Post on 14-Aug-2015
V E N T U R E C A P I TA L I N L AT V I A : W H AT W E N E E D
S M A R T M O N E Y & S I L I C O N VA L L E Y T E R M S
A N D R I S K . B E R Z I N S T E C H H U B R I G A
S M A R T M O N E Y
• Just two people in Latvian VC industry with any operating experience: Nikolai Adamovitch & Vitaly Rubstein
• Everyone else is a banker or financial analyst
• Little ability to give startups good operating advice
• Startups see when investors have not “walked a mile” in their shoes
S I L I C O N VA L L E Y T E R M S
• Investors in Latvia often propose short-sighted, bad terms for entrepreneurs:
1. Want too much % for their money - Disincentive for entrepreneurs to make it big
2. Large liquidation preferences, milestone-based tranche investments, participating preferred share - force next investors to make terms even worse