Julian Teicke live on air in 2021
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the arc of innovation and its acceleration from the Gutenberg press to the advent of artificial intelligence. There is a common denominator in all these innovations: the power of imagination to dare to dream big.
My own journey at Wefox, from a dream to a billion-dollar reality, encapsulates the essence of ambition and the transformative power of imagination. Intentional imagination is when we can access our deepest “why” and it gives meaning and purpose to what we do. As Friedrich Nietzsche said: “He who has a why to live can endure almost any how.” »
The photo above is of me while I was live on CNBC announcing that my startup Wefox had just raised $650 million in a seed round. I want to tell you how I got to this point.
Julian Teicke raises his first investment in 2011
This is me in 2011 when I raised my very first funding for my first start-up. I was over the moon and never believed I was capable of what I had accomplished. I was just a confused kid, not knowing what life had in store for me.
At the time, I had no idea what I was doing, but it still worked. In the years since, I have developed a replicable approach to fundraising, which I call “The Power of Imagination.”
It all starts by setting yourself big ambitions. For example, my formula was to look at the largest fundraiser in my industry and stadium and multiply it by two. In other words, how can I double it?
The largest Series A in insurtech at the time, in 2015, was $15 million, so when I started the fundraising process, I was targeting $30 million: we raised 30 millions of dollars. The biggest Series B was $120 million: we raised $240 million.
Setting high ambitions is not enough: you must believe in yourself and your abilities to achieve your goal. To do this, you must deeply convince yourself – to the depths of your being – of how you are going to effectively deploy this capital to enter a new stage of growth for your business. What business KPIs will you be able to achieve? What new strategic initiatives will you invest in? How will these investments impact the future value of your business?
If you believe in your abilities, then the magic part begins: you must imagine yourself having already achieved your goals. How does it feel? What do others tell you once you achieve your goal? How well will you sleep once all that pressure is off your shoulders? Use all of your senses to visualize this perfect state and feel, smell and feel every aspect of this moment as if you were there in that moment. In this way, you begin to integrate the vision into your body because it is important that you begin to think, feel and behave in this state of mind. To paraphrase Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to seek.” »
Once you have clearly defined your desired future state, you need to speak publicly about your ambitions with as many people as possible. You must burn the boats – leave without the possibility of returning.
You will soon see: if you believe in yourself and have achieved your goals, then people will also believe in you, support you and open more doors for you. If you haven’t done the work and talk about ambitious goals, people will view you as wishful thinking. This is the point of action when the rubber meets the road.
Ultimately, you need to execute your plan and be reassured that the greater your ambition, the greater the challenges you will face. The world will try to test you if you are really serious and will try to make you doubt yourself.
Julian Teicke lying on the ground in 2017
This is a photo from 2017 where I was in a lot of pain. Both physically and mentally. This was the period I call “The Black Summer”. I was getting married and it was supposed to be the best summer of my life. Instead, it was terrible. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy, no investors believed in us and I was desperate. I was responsible for more than 200 employees, the pressure was so high and I started to lose confidence in myself.
I knew I had to regroup. I focused and reestablished my confidence in myself and my abilities to save the company. I found a way to believe in my goals, I dared to dream big, eliminate the self-doubt I felt from constant rejections by imagining the outcome, speaking confidently about my plans and executing them quickly to generate momentum. And I continued on this path.
Ultimately, “The Power of Imagination” allowed me to raise $1.5 billion for my company and, in doing so, create the world’s first insurtech with $800 million in revenue, with over 1,000 employees and a valuation of $4.5 billion.
The path to success is not a straight line and there will always be obstacles – but thanks to the “power of imagination” combined with ironclad conviction, the road ahead becomes not only bearable, but feasible.
This is true for fundraising and indeed for every other activity in life: whether it’s starting a happy family or anything else in life that really matters to you.
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult” ~ Seneca the Younger.