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For years, the tooling conversation in VC was mostly about software shopping: Which CRM are you using? Who moved from Affinity to Attio? What are you using for portfolio KPI tracking?

But it’s changing now. If you spend time around VC operators, platform teams, or people close to the fund’s internal workflows, you can feel the shift already.

The more interesting question now is no longer what tools you use, but what you are building in-house. Early this year, my favourite Elena Verna wrote an article, “Why every exec should be vibecoding.” The VC crowd seems to have taken that advice very seriously!

What follows is a curated collection of the most recent case studies showing what some of the more forward-leaning VC firms are already building across sourcing, investment analysis, portfolio support, and beyond. If you want to understand where the operating edge in VC may be heading next, this is a good place to start.

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1. Finding deals

Ada Ventures’ Deck Genius

What: An AI-powered pitch deck review tool that gives founders fast, detailed feedback before they start pitching investors. It sits between founder support and sourcing, but it’s clearly a top-of-funnel tool: Ada describes it as a new touchpoint with founders before they formally seek funding.

What problem it solves: Most funds cannot give high-quality feedback to the thousands of decks they receive. Founders get little signal, and investors lose a chance to improve the quality of inbound deal flow. Ada’s answer was to turn that early screening and feedback layer into software. The earlier AdaGPT version was already being used by more than 200 founders per month, and Ada said one company that used it later received a term sheet. Three months after launch, Deck Genius had processed 1,091 decks in three weeks.

How: Michael Tefula rebuilt the system from scratch. Deck Genius runs 20 to 50 LLM calls in the background across three areas: narrative, design, and venture fundamentals. It delivers slide-level and holistic feedback in roughly 30 to 90 seconds.

🛠️ Tools used: Cursor, Claude, Codex, multi-step LLM workflows

Source: “Could a VC create an AI to tell founders what investors would really think of their pitch deck?”, Pathfounders; Michael Tefula’s LinkedIn post

Fika Ventures’ Job Post Intelligence Tool

What: A lightweight, self-hosted job-post intelligence tool that monitors companies’ career pages across multiple ATS platforms and sends a Slack alert the moment a new role goes live.

What problem it solves: Hiring is one of the clearest external signals of startup momentum, but it is difficult to track systematically. Job openings are fragmented across different ATS platforms, manual checks are tedious, and important changes are easy to miss. The tool turns scattered public hiring data into a live signal layer that helps investors monitor growth, hiring velocity, expansion into new functions, and competitive movement.

How: The system runs on a scheduled cron job, queries each company’s ATS endpoint, compares fresh job postings against a local SQLite database, and triggers a Slack webhook whenever it detects a new role. This allows the team to monitor hiring velocity across portfolio companies and other target companies without manually checking dozens of career pages.

🛠️ Tools used: Node.js 18+, SQLite, Slack, cron, public ATS APIs

The best part is that the tool is available for everyone to try and customise here.

Source: “We Built a Job Post Intelligence Tool for VC’s — and We’re Open Sourcing It”

2. Evaluating deals

Airtree’s research agent

What: AI agents that automate parts of the investment process, including company research, meeting preparation, deal analysis, and routine due diligence formatting.

What problem it solves: A large share of early-stage investment work is repetitive knowledge work: gathering information, following leads, synthesising findings, and turning all of that into an internal brief. Airtree’s goal is to eliminate hours of manual prep and speed up analysis, without replacing investor judgment.

How: Jackie Vullinghs describes Airtree’s company research workflow as agentic because it searches multiple data sources, decides which leads to follow, loops back when initial results are thin, and synthesises across sources. Airtree’s view is that most real workflows don’t need a complex swarm of agents. A single agent with a ReAct loop and well-chosen tools handles most real-world tasks. Three months in, one of their biggest lessons has been that context management matters more than model selection: their agents get meaningfully better when the team focuses on curating what goes into the context window rather than experimenting with different models. Their research agent now produces a company brief in about three minutes that used to take an analyst a few hours.

🛠️ Tools used: Claude, MCP-based tool connections, ReAct-style agent design

Source: “Building a System of Agents”, Making Connections by Jax

TheVentures’ Vicky

What: An internal AI investment analyst built by Korean early-stage VC TheVentures. Vicky produces structured company analysis and an investment recommendation designed to mirror how the firm’s own investors think.

What problem it solves: Early-stage investing has limited hard data, so much of the work relies on qualitative judgment, synthesis, and memo writing. TheVentures wanted to scale that work without linearly scaling headcount, while keeping the system close to their own decision-making patterns.

How: The firm started by studying how its investors actually make decisions, then translated those patterns into prompts and context engineering. The finished system is a multi-agent setup that uses different LLM providers for different tasks and connects RAG to the firm’s internal database and knowledge base. When a pitch deck, founder profile, one-pager, or meeting transcript enters the system, Vicky generates a structured company summary and a Yes/Maybe/No investment rating with written reasoning. After six months of use, TheVentures said Vicky’s recommendations aligned with human investors about 87.5% of the time. What used to take roughly a week to produce an investment memo now takes about one hour, and the overall response time went from four to six weeks down to one week. The firm also said Vicky surfaced teams that some investors had initially overlooked.

🛠️ Tools used: Multi-agent workflow, multiple LLM providers, RAG, internal dashboard integration

Source: “We let an AI help us decide which startups to invest in for 6 months — here’s what happened”, KRDeals by TheVentures

3. Portfolio intelligence

The post-investment phase presents a different set of challenges. For funds managing large portfolios, aggregating data, staying on top of company news, and keeping institutional knowledge accessible are ongoing burdens.

Point Nine Capital’s Knowledge Hub

What: A homemade version of Glean that allows the firm to ask natural language questions like “How is Company X doing?” and get answers drawing from the firm’s entire institutional memory.

What problem it solves: Institutional knowledge at a VC fund is scattered across email, Slack, meeting notes, CRM entries, and shared drives. Finding relevant context about a portfolio company means digging through multiple systems. The Knowledge Hub centralises it all into a single queryable layer.

How: Over 13 days in January 2026, Managing Partner Christoph Janz vibe-coded the system without writing a single line of code. All 43,800 lines of Python were written by either Replit’s agents or Claude Code. Data from Gmail, Google Drive, Slack, Zendesk, Attio, and Granola is processed into a vector database (Qdrant) with semantic search and connected to Claude via MCP servers. The team can query it through Claude Desktop, Claude.ai in the browser, or a Slack bot. In a follow-up post, Janz explained that he later simplified the architecture by connecting data sources directly to Claude without the vector database, and found that the simpler version delivered most of the value for a fraction of the maintenance.

🛠️ Tools used: Replit agents, Claude Code, Qdrant, PostgreSQL, OpenAI Embeddings, Anthropic Claude, Cohere Reranking, MCP servers

Source: “Some Learnings from Vibe Coding a Knowledge Hub in 13 Days”, Point Nine Land, Medium

AppWorks’ social media tracker

What: An automated social media tracker for 600 portfolio teams, plus a semi-automated X/Twitter engagement system.

What problem it solves: Keeping up with hundreds of portfolio teams manually is not realistic. Fundraising announcements, product launches, and partnership signals get missed. The tracker turns a daily firehose of social posts into a structured feed of what actually matters.

How: Hsu started with an open-source social media tracking system and customised it. The account list lives in Google Sheets. Posts are scraped across platforms, scored and summarised by AI (with fundraising, product launches, and partnerships weighted higher), and delivered as a daily Telegram summary. The system can also draft short repost-ready messages for the team’s official account.

🛠️ Tools used: Open-source social media tracker (customised), Google Sheets, Telegram

Source: Bill Hsu at AppWorks has been documenting the whole Vibe VC experiment publicly Vibe VC #2: Tracking 600 teams

Alpaca VC’s “Gordon”

What: A proprietary AI system that generates highly specific, actionable prospect lists for portfolio companies.

