CoachHub CEO on Failing Fast and Learning Faster
Welcome to Scaling at Speed, a new monthly newsletter from Speedinvest designed to help early-stage founders strategically scale their companies – at speed.
As one of Europe’s leading pan-European early-stage venture capital funds, we know that scaling a business from Seed to Series A and beyond comes with challenges — from navigating market shifts to securing the right talent and capital.
That’s why, each month, we'll bring you exclusive insights and stories directly from the founder frontlines, curated by Callum Burroughs of our Comms team. Through expert advice, founder interviews, and sector-specific tips, we’ll help you identify opportunities and overcome the hurdles of growing a startup.
In this inaugural edition, we spoke to Matti Niebelschütz, Co-Founder & CEO of our Marketplace & Consumer portfolio company CoachHub, about his company's journey from MVP to a globally leading professional coaching company.
Keep scrolling to read the article, find out where you can meet our investors this month, and read their latest insights on the European tech ecosystem.
From MVP to Global Leader: Scaling CoachHub with Matti Niebelschütz
In this month's Founder Insight, we spoke with Matti, the founder and CEO of CoachHub. Matti shares a unique perspective on navigating the challenges of fast-paced growth and building a sustainable business. His key takeaway: Fail Fast, Learn Faster.
"We knew we wouldn’t get it right the first time, but we didn’t want to wait months or years before learning what our customers really needed.”
Founded in 2018, CoachHub has raised $330 million in funding to date and has around 700 employees. Backed by leading investors including Sofina, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Molten Ventures, and of course, Speedinvest, CoachHub has offices across the world and operates in over 90 countries.
Read on for an excerpt from Matti's interview below 👇
The Importance of Focus in the Early Stages
When Matti and his brother Yannis first co-founded CoachHub, they were working from a living room with nothing but a big idea. With limited resources, they needed to be strategic about what to prioritize. For Matti, this meant narrowing their focus to just two key objectives: building a minimum viable product (MVP) and securing their first customers.
"Early on, we had no more than a big idea and a small team. But rather than trying to do everything at once, we honed in on just two key goals: building our MVP and signing our first 10 customers," Matti explained. "We knew we couldn’t waste time on anything else. We didn’t have the luxury of perfecting everything. It was about getting something into the market quickly and learning from real users."
For CoachHub, this focus meant building the MVP using a simple content management tool. An unconventional choice, but one that allowed them to test their assumptions quickly and gather crucial feedback. It wasn’t about making a perfect product; it was about getting something into the market that could evolve based on real-world testing.
Upcoming Events: Let's Meet!
Our team is on the ground across EMEA, hosting, attending, and speaking at events, conferences, and intimate gatherings. We would love to meet you!
Techarena – [February, 20-21, Stockholm]: Join 12,000 business leaders, founders, investors, and decision-makers in Stockholm for Scandinavia's biggest tech & business event. Our Founding Partner, Daniel Keiper-Knorr, will be on stage and ready to network.
TechBio & AI Meetup – [February 25, Paris]: Estelle Botbol of our Health & TechBio team is co-hosting a meetup for TechBio founders and founders-to-be to network and discuss the intersection between TechBio x AI. Register to attend and make sure to introduce yourself!
4YFN / MWC – [March, 3-6, Barcelona]: Four Years From Now will welcome some 100,000 attendees to Barcelona this spring. Olga Shikhantsova, a Partner on our Fintech team, will be speaking and on the lookout for the next generation of Fintech founders.
Worth Watching:
Our friends at HubSpot for Startups and Start2 are hosting a free interactive webinar with the founders of Leapsome and Mindfuel on February 19. Attendees will get actionable insights and proven strategies to help them enter and scale their businesses in the US – plus, Hubspot ad credits and freebies from TikTok, Google, Apollo, Asana, Make, and more.
👉 Check out future events we'll be attending on our blog.
From the Investors' Desk
From deep sector expertise to our take on the future of tech and venture capital in Europe, here are some of our musings from social media – keeping you informed on the latest in our industry.
Our GP, Andreas Schwarzenbrunner, frequently shares updates on France (he's based in Paris), Climate Tech & Industrial Tech, and European innovation.
Recently, Andy has been writing about Europe's potential for growth and why he's excited about the continent. Here, he discusses the continent's strong talent pool in STEM and why being optimistic is a better response to challenges than negativity. Similarly, if Europe wants to get serious about the difficulties ahead then regulatory reform ought to be on the table, Andy writes. Follow him on LinkedIn for more.
You also may have seen OpenAI has opened its first office in Germany.
Our GP, Marie-Helene Ametsreiter – who opened our Munich office in 2016 – welcomed them to the city. Speedinvest has a long history of investing in Munich's tech talent. You can read more from Marie-Helene on LinkedIn.
👉 What else we're reading:
• Milei, Modi, Trump: an anti-red-tape revolution is underway – The Economist
• Welcome to the Tour – Pia Michel
• Lagarde and Von der Leyen: Europe has got the message on change - The Financial Times
Thanks and see you next month,
Callum
Have feedback, suggestions, or topics you'd like us to dive into? Email us at press@speedinvest.com.