Bridging the Gap Between Founding and Investing in Startups

In this episode, we embark on an exploration of the intricate tapestry of AI, delving deep into its impact on investment strategies, evolving business models, and dynamic global markets. Fabian Westerheide, drawing from his profound expertise in international AI strategies and ecosystems, shares valuable insights into the opportunities and challenges that AI presents to both governmental and private organizations, further solidifying his position as a pivotal figure in shaping AI strategies and policies.

About Our Guest

Fabian Westerheide

AI Expert | Entrepreneur | Venture Capitalist

Fabian Westerheide, founder of “Rise of AI” and MD of Asgard Capital, delves into merging personal and professional lives with life partners in the AI industry. Discussing the equilibrium of relationships and business, the duo explores family-driven ventures, AI’s ethical ramifications, and the future job landscape. The conversation highlights Fabian’s investment focus on societal benefits and emphasizes the importance of trust and personal growth in the realm of investments.

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What You’ll Learn:

• Effectively juggling personal and professional lives in the AI industry.
• Importance of responsible and ethical use of AI technology globally.
• Insights into Fabian Westerheide’s visionary approach in the AI sector.
• Art of investing in B2B AI companies and crucial investment criteria.
• Perspective on family dynamics influencing business ventures.
• Emphasis on AI’s impact on economies and societies.
• Role of trust in personal relationships and investment decisions.
• Predictions on how AI will shape the future job landscape.
• Navigating AI technology in global markets for maximum success.
• Significance of personal evolution in business and investment decisions.

Transcribe

 Sadaf Abbas: Hi, Fabian. How are you?

Fabian Westerheide: Good. Thank you for inviting me. 

 Sadaf Abbas: Uh, thank you so much, Fabian. So we would like to know more about you, Fabian. So, just tell me before we dive into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence and entrepreneurship; let’s get to know you a bit better on a personal level. Can you share with us a firm and hobby or drill that not many people know about you? Something that helps you unwind from the world of AI and tech.

Fabian Westerheide: Well, I, um, I like to spend my free time preparing for the dystopian future. So, one of my hobbies is live-action role-play games. I just joined for a week into the fallout scenario where we practice or live through the whole society after a nuclear meltdown and rebuilding of society. So, I prepare for the moment when the AI wins.

Sadaf Abbas: The rise of AI has become a prominent AI conference in Germany, right? What inspired you to start this initiative, and how has it contributed to the growth of the AI community? 

Sadaf Abbas: As we look ahead to the future of AI, what emerging trends or technology do you find particularly exciting? How do you envision AI shaping various industries in the coming years?

 Fabian Westerheide: AI is shaping every industry in every field, but it depends. The more digitally driven a business model, company or market is, the more AI they already use today or will use.

Fabian Westerheide: Whenever we talk about AI, we need to talk about digitalization first. You know, you need to know your data, your processes, how to work with them, and then you start with AI. Many companies like to skip the first part and jump directly to the AI and then are frustrated. So when we look for education, very little AI. Healthcare is a little AI because it’s heavily regulated. If we go for marketing, it’s full AI. FinTech, it’s full of AI. Um, so overall, what I see in trends is that with the upcoming of, you know, enterprise GDP and other, um, large language models or foundation models, they are going to be customized to be built for enterprises, and they will have domain expertise. So in soon, you know, a couple of years or months, we will see, um, generative AI being very good to build automotive parts or as. It’s way better than designing airplanes and certain things. So it will be a very smart assistance tool. And we’re finally in the phase of collecting all the expertise knowledge and feeding it into the self-learning systems.

Sadaf Abbas: I think so; the emerging industry is aviation, the automotive industry, right? 

Fabian Westerheide: Oh, I know chemistry and logistics and retail. I would say the most leverage you have in logistics, for example, because there’s a lot of math behind it. And I can help you to run numbers way smoother than we do. I see a lot of AI in the part of sustainability. Um, but for the rise of AI, I always look for new fields. For example, I’m heavily excited about AI in the defense space, but also, for example, saving biodiversity. I will just have someone who’s building AI for marine biology to help preserve the oceans.

Sadaf Abbas: Absolutely. We need this. You need to think about it. I’m very happy that still one person, if we are thinking that it’s been given a chance to start it. So if you are thinking in that way, uh, it is a huge. It will have a huge impact on the world globally. 