What problem it solves: Portfolio support often means helping startups find the right customers, partners, or hires. Gordon automates the research and mapping that a human team would spend days doing manually.

How: In one instance, Gordon produced a list of 50 high-value prospects (academics, pharma execs, former FDA leaders) with exact connection routes for a startup called Autopoiesis Sciences, helping Alpaca secure a $1M allocation in a competitive round. At the same time, this is a portfolio support tool: it helps existing portfolio companies grow, not the fund find new deals.

🛠️ Tools used: Proprietary system (specific stack not publicly disclosed)

Source: “Deep Dive: As Smaller VC Firms Build AI Tools To Compete”, Upstarts Media, December 2025

4. Fund infrastructure

Beyond the investment workflow itself, VCs are automating the “firm building” layer: LP reporting, internal finance, CRM, and team coordination. This is the plumbing of a fund, and it has historically consumed a disproportionate amount of time relative to its strategic value.

Union Square Ventures’ agents

What: A custom internal web application and database powered by background agents, each with a name and a job: Sally (meeting transcription), Ellie (email monitoring), Felix (finance data), Arthur (deal analysis), Connor (calendar monitoring). The system was built to make USV’s internal context structured, retrievable, and continuously updated.

What problem it solves: At a firm like USV, information about companies, people, and themes is constantly generated across meetings, email threads, and calendars. The problem was that this context was scattered, manually maintained, and often outdated when the team needed it. The agents solve that by automatically capturing and structuring mentions across the firm’s workflows, creating a live internal memory layer for portfolio and pipeline discussions

How: USV first built a recap workflow for team meetings, then expanded it into its own internal database and web app. Background agents access Granola meeting transcripts, internal group email threads, and team calendars, then convert unstructured activity into structured “mentions” attached to companies and people. Those mentions feed the internal app, where companies automatically appear on the deal log with related decks, memos, and other internal context. Arthur also monitors the pipeline, maintains living deal memos, and supports investment discussions.

🛠️ Tools used: Claude Code, Tasklet, Granola, Notion, Attio, and the internal USV API. Arthur also uses Harmonic for research support.

Source: “Meet the Agents at USV: Arthur, Ellie, Sally, and Friends”, USV Blog, March 2026

HP Tech Ventures’ CVC agents

What: A team of specialised AI agents running on top of a structured internal knowledge layer, including agents for startup profiling, VC investment tracking, executive briefing synthesis, company evaluation, meeting briefing preparation, and a “Chief of Staff” orchestration agent.

What problem it solves: Corporate Venture Capital faces a unique challenge: proving strategic value to the parent company. The agents automate the cross-referencing and synthesis that connects deal pipeline activity to strategic priorities across HP’s business units.

How: HP built a team of purpose-built agents that share context but each own a specific workflow. In the past, the team had been tracking edge inference trends across articles, podcasts, and analyst reports. The Intel Digest agent picked up those signals, scored them against HP’s strategic priorities, clustered them with related signals already in the system, connected multiple startups in the pipeline to the same emerging theme, generated a themed briefing, created a standalone Insight note for specific HP business units, and produced follow-up actions.

🛠️ Tools used: Claude Code, Obsidian

Source: “The CVC Problem Nobody Talks About — and How AI Agents Solve It”, Andrew Bolwell, March 2026

5. Exiting

This is the white space.

Across every case study I came across, not a single vibe-coded tool was built for the exit process: secondary sales timing, M&A preparation, IPO readiness workflows, or portfolio exit modelling.

There are a few possible explanations. Exit processes tend to be highly bespoke, legally complex, and involve sensitive information that firms are reluctant to run through AI systems. The data required (buyer sentiment, secondary market dynamics, board-level strategic discussions) is harder to systematise than scraping founder LinkedIn profiles. And the stakes of getting it wrong are higher.

Reality check

The case studies above make for exciting reading, but the honest version of this story includes the cautionary tales.

The maintenance trap. Michael Bloch, a partner at Quiet Capital, spent around 50 hours building a command centre with Claude Code covering email, calendar, meeting notes, and CRM. It worked. The maintenance cost kept compounding while the usefulness never quite caught up. “I built something” Bloch wrote. “But I didn’t build a product. I built a prototype with no one maintaining it but me and a chatbot.”

Vibe coding makes building fast, but it doesn’t make maintaining easy (yet!)

The “building fast in the wrong direction” problem. USV’s Spencer Yen was candid about the risks: “The double-edged sword of AI coding agents is that you can build really fast in the wrong direction. When building internal tools or agents, the act of building can feel so engaging and productive that you lose sight of actually solving any real problems.”

The information edge is temporary. An associate at Vertex Ventures, Isaac Kwa, built an AI deal-sourcing tool and then wrote one of the most clear-eyed assessments of its limitations: “The best deals in VC do not surface through data”. If your AI can see the deal, so can everyone else’s AI. The tools being built are powerful, but they optimise the parts of VC that were never the sole source of alpha. Networks, judgment, and founder trust remain stubbornly human.

Closing note

The VC tech stack is being rebuilt in real time, one weekend project at a time.

It’s hard to say how much of this will stick in the long term. But for now, I see a lot of excitement and VC professionals having fun.

For inspiration on off-the-shelf AI tooling in VC, I highly recommend Cory Bolotsky’s newly released market map of AI VC tools.

I’ve been working with early-stage founders for nearly a decade, both on the investment and portfolio sides of Venture Capital. I invested in and/or worked with nearly 200 founders from about 50 countries who built startups serving customers worldwide. And what I saw recently blew my mind.

My job is to make sure that we are the favourite investor on the cap table of every founder we back. So obviously, negotiating software and services discounts for our portfolio companies is a part of it.

Over the past year, something changed.

As AI tools accelerated, the requests from portfolio companies changed. Founders weren’t just passively browsing what we had available. They were actively asking us to source specific tools, negotiate discounts with AI providers, and add new partners. The demand for anything that reduces building costs, whether cloud credits, AI tools, or dev platforms, went through the roof.

I’ve seen how founders react to every major perk we’ve ever offered, including OpenAI credits. I know what “strong interest” looks like.

When we onboarded Lovable to our perks platform, the redemption interest was unlike anything I’d seen before.

Here’s the actual screenshot of my inbox 👇

When founders in São Paulo, Lagos, Nairobi, and Jakarta all reach for the same tool, that tells you something. And for me, the best signals are the ones that come from my portfolio. So I started digging. Why Lovable? Why is the interest so strong?

The gap

Here’s what most people in developed markets don’t realise about building software in emerging economies: the developer supply simply isn’t there.

The US has roughly 12.9 software engineers per 1,000 people. Western Europe averages a similar range: the UK sits at 13.2, Germany at 10.8. Now compare that to the fastest-growing emerging markets. Indonesia has 0.71. Nigeria has 0.48. Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, has 2.3. The talent pool in these markets is a fraction of what founders in San Francisco, London, or Berlin take for granted.

And the SaaS landscape mirrors the same gap. The US has about 80 SaaS companies per million people. Brazil has 2.4. Indonesia has 0.4. Nigeria has 0.4. That means there are entire categories of business problems in these markets for which no software solution exists, in any language or at any price.

Only 8% of global private capital is deployed outside the Big Six economies (the US, China, India, Germany, the UK, and Israel), despite these markets representing 38% of global GDP. The capital mismatch is well documented. But the tooling mismatch gets far less attention. In developed markets, no-code saves you time and money. In emerging markets, it may determine whether something gets built at all.

Why now, and why here

Four things are converging, making this moment different.

These are the youngest societies on earth. The median age in Nigeria is 18. In Kenya, it’s 20. In Indonesia, 31. In Brazil, 35. These populations grew up with smartphones in their hands. They are digitally native in ways older demographics in developed markets often aren’t. When you combine that digital fluency with newly accessible building tools, you get a generation that’s ready to build now.

