In our view, being a respon­si­ble inves­tor means belie­ving that we owe some­thing far bey­ond our capi­tal com­mit­ment to the com­pa­nies in which we are inves­ted. It means we will strive and fight for their suc­cess while always acting with inte­grity. Clas­si­cally, we con­tri­bute more than capi­tal to our Inves­tee-Part­ners by using our net­work and other resour­ces to bene­fit them as much as pos­si­ble. More spe­ci­fi­cally, respon­si­ble inves­t­ing can also mean com­mu­ni­ca­ting cle­arly, trans­par­ently, and honestly with our valued co-inves­tors and Inves­tee-Part­ners and proac­tively informing them of our ability and wil­ling­ness to par­ti­ci­pate in future fundraisings.

Alt­hough some may argue that pri­vate inves­tors have the right to view their invest­ments sim­ply in a tran­sac­tional way, we stron­gly believe that, espe­ci­ally in the early stages, when com­pa­nies are still in the pro­cess of fin­ding their best path and each inves­tor is of extreme importance, all inves­tors should have some sense of addi­tio­nal com­mit­ment to fur­ther assist the com­pa­nies in which they are inves­ted. It is surely true that the best way for an inves­tor to ensure a strong finan­cial return in early-stage invest­ments, where the bulk of value crea­tion lies in the future, is to coope­ra­tively con­tri­bute value to the company.

The defi­nite actions that an inves­tor can take to con­tri­bute to their ven­ture invest­ments vary greatly depen­ding on the com­pany and inves­tor. Howe­ver, at a mini­mum, early-stage inves­tors should have a wil­ling­ness to open their net­work to the com­pany and effi­ci­ently and cor­rectly pro­cess all documentation/voting requi­re­ments wit­hout play­ing any unneces­sary games.

Importantly, being a respon­si­ble inves­tor in a com­pany does not mean that an inves­tor agrees with all of management’s decis­i­ons or that valuable cri­ti­cism is with­held. Exactly the oppo­site is true, because enga­ge­ment is the pre­re­qui­site for con­s­truc­tive con­tri­bu­tion, and enga­ge­ment means sort­ing through the various initia­ti­ves and chal­lenges with a dis­cer­ning eye in order to assist the com­pany in achie­ving its ulti­mate goals.

In Thü­rin­gen we are extre­mely for­t­u­nate to have attrac­ted pri­vate inves­tors who under­stand inves­t­ing is a two-way street. The nature of our high-tech B2B com­pa­nies means that it is clear from the begin­ning of the rela­ti­onship bet­ween com­pany and inves­tor that this is a mar­riage and not just a fling. This mar­riage takes dili­gent work from both sides, as excep­tio­nal cor­po­rate deve­lo­p­ment and expo­nen­tial invest­ment returns are only attainable with con­tri­bu­ti­ons from all.

We are gra­teful to have a clear man­date to be a respon­si­ble inves­tor and we look for­ward to con­ti­nuing to make mutually-bene­fi­cial matches bet­ween other like-min­ded inves­tors and our out­stan­ding Inves­tee-Part­ners for the bene­fit of all involved.

Your bm|t Team