Red & Green Flags for Angel Investors, Cold Outreach to Investors & Impact of Inflation on Startups – Podcaster & Angel Investor Philipp Klöckner

About this episode

Philipp Klöckner combines three worlds in one person: As a business angel, he invests in companies like Gorillas and OWWN, as an advisor to private equity firms like KKR, he gets behind-the-scenes insights into major deals, and as host of the Doppelgänger Tech Talk podcast, he analyzes stocks down to the smallest detail. This unique perspective makes him a valuable conversation partner for any founder wanting to understand how investors really think.

Balancing Different Roles

The combination of angel investor, private equity due diligence, and stock investor brings both advantages and disadvantages. Klöckner benefits from his broad perspective but must also ensure he remains authentic in each role. Particularly interesting: his podcasting experience has helped him ask better questions and evaluate companies more thoroughly.

Red Flags That Angel Investors Watch For

As an experienced angel investor, Klöckner has identified clear warning signals that make him skeptical. It's not just about obvious problems like unrealistic valuations or weak founding teams. Often it's more subtle signals: How does the team react to critical questions? Are the assumptions in the business model realistic? Can the team clearly communicate their vision?

A particularly important point: At what stage do startups need to deliver concrete numbers? Klöckner emphasizes that it's less about the exact stage and more about whether the presented numbers fit the company's story and are comprehensible.

Cold Outreach to Investors – Is It Even Possible?

Many founders wonder whether they can cold-email investors. Klöckner's answer is nuanced: It's fundamentally possible, but the approach determines success or failure. A well-researched, personalized message that shows why exactly this investor fits the startup has real chances. Mass emails, however, usually end up in the trash.

VTGF 2.0 – Meaningful Help or Political Theater?

A controversially discussed topic is the German government's Venture Tech Growth Fund 2.0. Klöckner views the initiative with mixed feelings: On one hand, it's important that Germany doesn't fall behind internationally. On the other hand, the question arises whether state funds are really the best solution or whether they might crowd out private investors.

The discussion reveals a fundamental dilemma in German startup policy: between the desire to remain internationally competitive and the risk of distorting market mechanisms.

Inflation and Its Impact on Startups

Particularly relevant for current founders is the question of how inflation affects startups. Klöckner explains that the impact strongly depends on the respective stage. Early-stage startups feel inflation mainly through higher personnel costs and more expensive office space. More mature companies must additionally decide whether and how to pass price increases on to their customers.

This decision becomes particularly critical in eCommerce: Higher prices can reduce conversion rates, while stable prices put margins under pressure. Klöckner advises playing through various scenarios early and adjusting pricing strategy accordingly.

Unicorns as a Benchmark – Problematic Thinking?

Another important point of discussion: Are only unicorns good companies? Klöckner warns against this one-dimensional perspective. Many successful companies never reach a billion-dollar valuation but still create significant value for customers, employees, and investors. The problem often lies in media attention, which focuses almost exclusively on the biggest success stories.

Practical Learnings for Founders

Several concrete action recommendations emerge from the conversation:

• –Prepare for critical questions and practice communicating your vision clearly
• –For investor outreach: Quality over quantity – better fewer, but well-researched contacts
• –Develop scenarios for various macroeconomic developments early on
• –Don't focus solely on unicorn valuations, but on sustainable growth

Klöckner's diverse perspective shows: Successful startups don't emerge by chance, but through the ability to understand different viewpoints and draw the right conclusions from them.