The purpose of the non-profit GmbH is to contribute to environmental and climate protection. What are the specific steps you want to take?
It’s an evolution of what I’m already doing. I invest in start-ups that have a positive impact based on certain criteria. How to define that exactly is a bit more complicated. For example, I only invest in various founding teams and not in pure white male teams – it is relatively easy for them to get money. I also prefer steward-owned startups (a form of ownership that ensures that profits and corporate assets serve long-term corporate development across generations, editor’s note) or that ensure non-profit status in some other way. We have now made an exit with Blinkist – but in general I believe that this model is rather harmful for our society. That’s why I try to support teams that don’t strive for that. So one part is “impact investing” and then I also support projects that are not profit-oriented, which I’ve done privately up to now.
Also read: Interview with Blinkist co-founder Holger Seim
You just said that it is difficult to measure the criteria that are set there. What standards do you want to set for the non-profit GmbH?
At the moment, to be honest, I still look at start-ups and say intuitively whether I think they have a big impact or not. That’s why I like investing in start-ups that are steward-owned or obviously not-for-profit. One of the most important questions for me is always: In the end, is it about the money or is it about the impact? If you make a company non-profit from the start or structure it as steward-ownership, then you don’t do it because you ultimately just want to make money, but then the focus is on the impact.