http://www.techsylvania.co/

1. Purposeful Leadership
Coaching the Entrepreneurial Journey
Dr. Maximilian Niederhofer, @maxniederhofer
Techsylvania, June 2018

2. Why Listen To Me (aka put your phone down)
Because your life depends on it.
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3. I
The Lottery
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4. What Startups Are
The (very small) chance of making it (very) big
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5. What I Do
• Twitter: @maxniederhofer
• Coach & Capital: I turn founders into leaders
• I only make consumer investments
• General Partner at Sunstone Technology Ventures, managing around $450 million
• Investing out of Fund IV, 3 partners, Copenhagen/Berlin/Paris offices
• Exits e.g. Last.fm ($280M), Onefinestay ($170M), Audibene (EQT), Fliptop (LinkedIn)
• Current portfolio e.g. GetYourGuide ($150M raised), Travelperk ($30M raised), Dubsmash…
• Focused entirely on consumer brands: DNVBs, marketplaces, platforms
• Seed ($100K to $1 million) to Series A ($1-$5 million)
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6. III
The Old VC
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7. 7
Don’t talk to the snake!

8. Being a Founder is Hard
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9. Fear of failure
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• All fear at its base is the fear of death.
• Concretely,
• Disappointing people (ostracization)
• Ending up broke (survival, ability to provide)
• Failed self (self-esteem, self-worth)
• Starting from nothing (social hierarchies)
• Failure sucks! There isn’t a culture I’ve seen that celebrates failure.

10. L’enfer, c’est les autres
Everyone is always so exhaustingly successful…
and smart and amazing and crushing it
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11. IV
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The Potter

12. V
The Sage, the King & the Coin
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13. Points of departure
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• Evolutionary: the responsibility of ancestry
• Moral: overlay objective reality with interpretative structure
• Practical: knowledge is (just) a set of tools!
• Spiritual: from the dream, through the heart, to reality

14. What The Answer Is
Purposeful
Leadership
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15. Leadership
Getting people to do
what you want
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16. Leadership
Convincing people to do
what you want
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17. Leadership
Convincing people to do
what is right
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18. Leadership
Convincing people what is right and
granting them the tools to do it
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19. Leadership
Showing people what is right and
enabling them to work together
to achieve it
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20. VI
The Governor Learns How to Give Orders
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21. The Secrets of Purpose (1)
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• 400% increase in work engagement
• 225% more productive than merely “satisfied” workers
• Triple the growth rate of competitors
• Extends your life by seven years on average
• Reduces occurrence of dementia and Alzheimers by 250%
• Reduces mortality rate by 23%
• Reduces change of having a stroke by 50%
• Significantly healthier than if merely “happy”
• Lower levels of disability or depression
• Better cognitive abilities, including processing speed and memory
• Higher wealth and income, including growth rates
Source: Nick Jankel, Switch On To Purpose

22. The Secrets of Purpose (2)
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• >90% of young people and mothers said they would switch brands if the company was involved in a
good cause (and the price was the same!)
• 60% of Millennials have chosen their employer because they can express their own purpose at work
Source: Nick Jankel, Switch On To Purpose

23. The Dilemma of Purpose
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• Science can tell us that purpose is important
• But science denies that it exists and will not help us find it (materialism)
• ”Egoic” mission versus “self-less” purpose: difference between fixing personal biographical and
ancestral wounding and healing wounds of others/reducing overall suffering
• Hurt heart versus healed heart
• Purpose is not what your mind thinks you should do to be safe, it is what your heart calls you to serve:
empower, teach, inspire, help, collaborate
Source: Nick Jankel, Switch On To Purpose

24. The Purpose “Dividend”
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• Inexhaustible inner source of meaning
• Limitless inspiration for persistence, taking responsibility, serving
• Ground to structure all chaos and absorb uncertainty
• Lens to focus energy and efforts on what matters
• Consistent context/value system for making choices
• Freedom from orthodoxy/conventional expectations
• Fulfillment from smallest as well as largest acts
• Deep and lasting sense of flow
Source: Nick Jankel, Switch On To Purpose

25. Wheels in the middle of wheels (Ezek 1)
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26. VII
The signpost and the firmament
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27. VIII
The guru works miracles
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28. max@sunstone.eu
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