The VC Comms Playbook #2 with Michelle Kuepper, redalpine

A Brand-Building Masterclass Where Software And Science Connect

Welcome back! I’m so glad to have you here, and I’m truly blown away by the fact that over a hundred of you have already subscribed. The response to my first interview has been incredible. It sparked deep conversations, new connections (and even interest from new VC clients seeking comms support) that I never imagined possible.

Today, I’m excited to introduce you to Michelle Kuepper, Head of Communications at redalpine. She’s another powerhouse woman, leading comms and marketing at a €1bn+ fund with a remarkably lean but highly effective team.

When I say a lean team, I mean it: like Ellie at Earlybird, Michelle is supported by just one person, a stellar working student on a 20-hour contract. And yet, the redalpine team has built an impressive reputation as a leading multi-stage, sector-agnostic investor.

I first met Michelle last year, around the time when redalpine was announcing its latest fund. Since then, our conversations (and the occasional lunch) have always been a source of insight and inspiration. Michelle, to me, embodies the ethos of redalpine: humble, razor-sharp, and exceptionally effective.

So let’s dive right in… Starting with the basics:

redalpine

• Year founded: 2006

• Purpose: redalpine is a multi-stage investor with Swiss roots and a Pan-European approach, investing at the connection of software and science. redalpine strongly believes this intersection sparks the innovation that will help shape a better world.

• Focus: redalpine backs software and science companies with disruptive potential, and supports them from early stages through multiple funding rounds. Its sector-agnostic approach focuses primarily on:

  • Deep Tech

  • Fintech

  • Digital Health

  • TechBio

  • Enterprise Software

  • Energy

  • FoodTech

• AuM: CHF 1 billion+ (~EUR 1 billion) across seven funds

• Exit metrics: 23 exits and acquisitions (e.g., Araris, Enviria, Lunaphore, Insphero, Natif.ai and more)

• Significant investments: N26, Taxfix, Klarna, Proxima Fusion, Mistral AI, Vivenu, Lakera AI, 9fin

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VC Comms Playbook Edition #2: UNDERSTATED, HUMBLE, AND HIGHLY EFFECTIVE - INVESTING WHERE SOFTWARE AND SCIENCE CONNECT

with Michelle Kuepper, a passionate storyteller with a real knack for quickly transforming complex ideas into easily digestible content. She’s a pro across the entire comms spectrum, from strategy through to implementation, and has worked in PR, corporate comms, internal comms, content marketing, and journalism

1. Walk me through the communications and marketing setup at your fund. Who does what? What gets outsourced? Include things like design, events, or platform/ portfolio support

   
   Our comms team consists of me and one excellent working student on a 20-hour-per-week basis. It’s a lean setup but pretty standard for a VC of our size. We handle most things in-house, so I wear many hats: PR, content, branding, website, social media, and events. We manage all of this internally.
   
   We do bring in a PR agency for major announcements and work with a freelance videographer and designer, especially since we produce a lot of video content for both our portfolio companies and ourselves.
   

   When it comes to events like our AGM, which hosts 300 people, it’s a full-team effort. Everyone from the team gets involved, we don’t use an events agency. It takes place in early March, so the beginning of the year is pretty crazy at redalpine!
   

   For portfolio support, I work with nearly all our companies at some point, particularly the early-stage ones. I support them both strategically and hands-on with their first announcements and help them build out their marketing or comms functions. This is a significant value-add for founders, as they often don’t have anyone on board to support in this function when they’re just getting started.

   
   We also have a dedicated person on the investment team handling broader platform and portfolio success efforts, plus a Head of HR who supports hiring and team building.
   

2. Wow, that’s very impressive, and I especially love the teamwork angle. Leading on from that, let’s dive into branding. You’ve clearly put a lot of effort into building the redalpine brand. Why has the redalpine team decided to do that, instead of staying under the radar and letting the portfolio speak for itself? And how has brand evolved at redalpine since you joined?
   

   I’ve been at redalpine for just over two years. I was the first person hired for a comms and marketing role, even though the fund has existed for almost 20 years. That’s late for a VC, but it reflects our Swiss roots: we’re more on the reserved side, humble, not big on self-promotion.
   

   But the VC landscape has changed. There are more players, and we realized we have a lot of expertise and USPs worth talking about. It became important to clearly communicate how we support founders and what we bring to the table, not just for founders, but also to attract LPs.
   

3. When you look at your various target audiences - founders and attracting deal flow, supporting the current portfolio, fundraising and communicating with LPs, and even internal stakeholders - how do you split your focus?

   
   For the work we do for the fund, our focus is fairly evenly split between a founder/startup audience and LPs. When it comes to PR, we focus predominantly on European tech publications to reach founders, and business media in Switzerland and the DACH region for LPs. Our core brand pillars stay the same across all audiences for consistency and trust.
   

4. Could you summarise those brand pillars?

   
   We’re a highly experienced European VC, founded in Switzerland in 2006 with a pan-European presence. From day one, we’ve focused on investments at the connection of software and science. This edge is in our DNA - we were founded by a software entrepreneur and a molecular biologist, and today half of our investment team are scientists, while the other half are entrepreneurs or operators. That allows us to deeply understand and support very technical or scientific startups.
   
