Episode 85: Andre Retterath - Partner at Earlybird VC - How AI Is Changing Venture Capital

EU-Startups Podcast

In this episode, we catch up with Andre Retterath, Partner & EagleEye Lead at Earlybird Venture Capital and Author of Data-Driven VC. Earlybird VC was founded in 1997 and is a European early-stage VC firm that invests in all development and growth phases of technology companies. With more than EUR 2 billion under management, eight IPOs and 31 trade sales, Earlybird is one of the most established and active venture capital firms in Europe. In Earlybird's team, Andre focuses on enterprise software with a particular interest in developer, data and productivity tools, alongside AI-centric products and robotics. He has been leading Earlybird’s engineering team and the development of our proprietary data-driven platform “EagleEye”. Andre conducted his Ph.D. at the Technical University of Munich on the topic of "Machine learning and the value of data in venture capital". Moreover, he was previously educated at Harvard University, University of Cambridge and Georgia Institute of Technology, among others. Andre is also an Author of Data-Driven VC, a community of 30k+ experts interested at the intersection of startups, venture capital, data & AI. With 173 episodes, 30k+ subs, 2.2m annual reads, they produce three weekly newsletters "Insights", "Essays", and "Picks", the annual "Data-Driven VC Landscape" report, events, and more. Andre talks about the shift from traditional VC to a data-driven approach. He explains how data-driven VC provides an edge in picking winners by improving the sourcing and screening process. He also highlights the importance of balancing data-driven insights with gut feelings and the human component in venture capital. André shares insights on overhyped startup metrics and the value of headcount as an indicator. He discusses the challenges of integrating data science in VC and the future of VC, including the professionalization of the industry and the aggregation of VC tools. Takeaways 1.Balancing data-driven insights with gut feelings and the human component is crucial in venture capital. 2.Headcount is an important indicator to evaluate the growth and inflection points of startups. 3.Overhyped startup metrics, such as GitHub stars, may not necessarily indicate the success of a company. 4.Integrating data science in VC requires identifying and addressing human biases in AI models. 5.The future of VC involves the professionalization of the industry and the aggregation of VC tools. This episode of EU-Startups Podcast is brought to you by Vanta. Compliance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with Vanta it can be super simple. Trusted by over 7,000 companies, Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of prepping for ISO 27001,SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, and more. Learn more here: http://vanta.com/eustartups