understand what the customer is struggling with, who are resourceful, ferociously attentive to detail and execution Ferraris when it comes to delivering a delightful solution. And yes, hugely hungry for endless scale and size. It may sound simple but is not only amazingly difficult but also makes the major difference between a great founder and just a good founder.
What is your ideal investor profile?
I enjoy investors who are a gentle helping hand for founders, driven by patient curiosity and leading with questions. We all tend to come with acquired experience, patterns and prejudices from elsewhere, that are not always right, questions drive thinking and understanding better than strong statements.
What present and future markets are you most interested in?
Markets change over time. Think about it, who in the world had predicted a global pandemic? That being said, we have been very B2C oriented investors or B2B with customer angle. Right now, I am looking into consumer subscription services disrupting old school tools in spaces like healthcare and self-development.
In addition to those two, I am also interested in housing/construction and energy SaaS spaces. I am intrigued by a super poor information efficiency (you name it price, productivity, cost, climate impact) all over those spaces.
Could you share with us 3 startups you like and why?
I like to think about my own portfolio, I am going to give you three names of companies I really like and to whom I am very close:
1) Rohlik.cz. We have been invested since day one and I believe is the best solution for grocery delivery in entire Europe. Team's obsession with customer experience and perfecting the service is fabled. And Tomas Cupr, the founder, is the ultimate execution Ferrari.
2) Better Uptime. It’s just genius simplicity at work. The pain is handling IT/software based incidents. It is perceived as hard and complex problem but Juraj Masar's (the founder) ability to simplify down to the root essence can propel BetterUptime into a new category king in future
3) LetsBuild within the construction space. Super complex mix of talent led by Klaus Nyengaard, co-founder and CEO. There are sectors where software engineers can take care of most of the problems but in other industries like construction, where your focus is on eliminating the lack of transparency, you need to have range in your team. Architects, construction managers, automation of problems and workflows... you need a very rare set of skills. I like the team, some people actually studied in multiple schools to be able to do succeed in the business. This can give them a real edge to solve a problem that sucks (delays, budget changes, etc) - these tools are literally valuable for society.
Could you share with us 3 investors you like and why?
I like thoughtful investors that come prepared to the company, seeing a positive way forward. In tough times, providing energy and in happy times, adding value and not just passively hearing. I like clear views.
It is really difficult to highlight someone because more than 3 come to my mind at the same time. But one good example of this could be Piotr Kulesza, founder and General Partner of RTAventures VC, a Warsaw-based firm focused in European internet/mobile and healthcare markets investing in both early-stage startups and also VC funds.
Note from Pol & Gerard: Piotr is an early investor in companies like Typeform (online forms champion with +$50M in funding from investors like Index Ventures and General Atlantic) or DocPlanner (one of the biggest healthcare platforms in the world, leaders in 11 countries with 35M unique patients and 2 million active doctors, backed with +$140M by great investors like Point Nine Capital, ENERN, Target Global and Goldman Sachs).
What are the 3 books you feel everyone should read and why?
Everyone is literally everyone? Ha! No, but three books that made me really think are:
First, "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt. I believe it is a wonderful book to read for everyone. The book’s tagline says it all, it wonders "why good people are divided by religion and politics". I like that it explores both moral psychology and moral economics.
Second, "Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers" by Geoffrey A Moore. I believe this is an essential book in tech marketing that every founder should read, try at least the first half. It never gets boring and the Chasm team has been very dedicated, updating the book with new case studies edition by edition. A little gem, book bible for any tech entrepreneur when it comes to strategic marketing.
Finally, "Rework" by Jason Fried. Down to earth, from the guts and real experience, straightforward expedition into what result-bringing execution means and takes in early days of building an enduring company.
Big thanks Pavel for sharing your views with us !
Big thanks to you, reader, for your time and interest !
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