Puls & Partners Health-tech Advisory

❌ To all 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬: 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 - it's wrong, morally reprehensible and often illegal! To all investors: 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲! When I read the recent news about the once celebrated #unicorns of 𝐰𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐱, 𝐄𝐧𝐩𝐚𝐥, 𝐆𝐨𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡, 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨. I am deeply #shocked (to name a few, and some have probably just been lucky enough not to be in the headlines so far). In my opinion, this 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩. Billions of euros were #wasted on things like this: ❌ Lying about almost everything a la storytelling par excellence, that the beams break, "inspiring" entrepreneur pitches at major startup conferences that you can save your time ❌ Buying up other companies with a lot of money in order to drive up sales quickly; cutting the quality of the acquired companies with cost-cutting and relocating HR abroad, but selling this under efficiency and operational excellence ❌ Massive investments (I'm talking about hundreds of millions of euros per company) in marketing, partly with immense couponing activities without customer retention, subscription traps, hundreds of fake comparison portals that rank on Google, fake user reviews, abuse in the use of emails and personal contact options ❌ Underpaid workers, toxic work culture, allegations of abuse, mass layoffs from one day to the next, but wanting less government (which is then allowed to socially absorb people) ❌ Wrong accounting practices, and simply fraud techniques If these are supposed to be our unicorn role models, I now understand that 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬. 😨 👉 To all stakeholders, we 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞! ✅ Entrepreneurs: 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐭; build innovative, sustainable, value-creating companies where it's not just about tapping into a billion-dollar market ✅ Investors: invest in just such companies above; don't just write impact or purpose on your website but actually demand for and support it ✅ Journalists: Keep investing in such exposure stories so that such malpractices come to light and if entrepreneurs don't self-correct, then hopefully through public shaming. But also write about entrepreneurs who do things differently and are role models for the industry, of which there are countless! ✅ Employees: Raise your voice if the corporate culture is shady, change employers and talk about it - this is the only way to protect others ✅ Customers: don't buy services or products from such companies, they are simply not worth it! manager magazin Business Insider Deutschland