The tools got good enough. Lovable lets you describe a product in plain language and get a working, full-stack application. According to Lovable, 67% of its users have little to no coding experience. This matters because the AI-assisted building threshold has crossed a line into usable output. Some of our portfolio companies are already using Lovable to prototype products before committing to a full engineering build, a smart way to validate ideas without burning through months of runway.

The people closest to the problems can finally solve them. This is the part that excites me most. Emerging markets are full of people who have understood local gaps for years but never had the technical means to address them. Now they can. And they bring something that no Silicon Valley SaaS company will ever replicate: deep local context. They know the workflows, languages, payment habits, and cultural nuances that shape how business actually runs on the ground. 76% of consumers globally prefer to buy in their native language.

Linda Rottenberg, Endeavor’s CEO, made this point powerfully in her 2025 Gala speech: the companies building foundational AI models are based in Silicon Valley and China, but the application layer, where AI meets lived experience, is being built elsewhere. The founders she highlighted didn’t set out to build AI. They set out to solve problems that matter. Tools like Lovable accelerate exactly this pattern.

The cost math finally works. $25/month puts serious building capability within reach of entrepreneurs across markets where custom software projects usually cost tens of thousands of dollars, and often much more. This price point unlocks a massive population of builders who were previously priced out entirely.

What’s still in the way

The opportunity is real, but there are bottlenecks.

The biggest one is payments. Credit card penetration remains very low in many emerging markets (for example, in sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 3-5% of people use credit cards). You can build the most accessible development platform in the world, but if people can’t pay for it, it doesn’t matter. The mobile money infrastructure already exists in many of these markets, and no-code platforms that integrate with local payment systems will unlock these markets.

Language is the other bottleneck. Most no-code platforms are English-first, but English proficiency varies widely across emerging markets. As AI-powered interfaces get better at accepting prompts in Arabic, Portuguese, Hindi, and other local languages, the addressable market will expand significantly.

The future is bright

The cost of building software just dropped by an order of magnitude, and the people who benefit most are the ones who had the least access to begin with. The no-code AI market is projected to reach $37-44B by 2033. But the more interesting thesis is what gets built on top of these platforms in underserved markets. A flagship example is a Brazilian EdTech company, Q Group, which generated $3M in revenue within 48 hours of launching a premium product for its existing user base, built on Lovable.

Endeavor’s data shows there are now over 1,400 unicorns globally, half outside the US. Their question resonates: if founders from overlooked markets have already built this much with limited tools, what happens when they get everything they need?

I think we’re about to find out. And I think no-code platforms will make a massive contribution to the development of emerging market economies.

Go explore it, find a spot near you, or in a place you’re travelling to next and go get yourself a slice. You’ll thank me later 😇

Explore the guide

This whole website was built in one evening on Lovable, and I had so much fun playing with it!

Bon Appetit,
Mal

As Qatar celebrates National Day and 2025 comes to a close, it feels like a natural moment to take stock of how the country’s venture capital and startup ecosystem has evolved. Having lived in Doha for the past three years, I have noticed the change not in a single dramatic headline, but in the accumulation of smaller, structural shifts. Capital is being deployed with clarity, institutions are better coordinated, and Qatar’s role in the global startup and VC landscape is becoming more defined.

The $1 Billion Deployment: QIA and Global Funds

Venture capital activity in Qatar continues to be closely linked to the Qatar Investment Authority, which remains the central force shaping the market. There is a strong emphasis on partnering with experienced fund managers and building long-term institutional capabilities.

By February 2025, QIA had committed nearly $500 million across the first six managers selected under its $1 billion Fund of Funds programme: Rasmal Ventures, B Capital, Builders VC, Deerfield, Utopia Capital Management (A-Typical), and Human Capital. Later in the year, QIA expanded the programme further by adding Founders Circle Capital, strengthening its exposure to global growth-stage expertise.

Despite this momentum, the venture capital programme still represents less than 0.2% of QIA’s total assets, estimated at $526 billion, underscoring both the strategy's early-stage nature and its potential for expansion.

Alongside QIA-backed initiatives, 2025 also saw increased activity from independent international venture capital firms choosing Qatar as a strategic base. Most notably, Golden Gate Ventures strengthened its presence in Doha as part of its global platform, actively building a bridge between Southeast Asia and MENA. The firm made a couple of investments and used Qatar as a hub to support early-stage investments, help founders expand across regions, and connect two fast-growing emerging markets.

Launch of QVCA

To unify these new arrivals with local players, the Qatar Venture Capital Association (QVCA) was launched in May 2025 at the Qatar Economic Forum.

Designed as the “one voice” for the investment community, QVCA is led by founding members including A-typical Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, and Rasmal Ventures. Its primary mission is to coordinate policy advocacy and provide a structured framework for the influx of capital and talent entering Qatar.

The National Bet on AI

Qatar has made AI a strategic priority, anchoring its ambitions in a clear advantage: abundant, low-cost energy to power large-scale computation and next-generation AI infrastructure.

In December 2025, QIA launched QAI - “a national company specialising in artificial intelligence (AI), aimed at developing advanced digital ecosystems to support innovation and contribute to sustainable development”. Shortly after, Qai announced a $20 billion joint venture with Brookfield Asset Management to develop high-performance computing centres and AI infrastructure in Qatar and internationally: one of the largest AI-focused infrastructure commitments globally.

On the venture-creation front, A-typical Ventures, a new venture studio backed by QIA and QDB and managed by Utopia Capital Management, debuted at Web Summit 2025. “The Studio” is actively recruiting entrepreneurs to build companies from the ground up, with a strong focus on AI.

Accelerators and Support Systems

Accelerator activity in Qatar continued to mature in 2025, evolving from a broad set of founder programs into a more specialised support stack that links local innovation with global expertise. Startup Qatar, led by QDB, remains the primary entry point for early-stage founders, while sector depth is increasingly shaped by QDB’s FinTech Hub and Scale7, which focuses on creative and fashion-tech startups with regional scaling ambitions. The TASMU Program continues to anchor venture development around national digital priorities, particularly in logistics, mobility, and smart city infrastructure. Alchemist Doha solidified its role as a premier B2B and enterprise hub, serving as the bridge between Doha and San Francisco for B2B companies. Additionally, the Cure by Deerfield Middle East Health Accelerator launched its inaugural 12-week hybrid program in late 2025, offering mentorship and connectivity between NYC and Doha for 15 selected healthtech startups. Startup Grind Doha continued to play an essential role as a neutral platform for open, candid discussions, bringing founders, operators, and investors together.

Major International Events: Web Summit and MWC

Doha’s role as a regional tech hub was reinforced by its hosting of Web Summit Qatar 2025, which provided the stage for several of the year’s most significant ecosystem announcements and meaningful investor–founder engagement. This international momentum was complemented by strong local platforms, including ROWAD by Qatar Development Bank, which continued to anchor founder development, and the MENA Insurtech Summit & FinTech, led by Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), which strengthened ties between startups and regulated incumbents. Later in the year, MWC Doha hosted its inaugural edition, further validating Qatar’s ambition to become a recurring destination for global technology and innovation events.

A Hotter Angel Scene

Qatar’s angel ecosystem also picked up real momentum in 2025. Doha Tech Angels (DTA) closed three new investments, signalling an active local angel base. At the same time, the market saw the arrival of new angel investment clubs, including Finjan VC, adding fresh capital, structure, and deal-sharing dynamics to the ecosystem.

The Exit: Snoonu’s QAR 1 Billion Milestone

The ecosystem’s most significant validation came in July 2025 with the Snoonu-Jahez deal. Saudi-based Jahez Group agreed to acquire a 76.5% stake in the Qatari delivery platform for $245 million. This deal valued Snoonu at approximately QAR 1.165 billion (~$320 million), making it the first Qatari tech startup to surpass the billion-riyal valuation mark. This “soonicorn” (or snoonicorn 🙈) exit provides a much-needed success story for local founders and proves that Qatar-born startups can achieve regional scale.

