Today (Sunday, 4 April 2010) I am going to fly to Mallorca to join the ChamCamp 2010. I’ll join this beachvolleyball training camp the third time after 2008 and 2009. This spring training camp is the start of the out-door season and the first tournaments will start in month.

Daily log

1. Day (Sunday, 4 Apr 2010):
Early wake-up in Munich.
Heading to the airport to catch the flight to Mallorca.
Sunny day at the beach with some easy matches.
The hotel is a -1 star hotel fully loaded with sport men (mainly bikers and beachvollyball players).

2. Day (Monday, 5 Apr 2010):
Just a perfect day at the beach.
We’ve played several matches and enjoyed the sun.
The first training session will start tomorrow.
We had a typical spanish dinner in a tapa bar at night with much garlic and wine .

3. Day (Tuesday, 6 Apr 2010):
70 players game together and participated in a casting to define the training groups (sorted by levels).
The afternoon training session had very bad conditions because of the strong wind.
Well, some work needed to be done too. Slow internet connection in the hotel lobby.

4. Day (Wednesday, 7 Apr 2010):
A cold but dry training day at the beach.
The training was well organized and the training showed us our weaknesses and how to improve our technique.
He gave feedback after every single ball – just perfect.

5. Day (Thursday, 8 Apr 2010):
Today is not training to recover from the first two days.
We are going to play some matched but the weather is just bad. It’s raining and it’s cold. The forecast shows an improvement for this afternoon.
We used the rainy first half of the day and drove to Palma de Mallorca. Window shopping!
Well, the weather forecast was right and we had a nice afternoon at the beach.

6. Day (Friday, 9 Apr 2010):
Another cold but dry day at the beach. The heavy wind was more than complicated to handle.

7. Day (Saturday, 10 Apr 2010):
Sunny and warm last day of training.

8. Day (Sunday, 11 Apr 2010):
Another sunny day.
No training – we’ve played a tournament today.
I left the beach at 5 pm. Transfer to the airport at 5:30 pm. Arrived in Munich at 10:30 pm.

Thanks to www.champcamp.de and the motivated and well experienced team and coaches.

The summer season is near and the first tournaments will start in May. It’s time to exercise and to the get the final cut. As every year we are going to Mallorca to join the ChampCamp Beach Volleyball Camp:

• 5 days training
• Experiences and well-educated coaches (especially Martin)
• A lot of fun with 80 players

From 1999 until the end of 2006 I founded several technology startups. I am also a business angel and have invested in several startups since 2001. During this time I learned a lot about the startup business. How to raise money? How to build execution driven management teams? How to market products? And how to work with VC’s? (I painfully felt the drawbacks as well as the joys of having a VC investor on the advisory board.) I also learned how to bootstrap a startup as well as how to sell a company (exit). And a lot more…

In 2007 I joined Target Partners, a Munich based Venture Capital firm, as a Venture Partner. Since then I fully immersed myself as an investment professional and was always treated as part of the team. Early this year, I joined Target Partners as a new Partner.

People often ask me how to become a venture capitalist and why I decided to become a VC instead of founding or joining another company. To be honest – it just happened.

After two years of working on the other side of the table as a VC I have to emphazise that this move was a rather large paradigm shift for me. The entrepreneurial mind-set is more like “Yes, I can fix it” or “Come on, just do it”. As a VC I can’t operationally work in a startup as part of management, meaning, “I won’t fix it”. The entrepreneur/management team members are responsible for the operative business. In my new role “I have to let go”. Now, I am standing on the sidelines watching the game and hoping that my advisc, tips and voice might be heard and used by the team.

Seen it – done it

However, let me point out one important quality a VC should have. This insight is based on my work with VC’s as an entrepreneur as well as my experience working as a VC over the last two years:

• A good VC should have an entrepreneurial background.

Sure, there are exceptions, but statistics show that a good VC usually has a background which includes growing companies and/or developing and marketing products and services. Why? Because he will understand the needs, the problems, the daily work of a startup much better than a VC who has only seen it from the sideline and wasn’t part of the game.

Is the entrepreneurial background and experience enough to make a good VC investor? Definitely not! Venture Capital is a detail driven business, which demands additional talents and skills (e.g. curiosity, networking, accuracy, gut feeling, readiness and a lot more).

Conclusion: It was the right move

During the last two years I have enjoyed working with driven and enthusiastic entrepreneurs. I have seen interesting business cases and some not so interesting ones. I will focus on this chapter in an extra post.

The Wahlkreis invited to a turnament in Berlin. Andre and I played the Beachvolleyball Cup and represented Trupoli and Polixea.

The other teams were from TV station (ZDF), political parties and some other political orientated organizations.

We played the final under floodlight and with about 100 spectators. Long story short: Andre and I have won.

Since we are playing at least once a week the girls are getting better and better.

Since last winter friends and I are playing Beach volleyball every Saturday morning from 10am until 1pm. We are playing in Aschheim (a village some kilometers north of Munich) in a special Beach Volleyball hall. It is been built like a huge greenhouse. Inside there are 3 courts, a lot of palm trees, a restaurant and a bar.

The playing ability of all players is very good and after 3 hours two against two I am done. We are enjoying this time very much. It is like summer and for 3 hours we are on vacation. That’s the right way to start the weekend.

Kathrin and I took two months off and we traveled through Asia, New Zealand and Australia in November and December 2006. During that time we started to discuss new ideas and business cases while we were laying in the sun or driving from town to town.

Maybe the surfing in Byron-Bay inspired us to create something new. We got an idea about the web democracy and we started to define a business case around it. Back in Germany in January 2007 we decided to start the execution of the idea. Trupoli has been born.

Kathrin and I joined 3 days surf-school in Byron-Bay. Byron-Bay is really one of the coolest spots I’ve ever been.

The people are layed-back, the food is great and the waves are perfect. Time seems to slow down at Byron-Bay.