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 next Central European cohort starts at the end of January in Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam with 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.