Spotlight: BMWiVentures featured team member Kasper Sage

What do you focus on at BMW i Ventures?

At BMW i Ventures, our core investment areas focus on automotive, manufacturing, supply chain, and sustainability. I personally am extremely passionate about everything related to autonomous driving, robotics, supply chain, big data, digital car sales and services, and sustainability.

What was your pathway into venture capital?

I have an eclectic background consisting of a mix of startup, corporate, and management consulting roles. I first began my career working in the world of startups back in Germany, where I’m originally from. After that, I made the transition into management consulting, which is also when I moved out to Silicon Valley. I eventually went into business development and was leading partnerships for the T-Mobile division of Deutsche Telekom. My background in partnerships is ultimately what led me to corporate venture capital and now venture capital.

What do you look for in a potential investment?

What’s critical for me in any investment is that the target company has a clear competitive moat and differentiation through technology. I want to understand what exactly sets a certain company apart from other competitors in the market. Additionally, while this is certainly not a hard rule, I also like to see an experienced team of operators. A startup can grow or die on the basis of its founding team, and to me, the team is critical to success.

What is your most contrarian view on an existing or emerging technology trend?

About five years ago, there were quite a few well-known personalities in the automotive industry who said that autonomous driving would be here in a matter of years. Well, as the industry has developed over the years, it’s become quite clear that Level 4 and 5 autonomous driving will take a lot longer than people think. I do believe we’ll get there eventually, but it will take significantly more time than some of the previous market predictions had expected.

I am also a firm believer in the move toward automation. This is not a contrarian view per se, but rather a broader view of the direction where things are heading. Everything can be automated, and technology enables that automation to happen sooner than later. As an offshoot of this trend, automation will push humans to focus on creative problem-solving rather than repetitive tasks and manual labor, which things like robots and digital assistants will perform in the future.

What advice would you impart to entrepreneurs?

I have three pieces of advice for entrepreneurs:

1. Make sure to upgrade your team at every step of the way. Great success does not come without great talent.
2. Choose investors who can add value outside of just money.
3. Building solutions for the real world is really hard. Choose the right partners that can guide you though all the necessary steps toward commercialization.

What’s something interesting about yourself that most people may not know?

I like to build things in the real world with my hands. I’ve worked with wood, concrete, rebar, etc. I am also obsessed with lighting design and lamps. I like architecture, art, and photography. I guess you can say I’m the designer and photographer on the BMW i Ventures team. In team events and outings, you’ll always see me with my camera.