Fabian Westerheide: AI is a great tool. It’s always a tool. To us humans, if we use it for good or bad. And we can use it to make more money. I know friends who make a fortune with AI trading. But I think we should use these tools to save our planet, to save, you know, to improve our healthcare, to tackle climate change. All this is way too complicated for a single human or for a group of humans to solve it.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah. Coming to, uh, share some insights into the startup you have recently invested in. What drew you to them?

Fabian Westerheide: Well, I would say the most, not the recent investment, but the investments I like the most currently is demands sage, which is, um, for me, exciting because it’s a more strategic investment because they have a venture fund. So they start their own ventures, two to three companies a year, which is, for example, one going into fertility management. 

Fabian Westerheide: So they have one team who is able to help women who can’t get children with a 95 percent likelihood because of AI to tell them if the egg they will implant is suited for them or not. So it will help a lot of women to have more children. And more affordable, for example. So they are starting these companies. One thing, but they also have, uh, Marantix has compost, a couple of them. So they have just dedicated co-working space for AI companies. They have their own fund. They have two funds by now. And they have their own consultancy. And what I like about them is that they cover the whole spectrum from investing to advising to being able to do long-term shops but building community at the same time. So this is, for me, a perfect ecosystem and a small scale.

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. I would like to add one more question: what major things do you see in the startup when you are going for the investment? What key elements do you want to see?

Fabian Westerheide: If you invest in AI or not, it’s always the same at the end, it’s product, market, team, and I call it timing. So I have lost money because I gave founders capital, but they were a little bit too early in the market, or they didn’t have the patience to stay with the market long enough. So, for example, in the military sector, I made investments. Six, seven years ago, and they failed because, you know, the war came now, now there’s the need for it, but you didn’t have the money to find them for the whole time. So it needs a lot of patience and endurance. And this is for every entrepreneur out there. The second is AI is very slow. So especially, you need more patients than normally because it takes way longer to have revenue, to have proof of concept, and to show your technology. So I look for founders who know that they’re in the game for at least a decade and that they know they will stick to it for a serious time.

Sadaf Abbas: How many successful investors have a daily routine that keeps them grounded and productive? What does your typical day look like? Do you have any unique habits?

Fabian Westerheide: I like the question. So in the morning, I first, I don’t, I don’t have a wake-up call. I wake up when I’m ready. Um, then I take a dog walk. It’s always good. You know, I don’t eat in the morning. I do intermediate fasting. So I only eat in the afternoon or the evening. Um, I take a lot of supplements in between. Just optimize my blood values, which I measure every couple of weeks to months. So optimizing my supplements on there and then important for me in the routines is in the evening, no electricity, especially in the bedroom, you know, just read for the last one, two hours, you know, give your body time to calm down. Um, to get tired naturally. Then I just sleep as long as my body wants it. I never tell him when he has to get up. There are some exceptions when I have to get a plane, but I try to stay to those routines, and that’s why I travel less than before because I sleep the best way in my own bed.

Sadaf Abbas: You are doing the work-life balance right now. Fabian, what I say, right?

Fabian Westerheide: I do. Um, you know, you only live once. My body is my temple, and I need to maintain my body and my mind the best way. So I always stay fit. I don’t get sick, and I’m very seldom sick. I’m always in a good mood. And if I keep to my routines, I can give my best every day.

Sadaf Abbas: You are basically living your moment right now. So you can live the moments. We call it, um, the present is a gift. History is a mystery, and yes, the past is history; the future is a mystery. Live with the present because it’s a gift. So this is the whole motive. Yeah. So, uh, perfect. I really would like to see everybody, especially whether they are investors, entrepreneurs or whatever, they need to be like you, that they should have a proper schedule, so then they’ll have good vibes all day. 

Fabian Westerheide: It wasn’t always the same before COVID. I have traveled a lot internationally. I did 700 to 800 meetings a year, and I wasted a lot of energy. And so I learned to preserve my energy and to invest it in the right things at the right time. And since you only live once, it is important to seize every day and still do something which is improving the world a little bit better. So doing things for yourself, but also doing things for society, but… having the right balance because it’s not sure if society is paying you back.

Sadaf Abbas: Good, really, I mean, this is a… you can say mantra that it is a mantra of the life that you need to live in a proper way, give yourself time, peace of mind. And this is the biggest thing in life right now after the COVID. 

Sadaf Abbas: So, looking ahead, how many startups are you able to invest this year and over the next five years? Do you have a specific business or industry in mind? 

