Camel Startups: How Capital-Efficient Founders Scale in the DACH Region

Update: 2025-11-26

Description

What if you could build a startup that survives downturns, grows profitably, and never depends on constant fundraising?

That’s the core of the camel startup strategy — and in this episode, STS Ventures investor Stephan Schubert breaks it down with 25+ years of operator-investor experience. From founding OnVista in the early internet era to backing some of Germany’s most successful exits, Stephan has refined a model built on capital efficiency, high-margin niches, and KPI-driven execution.

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In this episode, you’ll learn:

– Why camel startups outperform hype-driven growth

– How to use high-margin niches to scale from customer revenue

– The KPI playbook STS Ventures uses with every founder

– Why raise when you can, not when you must is a game-changer in DACH

– How to stay capital-efficient without limiting your growth potential

– Why Stephan avoids hype cycles like LLM infrastructure and focuses on AI as a tool for real industries like waste processing

– What founders can learn from exits like Audibene, Emma, JustWatch, and others

Whether you're building in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, this episode offers one of the clearest explanations of capital-efficient growth, B2B startup scaling, and long-term founder wealth creation.

Guest Spotlight:

Stephan Schubert, Investor & Managing Director, STS Ventures

Founder of OnVista and Ligatus, early investor in Audibene, Emma, JustWatch, and other major DACH success cases.

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- Blog: https://www.startuprad.io/post/camel-startups-in-dach-the-sts-ventures-playbook-with-stephan-schubert

- YouTube: https://youtu.be/BYs50t7oZ14