Useful resources for (present and future) investment analysts — Part 1

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

As an investment analyst of a VC-firm, one of the main tasks is to monitor what is going on out there in the world. Luckily, there are many bright human beings ready to provide you with insights, trend reports, funding updates etc. Here is a list of resources I rely on, highlighting Switzerland-specific (🧀) and diversity-related (🌈) sources because that’s where I am based and what I am currently interested in. Enjoy and let me know if I’m missing out on anything important (sharing is caring 💙).

P.S.: In Part 2 of this series, you can find KPI spreadsheets, lists on tools, trend reports and much more with the goal to support you in your daily tasks as investment analyst like screening pitch decks, evaluating deal terms and doing due diligence💪🏽.

Newsletters

1. Overlooked by Alexandre Dewez: Want to broaden your horizon and to get some overlooked topics on the radar? Alexandre Dewez from Idinvest brings them to your inbox on a weekly basis
2. Seedtable by Gonz Sanchez: Every Friday this newsletter provides analyses on European tech and social impact
3. Lenny’s Newsletter: Lenny Rachitsky writes hands-on about product, growth, people & management and much more
4. Benedict Evans: Weekly newsletter around tech and media
5. 🌈Femstreet: Must-read weekly newsletter by female investors and operators
6. The New Consumer: A publication about how and why people spend their time and money
7. Heartcore Capital: Weekly newsletter on everything that’s going on in the Direct to Consumer startup space
8. Andrew Chen: Useful newsletter on growth and scaling related topics
9. Travelmobility.Tech: Good read if you’re interested in the mobility and travel space by the Lufthansa Innovation Hub
10. FoodHack: The only food industry newsletter you need
11. Soaked by Slush: This digital media is as cool as Slush and promotes itself to be “always free, never boring, surprising at times”
12. 🧀 Venturelab: Provides funding news, tips and tricks as well as training for startups
13. Europe and beyond: Sifted, Finimize (banking & investments), TechCrunch and many more

Books

1. Who can you trust — Rachel Botsman: As “trust is fundamental to almost every action, relationship and transaction”, I can really recommend this book by Rachel Botsman. She will open your eyes and I promise you’ll see so-called trust leaps everywhere after reading the book
2. The Lean Startup — Eric Ries: Classic. Period.
3. The Lean Marketplace — Juho Makkonen & Cristobal Gracia: If you invest in marketplaces and want to have a coherent overview of the specifics, this book has you covered
4. The Art of the Start 2.0 — Guy Kawasaki: Written from an entrepreneur’s perspective, it is an informative read for you working in VC and helps to put yourself in the entrepreneur’s shoes

Blogs & News

1. Both Sides of the Table: Mark Suster invests for Upfront Ventures and writes about everything related to entrepreneurship
2. Fabrice Grinda: Co-founder of FJ Labs, with a strong focus on marketplaces
3. a16z: No further explanation needed
4. 🧀 Thought-provoking posts on Wissensfabrik by Dr. Joel Luc Cachelin and Startupticker for funding news as well as IFZ Retail Banking Blog on banking-related insights
5. Germany & Austria: Gründerszene, der Brutkasten, and deutsche startups

Podcasts

1. How I built this
2. HBR Ideacast
3. 🌈HBR Women at Work
4. HBR After Hours
5. 20MinuteVC

Reports & Articles

1. State of European Tech by Atomico is a must-read if you want to be up to date on the European investment landscape
2. In 2019, the European Investment Fund (EIF) deployed EUR 10.2bn in a total of 323 thousand small businesses in Europe. Their Annual Report describes and summarizes the main areas of their investments (Innovation, Growth & Competitiveness, Society, Agriculture and Cohesion & Regional)
3. 🧀 Swiss Venture Capital Report by Startupticker gives a perfect insight into the Swiss VC-scene developments and funding rounds
4. Other traditional data sources: Pitchbook, CB Insights, Dealroom
5. 🌈Atomico’s Diversity Report gives you step by step advice on how to increase diversity within your team
6. 🌈HBR Idea Cast Podcast on how workplaces — not women — need to change to improve equality, with the following statement leaving me thinking the most: “Simply putting women into leadership positions and hoping for the best does nothing to change the lived experience of inequality that they have to encounter every single day.”
7. 🌈Sifted conducted a list of the top diversity initiatives for the European tech ecosystem
8. 🌈CEO and founder of Lumi Jesse Genet wrote an honest article on what it’s like to be a female entrepreneur, aka “running a business with boobs”
9. 🌈 Thought-provoking and very important post by Hanna Naima McCloskey on why the “business case” for inclusion is bankrupt and how we should change the narrative if we want to design an inclusive future