Daniel Frese

Yikes. 1 in 4 startups could leave Germany due to lack of capital. More than that probably should. I spoke at an event at the Technical University of Munich (great school btw) a couple of months back and was surprised at how many founders I met were looking to leave Germany. Much higher than I expected. https://lnkd.in/eHv2nPwT

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Spoke with Brevo's Chairman of the Advisory Board. Steffen Schebesta led Brevo's M&A for 3+ years. Here's their acquisition playbook: Steffen founded Newsletter2Go back in 2011. And he kept building it for over 7 years until it became: One of the top email marketing platforms in the German-speaking market. In late 2018, Sendinblue (now Brevo) acquired them. (but it was almost like a merger) At that time, they were both figuring out how to merge the companies. And that's how Steffen became in charge of Brevo's M&A strategy: Phase 1: Geographic Consolidation (2018-2019) → Started by acquiring Newsletter2Go to crack the German market → But Europe isn't one market - each country needs localization → So they bought local players over organic expansion Phase 2: Product Extensions (2020+) After raising €140M, they shifted the strategy: → E-commerce focus: Chatra (chat), Push Owl (notifications), Metrio (analytics) → CRM expansion: Yodel (telephony), Meet Fox (scheduling), Captain Wallet (mobile) → Infrastructure: Mail Clark (email parsing) TLDR: Early on, they focused on geographic expansion through local acquisitions. When scaling, they shifted to product capability expansion. Now, they're into platform consolidation plays. And their next M&A activity? Likely after their next fundraising round. If you were leading Brevo's next acquisition strategy, what would you focus on? #acquisitions #saas #strategy

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I’ve had many requests to share my presentation from Phiture’s Growth Phestival in Berlin. So, I decided to break it down and share the full presentation here. The session covered key strategies used by the biggest apps - but still overlooked by many others. 𝟭. 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 Optimizing web funnel = finding the right match between  • audience  • storytelling (onboarding)  • monetization  • and the new layer everyone underestimates - payments Different audience segments require different combinations of these factors. You need to tailor funnels to each segment. Example: BetterMe runs dozens of funnels across niches and each niche has multiple funnel versions for sub-segments - Pilates for women, Pilates for women 40+, Pilates for men,.... 𝟮. 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 It’s a common misconception that all friction kills conversion. In reality, good friction can boost engagement and CR by up to 25%:  • scanners  • selfies  • interactive assessments 𝟯. 𝗣𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀  • Custom checkout adds +30% CR  • Apple Pay right under subscription options = +20% CR 👉 Want the full presentation with all the hacks? Comment “slides” and I’ll send the deck over

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Walk into a bookstore’s self-help section , rows of productivity systems : Getting Things Done, Bullet Journal, Zettelkasten. Each promises transformation—if you commit weeks. The market thrives , hundreds of new titles annually. But something new is emerging. We’re discovering we can redesign workflows instantly with AI prompts instead of studying methodologies for weeks. Three recent experiments hint at what’s coming. First, Paper2Agent transforms research papers into working code agents in 30 minutes to 3 hours. Ask it to implement AlphaGenome’s genomic analysis from a published paper & it processes the code, builds the environment, runs the tutorials. Previously: read the paper (2 days), understand the methodology (1 day), code the implementation (3 days). Now: point AI at the repository, get a working agent by lunch. Second, when I discovered Google’s Agent Development Kit research on tool design patterns, I asked AI to redesign my automation tools following those principles. The result : a 41% reduction in AI operation costs, implemented while I was answering emails in another browser tab. Third, over the weekend I read Jesse Vincent’s architect/implementer workflow via Simon Willison’s write-up. The approach splits AI coding into two sessions: one architect to design, one implementer to execute. No weeks of trial & error to understand the nuances. Read, implement, test, done. The pattern emerging : instant implementation. We can now test productivity systems like trying coffee drinks. Monday : architect/implementer (cappuccino—structured , classic). Tuesday : traditional single-session (flat white—simpler , maybe better?). Wednesday : hybrid workflow (chai latte—wait , is this even coffee?). By Thursday , the data shows which saves 3 hours per week. The self-help aisle promised transformation through commitment. AI promises transformation through experimentation.

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