Promoting Jakob Stein to Partner

The paradox in early-stage venture is that almost everyone would agree the biggest upside comes from investing in the right team, and yet so many in the industry struggle to apply it to their own firm.

At Creandum, the growth story over the last +20 years is inevitably connected to betting on people before it was obvious. The first Creandum analyst was our now Partner, Fredrik Cassel, who happened to also be employee #1 when Staffan founded Creandum back in 2003. Today, not only him but also Carl, who joined as an associate, form part of the owners' group of the franchise.

Enter Jakob.

Jakob took that concept to a new level by joining as an intern straight out of university. He applied cold on the website, hustled his way to an internship and spent that internship trying to understand venture, and help where he could on deals. In that process he was fortunate enough to meet Olli and Moritz, co-founders at cargo.one. Fuelled by a childhood obsession with aviation and many hours plane spotting at Tegel airport, it was a perfect match. With a job offer at McKinsey due to begin three weeks later, he cancelled the offer, joined the cargo.one team, and went on to launch North America from zero to one spending two years in hostels and cheap holiday inns with only a backpack as company.

But when the chance came to return to Creandum 3.5 years ago, he didn't need to think twice. As one of the comeback kids who had a stint in our own portfolio, he came back and brought an unprecedented energy and life into our Berlin office. 

Since then, he has not only revitalised the Berlin office but also gone beyond the beaten path, e.g. to the DACH “Hinterland” to find e.g. Doinstruct, Plancraft, lead our work in physical AI, ultimately with our deal in Sereact and has spearheaded our activities in CEE - including flying to 11 countries in CEE over 25 times in only three years. Every deal he has contributed to since he rejoined has succeeded in raising the subsequent round. He also - as one would expect - took over the VA program and discovered our S.F. VP Cam, who converted last year as the next gen - a repeating cycle to be continued.

Today, Jakob becomes the first at Creandum to show that intern to partner is a viable track. It is a showcase of the rigorous promotion and empowerment culture we share in the team.

Welcome to the partnership, Jakob. We are just getting started!