“It is a matter of prioritisation.” Interview with Tomas Laboutka

What does entrepreneurship mean to you?
Freedom.

What are you looking for when you meet founders?
Alignment on core values.
And diversity: respectively matching my weaknesses.

What are business models that you like to invest in? and why?
It is a bit of a generic question. If I had a time machine I would invest in crypto exchanges 4 years ago.

In general, whenever you have a scaleable business model to maintain high margins, competitive advantage and high repeats I find it interesting

So this is linked to subscription models – they are pretty fun. Especially the ones that lock you in. Everything is growing, Dropbox, headspace something that has a little bit more meat and doesn‘t let you go.

What have been your 3 lessons learned as entrepreneur? What would you differently today?

I have 300 billion lessons learned 🙂 It is a matter of prioritisation.
L1: Focus and intensity beats everything else. Let me rephrase: focus on monetisation of value creation.
L2: Intensification which is focused around customers willingness to pay.
L3: It is never finished. And that‘s ok.

So in general, I would start with a problem that I really want to solve and continue solving it for 3 decades.

What have been your 3 lessons learned as investor? What would you do differently today?
Make sure to diversify. Diversify of asset class (actually your article – Diversification is key). Unless it is a complete home-run – take the profits out.
Do the homework properly. Everything that brings you to make a well weighted decision.

If you would give an entrepreneur one advice – what would it be?
I assume it is for an entrepreneur that hasn’t started yet: solve the problem that you personally feel the massive pain. Otherwise don’t do it.

THANK YOU.