2025 was a year of progress

Overall, the momentum going into the end of 2025 is hard to ignore. A lot of this progress is the result of sustained, often unglamorous work by founders, investors, ecosystem builders, and public institutions, and many friends and peers deserve real credit for how far things have moved in a relatively short time. From Seedstars International Ventures’ global portfolio perspective, it has also been encouraging to see two of our companies building meaningful collaborations and products with Qatari corporates. If I had one wish for 2026, it would be to see even deeper engagement from prominent national champions: QNB, Qatar Energy and Qatar Airways, in particular, playing a more systematic role as customers, partners, and early adopters of local and regional innovation.

2026 already looks exciting!

Looking ahead, there are good reasons to believe that 2026 can be even stronger, judging by who showed up in Doha over the past months 🤫. For those who remember how quiet and fragmented the ecosystem felt just three years ago, the contrast is striking.

On a lighter note, the calendar also brings things to look forward to beyond venture. Art Basel is coming to Qatar, which I’m genuinely excited about, and it feels like another signal of how the country is broadening its global cultural footprint.

And finally, for anyone still debating it: Qinwan cheesecake remains the best in Doha, and I’m yet to be convinced otherwise.

Happy holidays,
Mal

La Maritxu's Basque cheesecake has lived on my Google Maps list for over two years, propped up by endless recommendations and one headline that kept popping up: "I tried London's viral Basque cheesecake and it's the best I've ever had." I went there last week wanting to agree.

The set-up is perfect: Soho, that burnt top catching the light, a slice that looks like it knows exactly what it's doing. First bite delivers the right cues: warm custardy centre, a clean bake. Then it goes flat. The flavour is safe and creamy, too much Philadelphia cheese, with a sweetness that starts to crowd out the subtle bitterness you want from a great Basque. I kept waiting for the depth to arrive, the caramelised edge to push, a little salt to lift, but the slice stayed boringly polite.

Is it good? Somehow. It's well-executed and easy to like. Is it "best I've ever had"? Not even close! It's the kind of cheesecake that wins on Instagram and by consensus.

No change to the Global Cheesecake Ranking. London still owes us a Basque with a personality!

Verdict: 2/5 worth the calories.

But as a Venture Capitalist, I couldn't stop thinking: do top VCs follow similar paths? To find out, I analysed the backgrounds of 120 investors from the 2024 and 2025 Forbes Midas Lists. Only 20 new names appeared in 2025, so I merged the two years into one dataset.

I wanted to know what the patterns are in their career paths. What can we learn from the life and career choices of people who consistently back billion-dollar companies?

VC Pathways Chart

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It all starts with an international background and an elite university

Just like unicorn founders, many top VCs have global roots. Nearly half either studied abroad, worked in a different country, or migrated to a major startup hub. It's hard to measure exactly what impact this had, but it likely gave them a wider lens on the world and helped them build diverse, global networks early in their careers.

Speaking of network, the best of them are being built at the top global schools: 79% of Midas List VC investors attended elite universities. It doesn't come as a surprise. As Professor Ilya Strebulaev published recently, three out of every five senior VC investors got educated in a top US school and almost half studied at an Ivy or Ivy+

Across the board, elite universities emerge as the strongest early-career lever by providing access to networks that become a deal flow and co-investor relationships for decades.

54% of successful VCs have science or engineering backgrounds, compared to just 38% with business majors. This technical skillset becomes even more pronounced when looking at early career paths: 36% of Midas VC investors started in product or engineering roles.

It appears that VCs who can evaluate technical feasibility, understand product roadmaps, and speak the language of engineering teams have a significant advantage.

Best VC investors founded “SOMETHING”

Perhaps the most telling statistic in the entire dataset: 42% of Midas List VCs founded their own startup(s) before moving into investing. And it does make sense: founders-turned-investors bring a unique perspective. They've been in the trenches, they understand the emotional rollercoaster, the operational challenges, and the nuances of building something from scratch. This experience allows them to empathise deeply with founders and offer practical, often battle-tested advice. VCs of that profile might also have a higher likelihood of access to great deals, and founders might find them incredibly valuable for opening doors, making introductions, and helping startups gain traction.

54% of top VCs founded their own venture capital funds rather than climbing the ladder at established firms. The traditional model of spending 15 years working one's way up from analyst to partner is not very common among top performers.

Best VCs live and breathe their work

90% of the world's best VC investors invest their capital as angel investors, and 94% actively advise companies. This level of engagement extends far beyond traditional investing, suggesting that the most successful VCs view venture capital as a lifestyle rather than just a job.

Jack Altman once noted that being in the right networks and seeing the best deals is more critical than being an exceptional picker. By immersing themselves in the ecosystem, through angel investing and advising, VCs increase their surface area for opportunities and build trust with founders.

Surprise!

The best VCs aren't necessarily building big personal media brands. Very few run podcasts or focus on constant self-promotion, contrary to the image often portrayed online.

Another unexpected finding was that none of these top investors were college dropouts, a path sometimes glorified in Silicon Valley. Instead, most followed more traditional educational routes before carving out their own unique paths in the venture world.

Only 45% have MBAs, suggesting advanced business education is just as good as operational experience.

Take it with a pinch of salt

The Forbes Midas List, widely seen as the definitive ranking of top venture capitalists, deserves a more critical look. Its ranking method focuses on big exits and high valuations within a five-year window. This naturally favours late-stage investors and short-term wins over early-stage VCs who often take bigger risks and earn the highest returns. The methodology struggles to separate individual versus firm credit and doesn't fully capture geographic diversity beyond Silicon Valley.

In short, while the patterns are interesting, they don't tell the whole story, especially when it comes to early-stage investors, diverse managers, or exceptional investors outside of the leading VC hubs.

"The future is built elsewhere"

The patterns revealed in this analysis may represent the last generation of a distinctly American venture capital archetype. As venture capital continues its rapid globalisation, with US investments dropping from 95% of global VC twenty years ago to just 40% today, the elite university networks and Silicon Valley operational experience that define today's Midas List may become less relevant predictors of success.

"In 2013, Aileen Lee coined the term "unicorn" to describe the rare breed of private billion-dollar startups. At the time, there were 39 of them, all US-based. Fast forward to today, and there are over 1,400 unicorns globally. Half of them are outside the US. If this follows a similar path as capital deployment did, likely, we're only a year or two away from having a majority of non-US unicorns around the world."

Endeavor monthly roundup, July 2025

The next generation of top VCs will likely emerge from different educational systems and build companies in markets such as MENA, CEE, LatAm or SEA. As unicorns increasingly originate from economies beyond the traditional Big Six (the US, China, India, Germany, the UK, and Israel), the venture capitalists backing them will need different skill sets, networks, and cultural fluency than today's Midas List winners.

The credentialed operator-founder archetype documented here may soon give way to a more globally diverse set of paths to venture capital excellence: one that reflects the reality that the future of this industry is increasingly built outside of the major hubs.

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DATA EXPLAINER

Migrated to a Unicorn Country: The investor—or their parents—moved to the US, India, or China at some point. These are the countries that have produced the most unicorns globally.

Studied or Worked Abroad: The investor completed a university degree or held a full-time job in a different country from where they grew up.

Elite University: The investor earned a bachelor's degree from a university ranked in the top 100 of the 2025 QS World University Rankings.

Other University: The investor earned a bachelor's degree from a university outside the top 100 of the 2025 QS World University Rankings.

Science Major: The investor pursued a university degree in a scientific or technical field (e.g. engineering, physics, computer science).

Business Major: The investor studied business, economics, or a related field at university.

MBA: The investor completed a Master of Business Administration degree.

Early Career in Finance: The investor started their career in investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, or a similar finance-related field.

