Venture Capital Investor at Mundi Ventures

Industrial Engineer turned tech early stage investor and builder of a media company.

I’ve worked as a VC backing early and late stage startups, and now invest globally at pre-seed as a business angel, helping founders with distribution and go-to-market.

I also write and run two of the leading tech newsletters for founders:

▪ The VC Corner (100k+ on Substack, 130k+ on LinkedIn):  Actionable VC insights, fundraising strategies, and curated resources
→ Ranked #4 tech newsletter globally on Substack
→ Fastest-growing tech newsletter on Substack
→ Largest Substack in any category created by a Spaniard

▪ The Founders Corner (40k+ on Substack, co-written with Chris Tottman): Real-world tips and tactics from top founders

Rubén D.

BREAKING🎉

The EU just announced it's building a European company structure, EU–INC

Ursula von der Leyen stood up at Davos today and said the EU will create "a new truly European company structure. We call it EU Inc."

This is massive.

For years, European founders have been handicapped by fragmented regulations across 27 countries. Different tax rules, different labor laws, different compliance requirements.

It's why so many European startups incorporate in Delaware instead of Brussels.

EU Inc would change that. One framework, one set of rules, across the entire EU. You could start a company in Portugal and scale to Germany without navigating 27 different legal systems.

Europe desperately needs its founders more than founders need Europe right now. This could actually level the playing field against the US and China.

The legislative proposal is expected in March 2026, so this is still early. But the fact that it got announced at Davos means momentum is real.

If this actually happens, it could be the biggest structural change for European startups in decades.

Do you think a unified European company structure will actually make Europe more competitive for startups?

by the way, here are Startup Resources you'll love:

• 10k Investor List: https://lnkd.in/eQHXjjpP

• 20+ Financial Model Templates: https://lnkd.in/eniYg7JH

• Claude workflows, prompts and templates to make it your coworker: https://lnkd.in/ettUa_YU

• 45+ AI Decks (Eleven Labs, Artisan, etc.): https://lnkd.in/etqM3-ik

• OpenAI’s New Playbook for Product-Market Fit in AI Startups
https://lnkd.in/dy-HgVtX

• 2,500+ Angel Investors Backing AI Startups - https://lnkd.in/djjN-TD2

• 50 AI Agent Startup Ideas for 2025 - https://lnkd.in/dy9E-MCn

• Family Offices list: https://lnkd.in/e72hVhph

• How to use Lovable instead of PPT presentations - https://lnkd.in/eKfM7VRa

50 more here: https://lnkd.in/d_NvAM_9

Rubén Domínguez Ibar

Steve Jobs had a simple rule.

Only start a company if you feel pulled to do it.
The kind of pull that keeps coming back, even when it gets hard and inconvenient.

PS. this is OpenAI's early stage deck: https://lnkd.in/e5bVD5XT

A startup gives you no map and no guarantees.
You build something that does not exist, make decisions with partial information, and watch plans break in real time.

The upside is not money or fame.
The upside is putting something real into the world that would not exist without you.

If the urge is strong, you already know.
If it is not, there are better ways to spend your life.

Do you think obsession is required to build great companies, or can discipline replace it?

by the way, here are AI RESOURCES you'll love:

• Claude workflows, prompts and templates to make it your coworker: https://lnkd.in/ettUa_YU

• 45+ AI Decks (Eleven Labs, Artisan, etc.): https://lnkd.in/etqM3-ik

• OpenAI’s New Playbook for Product-Market Fit in AI Startups
https://lnkd.in/dy-HgVtX

• 2,500+ Angel Investors Backing AI Startups - https://lnkd.in/djjN-TD2

• 50 AI Agent Startup Ideas for 2025 - https://lnkd.in/dy9E-MCn

• AI Co-Pilots for Startups & VCs - https://lnkd.in/dSX3ss2q

• 118 AI Communication Agent Use Cases - https://lnkd.in/dr9cM5BT

The UK just had a BREAKOUT YEAR that deserves more attention 🇬🇧

15 new unicorns minted in 2025.
That’s more than 2023 and 2024 combined.

A few things stand out when you zoom out:

• $24B invested into UK tech in a single year, a sharp jump from 2024

• Unicorn creation is spreading beyond fintech into AI, energy, hardware, and deep tech

• Founders are building globally relevant companies from day one, not local winners hoping to expand later

Some of the new unicorns: Fuse Energy, Cleo, Nothing, MUBI, Nscale, PhysicsX, Tide

The timing matters too.

This was also the year Jensen Huang announced a £2B commitment to the UK AI ecosystem, with NVIDIA backing companies like Synthesia, Wayve, PolyAI, Oxa, and Revolut.

The old narrative was that Europe struggles to produce breakout scale.

