Who this is
Robin Haak started out in M&A and portfolio management at Axel Springer, where he built the accelerator Axel Springer Plug & Play, a joint venture with Silicon Valley's Plug and Play. In 2013 he joined Jobspotting, an AI-powered personalised job search, as fourth co-founder and commercial founder. After the sale to Smart Recruiters he became managing director there, number two next to the founder, and led fundraising through the Series E. He then spent a year as general partner at the growth fund Revaia. Today he invests in B2B software founders as a solo GP with Robin Capital.
Episodes
Numbers from the episode
FAQ
What was Jobspotting?
Jobspotting was an AI-powered, personalised job search that aggregated listings from across the web and matched them to candidates, in twelve countries and four languages. Robin joined in 2013 as fourth co-founder for fundraising, sales and commercial. The company became profitable and went to Smart Recruiters with 17 people and 1.5 million ARR. To the episode →
What does Robin Capital invest in?
Robin invests in mid-market and enterprise B2B software with a clear go-to-market. At the time of recording the fund had a 10 million euro target and stood at 12 million, with tickets of 100,000 to 500,000 and 35 planned positions. Examples from the episode are Kombo, Deltia and Glassflow. To the episode →
Why did Robin leave Revaia after a year?
At the growth fund Robin spent a lot of time on due diligence questionnaires from large institutional LPs, with pension funds and on team management such as check-ins, weeklies and OKRs. But he had left his previous role to work with founders, and in growth investing external board members often sit with the companies rather than the partners themselves. To the episode →
How did Robin still get into an oversubscribed round at Kombo?
Kombo had been through Y Combinator and the round was long closed. Founder Alex called Robin because several HR investors in the round had recommended him, and offered the same terms. Robin committed during the call, because he knew the problem first-hand from his time at Smart Recruiters. To the episode →
Quotes
„Aber du musst es ja trotzdem noch verkaufen an irgendwen und irgendjemand muss ja auf deine Website kommen.““But you still have to sell it to someone, and someone has to come to your website.”
„Und absolut, Gründer sein ist hundertmal härter als ein Fonds zu raisen.““And absolutely, being a founder is a hundred times harder than raising a fund.”
„Ich bin ja nicht alleine, sondern ich bin nur alleine, der am Ende den Knopf drückt.““I'm not alone, I'm just the only one who presses the button at the end.”
„Ich bin der Typ, den du anrufst, bevor du in deinen Aufsichtsrat gehst.““I'm the guy you call before you go to your board.”
„Ich muss es selber sehen können. Ich muss auch vor mir den Kunden sehen können.““I have to be able to see it myself. I have to be able to picture the customer in front of me.”