Fabian Westerheide: Um, it depends a little bit. We are with our new fund in the closing. So, you know, if I do the numbers we want to do as a team, 5 to 10 investments next year, let’s say 20 to 30 investments over the next 3 years because you have an investment period per fund of one to max three or four years where you do direct investments and then you do follow up investments. But as usual, depends a little bit on the market. I hate spending money just because I have to spend money. That’s why my own fund was always driven by opportunities and not by a need to invest. If you have great teams, you do two investments a week. If you don’t have a good team, you don’t do investments at all. 

Sadaf Abbas: So, a specific industry, what industries? 

Fabian Westerheide: Well, I favor everything that is B2B applied AI. I don’t think that in Europe, we have a large chance to go to the end consumer market because this is mainly dominated by the American companies or the Chinese ones, on the other hand. So I believe the largest opportunity for Europe, but also for India and Africa, et cetera, is in the industries. Helping as we talk about the automotive companies to become more digital and intelligent to help the whole manufacturing industries, you know, um, everything which is produced, there could be automated without human touch at the end if we want to. I always say good AI is invisible. So I want to invest in companies that build AIs that are amazing, but we, as end users, will never see or feel it because if it works fine and doesn’t make mistakes, we don’t experience it negatively. 

Sadaf Abbas: So, my next question is, Artificial Intelligence is an open path question about the future. If you could travel 100 years into the future, what’s the first thing you want to see or learn about AI and its impact on society? 

Fabian Westerheide: I’m highly curious to learn if AI has solved the large problems of wealth in fairness, you know, are the rich getting richer because of AI? or have we figured out a tech system, an incentive system, that we can redistribute the earnings of AI to society so that everyone has a roof, health, and education. So I don’t want anyone is starve, or everyone should have the opportunity to figure out what they want in their life and be the best of themselves without having to the forced to take a job just to survive. So, I would like to come to a level where AI is providing everyone with a guaranteed living standard, and then we’ll see. In science fiction, we will face over the next 10 to 30 years of huge, great reset, great breakup revolution. I don’t know what it is, but the system we’re living in can’t continue like it’s going now. We don’t have enough resources, we don’t have, you know, it’s too much tension in it, and this tension has to leave. But I don’t know who will win. And if, in 100 years, we will have a couple of super-rich ones ruling the whole world with AI, like in China, or will it be a more European way where we’re able to find a common value and what we find a certain piece within society that AI is there. We embrace it, but it’s not destroying our values. Quite the opposite. It’s enhancing our values of peace, empathy, commitment, letting humans be humans. 

Sadaf Abbas: Indeed. Humans, yes. The major thing is the empathy. Fabian, we, right now, in these days, we don’t empathize. Sympathy and empathy are two different things. Basically, empathy is that you are feeling the same thing, the same frequency as the other person. Right? So we need to be in that, in that area that it’s okay, everything’s money, we are working for the money, but we need to consider the other areas of life as well. Happiness, peace of mind. 

Fabian Westerheide: Yes, if you just go for the money, it’s mostly an indication that something is not right in your mental state. I was very money-driven before, but it was… because I wanted to show my father, please, hey, I’m successful. Please give me your attention. I also wanted to have his attention, his love. I had to learn that with more money, I couldn’t buy the love or the respect of my father, even if he told me this before. Um, so money is just a tool, and we need enough money to pay for rent and for bells. But more is not always better. 

Sadaf Abbas: Absolutely. I get it, um…

Fabian Westerheide: And I do AI investment. Sure, I invest money into them to get money back, but I don’t do it for the money. I love helping entrepreneurs to be successful. I love this energy. I truly believe that it will have an impact on society, and they need capital for this. But there again, capital is the tool you need to be successful and to continue. It’s not the goal. 

Sadaf Abbas: Absolutely. Uh, you mentioned that you and your wife have been working together on the Rise of AI. What’s it like to work alongside your partner, and how do you balance your personal and professional life? 

Fabian Westerheide: Well, since we both live and breathe the AI ecosystem, I truly enjoy having a partner in life who shares my passion for AI. And therefore, we both have a good understanding. We know the same people, we push each other, and we help each other. And also we can fit our work perfectly into our life. Like, you know, there’s no reason to have a forced meeting, you know, we can do it in the car when we travel on vacation. Um, it’s often that when we do vacations and then we, you know, we don’t really work, but we still think we brainstorm, we collaborate. So it’s perfect because it’s not a job. It’s a.. in German, we say Berufung, which means professional passion. So you don’t do this because you have to do it; you do it because you want to do it. And I really enjoy working with my wife because I highly respect her in her field. And it works well because she’s an event manager. So she’s doing all the organizational parts. I’m more the guy who knows the people who are doing the program. So we are very good at adding value to each other. And we figured this out over time. Sure, we fight over several things, but mostly we fight privately. You sell ’em; we fight over business reasons.