The new reality looks more like this: when capital, talent, and ambition line up, the UK compounds fast

Join 100,000+ founders and startup operators who receive insights and resources: https://lnkd.in/dScY_5k3 💥

Credit to Seb Johnson 📊🇪🇺 for pulling the data together

I'm sharing 12 FINANCIAL MODELS most founders pay consultants to build

If your startup's numbers feel scattered, this pulls them together:

1️⃣ VC Valuation Framework https://lnkd.in/eg3rPUxY

2️⃣ Cash Runway Model https://lnkd.in/e3v39cWx

3️⃣ Financial Modeling Examples https://lnkd.in/ei9jWrdv

4️⃣ SaaS Cohort Analysis https://lnkd.in/eCtc_hvd

5️⃣ SAFE Note Dilution https://lnkd.in/envpm2Yf

6️⃣ SaaS Financial Model https://lnkd.in/eNAuw5Nm

7️⃣ Pricing Strategy https://lnkd.in/euq59E9B

8️⃣ Headcount Planning https://lnkd.in/ebAnZYVE

9️⃣ CLTV vs CAC https://lnkd.in/eguW_Jfz

🔟 DCF Valuation https://lnkd.in/eKjSAKzE

1️⃣1️⃣ Startup MIS https://lnkd.in/eWf63rXp

1️⃣2️⃣ Stock Options Calculator https://lnkd.in/enCAR3iy

more Resources (decks, investor lists) here: https://lnkd.in/dxWsxKZU

This is WILD

A single prompt went viral because it flips ChatGPT from “friendly assistant” to something much closer to how sharp operators, investors, and engineers actually think

The idea behind it is simple but powerful:
stop optimizing for vibes, start optimizing for thinking

Here’s the prompt people are copy-pasting 👇

---

System Instruction: Absolute Mode

• Remove emojis, filler, hype, and soft transitions
• Assume the user can handle blunt, high-signal responses
• Prioritize clarity and directive phrasing over tone
• Disable engagement and sentiment optimization
• Suppress emotional softening and continuation bias
• Speak only to the underlying cognitive layer
• No questions, no suggestions, no motivational framing
• End immediately after delivering the information
• Goal: restore independent, high-fidelity thinking

---

The moment you strip away the assistant voice, the output suddenly feels closer to how smart humans actually reason.

Try it once and you’ll see why it spread so fast 🫡

more AI Resources you might find helpful:

• OpenAI’s New Playbook for Product-Market Fit in AI Startups
https://lnkd.in/dy-HgVtX

• 2,500+ Angel Investors Backing AI Startups - https://lnkd.in/djjN-TD2

• 50 AI Agent Startup Ideas for 2025 - https://lnkd.in/dy9E-MCn

• AI Co-Pilots for Startups & VCs - https://lnkd.in/dSX3ss2q

• The Agentic Revolution - https://lnkd.in/dadFm25a

• 118 AI Communication Agent Use Cases - https://lnkd.in/dr9cM5BT

😳 BREAKING: McKinsey just redefined “headcount.”
40,000 humans. 25,000 AI agents.

What changed fast:

▫️ 18 months ago: a few thousand agents
▫️ Today: 25,000 agents running autonomously
▫️ Next: one agent per consultant, minimum

~40% of McKinsey’s work now flows through its AI division.
▫️ They want people who can switch between consultant and engineer
▫️ Strategy and building collapse into one role
▫️ Leverage comes from orchestration, not headcount

And the business model moved with it:

Hourly fees → OUTCOME guarantees

If BCG has consultants coding on-site,
and McKinsey has 25,000 agents in the field,

The consulting wars just entered a different phase.

AI Resources you might find helpful:

• OpenAI’s New Playbook for Product-Market Fit in AI Startups
https://lnkd.in/dy-HgVtX

• 2,500+ Angel Investors Backing AI Startups - https://lnkd.in/djjN-TD2

• 50 AI Agent Startup Ideas for 2025 - https://lnkd.in/dy9E-MCn

• AI Co-Pilots for Startups & VCs - https://lnkd.in/dSX3ss2q

• The Agentic Revolution - https://lnkd.in/dadFm25a

• 118 AI Communication Agent Use Cases - https://lnkd.in/dr9cM5BT

Top European universities ranked for entrepreneurs 🥇

the startup talent map is getting clearer:

The founders building the most venture-backed companies in Europe are still coming from a small set of universities, and the concentration is stronger than most people expect.

At the top of the 2025 ranking:

1️⃣ University of Cambridge leads by founder count and total companies built

2️⃣ University of Oxford follows closely with even more capital raised

3️⃣ INSEAD ranks third, despite a much smaller alumni base


What’s more interesting is the movement underneath:

Imperial College London, HEC Paris, and London Business School keep climbing

Technical universities like Technical University of Munich and Delft University of Technology are accelerating fast

Several traditional names are quietly slipping down the list

👉 schools that combine strong networks, operator culture, and proximity to capital keep producing founders at scale.

Talent is everywhere.
Founder density is not.

by the way, here are Startup Resources you'll love:

• 10k Investor List: https://lnkd.in/eQHXjjpP

• 20+ Financial Model Templates: https://lnkd.in/eniYg7JH

• Claude workflows, prompts and templates to make it your coworker: https://lnkd.in/ettUa_YU

• 45+ AI Decks (Eleven Labs, Artisan, etc.): https://lnkd.in/etqM3-ik

• OpenAI’s New Playbook for Product-Market Fit in AI Startups
https://lnkd.in/dy-HgVtX

• 2,500+ Angel Investors Backing AI Startups - https://lnkd.in/djjN-TD2

• 50 AI Agent Startup Ideas for 2025 - https://lnkd.in/dy9E-MCn

• Family Offices list: https://lnkd.in/e72hVhph

• How to use Lovable instead of PPT presentations - https://lnkd.in/eKfM7VRa

50 more here: https://lnkd.in/d_NvAM_9

Everyone is calling everything an AI agent.