Early Career in Product/Engineering: The investor began their career in a technical or product-related role at a startup or tech company.

Founded a Startup: The investor previously started their own company, regardless of whether it was successful or not.

Exit Event Exposure: The investor either:

– founded a company that was acquired or IPO’d,

– worked at a company that went through a major exit,

Invests as an Angel: The investor makes personal investments in startups, outside of their institutional role.

Founded a VC Fund: The investor is a founding partner or co-founder of a venture capital fund.

Advises Companies: The investor actively advises startups (formally or informally), often taking advisory roles.

Teaches at a University: The investor holds or has held a teaching or guest lecturer position at a university.

Over the past two and a half years, I've spoken with more than 300 potential advisors for my portfolio companies, made over 100 introductions, and ultimately hired 40 advisors to support the growth initiatives of the companies we've invested in.

The results have been very different. Some advisors joined formal advisory boards, others became fractional team members, and in one remarkable case, an advisor launched a new business that became a customer of the startup they were advising.

But not every match was successful. Some advisors vanished after initial meetings, while in other cases, startups became discouraged after a few unproductive sessions. After seeing so many interactions, I've learned a lot about what makes an excellent advisor—and how to find them.

Note: My insights below relate to finding go-to-market, growth, marketing, or sales advisors at the pre-seed and seed stages.

Why consider hiring an advisor

We often hear, "There are so many playbooks out there; why would an early-stage founder hire an advisor? It's a waste of time and money, and founders already have a lot on their plate."

Well, that's because most startup advice is terribly wrong if applied in the wrong context. Every company is unique, and no universal growth playbook works for everyone. My favourite example is Sam Altman, who spent years telling YC founders to "launch fast, get feedback, and avoid stealth mode"—yet with OpenAI, he did precisely the opposite, keeping it secret for years, focusing on research, and only launching when they were far ahead of competitors.

The right growth advisor, however, can be transformative. Luc Levesque, Shopify's Chief Growth Officer, has advised major companies like Canva and Twitter. He shared an inspiring story in one of Lenny’s Podcast episodes - on his first day consulting for a company (now publicly traded), he quickly identified a critical flaw in their strategy. His simple adjustment led to significantly improved growth metrics in just three weeks.

This is why good advisors matter—they distil years of experience, help apply the right playbook to the right situation, speed up decision-making, expand networks, and ideally help founders avoid common (but painful) mistakes.

Timing matters

However, hiring an advisor isn't always the right move. It's usually better to build momentum internally before bringing in an advisor.

A good rule of thumb is to seek external support when it becomes critical to reaching your next milestone. Advisors are usually helpful before major events like raising funds, launching products, shifting your GTM strategy, or expanding into new markets. They can help refine the pitch, improve sales materials, and sharpen your overall strategy and execution plan.

Another key moment is when your company faces unfamiliar challenges. Suppose you're tackling something for the first time. In that case, whether it's scaling growth, navigating enterprise sales, improving activation rates, or launching a referral program—an advisor can bridge that knowledge gap and help you avoid costly or time-consuming mistakes.

Most importantly, only hire an advisor when you clearly define their role. If you're unsure what you need, you probably don't need an advisor (yet).

Must-haves of Solid Advisors

Relevant experience is non-negotiable. Early-stage startups face countless problems, and the fastest solution comes from someone who has repeatedly solved similar challenges.

But experience alone isn't enough. The best growth advisors have performed various experiments and learned a lot while running them. A proven track record in growth means that the advisor has driven measurable results, whether scaling from zero to millions in revenue, building repeatable growth engines, or mastering specific channels.

Strong communication skills are essential, too. Great advisors break down complex concepts into simple, digestible advice. This clarity demonstrates deep understanding.

Ideally, an advisor should have a relevant network and be able to open doors to investors, customers, and talent. However, introductions are not everything. The real value lies in guiding you through challenges after those doors open.

The Non-Obvious Qualities of Great Advisors

Ability to be tactical. Great advisors provide actionable insights. The best can distil years of experience into a sentence. They've seen enough experiments to know what works and what doesn't.

Willingness to challenge you. Valuable advisors aren't afraid of difficult conversations. They'll identify blind spots, question assumptions, and push you to think differently. If you struggle with being challenged by smart people you hire, that's a different problem 🙊.

Adaptability and curiosity. Growth constantly evolves, and the best advisors stay on top of new trends, tools, and tactics.

The best growth advisors don't try to solve every problem and know when to say no. They recognise their strengths and focus where they can make the most significant impact. If something falls outside their expertise, they'll admit it and direct you to someone who can help.

Maximising Advisory Relationships

Finding the right advisor is only half the battle. Many promising advisory arrangements don't work because founders skip essential groundwork. Here are a few things to consider that, in my experience, make all the difference.

1. Start Small: Run a small project or workshop with the advisor before committing. This helps you test chemistry and see the actual value of an advisor. Ask about past projects to understand their adaptability and insight.

2. Align Expectations: Clearly define what you expect. Agree upfront on specific challenges they'll address, meeting frequency, deliverables, and success metrics. A simple one-page "advisor agreement" can clarify expectations and prevent misunderstandings.

3. Structure incentives for a long-term partnership: You’re running a marathon, not a sprint, and your advisor arrangements should reflect this reality. Consider implementing vesting schedules for equity compensation that align the advisor's incentives with your company's growth and fundraising journey.

If you're considering giving up the equity to your advisor, Carta provides fantastic benchmarks and playbooks.

Red Flags 🚩

Oh, I have a lot to share here 🥲

Some advisors can do more harm than good, and I experienced it firsthand. The wrong advisor can waste time, give misleading guidance, or be more focused on building their own personal brand than actually helping startups. Here are some warning signs to watch out for:

1. Lots of consulting gigs, no real operator experience – Some advisors hop from one consulting role to another without ever implementing their own advice. If they can't share concrete examples of applying their insights in real situations, or the results of experiments they did - that's a red flag 🚩

2. No network in your space – Advisors should bring both knowledge and connections. Without industry-specific contacts, their impact will be limited.

3. Generalists – Avoid those who claim expertise in everything (product, marketing, sales, fundraising) and promote one-size-fits-all playbooks. True experts have a clear focus.

4. Excessive LinkedIn/X activity without substance – Advisors who flood social media with memes and generic startup advice are often more focused on personal brand-building than actual impact. They do it usually to get lots of consulting gigs - see #1.

5. Vague case studies or name-dropping – If an advisor references impressive companies but can't explain their specific contributions, their role was likely minimal.

6. (Controversial one) Charging only a fee/hourly rate – I get it, equity doesn't pay the bills. However, advisors who insist on cash-only compensation often operate more like full-time consultants or fractional leads. There's nothing wrong with that—just make sure it aligns with what you need.

Final thoughts

Startup advice is everywhere, but most of it is either too generic, outdated, or misapplied. The right set of advisors can make all the difference. The most valuable advisor-founder relationships are built on mutual respect, shared goals, and genuine commitment to your mission. These rare individuals are worth more than the equity you'll offer them.

For most of 2024, the Global Cheesecake Ranking stayed as steady as an overbaked New York cheesecake. But then December arrived, and with it, a game-changer that shook things up.

I was genuinely disappointed after trying dozens of cheesecakes in my second home, Warsaw. Polish cheesecakes were just very boring, too creamy, not cheesy enough or with raisins (who does that?) 😵. Worst of all, some weren’t even real cheesecakes but the dreaded no-bake, frozen impostors 🥶. Let’s be clear: those aren’t cheesecakes; they’re just regular desserts.

And there it comes, the hero of Warsaw… 🥁🥁🥁 Basque cheesecake with honey and truffles at Koneser Grill. Its texture is pure perfection, and the flavour is a harmonious blend of sweet and salty, with honey adding a mellow richness and truffle, bringing an unexpected yet exquisite depth.

