Who this is
Christoph Jost co-founded the job board Absolventa with Jan Beckers at the end of 2007. After the exit in early 2015 he put his money straight back into companies from his own network, including Shoepassion, Monteurzimmer.de and Sellics. At the end of 2019 he and his partner Peter Waleczek launched FLEX Capital, a private equity fund that buys profitable, bootstrapped software and internet companies and builds them into platforms. The first fund raised 126 million euros, and according to the episode intro FLEX now manages more than 450 million euros.
Episodes
Numbers from the episode
FAQ
What is FLEX Capital?
FLEX Capital is a private equity fund founded by Christoph Jost and Peter Waleczek. FLEX buys profitable, mostly bootstrapped software and internet companies, often 51 to 70 percent of them, and uses add-on acquisitions to build them into platforms with more than 10 million euros in EBITDA. The first fund raised 126 million euros. To the episode →
What size of company does FLEX Capital buy?
For a new platform, FLEX has roughly 5 million euros in revenue and 1 million euros in EBITDA in mind. There have also been deals with 3 million in revenue and 2 million in EBITDA. What matters is whether the business is stable and whether the platform can eventually exceed 10 million in EBITDA. To the episode →
How did Christoph Jost raise the first fund?
Christoph and his partner went all in with their own money. The first 10 million came from other entrepreneurs, then early Absolventa angels invested substantially. The breakthrough was LGT as anchor investor, which runs a programme for first-time managers and did very thorough due diligence. After that, further institutional tickets came more easily. To the episode →
Why does Christoph Jost recommend succession deals?
Many founders in their late fifties or early sixties have no successor in the family and are looking for a way out. Christoph sees this as an often overlooked chance to step in as owner-operator, similar to the search fund model in the US. With seller loans and the company's bank you sometimes need little equity. To the episode →
Quotes
„Und was wir gesehen haben, war, das Bootstrapping, das ist ein sehr, sehr, sehr gesunder Weg, Firmen zu machen.““And what we saw was that bootstrapping is a very, very, very healthy way to build companies.”
„Du kannst das Ding relativ schwer auf Speed machen, sondern das dauert einfach seine 5, 6, 7, bei Firmen wie wir bei Flex kaufen heute, 15, 20, 30 Jahre.““It's pretty hard to put the thing on speed. It simply takes its 5, 6, 7 years, and with companies like the ones we buy at FLEX today, 15, 20, 30 years.”
„haben immer gesagt, wir gehen all in. Und das hat eine gewisse Credibility produziert bei den ganz frühen Investoren.““We always said we're going all in. And that created a certain credibility with the very early investors.”
„Das führt manchmal zu Entscheidungen, wo du dir zu viel zutraust. Das haben wir dann schon recht deutlich bezahlt.““That sometimes leads to decisions where you overestimate yourself. We paid for that quite clearly.”
„Und da bleiben sehr oft tolle Firmen hängen, wo ich mir oft denke, das ist eine coole Gelegenheit.““And very often great companies get stuck there, where I often think: that's a cool opportunity.”