Secondpotify, Skype, Airbnb, Facebook, Klarna, Revolut-these are some of the companies that Klaus Hommels invested in early and made huge profits. The 54-year-old German has lived in Zurich for more than 30 years and is one of Europe’s most successful venture capitalists. It was his grandmother’s fault. She once gave her grandson 20,000 German marks to allow the teenagers to accumulate their own investment experience. She assured the junior that he can keep any bonuses, and she will bear the loss. “My grandmother wanted me to be skeptical of banks,” Homers recalled in an interview with FAZ. “She thinks I will follow the wrong investment advice of the savings bank staff and learn from it.” But Sun Tzu came up with a way. A completely different idea. As an amateur and fan of Monchengladbach, he invested all his funds “from the gut” into the shares of sports shoe manufacturer Puma. This bold move paid off: “I used it to make a lot of money.” From then on, the farmer’s son knew very well what he wanted to become: an investor.
There is still a long way to go to the world’s soaring technology booth. On the advice of his uncle, Homers initially worked as a very down-to-earth apprentice at Deutsche Bank. He then studied finance in Fribourg, Switzerland, where he obtained his PhD with the thesis titled “Internal Banking”, which is financial transactions that bypass banks. He found his first job in Gutersloh as an assistant to the chief financial officer of Bertelsmann-this is a traditional address that allows him to enter the more exciting world of the Internet.When media companies participate in online services America Online To participate, Hommels pulled all the levers: “I gave in until I was allowed to switch to AOL,” Hommels said.
