The Princess President of a Major VC Firm Wants a European AI Renaissance
Jeannette zu Fürstenberg invests in the continent’s most geopolitically important startups—and throws legendary soirees in her family’s castle.
Jeannette zu Fürstenberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Photographer: Felix Auger/Bloomberg
Venture capitalist Jeannette zu Fürstenberg says she felt like an outsider when she moved into academia from her family business in Germany. It was the same after she met her husband, Christian, a prince from the House of Fürstenberg, an 800-year-old royal clan. And now, she says, she gets a similar vibe when visiting Silicon Valley for her job with investment firm General Catalyst. “I never fully belonged to one circle,” she says, picking her way through the frigid streets of Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum in January.
This is difficult to believe. Tall, regal and fluent in five languages, zu Fürstenberg, 43, looks comfortable most anywhere. Davos suits her particularly well. Dressed in a shearling coat and powder-blue scarf on a sunny morning, she bounces in conversation from startup financing to Berlin politics to Russian literature.