That’s the problem

Most “agents” today are just: 
▫️ chatbots that answer
▫️ scripts that automate
▫️ RAG systems that fetch and reply

Useful tools.
Different things.

A real agentic system does something else entirely: it plans, decides, uses tools, updates its state, and owns an outcome.

That distinction explains why so many AI projects look impressive in demos
and quietly fail to create ROI in production.

Automation executes.
Agency decides.

Until we stop mixing those two, expectations will stay broken.

Diagram credit to Luís Rodrigues   👇

by the way, here are AI RESOURCES you'll love:

• AI Humaniser Prompt : https://lnkd.in/edrfFWGC

• how to use Lovable for Ppts: https://lnkd.in/eKfM7VRa

• Claude workflows, prompts and templates to make it your coworker: https://lnkd.in/ettUa_YU

• 45+ AI Decks (Eleven Labs, Artisan, etc.): https://lnkd.in/etqM3-ik

• OpenAI’s New Playbook for Product-Market Fit in AI Startups
https://lnkd.in/dy-HgVtX

• 2,500+ Angel Investors Backing AI Startups - https://lnkd.in/djjN-TD2

• 50 AI Agent Startup Ideas for 2025 - https://lnkd.in/dy9E-MCn

• AI Co-Pilots for Startups & VCs - https://lnkd.in/dSX3ss2q

• 118 AI Communication Agent Use Cases - https://lnkd.in/dr9cM5BT

Most people miss how the energy system actually works

The U.S. produces massive amounts of oil, yet still imports millions of barrels every day. 

That looks strange until you understand one detail: most refineries were built decades ago for a different kind of crude than the one being produced today.

Changing that setup isn’t a switch you flip. It’s years of engineering, billions in capex, and real operational risk.

So the system keeps moving the way it always has, even when the numbers seem contradictory.

Once you see how much of the world runs on legacy infrastructure, a lot of “illogical” decisions start to make sense.

Thoughts?

JUST IN: Europe produced 25 NEW UNICORNS in 2025 🦄

(PS. I just shared Revolut's ($75Bn) 1st EVER Pitch Deck: https://lnkd.in/euKuZYPz)

▫️ MUBI – global film streaming and curation
▫️ Nothing – consumer electronics with a design-first edge
▫️ Nscale – AI infrastructure for deploying and scaling models
▫️ Tide – digital banking for SMBs
▫️ PhysicsX – AI simulation for engineering and design
▫️ Aaru – enterprise AI agents
▫️ Verdiva Bio – biotech, oral GLP-1s
▫️ Isomorphic Labs – AI for drug discovery
▫️ Quantum Systems – AI-powered defense drones
▫️ Parloa – AI voice automation for enterprises
▫️ n8n – workflow automation across apps, data, and AI
▫️ Black Forest Labs – generative AI for image and video
▫️ Neko Health – preventative health
▫️ Lovable – no-code platform for AI software
▫️ Sana – enterprise knowledge and agentic copilots
▫️ Framer – AI-powered website builder
▫️ Destinus – hypersonic aircraft
▫️ poolside – AI coding assistants
▫️ TEKEVER – UAVs and defense tech
▫️ Namirial – digital trust and e-signatures
▫️ I-care Group – predictive maintenance
▫️ Diagnostyka – medical diagnostics
▫️ IQM Quantum Computers – quantum hardware
▫️ Fintech-IT Group (monobank) – digital banking

What really jumps out:

▫️ Strong infra layer
▫️ Serious deeptech density
▫️ New hubs beyond the usual capitals

Huge thanks to Luis Druschke for the data and Jeroen Westerbeek 🪐 for the map

Let's go Europe!

BREAKING: Prompting has officially leveled up

MIT just introduced a technique that turns one AI answer into a panel of experts

It’s called Recursive Meta-Cognition: 
https://lnkd.in/eWAsAARz

Instead of a single confident response, the model now:

▫️ Breaks the problem into parts
▫️ Checks answers from multiple perspectives
▫️ Scores confidence on every claim
▫️ Flags weak reasoning
▫️ Commits only when confidence is high

The result: ~110% better performance vs standard prompts.

Why this matters:

Most people get one answer and move on.
This setup forces verification, uncertainty labeling, and reflection before output.

It scales from simple to complex automatically:
▫️ Small questions → fast answers
▫️ Big decisions → full reasoning architecture

I’ve tested this kind of prompting across strategy, research, and analysis.

The difference feels immediate.

Have you tried multi-perspective or confidence-scored prompting yet?
Where would this change your workflow most?

PS. You'll love the following resources
✅𝐒𝐚𝐚𝐒 Financial Model: https://lnkd.in/dUgPHBFv
✅ 10k 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭: https://lnkd.in/dtQnbv4q
✅2.5k 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 Backing AI & SaaS: https://lnkd.in/djjN-TD2
✅ The 𝐕𝐂 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 + Excel Template: https://lnkd.in/dKi2xfnV
✅RIP SEO: the 𝐆𝐄𝐎 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 for 2025: https://lnkd.in/dKe7UQqn
✅ 100+ 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐬 That Raised Over $2B: https://lnkd.in/dR6wVrCn
✅144 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 That Cut Pre-Seed Checks: https://lnkd.in/dKCjpW78

MORE here: https://lnkd.in/dxWsxKZU

Europe just quietly had one of its best startup years ever 🦄

27 NEW UNICORNS created in Europe in 2025

What jumps out from the data:

• The UK leads with 9, still Europe’s strongest density hub

• Germany follows with 5, driven by deep tech and industrial AI

• Sweden keeps punching above its weight with 4

• France and Finland add depth, not just one-offs

Europe is building companies that scale globally from day one, often in harder categories like infra, AI, climate, and industrial tech, where execution matters more than distribution hacks

The Ultimate Investor List of Lists 💸
10,000+ investors. Curated. Filterable. Ready to fund.

