Earlybird Welcomes Sara Kirschhausen to the Digital West Investment Team
Transforming Startup Operational Experience into Early-Stage Investment
We are thrilled to welcome Sara Fee Kirschhausen as a new Principal on the Earlybird Digital West team. Sara combines a founder-focus approach with experience in scaling up one of the EU’s most successful startups and further professional expertise in business strategy, marketing, and operations.
Learn more about Sara through our Q&A below:
1. What inspired your transition to VC? 💫
I could not have predicted this transition when I started my career over a decade ago. However, all of my previous experience will be relevant and helpful in taking on this role as an investor. I started my career in the FMCG corporate world with L’Oréal and Reckitt, where I learned marketing skills from scratch and later transitioned into strategy consulting with BCG.
After moving to Berlin, a key startup hub for Germany, I became more involved in the scene through my network. This led me to join a FinTech, back then in stealth mode, to complement their management team and build all things marketing from brand to growth to PR from the ground up. We named our venture Trade Republic and the journey ahead was possibly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
In just four years, Trade Republic grew to a customer base of millions, a team of 700, and a value of USD 5B. Fundraising from Seed to Series C, I began partnering up with leaders from Accel, Creandum, and Sequoia amongst other VCs. Through this, I became directly involved with the VC and startup ecosystem.
When leaving Trade Republic to become a mom and dedicate time to my family, I dug more into the space of angel investing– discovering how passionate I am about investing in early-stage ventures. Interacting with founders in the ideation phase to the first transaction, supporting them in their journey, challenging hypotheses and business models is very exciting. I learned that the mix of my previous professional experience adds a lot of value to founding teams.
Working and investing in startups feels like living in the future because you can engage with the trends of tomorrow, long before they become integrated into our day-to-day lives. Working with early-stage companies is particularly challenging, but it’s necessary work that enables the true visionaries that will drive our economy and our world to new heights.
2. What intrigued you about the Earlybird team specifically?🐣
Earlybird embodies everything I was looking for in a fund and with each conversation with the partners and investment team, I got increasingly excited about joining the VC world. The strong combination of legacy with a hungry and international new generation is fairly unique.
Unlike many other VCs, Earlybird can look back at 27 years of experience along various VC hype cycles and a proven track record of now 17 funds, fostering a team where the original co-founding partners are actively working with the next generation of investors to share their wisdom and enable further leadership. There is also a remarkable amount of entrepreneurial freedom within the company, allowing investors to move efficiently and fairly independently beyond Germany, and into the entirety of the European startup ecosystem.
3. How do you think your previous professional experience will inform your experience as an investor at Earlybird? 🏃🏼♀️
As an investor, I will leverage over 10 years of experience as an operator and strategist to make informed decisions about which companies have the potential to reach new heights.
Having owned P&Ls myself and having worked for 15 clients across 10 countries for BCG, I can quickly understand business models and the typical pain points of companies.
Additionally, after being a key member of the team that built one of Europe’s most successful startups, I have experienced every element of the value chain of an investor — from deal sourcing to due diligence from the other side of the table. I am well aware of the ups and downs of building a venture from scratch, fundraising from Series A to C, and scaling up, to the point where I can put myself into the shoes of a founding team, ask the right questions, and easily identify discrepancies.
Building on this knowledge, I also have a network of strong operators from the corporate, start-up, and consulting spheres which provides a unique deal flow or sparring partner to founding teams. I get the feeling that everything in my professional life has led me to become an investor…
4. With experience in the FinTech space, are you also looking to expand into other investment areas? 💰
Yes — definitely. As much as I am excited by all things FinTech, my passion lies within any consumer topic. We live in times of B2B focus, however, the next B2C wave could hit at any moment. So I’ll keep my eyes open and any founder out there looking to win the B2C and marketing world — let me know!
Reach out to Sara on LinkedIn to connect or grab a coffee! ☕️
