Why I fired my first venture capitalist to focus on patents and products

Rudolf King is a digital innovator and director of digital emergency response tech firm Swift Alarm. At Medtec Europe in Stuttgart today (13th April), he told a crowd of his peers how one decision that betrays conventional wisdom is making his company a success

King was trained in Germany, but spent much of his career in the US. Out of concern for his ageing father, King developed Swift Alarm back in 2014, and has filed several patents in the field. 

"We gained some notoriety because we fired our venture capitalist, and that's been our claim to fame recently", King explained. 

"In January 2014 I asked 11 venture capitalists for roughly €750,000. We were very lucky and immediately got four offers. I decided on a Swiss-German venture capitalist, but sadly this came to a halt in 2015 when the individual in question died in his sleep. His sons took over, and initially I referred to them as the dream team.

"But then suddenly, what had been a partnership became merely and investment for them, and all they wanted to talk about was return on investment.

"Venture Capitalists use the good companies to pay for the bad ones. Basically if you're good, you're paying for the nonsense they've invested in."

Venture capitalists, King said, have been around since around 1960. But he pointed out that prior to this, many strong and successful firms were launched and are still in existence today, without any support from VCs. 

An advocate for launching companies the 'old fashioned' way, King stressed the importance of building a strong sales team. 

Pivoting is another crucial aspect of the Swift Alarm business model. King says he is always looking for new vertical markets to pivot his invention into - adapting it for the needs of those sectors. 

But most important of all is patents, according to the innovator. "Secure your position in the market with patents," he said. "It's very expensive to have patents, but I make you one promise: nobody will want to [infringe] them."

"For those of you who are from startups, I tell you to re-write your business plan. Re-write it with absolutely no revenue factored in. And forget disruption. People will realise that you have a superior technology if it's a good product. Be wary of finance-only venture capitalists. Love your customers and stick with them", he lectured.

But it's not all negative for venture capital. King concluded saying that he would be 'more than happy' to work with one in the future, but only if they could share his vision for innovative growth. He now owns 100% of his business, having bought back all of his shares from his first investors.