If you’re raising—or thinking about it—this will save you dozens of hours.

I’ve compiled the most complete list out there:
✅ VCs
✅ Family Offices
✅ Angels
✅ CVCs
✅ Accelerators

All organized by stage, geography, and industry focus.

Here’s why founders are using it:
▪️ Precision – No more cold emailing random firms
▪️ Speed – Find the right backers, faster
▪️ Reach – More investor types = more optionality

👉  https://lnkd.in/dQWhxhu6

repost so more founders can benefit

Every founder eventually runs into what Ben Horowitz calls “The Struggle.”

Not the part that shows up in pitch decks, but the long stretch where the vision you started with collides with reality and nothing quite works the way you expected.

A few truths that tend to surface there:

▫️ “The gap between vision and outcome is where the real work lives.”
▫️ “Responsibility makes every mistake feel heavier than it should.”
▫️ “Isolation at the top creeps in quietly, even when you’re surrounded by people.”
▫️ “Exhaustion becomes emotional long before it shows up physically.”

What actually helps founders move through it:

▫️ “Silence creates panic.” Honest sharing creates options.
▫️ “There is always a move.” It’s just hard to see from inside the fog.
▫️ “Strength is learning how to function while the pain is still there.”

The Struggle isn’t a detour from the journey.
It’s the part that determines whether the journey leads anywhere meaningful.

So the real question is:

How long are you willing to stay in it to earn the outcome you’re chasing?

What's the difference between Venture Capital and Private Equity?

While both Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE) invest in private entities not listed on public exchanges, they differ in their investment stages in a company's life.

VCs generally invest earlier in a company's lifecycle than PE.

Interested in startups and venture capital? Then check my newsletter for more insights: https://lnkd.in/dnkEBhKE

Breaking it down by investment stages:

- Angel Investors: Early support for startups; $10K-$250K; 8-10 years; >75% IRR.

- Seed Stage: First major funding for development and growth; $250K-$2M; 6-8 years; >60% IRR.

- Growth Stage: Series A-C funding to scale business; $10M-$50M; 5-7 years; >40% IRR.

- Late Stage/Crossover: Preparing for IPO, sustainable growth; $50M-$150M; <5 years; 25-35% IRR.

- Buyout: Full acquisition, often with debt; variable investment; 3-5 years; >18% IRR.

Key takeaway: VC and PE both invest in non-public companies, but at different stages and with different strategies.

image and breakdown by CJ Gustafson

do you agree?

BREAKING: Balderton cashed out $2bn from Revolut 💸

25x return on Fund 5.

PS. I've shared Revolut's and 14 more unicorn Pitch Decks: https://lnkd.in/eY-s5c9d

First check: $1m at a $6.7m valuation
Total returned: $2bn
Fund size: $305m

Fund 5 also includes:
▪️ Depop → acquired for $1.6bn
▪️ GoCardless → acquired for $1bn
▪️ Aircall → $1bn+ valuation, $175m ARR
▪️ Contentful → $3bn valuation
▪️ Nutmeg → acquired for £700m

This might be the greatest European VC fund ever.

Balderton is strictly European.
No Silicon Valley hedge.
No US safety net.

And they're about to have one of the best funds of all time.

LPs and VCs can get astronomical returns backing Europe.

The data is in

BREAKING: Ursula von der Leyen just announced EU–INC at Davos 🎉

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲 for all European founders. Online incorporation in 48 hours. No more bureaucratic mess across 27 countries.

This changes EVERYTHING

For years, European founders had to navigate different tax codes, labor laws, and compliance systems in every country. It's why so many incorporated in Delaware instead of Brussels.

EU-INC fixes that. One framework, one set of rules, across the entire EU.

You can start a company in Portugal and scale to Germany without rebuilding your legal structure every time you cross a border.

This is what Europe needed to compete with the US and China. A simple way for founders to grow massive companies without getting crushed by red tape.

The legislative proposal drops in March 2026. If this actually happens, it's the biggest structural change for European startups in decades.

This is what winning feels like. All of you made this happen. This is Europe.

Do you think EU-INC will actually make Europe competitive for startups or is it too late?

Jeff Bezos on Amazon’s seed round: 

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” 

In 1995, Bezos pitched Amazon to 60 investors, explaining what the Internet was and warning of a 70% chance of failure. 

40 said no. 

22 angels wrote $50K checks, raising $1M for 20% of Amazon at a $5M valuation. 

It was a grind, but those 22 yeses changed history. 

Would you have said yes?

I broke down 10 patterns Sequoia Capital built that most firms never had the patience to design

1️⃣ Conviction beats consensus
2️⃣ Freedom within frameworks
3️⃣ Curiosity over judgment
4️⃣ No middle-ground decisions
5️⃣ Clear bars, flexible styles
6️⃣ Long memory, short meetings
7️⃣ Partners own outcomes, not optics
8️⃣ Talent density over headcount
9️⃣ Distribution before storytelling
🔟 Culture enforced through behavior, not decks

If you invest, build, or lead teams, this is worth your time.

