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Our dream date.

Our perfect match? Pretty simple: Consumer focused business (sorry, the rest we do not understand), Ambitious (no guts no glory), Proof of concept (we look for entrepreneurs not academics ); distinctiveness – your niche focus, product or message makes you unique (no me-too’s with 20 companies doing the exact same thing) and scalability (we want to go on a journey together, not stay where we are)  

We get particularly excited when your brand is truly laser focused, when you provide AI tech that helps B2C companies flourish or when you provide unique ideas to the new cycling ecosystem

Distinctive Brand.

Your business and concept has to be somehow unique. If you have plenty and sort of lookalike competitors, it will be tough. To raise the bar and to be clear: If we say unique we are not looking at our backyard. Leveraging key global trends is always a plus. Think for example cycling or commuting; meaning & personal growth; sports & E-games; planet friendly lifestyles; focusing on forgotten niches etc.

Actual Traction.

We are looking for businesses, not (just) ideas. A great idea is where it all starts, perseverance and testing brings you to the next phase, gaining consumer traction. That’s the minimum hurdle you would need to meet. We do not do prototype or idea phases. We need some sort of proof of concept that is available. In defining consumer buzz we are flexible though. That can be a mix of sales, press attention or high (but genuine) digital followership.  We invested in 3D aim trainer when it had very limited revenue but proven client traction with thousands of unique players/day , that helps. To be clear, we do bigger businesses as well, that have scaled already in some way.

Scalable.

You need to be able to scale your business.  For consumer goods or services that basically comes back to the point of being distinctive. We are not very interested if you offer a product with a purely local appeal.  As much as we believe in authenticity, somehow the trick is to be able to touch an authentic vibe globally.  For businesses with a strong offline component (for example restaurant businesses), with more physical constraints, scalability means that at a minimum you need to be able to take it nationally.  

Ambition.

This one seems obvious but strangely enough our experience has shown that it is not. You have to be ambitious. You need to want to be the king of the world in your segment. To make it more tangible, suppose have 200k turnover today and your ambition is anywhere below 1.5 EUR M revenue in 24 months, you are not ambitious to our definition. We believe in today’s world great ideas do not hang around very long by themselves. If you do not execute fast, somebody else will grab the cookies. We invest in entrepreneurs that we feel are ahead of the game. It’s ok if that is being ahead at the very start of the race, but we do want them to have the ambition to stay ahead.

Business with a B2C Angle.

This one is simple. We do not touch stuff we do not know, and we do not want to create an ecosystem for you where your peers are working in sectors not even remotely touching where you are at. This being said, we are broad enough in B2C: You could offer a B2C brand or service, but also AI tech that allows B2C companies to deploy and flourish  . That is all fine. As long as one of the key skills your business needs to be successful is building a product or a story that real people need to want… we ‘re fine.

Are you the one?

Do you have what it takes to join the Freshmen family? Don’t hesitate and fill in our form so we can contact you to grab a coffee!

Apply now

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Most of the time we act.  But sometimes we talk.  When we do, we mostly try and share some of our experiences and thoughts with you.  We try not to proclaim any big truths or be judging, we just try to share. Subscribe to get updates!

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