Munich Startup: Who are you and what does Betterfront do? Please introduce yourselves briefly!
Michel Geolier, Betterfront: My name is Michel Geolier, I'm French and have been living in Munich for years. I'm one of the three founders of Betterfront and the CEO. My two other co-founders are Pung Worathiti Manosroi, our Chief of Product, and Sergi Case, our CTO. Pung is the former co-founder and CTO of Combyne, a B2C fashion app based here in Munich, and Sergi is a former developer at Check24. And I'm a former investor at Siemens. I used to invest in venture capital funds for the Siemens pension fund. Today, there are eight of us at Betterfront, and we're supported by the HTGF.
Pung and I first met when I was an investor at Wayra in 2013 and he founded his company Combyne. We considered investing in Combyne, and I've stayed in touch with him ever since. Sergi and I met four years ago when we were building a product together before Betterfront. We all came together more or less at the same time in 2019, as Pung left Combyne and joined us after working for Pro7 and wanting to do something entrepreneurial again.
The idea for Betterfront came about during my time at Siemens, when I realized they were managing trillions of dollars using Excel and email. So I left the company, and we founded Betterfront.
“We offer a data analysis platform combined with a fundraising platform”
Munich Startup: What problem does your startup solve?
Michel Geolier: When VCs conduct fundraising themselves, it's a very stressful process, involving numerous meetings, intensive data sharing, and many offline processes. Being a fund manager in venture capital or private equity generally means that half of your business is making deals and investing in companies, but the other half is building relationships with investors, gaining their trust, and raising and investing their capital. We take care of that, helping fund managers and venture capital firms attract, engage, and retain institutional investors. For this, we offer a data analytics platform combined with a fundraising platform that helps them have a very streamlined fundraising process, with the goal of building ever stronger and healthier relationships.
Munich Startup: But that's been around for a long time!
Michel Geolier: Today, the process is more or less the same as it was 20 years ago. The problem for VCs is that they have to provide a lot of information to potential investors without knowing what the investors will do with all that information. They share all their documents and information, but receive no feedback on which parts are actually being sought. We solve this problem with our software. So when a fund manager comes to us and uses our software for fundraising, we need to understand how potential investors view them and their data, how they analyze the data, and how they position their fund relative to its competitors. And then we need to connect those insights, data, and track record with their own story. And, of course, we also help them spread that story and measure their engagement and track what's working and what isn't. And all of this is completely new to the market.
Betterfront collaborates with the Wayra community
Munich Startup: What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Michel Geolier: We are a small Pursue We don't have many resources, so we always have to understand the priorities in the product. A lot of great things can happen if we focus our resources on one thing and do it right by solving a precise pain point. So our biggest challenge has always been understanding what that pain point is, where the problems lie, and what product we should build today, in a week, in a month, in a year, and so on. But we had the chance to be part of the Wayra community of entrepreneurs at the beginning of our journey, and so every time we had something small or big, we could rely on that community and they helped us.
Munich Startup: Where would you like to be in one year, where in five years?
Michel Geolier: In a year, our clients will be able to handle the entire fundraising process with Betterfront, from start to finish. Today, this is a process that requires a lot of documentation, CFOs, lawyers, consultants, multiple vendors, and a lot of paperwork. The average fundraising time is 15 months, and this entire process is quite expensive—it can cost up to half a million. Our idea is to make this process better, shorter, and leaner, so you don't have to spend as much time fundraising. This means you can start investing sooner, you can work more with founders, and you can create better value, all of which will help you set up your next fund.
“Our vision is to become the central point of contact for your investors”
Looking five years ahead, our vision is to become the single point of contact for your investors. So, when you need to launch a fund—be it private equity, real estate, private debt, infrastructure, credit, or anything else—we'll help you build strong, long-term relationships with those investors and streamline data sharing.
Munich Startup: How do you rate Munich as a startup location?
Michel Geolier: I started as a student and earned my master's degree here in Munich. I worked in the investment sector here for several years, and now I'm a founder in Munich, so I've had the chance to explore the city from every perspective. Here in Munich, there are good universities, plenty of financing opportunities, many DAX-listed companies, startups, and unicorns—so you really have a beautiful and attractive place to live and work, there's no question about that. This was an advantage for our startup; we have several investors here, and Munich has a good international reputation.
Munich Startup: Get up early or stay up all night?
Michel Geolier: Whatever it takes. As a founder, you have to do what you have to do. So I tend to get up early, but if I can't get all my work done during the day, it's late nights, too. Building a company is hard, so you have to do what it takes.