Sadaf Abbas: Uh, same. Likewise, I and my husband, uh, I’m a financial consultant, and my husband is a digital marketer, and we both in our areas expert, but we both, when we are at one table, we are sharing our skills. I’m helping him as a financial consultant in-house as well. Making him a budget and everything and making a saving plan for him; he is a marketing consultant, so he knows how to do everything. He is implementing my budget; he is implementing my costing analysis in his personal life and side by side his business life as well. So yes, when your partner is a partner in business life as well, I believe that you are having more success, far more success if you are single.

Fabian Westerheide: History was driven by family businesses; it’s, in the end, families who were, over the periods of centuries, very successful, from the Roman Empire to the medieval ages until today. I do not. I mean, sure, we take jobs because we need jobs and sometimes the structures out there. But for me, it cost me a lot of opportunities. I believe that building something long-lasting with very good friends or business partners or your own family provides you with more happiness and more sustainability for everything. Because you don’t work for a company that’s getting richer, you work for your own, and you have the whole risk and opportunities in your hands. And if you’re strong enough to do this, please do it. And I like it. It’s more natural to work within a family than going to a job.

Sadaf Abbas: So again, again, asking the same question. When evaluating potential investments, what are the key criteria qualities you look for in a startup or upon, um, product market team? 

Fabian Westerheide: So, with a team, let’s say we stay with AI, um, or non-AI, you need to have the technical expertise to know what you’re building, but at the same time, I learned you need to be able to sell it. Most founders are good at building a product, but they struggle to sell it. And at the end, the investors don’t finance your innovation; they finance the growth of the company. So you need to either be very early and figure out like I have a trust relationship with a business angel who’s supporting me because I’m a cool guy or woman.

Fabian Westerheide: On the other hand, you want to have the heavy money when you know you can grow. And this growing phase is where most startups struggle and where most startups don’t achieve, you know, they have amazing products, and they can’t sell it either because it’s expensive or they don’t know the process. They don’t have the network, so I learned over time that you need to be able to sell them, bring your product into real life, and then you can continue. Um, we always lose this, you know, it’s, we don’t need new innovations. We need real integration.

Sadaf Abbas:  AI is often associated with innovation, but it’s also filled with challenges. Can you tell us about a time when it’s been a significant obstacle or setback in your career and how you overcame it?

Fabian Westerheide: Yeah, because a lot of people are not replaced by AI, but they will be replaced by people using AI. So AI is a productivity boost, which means the company either uses the same amount of people and has higher productivity or needs fewer people to achieve the same productivity. And this is a personal challenge on every level. Like we all had jobs which don’t exist anymore. Someone else was doing this cheaper, you know, offshore, etc. Um, my personal Approach there is always to improve myself and stay with all the tools, learning a lot of tools. I never stopped learning. I’m like when Gen A came out, I was the first, not the first, but really early into testing a lot of tools. I’m using 20 to 30 AI tools differently. Using them, you know, never think you know everything and stay young in your mind and continue with this. I had a handful of setbacks in life. For example, I tried to raise a larger fund in the past for AI and all the family offices. State pension funds told me there is no AI, we don’t invest in AI, it will never come. So I had to learn that I’m too early in the market, that I’m too visionary and that I need way more patience to stay with the market because the rest of the world takes longer to accept and understand what the whole implications are. So, currently, I’m writing a book about the state of AI in contrast, from a European perspective in comparison to China and the United States.

Fabian Westerheide: And I’ve been telling the same story for 10 years, and still, it hasn’t reached everyone. And therefore, a book, for example, is the next challenge for me to finish, to write, to market, you know, it costs a lot of money and energy, but I do this because I have a mission I want to share with the world. 

Sadaf Abbas: You have mentioned your interest in the ethics of AI and technology. How do ethical considerations influence your investment decisions? And are there any specific areas or principles you prioritize? 