🎉 It’s a new #4 place.

Happy 2025!

And, with that, 2024 comes to an end. Wishing you all a Happy New Year filled with fantastic investments, incredible success for your portfolio companies, and partnerships that make magic happen (if you’re a startup founder). And, of course, exceptional cheesecake. 🥂🎉

Special thanks to Oksana Vodonos for trying this fantastic cheesecake with me in Warsaw in December (she liked the other one with raisins more, though 🙊)

Across the globe, most VC funds share a common goal: helping their portfolio companies reach their full potential. The range of initiatives funds implement to drive portfolio success—and ultimately enhance their own performance—falls under what’s known as the "VC platform." In the last twenty years, Platform roles in VC have grown significantly faster than the industry itself.

VC Platforms now cover a wide range of roles focused on delivering strategic value both pre- and post-investment.1 In this article, I'll dive into the world of post-investment platforms at the early stage.

I see the post-investment platform as a portfolio success engine. For VCs, it’s a way to stand out in competitive deals by offering startups more than capital and to differentiate the fund when pitching to LPs.

Talent, Business Development, and Community/Network are the most popular ways VCs engage with portfolio companies after the investment (according to a study of 850 VC firms). Other fairly popular post-investment platform strategies are listed below.

While all these initiatives aim to help portfolio companies scale, only a few VCs take a step back to focus on growth itself, especially with a structured, framework-driven approach.

Startup = Growth

Growth is a critical factor that can make or break a startup. It validates the scalability of the business model, attracts investors, and often leads to long-term success.

Startups are designed to grow quickly. Their success depends on capturing market share, outpacing competitors, and achieving scale before resources run out. Unlike traditional businesses, which can grow steadily over time, startups often operate in fast-moving, high-risk environments where rapid growth is critical to survival. Citing the timeless Paul Graham's post from 2012, Startup = growth: "The only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with startups follows from growth."

Focusing on the right goals at the right time

The common belief in the startup ecosystem is that founders should follow a structured path through each funding stage, with specific goals at each step. At the pre-seed stage, the priority is to validate the problem and solution and test the MVP with early users to confirm demand. At the seed stage, the focus shifts to achieving product-market fit. Here, founders refine their product based on user feedback, engage a core group of customers, and test growth channels. By Series A, the focus is on scaling.

Growth is a process

But, ironically, growth isn't always about growing. Adopting the growth mindset very early can be a crucial part of the journey to achieving product-market fit. Developing a growth hypothesis and testing it early on helps founders identify the right channels and strategies that align with their product’s value. For example, if targeting product-led growth, the product should be designed to drive acquisition and retention from the start.

Early growth efforts can help to establish key growth engines. For instance, Duolingo's initial growth was significantly driven by word of mouth, which accounted for about 90% of its DAU growth. By focusing on growth from the start, Duolingo created a self-sustaining loop where user acquisition feeds into product improvement, leading to more users and so on. Another great example is Airbnb: from the beginning, the team worked hard to enhance the experience for hosts and guests. They knew that building trust was essential, so they made key decisions to support that—like investing in professional photography for listings, which helped boost both trust and the number of bookings. During the early days, Airbnb also launched a host referral program, turning word-of-mouth into a powerful growth engine. Prioritising growth from day one enabled Duolingo and Airbnb to lay a strong foundation for long-term success, allowing founders to quickly grasp market dynamics, customer needs, and product effectiveness—ultimately accelerating their ability to iterate and improve.

Duolingo’s and Airbnb's stories prove that growth needs a solid foundation; skipping this foundation phase can lead to failure. For instance, Clubhouse, founded in early 2020, saw explosive 10x growth during the pandemic in late 2020/21, but the hype faded quickly. Even CEO Paul Davison acknowledged, "Extreme hypergrowth is not good for a company. The ideal is to grow at a steady pace."

Could Clubhouse's investors have prevented that? Maybe. Some VCs build teams to ensure sustainable growth, aiming to avoid clubhouse-like stories.

Leading examples of growth-centric platforms

Harry Stebbings' 20VC fund, which recently closed a new $400M fund (and invested in 6 seed unicorns in just 5 years! 🤯), stands out by offering more than capital. Stebbings has structured the firm with specialised sub-funds, including 20Growth, 20Sales, and 20Product.

Not surprisingly, 20Growth started as a post-investment platform. 20VC initially assembled leading growth and product experts to assist its founders, which grew into 20Growth, a dedicated sub-fund with nine industry veterans from companies like Shopify, Dropbox, Pinterest, and DoorDash. The US$5M fund provides hands-on and practical guidance in critical areas like user acquisition, retention, marketing, and revenue growth. Portfolio companies "get nine of the best growth leaders with one check."

Stage 2 Capital is another fund that takes growth support to the next level. The fund invests in early-stage B2B software companies and works closely with leadership teams to establish and drive sustainable revenue growth. Mark Roberge, the Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital developed a fantastic guide, "The Science of Scaling," which showcases the proven approach to building a revenue engine—from product-market fit through go-to-market fit all the way to growth and the moat phase. Additionally, the fund's network of 250 experienced GTM executives provides portfolio companies with direct access to seasoned professionals.

Growth is also our main focus at Seedstars International Ventures, making Seedstars the first global early-stage fund in emerging markets to build a platform centred on growth. The execution follows three elements: Our Entrepreneur in Residence hosts regular growth-related webinars, open to all portfolio team members and available for repeated participation, ensuring continuous learning for new hires. To turn knowledge into action, each portfolio company is paired with a Growth Partner—an industry expert, often with unicorn experience—who guides them in applying best growth practices. Finally, we foster collaboration through peer-learning sessions, where companies share insights and strategies across the portfolio.

At its core, the growth focus we propose as a fund involves running rapid experiments across different marketing channels and product development initiatives to discover the most efficient ways to drive business growth.

Growth Resources Beyond VC Support

Undoubtedly, a holistic approach to growth is a must for every ambitious startup. Luckily, there are great resources that founders can use in case they can't rely on their investors.

The first is Reforge, a platform offering in-depth growth programs led by top industry experts. Their Growth Series is particularly well-known for providing actionable frameworks and strategies used by high-growth companies such as Dropbox and HubSpot.

Lenny's Newsletter: run by Lenny Rachitsky, a former product manager at Airbnb. This newsletter offers deep insights into growth tactics, product management, and scaling companies. I couldn't recommend it more!

Given that the founders know what they’re looking for, it’s worth checking out Growth Mentor. This platform connects founders with experienced growth professionals for one-on-one advice. It's ideal for those seeking hands-on help.

The Power of Diverse VC Support

It is still rare in venture capital to make growth a core part of platform strategy. While it’s a perfect fit for some funds, others may create more impact with different approaches. At the end of the day, this diversity is beneficial, as it allows founders to choose investors based on the specific value they bring to the table, ideally giving each investor a unique role.

Ultimately, the market rewards growth above all else. More VCs, especially those in emerging markets, need to step up with hands-on, practical support, whether for hiring, product development, networking, or growth.

Thank you to Konstantin Hapkemeyer, Charlie Graham-Brown, Cyrine Ben Fadhel and Tiziana Bombassei for providing feedback on the early drafts of this post.

Criticism of the “VC Platform” profession (i.e., the role in VC primarily responsible for the value creation component) is a boomerang in industry conversations, always coming back around.

Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram are full of memes about VCs “adding value” (like the one below).

Last year, Kate Clark’s article “Why VC's Platform Teams Are on the Chopping Block” generated considerable buzz among the platform professionals' community who disagreed with the statement that “…firms should run their shops like pro sports teams. Get rid of the poor performers [portfolio services team members] and optimise the roster.”