Which of these do you think is hardest to apply in the real world?

10 systems nobody else had the patience to build Most venture advice sounds the same… • Back great founders • Find big markets • Trust your gut When S

Open article: Sequoia Playbook by Rubén Domínguez Ibar • 6 min read

Sam Altman isn’t just building OpenAI ❗️

He’s one of the most active investors in Silicon Valley. Here are his latest 13 startup investments 👇

Below: company name, what they do, funding raised, and latest round — powered by Harmonic

▫️ Exowatt – Modular solar energy for data centers • $90M (Series A)

▫️ APEX – Security platform for generative AI usage • $7M (M&A)

▫️ Beacon AI – AI copilot for commercial aviation • $24.6M (Series A)

▫️ Campus – Accredited online degrees with top professors • $98M (Series B)

▫️ Context – NFT discovery and minting made simple • $19.5M (Out of Business)

▫️ TeachMe To – Personalized beginner sports lessons • $9.5M (Seed)

▫️ Tiptop – Trade-in platform for electronics with instant offers • $23M (Series A)

▫️ Magrathea – Clean magnesium production from seawater • $12M (Seed)

▫️ Valuebase – Real estate valuation powered by ML • $9.3M (Seed)

▫️ Induced – Browser automation agents for workflows • $8.3M (Corporate Round)

▫️ Meanwhile – Bitcoin-denominated life insurance • $64M (Series A)

▫️ Software Inc. – Personalized computing with LLMs • $6.5M (Seed)

Which one surprised you the most?

Where he should invest next? 🤔

Cooking up something new. Stay tuned!🧑🏼‍🍳🪄

10x Founder → Early Stage Investor. 
General Partner @ First Degree Capital.

We’re backers of brave beginnings:

Jan ‘26 Elio & Alex and Scalestack
Nov ‘25 Arnaud & Arthur and Sillage
Sep ‘25 Dmitry & Andrew and Graphio
Aug ‘25 David & Youngjae and Limelight
Jul ‘25 Gabriel & Edouard and Trampoline
Jun ‘25 Eldad & Bar and Winn
May ‘25 Dan, Robin & Leonard and Topo
Jan ‘25 Benjamin, Jean-Luc & Grégoire and Fullenrich 
Sep ‘24 Leopold & Walid and Alphalens
Sep ‘24 Paulius, Tomas, Irmantas & Justin and WhiteBridge (Sep ’24)
May ‘24 Simon & Pawel and NewNative / Lablab

We co-invest alongside great angels and co-investors such as Y Combinator, Insight Partners, Kima Ventures, Flex Capital, Alliance VC, AltaIR, Luminar, Skyfall, and more.

We 💜 AI-driven companies “changing the way we work” and take out the 🫏 work. 

If you’re building something ambitious in productivity, collaboration, or workflow automation — let’s talk.

DM us or send your deck to kaan@firstdegree.capital

Kaan Anit

💥 Proud to introduce our first investment of 2026!

Most enterprise GTM teams have an infrastructure problem.

→ Building and maintaining custom solutions, manually coordinating data vendors.
→ Often ending up with no ability to reliably write structured data back into the crm.
→ Which leads to lack of trust in data, decreased quality of campaigns and programs and a lot more.

That’s why we’re backing Scalestack!

🧩 What they’re building
Scalestack is building the Autonomous Revenue Engine for enterprise GTM teams.

Not a point solution.
Not an individual productivity tool.
Not another spreadsheet with AI.

But enterprise-native, agentic workflow infrastructure that unifies data, integrations, and AI agents into scalable, auditable systems of action.

Infrastructure first. Autonomy next.

💡 Why this matters
Companies like MongoDB, Redis, Astronomer, Typeform and many more, with large datasets and growing teams trust Scalestack for holistic hygiene, system-wide insights, managed via an agentic orchestration layer. Data and workflows that finally scale.

→ Org-level GTM
→ Compliance, governance, and auditability
→ Composable, agentic workflows that solve for Sales, Marketing, Product and Ops use cases at scale

For larger customers, this system fuels growth. And saves them from building and owning brittle systems themselves, freeing resources and guaranteeing long-term maintainability. 

👥 The founders
US-based founders with European roots. This was a team-led conviction.

Elio: repeat founder with two prior exits, former global lead behind the AWS Global Startup Program, MIT MBA
Alessandro (aka Alex): Alter built Scalestack v1 independently; owns product, engineering, and operations

Clear ownership.
Strong partner-in-crime dynamic.
Operators building for operators.

🤝 Backers
We’re joining a cap table that includes, among others, Forum Ventures, Ripple Ventures, Exor Ventures, Flyer One Ventures, @Criteria Venture Tech, BackFuture and Sentiero Ventures. 

The company is also supported by experienced operators and advisors including Isaac Babbs, Meghan Gill, and Andy Mowat.

🔭 Our take
We believe the future of revenue operations is agentic, autonomous, and infrastructure-driven.

Scalestack is building the foundation for that future, with an impressive customer and partner list already trusting that foundation.

If you'd like to know more check out their website www.scalestack.ai and happy to make an intro to the team too.

