Boris Wertz
Entrepreneur turned investor at Version One VC. Husband and father of 4. Lover of soccer, travel, and food.
Discussion
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
Hi I'm Boris. I'm an Entrepreneur (AbeBooks, sold to Amazon) turned investor (Version One Ventures). I've invested in over 50 consumer and enterprise companies over the past 8 years. I love marketplace, platforms, & SaaS. I'm a German living in Vancouver investing across North-America. Ask me anything!
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Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
HUGE Thanks to @bwertz for taking the time to chat with us today.
Hunter Walk
@hunterwalk · Partner, Homebrew
How has the Board Partner relationship gone with you and a16z? How are you managing those commitments along with your own investments?
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@hunterwalk 95% of my time is spent on Version One Ventures but it has been a real pleasure working with the a16z team - they have done an incredible job building one of the leading VC franchises in a very short time and I have been learning a ton just watching them.
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Hey, Boris! How has the Canadian startup ecosystem changed over the past 5 years? What does it need to work on?
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@rrhoover I think it has changed hugely! This year, Canada had its first multi-billion dollar IPO (Shopify) since Blackberry / RIM about decade ago. Funding levels are at a all-time high (with probably every single top tier US VC having invested in at least once in Canada). Waterloo / Toronto is emerging as one of the most exciting start-up ecosystems in North-America. And we have a bunch of really amazing entrepreneurs up here that work on very big & ambitious problems. Having said that, there is still ways to go - scaling start-ups is not easy b/c of a lack of senior talent, there are not enough value-add angels for the really early-stages of start-ups, and I would love to see even more entrepreneurs venturing out doing their own start-up.
Jack Smith
@_jacksmith · Serial Entrepreneur & Startup Adviser
Hi Boris. Which people helped you the most as you went about raising Version One Ventures? (i.e. giving you advice, connecting you to LPs etc)
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@_jacksmith the investors that signed up first - it is all about getting some fundraising traction and this is particularly hard for a first time fund. In this respect Jeff Mallett (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Je...) made it all happen for me :-)
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@russfrushtick I think a lot about what's next - it feels that we are at the tail-end of mobile and social (still lots of opportunities but getting smaller and smaller) but what will be the next computing platform or big wave? Bitcoin / Blockchain and VR / AR definitely up there but both are still very early in their cycle.
Justin F Harris
@justinfharris · Co-Founder, Beehive
@bwertz Hi Boris,
Two questions for you:
1.) What do you look for in platforms that would consider investing in?
2.) Who is you favorite soccer team and why?
Thanks!
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@justinfharris there are a few things we like to see in (social) platforms: a) great initial engagement by a small group of passionate users; b) an opportunity to grow from a small niche into a much larger audience (this sounds easy but not always that evident). My colleague @atkingyens just started a great series of blog post of what metrics matter to social platforms: http://versionone.vc/social-plat...
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@justinfharris soccer team: rooting for Bayern Munich (am originally from Germany) and Whitecaps FC (live in Vancouver) :-)
Melissa Joy Kong
@melissajoykong · Content, Product Hunt
Given all of your experiences thus far, what is something you know for sure about life/the way our little world works?
...what's something you thought you used to know for sure, but now, you're not as certain?
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@melissajoykong I thought about exactly that question when I turned 40 a few years ago and came up with 7 lessons: http://versionone.vc/seven-life-... I just looked at them again and haven't changed my mind on any so the 40 previous years must have been pretty good in terms of learning :-)
Ben Tossell
@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt
@bwertz Who are some big influencers for you, in terms of your career aspirations?
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@bentossell Fred Wilson was probably my biggest mentor and instrumental for me in become a VC - I wrote about it here: http://versionone.vc/how-to-boot...
Nicki Friis
@nickifriisw · Ideanote
@bwertz Hi Boris, how do you see the industry for Idea Management Software evolve over the next years?
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@nickifriisw I am probably not deep enough into that vertical to give you a good answer - sorry! But what do you think?
Nicki Friis
@nickifriisw · Ideanote
@bwertz @nickifriisw Oh you said i could ask you about anything and that you like SaaS and platforms.
Let me ask you something else: Where do you see innovation consultants be in a period of 5 years, and how can they "disrupt" themself?
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Boris Wertz
@bwertz
@nickifriisw ha, ha, you can certainly ask me anything but might not always have a good answer. The pace of innovation is certainly rather accelerating than slowing down so there will be many opportunities for innovation consultants. But I feel that most value is probably created around HR / culture / change management than anything else....