Alan Poensgen is a partner at Antler and was MD of Westwing. Here he reveals what and his colleagues look for in founders. Antler/Dominik Schmitt
130,000 people apply for a place in Antler’s accelerator program every year. A maximum of 2.5 percent is taken. The Central Europe cohort in Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam consists of around 150 founders who were selected from around 10,000 candidates in a multi-stage process with two to three interviews. Founders will work as Antler residents at the VC’s locations for ten weeks. Some come as a team, others find co-founders as part of the program. And only then does the VC make his investment decision.
Given this blatant selection rate, the question is even more pressing: How? How do people who want to start a business convince Antler to invest in their startup or accept them into a program? We asked Alan Poensgen, partner at Antler and once co-founder of Westwing.