BTW:  if you're looking for Elio on the team picture, guess what? He's not there 🫣

#Scalestack #FirstDegree #BackersOfBraveBeginnings

Kaan Anit 🫧

After 25 years of starting things, this is what I know for sure.

I’m writing this from Koh Lanta, with a good friend, a bit of distance, and a rare pause.

And distance does something interesting: it strips away noise and leaves only patterns.

After 25 years of building companies, hiring thousands of people, sitting on both sides of the table as founder and investor, one thing is painfully clear:

Success is rarely about ideas.

It’s about:
- People you choose
- Timing you respect
- Access you earn
- And your ability to keep going when it gets uncomfortable

I’ve seen brilliant ideas fail because the team wasn’t ready.

I’ve seen average ideas win because the people were exceptional.

That’s why I believe:
People matter more than product.
Access matters more than capital.
Trust compounds faster than growth hacks.

This isn’t a hot take.
It’s just pattern recognition.

Back to work soon.
But some truths only surface when you slow down.

Curious if this matches your experience.

No alternative text description for this image

On Friday, the last day of January, we closed our second investment of 2026: Singulate 💪🏽

Most “AI personalization” in B2B is still lipstick on a spreadsheet.

First name.
Company name.
Maybe an industry token if you’re lucky.

That’s not personalization. That’s automation cosplay.
What actually breaks down for B2B teams isn’t creativity. It’s operations.

• Fragmented CRM data
• Manual segmentation
• QA hell at scale
• Teams maintaining hundreds of variants instead of shipping

That’s the real bottleneck.
This is why we back Dave, Nico and John and Singulate.

Singulate isn’t another AI copy tool.
It’s an AI-native marketing ops platform that sits on top of your CRM and campaign stack and handles the hard stuff:

→ Research
→ Segmentation
→ Validation
→ 1:1 personalization at scale

Without sacrificing speed, control, or brand consistency.

The proof is already there:

• ~400k emails analysed across active customers
• Up to 7× higher click rates vs basic personalization
• Workvivo (by Zoom) scaling lifecycle marketing 16×
• Teams moving from data to impact in minutes, not days
And the team behind it matters. A lot.

Singulate is founded by Dave Schools (Baltimore, US), Nicolas Klein (London, UK) and John O'Gara (Lisbon, Portugal).

They worked together at Hopin, helping scale the business from 0 to ~$100M ARR, building and operating GTM and infrastructure at real hypergrowth speed.

They didn’t study this problem.
They lived it.

The round is backed by a strong group, including Seedcamp, Bowery Capital, and founders and operators from companies like Indeed (Paul Forster), SaaStock, Tola, and TrackMaven.

What really clicked for us:

Singulate doesn’t sell AI magic.
It sells reliability.

As AI moves from experimentation to mission-critical GTM workflows, reliability, verification, and operational confidence become the real moat.

This is marketing ops rebuilt for the AI era.
Built by a global team.
For global teams.

Proud to back them as they scale 🚀

#FirstDegreeCapital #BackersOfBraveBeginnings #Singulate #MarketingOps #AIinB2B #FutureOfWork

Should all founders be fundraising?

I’ve been thinking about this while spending nearly 2 weeks in beautiful Thailand, about to head back to Amsterdam on Thursday.

Distance has a way of clarifying things.

I was actually reading a great post from Chris Tottman last week, which confirmed my thoughts. 

In my humble opinion, most founders shouldn’t be fundraising.

Not because founders aren’t smart.
Not because the ideas aren’t interesting.

But because fundraising doesn’t create clarity.
It amplifies whatever is already there.

If the team isn’t aligned, it shows.
If the story isn’t clear, it leaks.
If momentum is missing, investors sense it immediately.

Capital doesn’t fix fundamentals.
It exposes them.

I’ve seen founders spend months fundraising when the real work was:

- tightening decisions
- getting closer to customers
- building trust before slides

Sometimes the right move isn’t raising a round.

It’s slowing down long enough to get the basics right.

Curious… in your experience, does fundraising create momentum… or simply reveal it?

In 2025 everyone was talking about Artificial Intelligence.

Out of curiosity I checked what happened in tech the year I was born (1973)…

Turns out: almost everything we’re still building on today.

In one single year, the foundations were laid for the internet, mobile phones, personal computing, and automation.

A few highlights 👇

Networking
▶️ The first design of TCP/IP by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn — still the backbone of the internet today
▶️ Early experiments connecting different networks (ARPANET, radio, satellite). The idea of networks of networks was born.

Mobile
▶️ The first handheld mobile phone call, made in New York by Martin Cooper using a Motorola prototype.
The mobile era officially started.

Computing
▶️ Xerox PARC introduced the Alto: graphical interface, mouse, bitmapped screen.
The blueprint for every modern computer.

Data & automation
▶️ Launch of Lexis, one of the first large-scale online information systems
▶️ Barcode scanning enters supermarkets
▶️ The ATM moves from concept to reality

Robotics & infrastructure
▶️ The first full-scale humanoid robot (WABOT-1)
▶️ Practical fiber-optic cables make high-speed global communication possible

And even film
▶️ Westworld becomes the first movie to use digital image processing.

1973 wasn’t about apps.
It wasn’t about hype.

It was about foundations.

Some years define the next 50.
1973 was one of them.