The recent summary of Fortune’s 2024 Brainstorm Tech conference in Park City, Utah, “What GPs and LPs say to each other behind closed doors” by Allie Garfinkle, features a spicy comment of one of the attendees saying that “VC platforms are BS” and claiming that VCs using platforms to court founders are just posturing. Platforms meant to offer resources beyond funding are seen as unnecessary distractions by founders. They prefer direct access to partners over constant platform support. This comment, again, caused a lot of disagreement among the audience.

Contrasting Views on VC’s Role

It seems to be a controversial topic in the entrepreneurial community that is divided into two groups:

(1) Self-Reliance Advocates: People who believe that VC exists to write checks and pick exceptional founders who don’t need any support because the GPs wouldn’t back them in the first place

(2) Collaborative Partners: People who believe VC funds should offer smart money. Once they invest, they become almost an extension of the founding team and do everything they can to contribute to the company's success.

So, in an attempt to do a reality check, it’s worth considering facts, not opinions, to answer the controversial question: Is VC platform BS?

Fact 1: Founders want their investors to help

The Forward More Than Money Report 2021 indicates that 61% of founders want more than money. The number is even higher if we look at female founders (a vastly underrepresented group in most ecosystems worldwide): 86% of female founders consider value-add necessary when picking a VC - that's 26% more than their male counterparts.

Another report, The Frontline What Founders Want, shows that founders see VCs as an extension of their sales team: 63% of US-based founders (30% in Europe) chose ‘introductions to prospective customers’ as one of the three factors they consider when selecting VCs. Other ‘value add’ factors considered include fundraising support, help to expand into new markets, help to hire talent, peer network and PR support (these, in fact, are the primary platform categories defined: see VC Platform Strategy Matrix by Cory Bolotsky).

The research Do VCs add value?, led by three Kauffman Fellows, confirms that founders believe VCs can help in three main areas: fundraising (39%), founder coaching (17%), and hiring support (14%).

Founders can exist without Venture Capital, but VCs are helpless without founders. The power dynamic is clear: VCs must bend or break.

Though only a tiny fraction of companies raise venture capital, many of the biggest tech successes—Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Apple, Cisco, Uber —did. Half of all US public companies founded since 1970 had VC support. This underscores the critical role venture capital plays in shaping the future of innovation and the global economy, acting as the driving force behind many of the most transformative companies in history.1

Fact 2: Funds with value creation platforms perform better

These VC funds that listen to founders and provide value-added services have historically outperformed those that don’t.

The VC Platform Community analysed 850 VC firms between 2020-2022 and found that VCs with Significant Platform produced 1,160 basis point improvements in Net IRR and 0.9x TVPI compared to VCs with No Platform in the last decade.

As the Platform function has matured over the last 10 years, the difference in fund performance across these categorical cohorts is far more pronounced than in the early years of the century.

Reality check: Founders often don’t know how to ask for help

As a venture capitalist, I frequently encounter founders who express frustration over not receiving the promised benefits from their so-called "value-add" investors. However, are the founders fully aware of how to leverage the potential value their investors could offer?

Sam Corcos, the founder of Levels, shared an interesting point of view in my all-time favourite Lenny’s Newsletter post:

”Between June 27, 2019, and October 26, 2022 (about 3 years and 4 months), I facilitated 2,626 requests through our investor network. Out of those, 1,664 received a response, and 1,151 successfully delivered on the ask.”

The reality is that investors typically have limited insight into the day-to-day workings of your company or your immediate needs. Expecting them to proactively offer value without clear guidance is unrealistic. Founders need to develop the skill of making precise, actionable requests—a task that may seem straightforward but actually requires significant practice, and many founders struggle with it.”

Levels’ cap table includes A16Z, Long Journey Ventures, TriplePoint Capital and many prominent angel investors, including Lenny Rachitsky. 60% of them tried to help, and every 7 out of 10 responses to the founders’ request met his expectations. Not bad, right?

Reality check: VCs often overpromise and underdeliver

VCs like to think they’re adding value, but founders don't always agree. In 2021, 92% of VCs said they were value-add investors, yet 61% of founders rated their experience below average (Full report). The numbers back it up: in 2018, VCs rated their impact on portfolio companies as a 7 out of 10. Founders gave them a 5.3. By 2022, nothing had changed—VCs still rated themselves a 7, while founders scored them even lower, at 5.2 (Full article). The gap is clear, but it’s not surprising. VCs think they're helping, but founders are looking for something they’re not getting.

To add to this, founders often say that VCs' value-added efforts aren’t goal-oriented. What’s the problem, then? No one knows what the end result is supposed to be. If there’s no clear target, it’s hard to measure success—or even see if you’re on the right track. VCs might think they’re helping, but without a clear goal, it’s just noise.

Proactive VCs with a clear superpower win

A proactive portfolio strategy outperforms a reactive one by intentionally creating value rather than waiting for founders to request support. It actively drives value instead of waiting for founders to seek assistance. With a clear plan in place, VCs are not just responding to problems—they're preventing them and aligning efforts with financial outcomes. By leveraging pattern recognition, VCs can anticipate potential challenges and take action before they become issues.

As my fellow platform leader, Dan Kozikowski of FirstMark, put it: “The question isn’t whether the Platform works. It’s whether your Platform is working toward the right things.” The key is focusing on one superpower that can become the fund differentiator. For example, YCombinator would probably put fundraising as their superpower, and 500 Global might cite their global network (at Seedstars International, the focus is on growth).2

In the end, success comes from proactiveness and a clear focus. By adding value early and honing a specific strength, VCs can stand out and deliver real results.

Final thoughts

As the startup ecosystem evolves, the relationship between founders and VCs is bound to become even more collaborative. Founders and VCs clearly need more upfront discussions to align expectations from the start. Founders should also put effort into thoroughly vetting their investors to ensure the best fit. Doing due diligence on VCs is just as crucial for founders as it is for investors.

VC Investors adding value are BS only when executed poorly… by both.

I’m Mal. I manage a diverse VC portfolio of over 140 startups from 35+ countries for Seedstars International Ventures. 🌍🇨🇭

Outside of work, I’m on a mission to build the ultimate global cheesecake ranking.

Writing helps me think and organise my thoughts, develop opinions, and compare them against others. I only publish my notes when I have something worthwhile to say.

I decided to start sharing my notes for a couple of reasons:

• To organise my thoughts;

• To dig deeper into ideas, research them, and get feedback from smart people (whether they agree or not);

• To recommend the best cheesecakes I’ve found from around the world.

✨Please reach out via Linkedin if you’d like to chat.

* Disclaimer:
I actually love my dog and husband more. I’ve tried to update the world about them... Didn’t work. Some friends even left the group chat over too many dog pictures (sorry, not sorry) 🥲

Eight months after the loud US $1B Fund of Funds (FoF) announcement by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) at Web Summit Qatar last February, the buzz around Qatar's growing VC ecosystem has only intensified. But beyond the headline-grabbing announcements, what's really happening on the ground?

A recent Startup Grind Qatar event in Doha [Venture Capital Unplugged: The Ecosystem & Funding Blueprint] provided some answers. On stage, we had Michael Lints (Golden Gate Ventures), Alexander Wiedmer (Rasmal Ventures ), and Muhannad Taslaq Alchemist Doha) and the chat was moderated by Salman Surti.

The Impact of QIA's US$ 1B

The much-publicized QIA $1 billion FoF was undoubtedly a major moment for Qatar's ecosystem, but was it truly a turning point? According to Alexander Wiedmer, who has been in Qatar for over five years, the country's ecosystem had been evolving in the right direction long before this announcement. He emphasised that the ecosystem has become increasingly sophisticated over the past four years, not only since February.

Michael Lints, with his extensive experience in Singapore's VC scene, agreed, noting the parallels between Qatar's journey and Singapore's rise as a VC hub. He referenced Singapore's Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS), which attracted international funds to the region. Qatar's current trajectory, especially with the $1 billion injection, mirrors that growth and presents a unique opportunity to attract VCs committed to being on the ground and building the ecosystem.

