What does it take to identify exceptional founders before the numbers exist, and win the right to back them in an increasingly competitive venture market?

In Episode 29, we sit down with Christian Meermann, Founding Partner at Cherry Ventures .

Christian shares how scaling Zalando across Europe shaped his view on growth, brand, distribution, and company building. We discuss how Cherry evaluates more than 10,000 startups each year, why team remains one of the most important investment criterion, and what separates genuine resilience from a strong-looking CV.

We also explore Cherry’s operator-led approach and how the fund supports founders with hiring, communications, fundraising, and execution.

The conversation covers Europe’s AI opportunity, sovereign infrastructure, hypergrowth valuations, technical founders, and why business graduates need deeper technical understanding in an AI-native world.

Many thanks to Christian for such an insightful conversation!!