Curious what happened the year you were born?
Drop it below 👇

👋 To everyone in the First Degree Capital community...

If you’re a marketing leader at a mid-cap or enterprise SaaS company, you’ll want to read the December round-up from David and his team at Limelight. 

It’s packed with sharp insights and very practical takeaways. ✍️👇

And if you haven’t tried Limelight yet, you probably should.
Yes, I’m biased (I’m a small investor), but I’d say the same even if I wasn’t.

So:

1️⃣ Have a read 👀
2️⃣ Visit 👉 www.limelighthq.com
3️⃣ Let the magic happen 🔥

#BackersOfBraveBeginnings 
#Limelight 
#FirstDegreeCapital

Founder of Limelight | B2B Influencer Marketplace

December Round-Up!! 
4 of our core metrics are DOWN 
😲 What happened?? Did we screw up?

Short answer: No.
More honest answer ↓

December was a deliberate slowdown.

Founders don’t like admitting this, but after a fundraise, the WORST thing you can do is sprint.

I learned that the hard way in a past company.

Hired too fast. 
Sold too fast. 
Ran too fast.

And then the pipes burst.

So in December, we audited and rebuilt our infrastructure.

(AKA: took an intentional pause).

And yes, the MoM numbers dipped:
📉 -41% transactions 
📉 -38% proposals sent 
📉 -57% creator applicants 
📉 -49% completed transactions

Why?
Part holiday season. 
Part intentional slowdown.

But despite all that?

MRR still GREW.
📈It's up +4.2%

We also finished the year with creator payments up 13x YoY 🤑

WHAT WENT WELL:

👍🏼 Built a real-time live customer health dashboard. Every account now has a health score out of 100 and a churn risk calculator based on product usage.

👍🏼 Optimised onboarding via AI agents. Activation friction is the silent killer of PLG - so we rebuilt it from scratch.

👍🏼 Redesigned our leads system to handle 100x demand (will create capacity to scale at mass in 2026).

👍🏼 Hired our Head of Customer Success. (They'll enhance the user journey: onboarding → adoption → retention → expansion).

WHAT’S STILL HARD:

👎🏼 Self-serve isn’t working at the level we need. So in Q1, the influencer product is moving fully sales-led, while Signals stays PLG.

👎🏼 Churn is still the biggest drag on growth. We grew most of the year without a formal CS function. But we've fixed that for 2026.

WHAT'S NEXT?

We doubled down on a simple belief:
You can’t build for creators unless you are one.

So this year, I'm going all in:

🎙️ Podcast launching in February 
📰 Beehiiv newsletter launching

If we're asking brands to trust creators, we have to live the motion ourselves.

OUR 2026 GOALS:

(Saying it here so I can’t back out).

• 10x customer lead exports 
• Triple ARR by Jan 2027 
• 3x our creator base 
• Churn to < 15% 
• 10x MAUs

Ambitious AF. I know 😎

December wasn't one for aggressive growth.

It was about slowing down and tightening the screws.

(I also wanted to give the team a chance to take a breather and FULLY enjoy time off work with their loved ones).

But now we’re PUMPED UP and ready to go!

The fun starts here.

Let’s build this SH*T 🔥🔥

P.S. What’s your focus for 2026???

Everyone is talking about AI steeling their job…

But there’s 10 things I found out in 2025 why AI can’t steal from my job 🤣

1.	Nodding seriously while having absolutely no idea what the founder just said.

2.	Saying “interesting” and meaning “this is not happening.”

3.	Backing someone because they “feel right” and only later finding reasons.

4.	Changing my mind after one good coffee and a bad night’s sleep.

5.	Trusting my gut, which has no data and terrible documentation.

6.	Asking for one more slide and still not reading it.

7.	Reading the room instead of the deck (the room is often wrong too).

8.	Taking a call at 22:41 to say “you’re not crazy, this is hard.”

9.	Being confidently wrong, then quietly updating the narrative.

10.	Caring too much while pretending it’s purely rational.

What do you think? 

#BackersOfBraveBeginnings
#FirstDegreeCapital
#AlwaysBeLearning
#NewIntoVentureCapital

“diamonds 💎 are built in high-pressure and it takes time to find them.”

To all the founders out there: keep building. 💪🏽

All credits to Carles Reina for this fantastic post! 👀⤵️

GTM @ ElevenLabs | Partner @ Baobab Ventures

Since I launched Baobab Ventures in late November, I've received +1,000 decks (in emails, Linkedin messages, through friends/VCs or Baobab's contact form). What I'm seeing is INSANE. It seems everyone is building AI Agents but this is not accurate. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐩-𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 & 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝. 

VCs say that there is too much capital chasing the best opportunities when, in fact, the startup ecosystem is expanding at a rate never seen before. Good reminder that diamonds 💎 are built in high-pressure and it takes time to find them. With so much competition and easier-than-ever to build products, pressure is piling up, and diamonds (aka startups) are popping.

Side note, I am still going through my last Linkedin messages - sorry!

This is what I call a killer monthly update 👀⤵️

Founder @ Limelight | B2B Influencer Marketplace

Every month, I send an investor update to 150 people. My co-founder keeps telling me to stop.

“What’s the issue?” I asked.

He pointed at my laptop:

“You’re literally sending our investor update to founders building in the GTM tech space. They could copy us.”

He’s absolutely right.

