Christian Rebernik: How to Raise $15M and Build a University

Show notes.

He dropped out of university. Then he raised $15M to build one.

Christian Rebernik has now done the hard part of fundraising from both chairs. He was the CTO at N26 and helped turn it into one of Europe’s largest digital banks, secured its banking licence, and built the core banking system underneath it.

Then he raised around $15M for Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences, where he’s co-founder, CEO and Chancellor. These days he also writes the cheques as an Angel investor.

What Will You Learn?

In this episode of Deal Makers (& Fakers), he sits down with Niclas Schlopsna and goes through the parts of fundraising that never make it onto a slide.

A few things he says plainly:

• The worst time to raise funds is the moment you actually need the money. By then your leverage is gone, and investors can smell it on you.
• In the early rounds, nobody is funding your deck. They’re funding you. The deck just gives them a reason to say no.
• A warm introduction beats cold outreach every time, and there’s a specific way to set those intros up that most founders get wrong.
• Valuation doesn’t climb in a straight line. It moves in steps, and timing your raise to those steps is most of the game.
• The term sheet is where founders quietly lose control of their own company. Christian breaks down the clauses that do the damage and why Elon still holds roughly 80% of SpaceX.

Then there’s the problem he lived through firsthand: Raising for something investors don’t immediately understand. He raised venture money while the company was structured as a non-profit. He watched TechCrunch publicly tear his pitch deck apart later.

Some context on why his read carries weight. Before Tomorrow University, he was CTO at Parship and Awin, co-built the UN World Food Programme’s ShareTheMeal app, and founded the healthtech company Vivy, which reached more than 20M users across 37 insurers.

If you’re raising your first round or starting to build an angel portfolio, give this one your full attention. It’s the version of fundraising advice you usually only hear after the round is already lost.