Fabian Westerheide: So I try to avoid companies who are there just for the money. Um, so I don’t invest a lot into gambling. I don’t invest in trading. I don’t believe that the tubal capitalistic system is sustainable, and therefore, I don’t want to enforce it. I love everything that is in the healthcare space and making you live longer. I like everything that is helping you in it, the mental space to be more, you know, the better yourself. I like everything that is in the industries, which will lead to less people needing to do a job they hate. It’s a different ethical challenge what to do with those people then, but still, I…I believe a lot of people do jobs they don’t really like, and they only do it for the money. And I think this could be automated. So I like to do this overall. I’m also open to dual-sense technologies. That means in the military defense thing, knowing that using more tech means fewer Civilians are killed in wars, and we have to accept that wars are there. We can’t prevent this. It’s existing. It’s part of human nature, unfortunately, and therefore, if we use the better technology, you know, you can prevent a lot of catastrophes, and therefore it’s always a balance, you know, I don’t go for an offensive weapon, but everything which is giving, you know, our armies a little bit more intelligence to prevent that someone is dying on the field, II like to support this too.

Sadaf Abbas: Many people find inspiration in quotes. Do you have a favorite quote or mantra that resonates with you and has guided you throughout your career? 

Fabian Westerheide: It goes with what I said before; you know, I work mainly on myself. I need to be mentally fit before I go to others. Um, you know, I don’t like to be aggressive or blaming or hurtful to people just because I have personal problems and because they triggered me, you know. They don’t want to insult me; It is how I feel inside if they’re able to insult me. So I put a lot of energy into myself to be stable, to be calm, to be in a certain zen feeling, and then I can help the rest of the world. Then we mentioned that you only live once. I know it’s a mantra of a different generation, but it’s true. You have to seize every day. And I don’t optimize any more for the future too much because. Today, I live and breathe, and I could die every day. I just could get a heart stroke or fall down the stairs. And then, for me, it’s important to be patient. Don’t give up, but be patient. Look for the right timing, or just be patient in the market until the whole thing evolves for you. And then, in the end, everything is about energy. Energy between us, energy about the people listening to us, energy for yourself, your family. If you see the whole world in energy, if and even if it’s a little bit esoteric, it is how you have a relationship with yourself and your family.

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah, I believe it. You are saying energy, but I call it universal law. It is, there are 12 universal laws, and within the 12 universal laws, you have the law of vibration. This is the first law of the universe. Law vibration means everything is energy: what we are thinking, what we see, every metal, every material of the world, even in the universe, is part of the energy. So we both are energy. So, if you are thinking, I’m passing something in my thoughts to you as a part of it. So, of course, I believe in your thoughts and mantras. Yes, we live in once in a life. Every day, every day is a blessed day you have, that you are having a life. So be with life and achieve it. What the goals we are having, have a peace of mind and have health. And I’m very happy that you are doing all these things, Fabian. So, every person will be inspired. 

Fabian Westerheide: I hope, I hope it’s, it’s for everyone. It’s their own journey, and what you said is like every day, you’re reborn when you go to sleep. And I’m currently trying even to analyze my dreams. I want to, you know, I have a dream book next to my desk, and when I wake up at night, I will take some notes because I’m very curious to know my state of mind while I’m sleeping. But every day, I go to bed knowing, not sure if I wake up or not. And every day, I’m reborn. It’s a new opportunity to do the best and also have, how do you say, caring yourself? So if I don’t feel well, I accept this; if my state of mind is depressed during the day, I accept this. You know, I don’t punish myself. I don’t yell at myself. I treat myself with love and appreciation; not only if I can love myself, I can love others. 

Sadaf Abbas: Yeah. Absolutely. Love is a start from within itself. If you don’t have love feelings, you can’t give away; give it to others. Um, seriously, it’s good to know that we are at the same level of energy; that’s okay. I thought, and one more thing, I really love to have a dream book. Because dreams are basically part of your subconscious mind. Whatever you see in your dreams it’s basically your subconscious; the mind is telling you something. So you need to have a proper conscious level when you wake up, you have a conscious now, and you need to see, and you need to remember and write down your dreams in a proper way. So every time you will see, okay, my subconscious mind is telling me this, this. Right. So perfect. You are doing very well, Fabian. You have no idea what you are doing. 

Fabian Westerheide: Well, I’m fine. Finally, in the state of mind where I’m happy with my life, and I used to be 20 years running after attention, pushing my ego, I wanted to have more energy from outside, you know, more newspapers, more interviews, everything. But then I learned that being myself is just sufficient, and I don’t need the energy of other people to be happy with myself.

Sadaf Abbas: You have also been involved in AI investment through Asgard Capital. What criteria do you look for when selecting AI startups to invest in? And what advice would you give to inspiring AI entrepreneurs in funds? 