I am 😂

On paper? It’s stupid. I get it.

My email includes...

📝 MoM performance 
📝 Wins + failures 
📝 Feature releases 
📝 Roadmap priorities 
📝 Customer stories

And yes, I include the actual numbers 🙃

I also send the email to:

→ CMOs, COOs & CEOs at B2B brands 
→ Heads of Growth, Sales & Partnerships 
→ People shaping the B2B creator economy 
→ Operators at LinkedIn, HubSpot, Webflow + more

My co-founder’s worry? Someone could use this against us.

Maybe.

But it's a risk I'm willing to take.

I believe secrecy slows you down, whereas familiarity builds gravity.

People don’t invest in strangers.

They back founders and companies whose trajectory they’ve watched unfold.

Month after month.

I WANT people to see:

• How we build
• How we think
• How fast we ship
• How we handle problems
• How we deliver for customers.

Could someone try to copy us? Of course.

Good luck to them.

But they can't copy-paste our journey.

And the upside of transparency massively outweighs the risk.

(At least in my eyes).

So for now, I’ll keep sending my monthly updates.

In fact, it's already scheduled to go out on Monday @ 8.30am to 150 ppl ⚡ 

P.S. Would YOU be this transparent? Or should someone confiscate my laptop?

"B2B influence is about to EXPLODE in 2026"

Great post, great insights from David Walsh 👀 ⤵️

THE 2026 B2B INFLUENCE FORECAST 📊📝 
(Based on REAL 1st party data!!!)

Bookmark. Save. Share ♻️

↓

B2B influence is about to EXPLODE in 2026.

We're seeing the shift happen in real time inside Limelight.

These trends are based on:

• $3,954,080 in brand-creator proposals 
• $1.4M creator payout across 244 campaigns 
• Companies like HubSpot, Webflow, Clay, Xero etc.

Here’s what’s ACTUALLY happening (and what’s coming next 👀):

1️⃣ Bundles replace one-off posts

Brands have stopped buying “content.” 
They’re buying OUTCOMES.

One brand-creator deal could include:

- 3x monthly LinkedIn posts
- Newsletter promo
- Podcast sponsor
- Webinar cameo
- Stage talk

It's MORE than just social influence.

The B2B creator is becoming a hybrid role: 
→ Educator + evangelist + operator.

2026 = the death of the “1 post for $X” era.

2️⃣ Micro-creators become a mainstream GTM channel

Brands used to test creators with ONE person.

Now? They’re testing 2–3 micro-creators (10-20k audience)… then scaling up to 10–15 once they see ROI.

Because niche creators deliver:
✔ tighter ICP 
✔ higher trust 
✔ more authentic content 
✔ better conversions

The ROI is frankly stupidly high.

2026 = the rise of “micro-creator fleets.”

3️⃣ Performance-based deals go mainstream

Creators are negotiating BONUSES tied to:

• Signups 
• Traffic volume 
• Demo bookings 
• Pipeline influenced 
• Revenue generated

2024 = "pay me per post" 
2025 = "pay me for reach" 
2026 = "pay me for performance."

The ROI is now EASY to measure (especially with the way we've built live, trackable metrics in Limelight).

4️⃣ Long-term retainers become the norm

Creators are turning 1 post into 12–18 month retainers by doing what agencies should be doing:

“Here’s what got high ROI”
“Here’s the new angle to test."
"Here's how we'll run this campaign."

They’re acting like:

→ Advisors 
→ Strategists 
→ Distribution engines

And brands LOVE it.

2026 = creators become an extension of the marketing team.

THE NET?

✔️ Creators are earning in more ways than ever.
✔️ Brands are getting better ROI than traditional channels.
✔️ And buyers get content that doesn’t feel like an ad.

2026 will be the year B2B creators go from “experiment” → core GTM function.

My team of experts, 40+ B2B advisors and I picked these 4 trends as we saw them exponentially grow in Q4!!!

We’re witnessing the birth of a new industry in real time.

P.S. Which trend do YOU think will dominate 2026? 👇

REPOST + SHARE!

I just finished reading a great report by Affinity (worth your time if you’re in private capital).

The headline:
2026 looks like a reopening year for fundraising and deal activity.
But only for firms that can prove how they create value.

A few things that stood out to me 👇

1️⃣ AI has moved from experiment to strategy.

AI is no longer a side project. The best firms are embedding it directly into their workflows (not to replace judgment, but to augment it. Think pattern recognition, faster research, better decisions).

Humans focus on relationships and conviction. AI does the heavy lifting.

2️⃣ Sourcing is still the real battlefield.

Deal flow remains the #1 priority.
More volume is coming, but competition is fierce. The winners are simplifying their stacks, consolidating data, and still going deep (not adding more tools, but getting smarter with fewer).

3️⃣ Fundraising optimism is back (expectations are higher.

LPs are opening up again, but they’re far more selective.

Track record alone isn’t enough anymore. You need clear, data-backed proof of how you source better, win access, and actually move the needle in your portfolio.

My takeaway for 2026:

Quality > quantity.
AI-augmented decision-making.
Fewer tools, better data.

And storytelling that’s grounded in evidence, not vibes.

All credits to Affinity for the work (sharp insights and very aligned with what I’m seeing on the ground).

Curious: how are you using AI today in your investing workflow?

Open article: Private capital predictions for 2026 by affinity.co

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