The art of timing: Jan Miczaika, HV Capital, on hype cycles and sustainable growth
In this SuperVenture episode, we spoke to Jan Miczaika, Partner at HV Capital, as he discussed how successful VCs think beyond short-term trends and create lasting impact. As ESG and DEI frameworks face increasing scrutiny, Jan cuts through the noise to focus on what truly matters.
Jan's key takeaways:
Beyond ESG:
While acknowledging recent criticisms of ESG and DEI frameworks, Jan emphasizes the enduring importance of sustainable business practices: "What you have to remember is always, as a venture capital firm, what you're doing is you're not interested in quick flips. You're helping entrepreneurs build large sustainable companies where you take all stakeholders into account." He views the current recalibration of ESG expectations as healthy: "ESG came up as a framework, maybe more on how to structure these conversations and these thoughts and the pendulum in some cases, maybe swung too far in a certain direction. And now it's going back towards the middle, which is good."
Embracing hype strategically
Rather than avoiding market trends, Jan takes a refreshingly honest approach: "I love hype, especially if we buy before the hype and then sell during the hype." This "pre-hype" strategy has guided HV Capital's investments in areas like aerospace and defense tech before they became mainstream investment targets.
The two-sided challenge of building a VC platform
Jan offers rare insight into the dual challenges facing venture capital firms: "You are, on the one hand, hustling for deals and hustling for deals is hyper competitive in the market. And then on the other hand, you're hustling for LPs." He compares fund development to product-market fit: "A fund is also a product which you sell to LPs... What you're looking for is product market fit on that side, but then of course the entrepreneurs, and the best entrepreneurs can choose who gets to invest." The most challenging phase? "Fund two and three are the really hard ones." Technology as a Long-Term Investment Despite market volatility, Jan remains bullish on technology investments: "I fundamentally believe that especially if you're investing with a 5, 10, 15, 20 year horizon, technology is what will benefit always long-term because it drives societal change."
Lessons from deep tech investing
Drawing from his experience as both entrepreneur and investor, Jan emphasizes the importance of ambition: "I think what is important is to find businesses which are fundamentally really changing an industry... You need a large target market and a large scale of ambition to then maybe pivot into a niche."
