Martin Ott

So happy to be back from summer holidays and already meeting many startups this week through Office Hours and intros, some common advice kept coming up — so here’s my five friendly tips for early-stage founders pitching VCs: ✅ Be obsessed. Not just interested — obsessed. Know more about your problem space than anyone else in the room. Surprise me with your insights, your homework, your edge. I want to feel like you are the person who has cracked this. ✅ Show me the breakthrough. What you’re building should be meaningfully better — not incrementally. Explain why your solution is 10x better, not 10% improvement. What’s the bold technical, product or business model innovation? ✅ Tell the vision story. This is your billion-dollar moment. Don’t just explain what you do — paint the picture of what happens if you win. What shifts in the market? What becomes possible? What huge value is unlocked? ✅ Sell the team. At the earliest stage, you are the investment. What makes you exceptional? What edge do you have that others don’t? Show me how you’ve built a team that’s not just smart — but complementary, diverse, and uniquely positioned to win. ✅ How you say things are often more important than what. Make sure you lean in with presence, curiosity and passion. Balancing strong confidence with humility. I know this might sound like a lot but I also think startups at this stage don’t need perfect answers to everything — but they do need to make me believe. #startups #venturecapital #founders #earlystage

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Here’s a harsh truth: fundraising today is slow, costly, and unfairly tilted towards the well-connected. You know what I’m talking about. We’ve all seen it again and again.   Europe has brilliant founders with bold ideas, yet too many fail before they even get a fair chance. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not because they lack vision, but because the fundraising system is outdated. CORE changes that. Because founders get a digital co-pilot that levels the playing field: AI guidance, investor-ready decks, early visibility, and rounds live in under 72 hours.  For the cost of a dinner, every founder now has access to the tools, structure, and visibility once reserved for a few. The real cost isn’t trying, it’s waiting. This isn’t about building another tool. It’s about building Europe’s private market infrastructure, where preparation, raising, and managing capital become accessible to all. 👉 This is how we level the field: https://lnkd.in/dsYhQqnp

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"ETH takes an equity stake in spin-offs, usually two percent." 👍 ETH Zürich now offers some of the best terms for spinoffs in Europe thanks to their new Equity and Licensing Policy. Very happy to have played a small part in this thanks to Vanessa Wood and Frank Floessel. 🇨🇭 Other European universities should take note. European deeptech would be much better off with universities creating less friction for spinoff founders, and a big way for them to create less friction is via offering healthier terms. https://lnkd.in/emdx87jp

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Why I Don't Sign NDAs for Early-Stage Founders — And Why Founders Shouldn't Ask Your idea is your baby. I get it. But for VC, asking for an NDA before sharing that idea isn't protecting your future - it's limiting it. In my latest article, I break down why NDAs create more problems than they solve for founders seeking early-stage funding. I explain why VCs structurally cannot sign them (reviewing 1,500+ decks annually makes this impossible), why they signal inexperience rather than caution, and most importantly - why your execution matters infinitely more than your idea. If you're a founder worried about idea theft, this perspective might change how you approach investor conversations forever. I explain why trust is the real compounding currency in venture capital - not legal protection.

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