Philipp Klöckner is a multimillionaire and one of the best-known tech investors in Europe. A conversation about his lack of “killer instinct” and defining moments of his childhood.
After his own stellar career in the startup world, 43-year-old Philipp Klöckner now advises private equity companies and VC funds on their investments. He also invests in startups himself. Rising Media / SMX Conference
Philipp Klöckner is modest. He grew up in a prefabricated building in Greifswald, in what was then the GDR. His father was a teacher and his mother a doctor. Professional self-doubts haunted him for a long time. “Impostor syndrome,” as he says. To this day, it seems to him that on paper people are more qualified to talk about things than he is. When he switched to Rocket-Internet, the Samwer brothers’ startup, after his success at the comparison portal Idealo, he felt “like an accident”.
None of that stopped him. Klöckner is a multimillionaire, one of Europe’s most famous tech investors, and is better known Podcast-Host and consultants. In the last 15 years, he says he has helped over 100 startups with his knowledge or investments.
In the founder scene flashback interview, Klöckner talks to us about his childhood and the time before his great success, why he still doesn’t have any “killer instincts” today, why his moral compass is sometimes far too big and what typical founder behavior in the startup world bothers him.
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Hi Philipp, what was your relationship like with your parents?
I would say that I grew up very loving and protected. I’ve always been very close to my mother and I think I’ve picked up a lot of characteristics from her too.
Can you describe the characteristics?
A therapist might say: an overactive conscience, a kind of over-moralism. What you sometimes hear when I judge others. You can be sure that I apply this to myself very strongly. So trying to always do things right and also seeing yourself a little too much through other people’s eyes. To a certain extent I think this is a good quality.
Greifswald was part of the GDR until you were nine years old. How did you experience that as a child?
It was a relatively unmolested childhood. I actually experienced the GDR without any major restrictions and didn’t yet understand the negative aspects of the system. Today I would say: In the GDR I would either have become a terrible opportunist or would have been in prison long ago. There wouldn’t have been much in between.
How did you get through school? Were you the teacher’s favorite, inconspicuous or more of a class clown?
Definitely a class clown type. I found school terribly boring. I could never understand why other students who didn’t know the answer were picked on. The tasks were too easy for me. From today’s perspective, you would say that I had a mix between ADHD and severe under-challenge. The topic didn’t exist back then.
How did your parents deal with it?
I can remember when I came home with the first homework entries – “Philip disrupted class again today,” it usually said – that my mother and I cried. For her, it was horror to have a child who misbehaved at school.
What did that do to you?
I felt completely powerless. I couldn’t turn it off no matter how hard I wanted to. That left a lasting impression on me.
Have you ever been tested for giftedness?
This didn’t exist at all when I was at school in the 1990s. During my studies I took the test and yes, I would meet the criteria for giftedness today.
How did you make it through school without this knowledge?
Things got better in secondary school with compulsory elective lessons. I was able to choose subjects based on my preferences and occasionally had teachers who challenged me.
Is there a particular teacher you are referring to?
My biology teacher. She always gave us the opportunity for additional points at the end of exams. If we finished quickly enough, we could set tasks for ourselves and get points for good answers. I knew she loved the Galapagos Islands. So before every exam I did some research: Where are the Galapagos Islands? What types of endemic finches or turtles are there? That was a fun challenge.
What did you take away from the experience?
I’ve learned that when I’m interested in something, I do things ten times better. It was the same in my first job at Idealo. When I started there there were only 40 employees and no middle management. I started as a kind of intern and once told the right place that I could help with something here. As a result, I made a small climb and gained confidence. After that I could basically choose the job. I was suddenly able to work in business development and build the first analysis tools. I worked in marketing, search engine optimization and as a product manager at the same time. So I pursued my interests.
With your mother’s moral compass and your childhood experiences, how do you view the startup world today?
The principle that bothers me is: “Fake it, ‘till you make it.” It’s normal for a startup to sell a little more than what you’re already doing. If it’s too exaggerated or happens altogether at the expense of others, that’s something I’m happy to point out the injustice of. And I’m not a fan of the entrepreneurial and elite cult. I felt like an accident, especially at Rocket Internet, where even the interns came from investment banking or the best universities.
You felt like an accident. Because of your origins?
As someone who came from the East: The professors at my university (Klöckner studied business administration at the University of Greifswald, note d. Red.) were very good, but the university’s reputation was not necessarily good. As someone who had never been abroad, never done an internship and only studied in his home country, I of course felt completely out of place at Rocket, i.e. the maximum impostor syndrome.
How do you see it now? And does it influence your investment decisions today?
To date, in so many meetings, on paper all the people are significantly better qualified than me to talk about something. When it comes to investments, there are two things that are particularly important to me. I want to support people who are starting something I want to see in the world. Something that definitely doesn’t make the world worse and ideally makes it significantly better. And I try to give the benefit to people who don’t fit into the classic mold. This is not just a purely human decision. If you look at the data, these are the very people who are changing the world.
Philipp, Thank you for the interview.
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