In the exam­ple men­tio­ned above, the marble that more quickly trans­for­med its poten­tial energy into kine­tic energy was able to carry its gai­ned momen­tum through the flat sec­tion and won the race. We quickly drew par­al­lels to the busi­ness world and the importance of momen­tum and non-linear approa­ches to rea­ching the ulti­mate goal. To para­phrase Isaac New­ton, busi­nesses at rest tend to stay at rest, and busi­nesses in motion tend to stay in motion.

While momen­tum plays a cri­ti­cal role for all busi­nesses, startup momen­tum is per­haps the most inte­res­t­ing phe­no­me­non, as a small group of pas­sio­nate peo­ple is tas­ked with not just kee­ping a busi­ness moving but start­ing it from a standstill point of zero iner­tia. Big vision. High poten­tial energy. No kine­tic energy.

Quickly gene­ra­ting kine­tic energy is essen­tial for most start­ups not only to grow and pro­sper but also to avoid com­ple­tely losing momen­tum when the busi­ness encoun­ters the ine­vi­ta­ble bumps in the road. Many stra­te­gies and tac­tics are employed to create this momen­tum: hiring more key employees than the cur­rent busi­ness size might war­rant; sig­ning up beta cus­to­mers at low, zero, or nega­tive mar­gins in order to acce­le­rate lear­ning and mar­ket accep­tance; enga­ging in bold part­ner­ships or acqui­si­ti­ons to trans­form a tech­no­logy offe­ring; rai­sing more capi­tal than a linear tra­jec­tory would require, etc. We at bm|t greatly admire entre­pre­neurs who can trans­form energy and create busi­ness momen­tum, and we aim to play a signi­fi­cant role in cata­ly­zing the nee­ded momentum.

We believe the key is reco­gni­zing when line­arly boot­strap­ping a busi­ness is indeed ris­kier than con­sciously crea­ting (indeed some­ti­mes for­cing) momen­tum – maybe even more than one can com­for­ta­bly con­trol. Of course, each busi­ness is uni­que and the art surely lies in kno­wing when is the right time to gene­rate grea­ter momen­tum – cer­tainly one wants to be on an expo­nen­tial curve, not just fal­ling off a cliff. We, at bm|t, believe we can help young busi­nesses pro­perly time and plan their acce­le­ra­ti­ons in order to have the grea­test pro­ba­bi­lity of being on the right growth curve.

Like entre­pre­neurs, inves­tors can also capi­ta­lize on the phe­no­mena of momen­tum and non­linea­rity. In 2018, bm|t worked dili­gently to trans­form the powerful 2017 events of fayteq’s sale and InflaRx’s Nasdaq IPO into broad-based energy for all inves­tee-part­ners and Thü­rin­gen. The results were out­stan­ding, as our inves­tee-part­ners rai­sed over 100 Mio. EUR in capi­tal, and we were able to gain a record num­ber of 16 new inves­tee-part­ners. You can read fur­ther about the strong momen­tum in 2018 here.

Before pre­sen­ting the quarter’s invest­ment acti­vity and other signi­fi­cant news, we would like to offer a big THANK YOU to our great inves­tee-part­ners and co-inves­tors. Working with such bril­li­ant, moti­va­ted, visio­nary peo­ple is the fuel that pro­pels us forward!

Your bm|t Team