One of the biggest mistakes in investing isn’t bad judgment — it’s outdated thinking.
Early on, many didn’t understand platform businesses. They underestimated how fast they scale, how powerful networks become, and how value compounds.
From passing on Facebook…
to becoming Uber’s biggest investor.
The lesson?
Before you invest in the future, you have to unlearn the past.
Don’t underestimate platform business models — they change everything.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction & episode overview
02:27 – How Super Angels thinks about quality control
03:48 – Why great early-stage decisions still fail
05:06 – Escaping your own investment “bubble”
06:22 – Power laws, probability & why volume matters in VC
09:22 – Handling competing deals & replacing angels
11:12 – Why there are fewer than 100 real super angels in Germany
15:37 – How tax incentives distort investment decisions
19:37 – What “top 10%” really means for Fund II
22:25 – Why doubling down on winners beats diversification dogma
25:31 – Timing follow-on investments & conviction building
30:21 – Europe’s real bottleneck isn’t regulation — it’s culture
33:15 – Why Europe loses its best companies to the US
35:42 – Risk aversion, civil servants & economic stagnation
45:49 – Contrarian opinion: why “more is more”
49:54 – What moves Florian emotionally
53:24 – Where to find Florian & Super Angels
Find Florian Gottschaller online at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-gottschaller/
Twitter: https://x.com/MetroF
Superangels: https://super-angels.eu
This episode is sponsored by EmergeOne, fractional CFOs for venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B.
Get in touch at https://emergeone.co.uk/contact-us/ or join the CFO team at https://emergeone.co.uk/join-the-cfo-team/
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