Tag: Mozes Victor Konig

Mozes Victor Konig: Tips for VC Mentors

Mozes Victor Konig has been using his success with MVK Ventures SARL to guide others who are interested in the possibility of becoming a Venture Capital mentor.  

“Thankfully I’ve had some success with my own company and I’ve really enjoyed the process of being a Venture Capitalist – something I still enjoy.  However, being a mentor is even better.  And I think that’s because of human nature’s desire to give to others. As Winston Churchill once said, ‘We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.’”

One can gain so much from being a mentor. Seeing your mentee succeed and do well and knowing that you have helped them is huge.  Some of the greatest success stories attribute their prosperity to the mentors they have had.  Examples of this include: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook who was mentored by the late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, Warren Buffett – described as “one of the most successful investors of all time” – credited Benjamin Graham and what he learned in his book, ‘The Intelligent Investor,’ with helping him with his entire investment philosophy, etc.

Ultimately, no matter how much one has achieved in their lifetimes, helping others is invaluable. And this is what Mozes Victor Konig has experienced and no doubt the others who have gainfully passed their wisdom on to others.

Mozes Victor Konig on VC Firms in COVID-19

A Venture Capital (VC) is “a form of private equity and a type of financing that investors provide to startup companies and small businesses that are believed to have long-term growth potential.” There are a few ways the success of these firms can be measured, one of the most utilized one being the Investment to Exit ratio.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, as with many other businesses, some VCs struggled. Given that VCs primarily invest in startups (which was one of the worst hit industry), it was not surprising that many were working at a much lower investment pace than in previous years. On the flip side of the coin, there were companies who ordinarily would have found it easier to gain investments but given the uncertainty it was harder to get a VC to take a risk.

In recent years, MVK Ventures SARL has become a leading Venture Capital firm.  The firm invests in startups in a variety of industries with a focus on biotech.  Founder and CEO of the firm Mozes Victor Konig believes that the pandemic definitely played a part in a lowering of confidence on the part of VCs to invest and more so, on start-ups seeking to, well, start up!

“What I found,” Konig recalls “was that people’s confidence took a real hit.  For an innovator who was teetering on the edge of shall I, shan’t I with regards to launching a business, it was definitely more of a case of, no, I shan’t,” he explained.

“Having said that, you got the flip side of the coin where people had lost their regular, secure 9-5 jobs and figured, ‘what can I lose?  It’s either now or never,’ but banks were less willing to come and help,” he added.

And that is where MVK Ventures SARL stepped in, adopting the role of connector between the start-up and the banks, based on Konig’s own business experience of when he first entered the industry.

We are still a long way from an economic recovery but there is definitely a higher degree of confidence among potential innovators, start-ups, VCs and even banks.

Mozes Victor Konig on the Value of Satellite Offices

With so many stay-at-home orders, lockdowns, quarantines and other related obstacles to getting out of the house, CEOs and small business owners are having to find alternatives to efficiently get their work done.  Various hubs, spoke offices, work-from-home offices and satellite offices have started to become “the new normal.”  When people have very quickly been forced to create makeshift workspaces they have looked into these alternatives.

“I believe that satellite and hub offices could really become much more popular and mainstream even when the pandemic is over,” said Mozes Victor Konig who has used satellite offices in his own company, MVK Ventures SARL.  “I opened a satellite office in Silicon Valley ‘before the trend’ as it were back in 2018 and I feel myself and my colleagues have really benefitted from it.”

So what is a satellite office exactly?  It is connected to the actual company but is physically separate from the main office.  There is no specification of sizing for a satellite office and they could host 1 or 100 employees but the idea of the concept is decentralization.  The benefit of this is that they are less overwhelming, have less overheads, are more flexible and during this crazy time can house one or two people on a rotating basis, decreasing the possibility of viral spread.

A satellite office definitely provides a real option for those who feel the need to get back to work but cannot quite make it back to the main office yet.