In the first episode of Tesseract Talks, our host Marko Rukavina interviews Sherin Maruhn, a former pro athlete turned investor and entrepreneur. They discuss Sherin’s unique journey from sports to business, the importance of female entrepreneurship, what VCs look for in founders, how to choose the right VC, effective pitching strategies, and the differences between VC cultures in the US and Europe. Sherin emphasizes the need for diverse teams and the challenges female founders face in securing funding.
Takeaways:
- Female entrepreneurship is vital for economic growth and innovation.
- Diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones in business.
- Execution is more important than ideas in startups.
- Choosing the right VC is crucial for startup success.
- Pitching should be straightforward and easy to understand.
- Founders should know their competition well.
- US VCs are generally more aggressive in funding than European VCs.
- Valuations and check sizes are typically higher in the US.