This document discusses potential startups that fail before becoming unicorns. It notes that many promising companies never scale due to issues like wrong founding teams, ideas not fitting founders' skills, lack of structure, inability to scale, and funding gaps. The Demium program aims to address these issues through structured support. It offers separate pre-team/idea and growth programs, and a 50M EUR fund to finance companies in the pre-seed/seed stage to help them avoid early failure and have a chance at becoming unicorns. The goal is to support 225 portfolio companies over 3 years across 5 countries.

1. Unicorns You Never Get
a Chance To See
Thessaloniki Fair
September 2021
International Talent
Investor

2. Unicorns Were Meant To Be Rare
Traditional Definition:
A mythical animal typically represented as a
horse with a single straight horn projecting from
its forehead.
Definition in the Startup Ecosystem:
A privately-held start-up company valued at
more than a billion dollars, typically in the
software or technology sector.

3. In Europe, Unicorns Are No Longer A Myth But A Reality
Commutative number of companies by year in which $1 billion valuation mark is crossed

4. But What About All Those
Start-Ups that “Could Have”
& “Should Have” But “Didn’t”

5. Survivor Bias – We Only See The Successes But Never The Failures
Failure Rate By Company Age
Reducing Failure Rates provides the greatest impact to the society and the economy

6. Survivor Bias – We Only See The Successes But Never The Failures
Failure Rate By Company Age
Reducing Failure Rates provides the greatest impact to the society and the economy
Peak 1
Peak 2
Peak 3

7. Why Companies Fail?
Peak 1 Peak 2 Peak 3
• Wrong Founding Team
• Wrong Founder / Idea Fit
• Need for structure in
unstructured path
• Failure to Scale –
Death by Success
• Funding Gap
• Founder Exit
• Failure to Transition
to New Leadership

8. Why Companies Fail?
Peak 1 Peak 2 Peak 3
• Wrong Founding Team
• Wrong Founder / Idea Fit
• Need for structure in
unstructured path
• Failure to Scale –
Death by Success
• Funding Gap
• Founder Exit
• Failure to Transition
to New Leadership
Today’s Discussion

9. The Ideal Founding Team
Complementary Skills –
Leadership, Technology,
Marketing, Finance,
Complementary Experience
– In Industry, In Investment,
In Start-Ups
Different Networks /
Personal Relationships
Great
Professional Fit
Most Founders Build Their Team Based On Their Personal Relationships
Limitations of Local Search for Co-Founders
Local Search is the Tip
of the Iceberg
(Harder to get the right
founding team)
Local
Search
Global
Search
Managing the combination of personal and
professional relationships between co-founders
presents special challenges and additional risks
for the startup.

10. Refining An Idea Is An Interactive Process
The founder-idea fit is a combination of three things; knowledge of the problem,
the abilities to solve it and passion for the solution
• Finding the right idea is a creative process where the environment
and the individual interplay in search of harmony.
• The stone and the artist determine the
scultpure together

11. Talented Individuals that Want to Change the World come in all shapes
and sizes
The “Traditional” Founder
• Age: 20s / Early 30s
• Experience: Limited
• Obligations: Limited
• Easy Decision to “Jump Into the
Unknown”
• WANTS TO CHANGE THE WORLD
“The “Atypical” Founder
• Age: Late 30s and Beyond
• Experience: Extensive Other Start-Ups or
Corporate Environment
• Obligations: Significant
• Difficult Decision to “Jump Into the
Unknown”
• WANTS TO CHANGE THE WORLD
There is an enormous number of talented individuals who have the skills and motivation
to change the world. But the process of taking the leap is too hard.

12. Once A Business Takes Off. It Will Either Scale Of Fail
An inability to maintain quality and
focus when a company grows is the
biggest reasons successful startups
close after 3-4 years.

13. The Seed Funding Gap – Future Unicorns Never Given A Change
Amount
of
capital
needs
$
Friends & Family< 50K EUR Funding
Gap
Pre-Seed < 250k Mainstream
Financing > US$1M
Institutional
Capital

14. How Demium Helps Potential Future Unicorns Avoid Early Failure
• Wrong Founding Team
• Wrong Founder / Idea Fit
• Need for structure in unstructured path
• Inability to scale the business
• Funding GAP
A Structured program to complete founding teams
and match them with ideas that fit with support
from successful entrepreneurs, mentors, and
inudstry experts
Specific and separate programs for pre-team /
Pre-idea entrepreneurs and recently founded
companies focused on growth
Dedicated 50M EUR fund for companies in the
pre-seed / seed stage.
BARRIER DEMIUM APPROACH

15. A Structured Program with External Experts & Mentors
PROB / SOL - 2/3 WEEKS
IDEA - 2 WEEKS
SIGN
AGREEMENT
CREATE TEAM
SELECT IDEA
FIRST
ANALYSIS
OF IDEA
COMPETITIVE &
SCAPE
COMPETITOR
ANALYSIS
ANALYSIS PROBLEM
/OPPORTUNITY
SOLUTION
ANALYSIS
DEFINE
SOLUTION
SIGN ANNEX
MVP
NO
MARKETING
CHANNEL
BUSINESS
METRICS
INVESTMENT
DOCS
END OF THE
PROGRAM
INCORPORATION
FIRST
INVESTMENT
AS COMPANY
DOES IT WORK?
YES
#ALL STARTUP
DEMIUM CUT:
CONTINUE OR STOP?
MARKET
ANALYSIS
NO
YES
OK?
ANALYSIS - 2 WEEKS
INVESTMENT - 5 WEEKS
PROD/MARKET - 5/12 WEEKS

16. Different Programs for Different Challenges
Pre-Team / Pre Idea Growth / Acceleration
› Find Co-Founder
› Define / Refine Idea
› Contrast Model
› MVP
› Customer Validation
› Pre-Seed Investment
FOCUS:
› Growth Hacking
› Sales Optimization
› Product Evolution
› Seed Investment
› Preparation for Future
Investment Rounds
FOCUS:

17. A Fund For The Funding Gap
Characteristics of Demium Talent Investing Fund
Fund Size:
50M EUR
# of Portfolio Companies
Planned:
225 over 3 years in 5
countries. (25 planned in
Greece)
Initial Investment:
100k EUR for 15% of the
Company. Fixed / Low
Valuation agreed when
entrepreneurs enter the
program
Follow-On Investment:
300k EUR at Seed Round
for about 50% of
portfolio. Water our
winners