Smart Capital.Money and someone who works with you.
- Operating investor
- Industrial mid-market
- DACH and Portugal
30 minutes, free, confidential. I will also tell you clearly if I am not the right partner.
I have watched enough deals where the capital arrived and the operating work was left to whoever happened to be in the room. For a while the numbers look fine, and then sales, operations and the team show what was missing. Through Strachwitz Ventures I invest in industrial mid-market companies and I get involved where I know the daily work: sales, operations, digital and international growth. I am António Freiherr von Strachwitz, and when you speak with me, you speak with the person who also shows up to do the work.
How I workWho this is for
Not everyone needs the same partner. Some people need money. Some people need someone who knows the business. Most of the owners I speak with need both, and they usually notice it when the next step gets bigger than what one person can carry alone.
So we do not misunderstand each other
I have little patience for websites that promise everything and exclude nothing. So I say it straight.
I am an active partner where I can add commercial and operating value. As a minority partner when you stay the owner and want a partner for the next step. As a majority partner when succession is due and you want to hand over step by step. The size of the stake follows what the company needs, not a fixed ratio.
I am one counterpart, not a committee of forty partners who discover your company in the next meeting.
I am not a passive fund, not a consulting firm wearing an investment badge, not a broker of company shares, and not a buy-side boutique for acquirers.
If you want someone who only sends money and then stays quiet, you are in the wrong place. If you want someone who sits at the table and knows the work, we keep talking.
Why I get involved operationally
Seventeen years in sales, export and retail, more than ten of them in leadership roles, at Lidl, frischli, GOLDSTEIG and Händlmaier, taught me a simple lesson: markets do not forgive arrogance. Anyone who thinks Aldi in the US is the same game as Aldi in Germany, or that German retail can be won in English with a home-market playbook, pays for that belief later. Companies that refuse to adapt end up as the cautionary tales we all know: Kodak, Nokia, and the rest of the names we use when we mean "too late."
I bring capital, and I bring the experience of selling, organising and digitising inside mid-market companies without turning the business into a slide deck. What matters is not what I sold in the past, but what of it reaches your company. I do not name current mandates.
What this means for your company
- I know retail from the inside.At Lidl I ran stores; later, on the manufacturer side, I sold into German grocery retail and discount. I know how buyers calculate and plan, and I negotiate listings and terms accordingly.
- I have built export, not just managed it.At frischli and GOLDSTEIG I opened markets through distributors and agents, in 18 countries across Africa and the Middle East and in Europe. If your home market is maxed out, I know where export works and where plans made in Germany fail.
- I change sales without damaging the brand.At Händlmaier I put the sales function of a traditional brand on a more professional footing: pricing discipline, account planning, forecasting. That is what many owners need when the product is strong and the sales organisation has stood still.
- I read your numbers like a lender.I started as a credit analyst at BNP Paribas. I look at a company with a lender’s eyes and work inside it with a head of sales’ eyes. The two belong together once capital is involved.
- I speak your customers’ language.Portuguese, German, English and Spanish. I run negotiations in DACH, on the Iberian Peninsula and in export markets myself, without interpreters or detours.
I do not show tombstones. I show how I work inside the company.
Four steps before money moves
- Intro callIs there a fit both ways, or are we being politely irrelevant?
- Mutual diligencenumbers, customers, team, role, time.
- Termscapital, ownership, involvement, timeline.
- Money moves100-day partnershipfirst priorities, clear ownership, no theatre.
Who is behind this
António Freiherr von Strachwitz. Born in Portugal, shaped in Germany. Founder of Strachwitz Ventures in Castell. A sales strategist and interim operator now building what he looked for himself for a long time: capital and involvement in one person.
Which decision in your company are you delaying because the right partner is still missing?
Intro call: 30 minutes, free, confidential.
Tell me where the company stands and what you actually need. I will tell you whether I can help, what a partnership would look like, and where I clearly say no.
Choose a timeor write to kontakt@strachwitzventures.com