As part of the atTRACTION activities during the BW Startup Summit 2025 in Stuttgart, an exclusive Investor Networking Session was organised on 3 June 2025, creating space for open dialogue between investors and deep-tech founders.

The session, led by Dmytro Kuzmenko (UVCA), offered a deliberately informal and interactive format. Instead of traditional presentations, investors were invited to share their “bad investment stories” in a light, humorous tone. This approach helped identify common red flags and recurring pitfalls in early-stage investing. A key takeaway concerned frequent pivots or instability within founding teams, which often negatively impact startup performance and investor confidence.

Importantly, startup founders were also invited to participate in the discussion. By listening directly to investors’ candid reflections, they gained valuable insight into investor expectations, risk perception and decision-making processes. This direct exposure supports one of atTRACTION’s core objectives: increasing founders’ investment readiness through practical, real-world feedback.

The networking session was organised under atTRACTION’s action for Networking and engaging investors in collaboration with each other and founders, led by UVCA. The broader objective of this task is to stimulate investor collaboration, foster syndication practices and strengthen connections between emerging investors and more experienced angel networks. Through such events, participants are introduced to tools such as EuroQuity communities, investment clubs and syndicates, enabling risk mitigation and cross-border collaboration.

By combining honest peer-to-peer exchanges with ecosystem-building mechanisms, the investor networking session in Stuttgart demonstrated that strong investment ecosystems are built not only through capital deployment, but also through trust, transparency and shared learning.