Fabian Westerheide: So, for all founders out there who are starting the business or have started before, it’s about relationships. You do not get money just because you write in cold email. It is because you know the investors before,, and you have built trust with them. Trust is crucial because, in the beginning, you just have a pitch deck, and you have some ideas, and you have motivation and time, but you often do not have something to which tangible asset; therefore, investments in the early stage or seed or series are always an investment into the future. And for this, you need to build the trust. And I like to compare it to dating, you know, like finding your husband or a future wife. It is building this trust. Do I want to be with this person on board for the next five to 10 years? 

Sadaf Abbas: Yes.

Fabian Westerheide: That’s why you also have contracts because contracts are like a prenup, you know, it’s like just for the case of breaking up, we need to figure out when we are still on the honeymoon phase. In case this doesn’t work out, how do we break this up? That’s why you need contracts, but in the contracts you already see, does this person trust you? Are these terms fair, or are they too aggressive? And also say don’t take stupid money. Don’t take the money just because you get it from people who will harm you. Having investors with money blocks your vision. They block your energy. This will kill you in the end. I have seen many companies going down because the CEO left the company in a fight with his investors and vice versa. So you try to find even less capital, try to find the right people who will push you, who will. Help you and will help you reach the next level in your private and business life. 

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. Perfect. This is a very good advice. I would like to see in the startups, especially because when I read the projections of valuation for the startups or for the investors, I see that the contract, the people either decided to start or for the investor, the contract itself is giving the mirror. Okay. Either the solution is going far or not. So, when you are making the contract, every terms and conditions should be true and fair values. Both parties should be validated; not just one party should be validated. So, again, you told me that, um, it’s like, uh, making a couple. You have a contract with the person for at least five to ten years. So, trust-building is everything. Because when you have a business or when you have a startup, there are so many stages. Either they are falling, they are progressing, they are they will have the downs as well. So how you both parties will agree to at the same page, so the trust level is the first thing. And, uh, investors should basically invest their money into the startup founders’ vision. He sees that, yes, maybe the startup will be in the future. So, he’s not investing in the startup; basically, the investor is investing his money and his energy into the founder’s vision. So, uh, this is the main thing they need to think about as a founder, that the investor is just putting his money to trust you, not your ideas, not on his side.

Fabian Westerheide: We invest in people.

Sadaf Abbas: Yes, his vision or why that the energy what the passion is about and that relationship at least at least is going for five to ten years. Do you have any 

Fabian Westerheide: If you’re doing well, 

Sadaf Abbas: Yes. Do you have any experience? Um, you are in Asgard Capital; what do you do? How many investments have you made so far this year or in the upcoming year as part of this company?

Fabian Westerheide: So I personally have done what 50 to 70 investments in the last 15 years, but you, you don’t keep the relationship to all of them, but sometimes you have a small ticket, large ticket, they go bust, they got sold. Um, so on a private level, I do, as I said, one to two investments a year for selection. One is because of a question of attention. Yeah, do I have enough attention with the fund? I’m part of it’s called AI fund dot vc. Uh, as I said, we want to do 10 to 20 investments a year, but we’re five partners. Therefore, everyone will do, let’s say, five investments per person, maybe a year. I personally believe you cannot manage more than 10 investments full-time as a partner because then you’re losing attention. So you always can think like, okay, I take the fund and each partner is getting 5 to 10 investments overall, and then you can do the math. 

Sadaf Abbas: How many investments are possible? Also, it’s always a question. Do you invest in, you know, Asia? Do you invest in Europe?

Fabian Westerheide: I prefer to invest where I have a network and value net. So for the companies I’ve invested in, I know, you know, I know the, the, the, the parliament people. I know the secretary of state, I know the minister. I know all the press media are people I know who follow an investor. So if I invest in a company, let’s say in Germany, I can help them to get visibility and follow-up on funding. I’m not the best guy to help you with network in Asia. It’s not my best network. I can help you more there, you know, with knowledge, market access to Europe, strategic advice. So I try to put my money there where I also can add value and where I really can help. 

Sadaf Abbas: So, this is a very nice meeting with you, Fabian. And I hope this, uh, this meeting is giving any advice to any other startups who are seeking funds in the market right now. Thank you, Fabian, for your your time. And. Uh, we will catch up in the next few weeks, more later, for more details with you. Okay. Thank you. Fabian. 

Fabian Westerheide: Thank you very much for having me here, and for everyone else who wants to feel free to add me on LinkedIn, join our conference. You know, I’m doing a lot in the AI field; reach out to me if you just want to have advice and opinions. 

Sadaf Abbas: Perfect. Thank you, Fabian, for your advice. Thank you. 

Fabian Westerheide: Bye.