Nick Lawitschka
Nick is one of our Associates based in London. Following an agnostic approach, he is especially passionate about Fintech and certain areas of B2B SaaS.
Even though I grew up in Vienna and love the city immensely, I have always been drawn away. I studied in Spain and the US, gained my first VC experience in Israel, co-founded an alternative lending startup in New York, went through the school of investment banking in London, and joined two founders in Hamburg to build tech-enabled storage solutions. In between, I somewhere discovered my love for South America, where I spent several months volunteering and traveling. And as an Austrian, my love for skiing feels almost obligatory.
Richard and Nick plowing through some powder
During my time in investment banking, I was on the team advising some of the incumbents that startups (we now invest in) are disrupting. A few percentage points of growth was already very exciting for the projects I was working on at the time – but it wasn’t nearly as exciting to me. I realized relatively soon that I would rather go back to Early Stage Tech where there’s space for groundbreaking new ideas and said large-scale disruption.
Nick, Beata, Johan, and Peter passing by
I still remember a situation at university where an entrepreneur came to visit and I ended up at dinner with him. He was a very successful banker for many years, founded one of the first online banks back in the 1990's, built it up from zero to several hundred million, and finally sold it during the dot-com bubble. For me, as an 18-year-old, that was the epitome of success. While talking about his past experiences, he said one thing that stuck in my mind: “The greatest joy in life was when we built the business without knowing if it was going to work; everything that happened after crossing a certain line of success felt more and more removed from that initial fun and happiness”. While there are many coffee sayings along similar lines, hearing this in-person from a successful entrepreneur triggered something in me. Since then, I chose to not tie my happiness to external markers of perceived success, but to my actual enjoyment of the activity.
Dreamy sunsets with the team
When Creandum offered me a position to join, I was ready to move on. I thrive on supporting people who will make a dent on tomorrow — and being there with whatever they need to maximize that dent.