New Funds and Investment Strategies

Rasmal VC and Golden Gate Ventures, now operating in Qatar, offered insights into their investment strategies. Rasmal, a Qatari-born fund, allocates 15-20% of its assets under management (AUM) to Qatar, 60% to the broader MENA region, and 20% to international deals. The fund is a generalist but focuses primarily on tech, with a preference for Series A companies.

Golden Gate Ventures, which originated in Singapore but is now operating also in Doha, focuses on B2B companies with strong product or tech components. While the fund is MENA-focused, it is not obligated to invest solely in Qatar. Michael shared that Golden Gate has a couple of open deals in the pipeline and is actively deploying capital so we might be expecting some first announcements soon 👀

Both VCs highlighted the collaborative nature of the VC space. Michael Lints shared that in his 15-year career, only two deals his fund backed were done independently, with no co-investment partners. This spirit of collaboration is expected to drive co-investments between Rasmal and Golden Gate Ventures.

The Role of Accelerators in MENA's Growth

The Alchemist Accelerator is making waves in Doha, aiming to attract global founders and foster a robust entrepreneurial community. Both Alex and Michael emphasised the importance of accelerators in their investment pipelines. However, they also noted that participation in an accelerator is not a must to get a VC investment.

That said, accelerators can add value to a startup's journey, often helping to fine-tune business models, build networks, and prepare for fundraising. The Alchemist's industry-agnostic approach ensures that founders from various sectors can benefit from the program and contribute to the ecosystem's growth.

The Angel Investment Scene in Qatar

Angel investors play a crucial role in Qatar's VC ecosystem. Alex highlighted the presence of strong angel investors in the region and the need for further development of this type of investment. Doha Tech Angels LLC is an excellent example of an angel network that has been a critical contributor to early-stage funding in Qatar. Given the wealth in Qatar, there is room for even more activity, and key institutions like Qatar Development Bank (QDB) are working to boost angel investment further. For example, QDB launched a training program for people interested in angel investing to help them make smarter investment decisions.

Michael added that serial entrepreneurs often transition into angel investing in mature ecosystems, and Qatar is likely to follow this pattern as its ecosystem continues to grow and mature.

The Role of Grants

Grants were briefly discussed during the panel. The key takeaway was that grant funding can benefit startups as long as strategic angels or early-stage VCs complement it. Standalone grants, however, might not be sufficient to sustain long-term growth.

Value-Add from Qatari-based VCs

Alex and Michael emphasised that their funds aim to back founders only if they can add value. While they didn't elaborate much on their specific value-add strategies, Alex mentioned Rasmal's "open-door" policy, which allows entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas and receive feedback, even if they aren't ready for investment.

Final Thoughts

The room at the Startup Grind event was packed with young entrepreneurs full of ideas and eager questions, showing just how exciting Qatar's tech scene is becoming. With more VCs, accelerators, and founders coming together in Doha, the entrepreneurial ecosystem is set to take off. The evening saw two announcements of new initiatives launched in Qatar: Alchemist Doha and the next wave of Qatar FinTech Hub.

Qatar's VC ecosystem may still be young, but the groundwork is being laid for something remarkable. With a collaborative investment environment, increasing angel activity, and new accelerators, the future looks promising. My hope is that as we continue to grow, we will see more diversity in the ecosystem and more female investors and entrepreneurs involved.

This post was previously published on Linkedin in September 2024

In the last three years spent in the Middle East, between UAE and Qatar, probably the most frequently asked job-related question that I get from friends, common friends, and strangers on LinkedIn is, “Hey, I see that you moved to the Middle East and managed to get a job in VC despite not being from the region. How do I do the same?”

No surprise. This place has it all: an excellent quality of life, career opportunities, exciting projects, good weather for most of the year, and a strong sense of safety. But what truly sets the Middle East apart is its rapidly growing venture capital industry.

My third Middle East anniversary was a great motivator to write down my thoughts about what I saw working well for people who want to start a new chapter in a Middle Eastern VC (and also, I want to have a link I can share with everyone who asks in the future ✨)

My story

My move to the Middle East was semi-spontaneous. My boyfriend had just gotten a good job offer and was planning a move to Abu Dhabi, so I started looking. It was May 2021. I was still living in Warsaw, working with an impact VC in Poland, and three months later, I found myself working in Abu Dhabi for the most active seed-stage VC in the region.

How did it happen? It was definitely good timing — in the middle of the COVID pandemic, only a few people were considering relocating to other parts of the world, so there was an evident talent shortage in the region that heavily relies on qualified expats. At the same time, Flat6labs re-opened their UAE office and sought people to join their team. It was a match made in heaven (both in terms of timing and the fit itself).

That was lucky. Yet, if I were to move to GCC now, I would do precisely the same thing.

#1 Check what new funds are opening up

This was my luck, but here’s the good news: more and more VC funds are in the region.

Investor numbers in the Middle East and North Africa’s venture capital ecosystem increased 33 percent annually in the first half of 2024. According to a report from venture data platform MAGNiTT, rising sentiment spurred a 130% increase in the number of funds launched in the MENA region during the last year (Source).

On top of that:

• In January 2024, Oman’s sovereign wealth fund, Oman Investment Authority, launched a $5.2 billion fund to encourage investments in the private sector and small and medium-sized enterprises. (Source)

• In February 2024, the Qatar Investment Authority announced a new Qatar Venture Capital Fund of Funds exceeding US$ 1 billion. (Source)

• Jada Fund of Funds has an estimated size of approximately $1.07 billion (KSA) (Source)

• PIF’s Sanabil commits approximately $3 billion in capital per annum in private investments that include venture, growth capital and small buyout (KSA) (Source)

• Mubadala, DFDF, ADIA, and ADQ continue their direct and FOF investments (UAE)

The future for this region is bright! This means that international and new local funds will be looking for people on the ground. 👀

#2 Keep yourself up to date with the local news

Stay on top of the local news to know what’s going on and which funds announce their MENA expansion, next funds, or launches.

I recommend to follow:

1. Zawaya: https://www.zawya.com/en/mena

2. MENA bytes: https://www.menabytes.com/

3. Wamda: https://www.wamda.com/author/newsnews

4. Magnitt: https://magnitt.com/

#3 Build relationships

In the Middle East, one of the critical values of the business world is TRUST. Establishing trust and building relationships is crucial to a successful move. Here are some ideas:

• Visit the region for one of the industry events: GITEX (Expand North Star) in Dubai, WebSummit in Qatar, and LEAP in Riyadh to connect with the local ecosystem and express your interest in the region; everybody appreciates it.

• Show everybody you mean it: develop a reputation for bringing high-quality deal flow. Share information about companies from outside the MENA region that are looking to expand into the Middle East and are fundraising.

#4 Bring experience

Middle East is a market that attracts experienced professionals from all over the world. That being said, the bar is high, and the majority of people who move to the region have a solid couple of years of experience from other parts of the world. To differentiate yourself in this competitive landscape, gain relevant experience elsewhere. It could be, for example, previous experience in VC, including sourcing deals, performing due diligence, portfolio management, and understanding the entire investment lifecycle or deep knowledge in specific sectors (e.g., fintech, health tech, e-commerce) that are of high interest in the Middle East VC landscape.

Final thoughts

Breaking into VC in the Middle East is more straightforward than it seems if you know where to look and what to do. The key is to be proactive — I was surprised when General Partners of the top funds in the United Arab Emirates agreed to casually chat with me while I was still in Poland and how transparent they were in their feedback. All I did was message them on LinkedIn. I’m forever grateful for these calls!

By approaching this transition with diligence, adaptability, and a genuine interest in contributing to the local market, you can achieve your career goals and become a part of the Middle East’s remarkable growth story.

By the way, life here is incredible. This is our recent camping spot in Qatar.

This post was previously published on Medium.com in July 2024