A Day in the Life of: Silvertree Capital VC Manuel Koser [Native Article]

Cape Town-based Silvertree Capital kicked the year off on an epic note when it committed US$10-million towards internet companies on the African continent. The VC firm surely had good reason to so. Its portfolio has been boasting record growth over the last two years and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, it had to move its office recently to accommodate a bigger crew.

For the last edition of our A Day in the Life of… series, we’re zooming in on the life of the VC — Silvertree co-founder Manuel Koser.

Before Silvertree Capital, Koser co-founded and served as co-CEO of South Africa’s major fashion ecommerce player, Zando. He is also one of the guys who helped with the launch of Jumia in Nigeria which, today, has become one of the biggest online shops in Africa.

Today, Koser helps manage Silvertree’s portfolio which includes notable ecommerce sites Faithful to Nature, Click n Compare, WineCo as well as PriceCheck and We Are Monsters.

A Day in the Life of Silvertree Capital’s Manuel Koser

Manuel Koser jumps out of bed at around 7am. After having a shower, the early bird prepares his day with some meditation with his favourite app, Headspace.

He then hits the gym at 360 Specialised Training where he does kettle bells and boxing for about an hour.

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Koser arrives at the Silvertree office by 9:30. He checks out the priorities for the day and makes sure there are no fires to put out. Silvertree has a live dashboard of all its portfolio companies, so he checks out their performance and tests out the URLs to see if everything is up to standards.

Everything seems to be in check so Koser goes on to answer his emails. The rest of his morning is made up of meetings with some of the portfolio companies as well as new investments and funding proposals. Silvertree Internet Holdings announced earlier this year that it’s committing at least US$10-million in capital to companies in South Africa and the rest of the continent.

While he’s not answering emails or partaking in meetings, the VC has nerf gun fights with his colleagues.

It’s now around 12:30 and Koser heads across the road to his favourite spot, the Kitchen, where he chows down on a salad. He quickly returns to the office where he proceeds in more nerf gun fights. He wins this round.

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When that’s all sorted, it’s time to check in on PriceCheck and Click n Compare. Restructuring between these companies are complete, since Silvertree acquired PriceCheck last year.

“PriceCheck and Click n Compare now form part of Compare Africa Group and have a very ambitious growth strategy and fresh funding to build the largest, fastest growing profitable comparison group in Africa from retail to all financials services products,” says Koser.

He returns to the office where he has another quick nerf gun. The last one, he swears. He then takes a break and have some coffee and some fruit.

It’s now late afternoon and Koser dials in with Peter, Paul, Andrew on priority topics, especially Silvertree’s new investment short list.

When the clock strikes 7pm, he heads back home in the Waterfront. He enjoys dinner and drinks with some friends after which he continues reading Elon Musk’s biography. He calls it a day at around 11pm.

A Day in the Life of… is a series of articles by Ventureburn, brought to you by Total SA. The series explores the daily lives of stakeholders in South Africa’s startup ecosystem.