“The real story is about entrepreneurs”
— an interview with Nicholas Stocks from White Star Capital
While many people in the startup ecosystem are busy focusing on venture capitalists and their latest gains and losses, Nicholas Stocks points his attention to the main characters in this game — the entrepreneurs. In our interview, we spoke about the relationships between VCs and startups, as well as his journey to becoming a General Partner at White Star Capital and vast opportunities that lie ahead.
Nicholas chose an interesting career path. At UBS he was involved in large-cap M&A deals. He then worked as an early member of the team in what became a successful startup in the UK. This experience ultimately led him to enter the venture capital scene in 2014. He is now a Partner in London for an early-stage venture capital fund, White Star Capital, whose portfolio includes companies with over 1,800 employees in 20 countries across the world.
During our interview, Nicholas recalled his transition from entrepreneurship to the investment world: “The mindset needs to go from one of identifying problems and solving them directly, to being a trusted advisor to management and trying to help them solve the problems themselves.” In his view: “VCs get far too much attention on a startup’s journey, and VCs are heralded as thought leaders when the real story is about the entrepreneurs.“
The success of any venture capital fund is inextricably connected with the success of the startups they invest in.“Our highs and lows are a derivative function of our entrepreneurs’ much more pronounced highs and lows, so they are the ones that would make a great movie where realistically VCs would be secondary characters or even just extras,” Nicholas explained.
When Piotr Pisarz, a former VC investor at DN Capital and Corviglia Capital, decided to start his own company — Uncapped, Nicholas became the first person he turned to for advice. “Without Nick’s support at that point, Uncapped probably wouldn’t exist today,” Piotr said. Together with Nicholas, he adjusted his startup’s business model, worked on his pitch and started looking for funding. In fact, Nicholas was the first venture capitalist to commit to investing in Piotr’s startup. “The value that Nicholas initially brought to Uncapped was immense and it kept growing over time. He is the first person I call when I need to think through and discuss strategic problems we are facing,” Piotr added. We heard a similar story from Wojciech Sadowski, the CEO of Packhelp, White Star Capital’s portfolio company. “Nick’s approach to venture capital proves that to be a great investor you not only need to provide your startups with money, but also it is crucial that you share your experience and network with them,” Wojciech explained.
“Our world is facing several global headwinds and we need the best people working on these problems.”
In the end, entrepreneurs are the people who choose to go off beaten track and devote their time and talent to make an impact on the world. As Nicholas said: “The best and brightest no longer end up working 18 hour days creating PowerPoint slides but rather can work in jobs that they believe serve a higher purpose. This is what I personally find very exciting, as our world is facing several global headwinds — climate and pandemics being two big ones — and we need the best people working on these problems.”
Risk, prevalent in early-stage investment, has only risen in the times of the current global pandemic. Nevertheless, Nicholas remains enthusiastic about technological advances that he sees penetrating every industry. He believes that there will be a fertile soil for companies and solutions to emerge, and will ultimately lead to new exits that are critical to fueling the ecosystem.
“Historically we would not see a Unilever, Nestle, Bosch, being as acquisitive and forward-thinking as they are today. We are in an age of disrupt or be disrupted, and this is playing out globally. There are now great ecosystems in places such as Warsaw, Bangkok and Montreal, all locations where we have invested actively, and where each startup can play to their strengths to compete on a global level,” he added.
Golden opportunities, however, can easily go unrecognized. Nicholas himself admitted:
“Almost every failure I have had in some way involves not being prepared enough for what was at hand, or an inability to step back and see the larger picture of what really is important.”
With this in mind, Nicholas has one piece of advice to offer: “A tip that I would have for everyone, regardless of background or interests, is to read and read widely across disciplines. Naval Ravikant put it best when he said that an author goes their whole life becoming an expert in a field, and then gives you access to it in a condensed format for around $10. There is so much experience and knowledge in books that one can apply to both their professional and personal life in any context.” In other words, what better way to spend any potential spare time than to grab a book and prepare to grasp the opportunities of the future?
