Andreas Goeldi

Partner

Andreas Goeldi is an Internet technologist, serial entrepreneur and startup investor with over 25 years of experience. Before joining btov in 2019 as a partner, he co-founded and helped build several successful technology startups in e-business services, SaaS, video marketing and online media in both Europe and the United States. 

Most recently, he was the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at video marketing AI start-up Pixability in Boston. 

His varied and well-traveled career has also seen Andreas excel in previous roles as a developer, CTO, head of consulting, board member and CEO. He has also been an active angel investor for over 20 years. 

Andreas holds masters degrees in technology management from MIT and the University of St.Gallen, as well as four U.S. patents. He lives with his family in St.Gallen, Switzerland and enjoys movies, gadgets and high-end audio.

I think the way in which we interact with computers today is still ridiculously limiting. The smartphone was a good example for the unexpected things that can happen when a new UI is introduced to the world, and I expect to see many radical improvements in the near future.

  • With btov since: Beginning of 2019

  • Expertise in / interest in the following areas: AI and Machine Learning, Data Science, Development Tools, Martech/Adtech, B2B SaaS, general startup management, technology management.

  • Favourite quote: “Technology always develops from the primitive via the complicated to the simple. ” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

  • Your “favourite futuristic technology”: VR/AR (I’m still a believer, even though the current generation of the technology is going through a difficult time…)

Q -Which values are important to you and drive you?
AG -Honesty, realism, rationality, empathy, doing something useful to improve the world through technology.
Q -What technological advancement are you currently hoping for the most?
AG -New user interfaces such as VR, AR, ambient computing. I think the way in which we interact with computers today is still ridiculously limiting. The smartphone was a good example for the unexpected things that can happen when a new UI is introduced to the world, and I expect to see many radical improvements in the near future.
Q -What do you like most about your job?
AG -Being able to help startup founders not only with money, but also with the right kind of advice.
Q -Which professional or personal achievement are you proud of and why?
AG -Surviving the 2000/2001 crisis with my first startup. It was an incredibly tough time that pushed me to my limits (and sometimes beyond), but I never learned more than in those few years.
Q -What is your superpower?
AG -I have been lucky enough to work with people from many different backgrounds throughout my career - engineers, marketers, managers, entrepreneurs, designers, government employees, artists, and so on. I think this enables me to understand people from other backgrounds more quickly and deeply, which is something very useful in today’s connected world. You also learn a lot about the particular perspectives and biases every group of people has and how that makes interdisciplinary communication often very hard.
Q -What makes you special, what is typical for you?
AG -I’m a big fan of stoicism, which is an often misunderstood branch of philosophy. It’s not about repressing emotions, but about conscious practices and preparedness to deal with adversity in a calm way. People often tell me that I’m good at staying calm in a crisis, and that frequently turned out to be a useful skill in the startup world.
Q -Where do you get your daily information from?
AG -I like news aggregators such as Techmeme, Hacker News or Google News because they give me a quick overview of what is going on in the world and at the same time often provide surprising perspectives that I wouldn’t normally find. I don’t believe in “filter bubbles” -- if you look in the right places you can find content from much broader sources than in traditional media.
Q -Which investor do you admire the most and why?
AG -Two of them: Andreessen Horowitz is probably the most radical innovator in venture capital and excels in many ways. They are also very active and open in sharing knowledge with the community, producing some of the best startup-related content out there. The other is Sequoia, the only firm that has consistently produced outstanding results over five decades so far, from early groundbreaking investments such as Apple and Atari to today's decacorns. Being so consistently successful over such a long stretch of time is incredibly impressive.
Q -Which person do you admire the most and why?
AG -In business and academia, Peter Drucker. I think all newer management literature is just a footnote to his work.
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