Dirk Kanngiesser is changing the perception of European venture capital. As founder and managing partner of Polytechnos Venture-Partners, he is proving that European venture capitalists can achieve profitable exits by investing in local companies.

The number of successful IPOs and trade sales that Polytechnos, along with fellow German investors at Earlybird, Wellington Management and TVM Capital, has achieved in the past few years is showing skeptics that venture capital does work in Germany in particular, and the Continent in general. Listen to Dirk speak below. — Joshua Jaffe