   We also know that every VC says they’re hands-on with supporting their startups, but at redalpine it’s genuinely how we operate. It brings me real joy to hear our founders share how our team has supported them on their journey - whether it’s by bringing a key hire on board or securing a key business partnership. It’s a testament to the dedication and care each person here brings to the table.
   

5. That team makeup is a real edge: you don’t see a lot of VCs where half the investment team are actual scientists. Very nice! Now let’s take dive a bit more into your personal history as a VC comms professional. Looking back, what’s one story or moment that stands out in your career: a challenge, a learning, or a crisis?
   

   Early in my career, I worked at a company facing serious legal challenges. We didn’t handle it well. We weren’t ahead of the story and didn’t have alignment across teams. It was stressful, but a key learning experience. Since then, I’m always thinking ahead with crisis comms plans and cross-functional coordination to avoid being caught off guard.
   

6. Is there any other moment that stands out from when you were already at redalpine?

   
   The announcement of our sixth early-stage fund last year was a definite highlight! It was the first major PR push we did and it was incredibly rewarding to see how clearly our story and positioning as a fund resonated in the media - and how that, in turn, significantly boosted our brand awareness in the industry.
   

7. Let's talk media. How do you see the landscape shifting - earned vs. paid media, newsletters, and your owned channels?
   
   I’m not a big fan of paid media. Audiences are smart; sponsored content can feel inauthentic. If your story is strong, it should land in earned media. That said, it’s harder now than 10 years ago. Fewer journalists, fewer resources. TechCrunch, for instance, recently let go of most of its EU team. You need strong USPs and impactful stories to effectively land coverage, not just a funding announcement. I also believe that the media landscape shift means owned communications channels are becoming more and more important.

   
   At redalpine, we focus heavily on LinkedIn because our key audiences are there, and since I joined, we’ve seen strong growth on our company account.
   

8. What’s your tech stack for comms? Which tools do you use, and how do you work with AI? Is there anything you’ve custom-built?
   
   Within the comms team, we use Mailchimp for newsletters, Canva for design, Midjourney for visual experimentation, Veed for video/audio/substitles editing, and of course, ChatGPT, Claude, and a number of other AI tools for content. We’ve built a custom GPT to help with social and blog content.
   
   Across the fund, our dedicated AI task force is always looking for secure and efficient ways to apply AI across every function - from fundraising and finance to investment workflows. We’ve mapped the full value chain and identified high-impact AI opportunities, both internally and across our portfolio. We track the impact of these efforts on a quarterly basis to ensure these efforts drive real, measurable value.
   

9. If you had an unlimited budget and no constraints, what would you do?

   
   I’d do more events. Our AGM is amazing because bringing all our founders, investors, and team together in one room is powerful. I’d love to expand it to a weekend with expert speakers, masterclasses, and journalists.
   
   I also have a great deal of appreciation for film. It’s such a powerful medium to get your message across. We already produce 1-minute intro videos for every new portfolio company, but I’d love to experiment with longer-form content diving into different industries, technologies, and founder stories.
   

10. What’s something you believed early in your career that you’ve since changed your mind about?

    
    I used to chase big wins, so getting a TechCrunch feature felt like everything. And while securing an article in a major publication is still important now, a one-off feature is less impactful than a long-term, consistent and strategic communication strategy. This builds trust and brand awareness more effectively than a one-off news splash.
    

11. What’s a piece of advice you find yourself giving founders or GPs often?

    
    Do the groundwork. Know your company, your USPs, your key messages, tone of voice, and target audience before jumping into comms. Without that, your efforts are scattered and opportunistic.
    
    Also, manage expectations. Everyone wants to be in the FT right away, but for an early-stage company, you generally have to build up to the larger publications.
    
    Placements in relevant industry and trade publications can be so impactful to reach your target audience (*editor’s note: trade pubs are also very meaningful for GEO - generative engine optimisation!) and in time, this will help you build your reputation and win those bigger publications.
    

12. And finally, who do you admire in comms, and who should I interview next?
    
    Maxine von Grumbkow. She was at SquareOne Venture Capital and is now at 1KOMMA5°. We started in VC on the same day and used to spar regularly (it helped that our offices were opposite each other)! She has deep expertise in branding and PR. She’d be a great next interview.

Amazing. Thanks so much, Michelle! It was such a pleasure.

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I honestly just enjoy these conversations so much. There’s something really special about the community of VC comms people: we all understand each other really well, despite all working with different funds.

Perhaps it’s something to do with the fact that its quite hard to tell from the outside what the VC Comms role entails, and the actual setup and amount of work veries from fund to fund. But regardless, there are always so many lessons to be learned from sharing stories, experiences and best practices with each other.

So to you, dear reader, I have a request: please share this newsletter with anyone in VC comms who might enjoy it, whether they’re only just getting started or already very experienced. They could be a VC comms person or a GP interested in other funds’ perspectives on branding and positioning, or a founder looking to evaluate which VC fund best suits them as an investor.

Also, please send me your feedback, comments, questions and new ideas! I’ve also opened up the community chat in case you want to write to me there.
Otherwise, contact me via email or LinkedIn.