From April, the Glossybox founder will take a seat on the TV show “The Lion’s Den”. In the interview, Janna Ensthaler talks about her path to the show and what she thinks about the show.
The new TV investor Janna Ensthaler is no stranger to anyone who has followed the German start-up scene in recent years. The former management consultant co-founded the cosmetic box mail order company Glossybox in 2010, and the Berlin company Rocket Internet was one of the first investors at the time. Within the first two years, around 55 million euros flowed into the startup, a very high sum for the time. In 2012 Ensthaler left Glossybox again.
The entrepreneur, originally from Pogeez near Hamburg, then dedicated herself to founding Kaiserwetter, a restaurant for healthy fast food with three branches in Hamburg. The company sold them and launched event location platform Eventinc. In January 2021, she then set up the Green Generation Fund, a VC fund for early-stage food and greentech startups. And now she is also sitting in front of the TV camera as a juror on the Vox show “Die Höhle der Löwen” (DHDL).
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We asked Ensthaler what brought her to DHDL, how she intends to invest her money and whether the criticism of the show sometimes voiced in the startup scene is justified.
Janna, how did you come to be a DHDL judge? Did you think about it for a long time?
I’ve been in contact with the production for a long time and have always been a big fan of the show. Now was a good time for me to join, as I not only have a lot of founding experience, but also experience as an investor.
Is there a budget for how much you want to invest in total or per startup?
No, I haven’t decided on anything specific.
What is your content focus?
As an investor, I attach great importance to founders who bring in-depth specialist knowledge, strong stamina and passion for their topic. When it comes to business models, I like to be surprised. However, one thing is certain: I only invest if I am really convinced that the founders take sustainability seriously.
What are no-gos, what do you not want to invest in?
If I’m not sure whether an investment is also good for the environment, I prefer to say “no” when in doubt. I value a dual purpose where an investment is both financially attractive and healthy for our world. Fortunately, there are more and more projects that successfully combine both aspects. But of course there are topics in which I would never invest. This includes, for example, products that produce an unnecessarily large amount of packaging waste or are not recyclable. The aspect of resource consumption is also central for me, i.e. how much CO₂, space or water is used by the production, distribution and consumption of the product. There is no way I would invest in ideas related to factory farming.
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Do you prefer to invest alone or in a team with other lions?
For me it’s not an “either or”. It all depends on the founders, the idea and the business model. Sometimes we lions can complement each other very well as joint investors in the team. It is always a lot of fun to support the founders together. But I wouldn’t say I prefer one over the other.
What do you offer as an investor that other lions don’t have? What is your unique selling proposition?
As a four-time founder in the past twelve years, I know what it’s like to have an idea at the very beginning. With the three companies I founded and my fund, I have been able to gain so much experience that I would now like to pass on. And with my specialist expertise in the areas of greentech, foodtech and the digital scene, I would like to support founders. I know about the challenges and the sleepless nights that starting a business can entail.
As one of the few venture capital investors at DHDL, I can also draw on my network of European and international investors and strategists.
Through which holding do you invest?
I invest through my private company “Ensthaler Media”.
Will you also take investments to the Green Generation Fund?
My investments at DHDL are completely independent of the Green Generation Fund. The money invested is 100 percent private and has nothing to do with our investment strategy at GGF.
Will you remain an investor in DHDL in future seasons?
I’m really looking forward to being part of future filming. We have a very nice atmosphere on the set and a great production and directing team. Even my family planning, so it was rumored, does not stand in the way.
Is there anything that surprised you the most during filming?
I was very pleased that nothing was actually “staged” on DHDL. So that we investors really don’t know who’s coming through the door and what the pitch will be about. This is also one of the exciting aspects of DHDL: you have to decide during these few minutes whether you believe in the idea and the founders and want to invest in them or not.
The startup scene often criticizes that DHDL has nothing in common with “real” reasons. Since you come from the start-up scene and now know both sides, how do you judge that?
I do not think so. DHDL has exceptional founders and ideas that give the viewer authentic insights into founding. I am convinced that DHDL, through its reach and authenticity, will make the topic of founding a company in Germany and Europe more accessible to everyone. And that’s also my message that I want to convey to all viewers: If you have an idea that you believe in 100 percent and want to put it into practice – then don’t hesitate and dare to start a business.
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Is there a lack of courage in Germany?
Our future as a business location in Germany will benefit, even depend on the fact that we can persuade more intelligent and motivated founders to become entrepreneurs in Germany. You can see from Vegdog, for example, that I take the founders at DHDL seriously. The founders with their healthy, vegan dog food appeared at DHDL at the time and are now a successful investment in our fund.
Conversely, do you have a message for the scene?
We founders and investors from the German “bubble start-up scene” in Berlin and Co., with often the same faces, must also ask ourselves: Are we doing enough to convey the fun of founding to everyone who may not have the typical approaches to our world has? Some do it very well: such as Sarna Röser, Lea-Sophie Cramer and Verena Pausder. Others less. Believing that you are something better, or not opening your own network to other founders, will not lead to more growth as a start-up location.