Venture Investor | Managing Partner at @altairvc. I help investors and startups by sharing my experience and knowledge
Joined October 2009
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A founder I mentored turned down my offer to help him enter the German-speaking market. His plan was the US, state by state. Everything outside that plan was a distraction, including my suggestion. He left money on the table, stayed focused, and the company became something huge
On Nov 11, we're hosting an evening in Lisbon built around these kind of stories.
Founders sharing the moments they ignored accepted wisdom and it paid off. Most of the lineup is already set. For the final slot, we're opening the stage to a founder outside our network.
Got a decision that went against standard advice and worked anyway?
Apply to speak here: forms.gle/wjvk66eLBt1PiKqLA
Submissions close October 7.
1/ Most companies have real-time intelligence for finance and sales. For their people (succession planning, org design, etc.), they still rely on spreadsheets, PDFs, and long consulting cycles.
A few months ago we invested in Acceler8, a company that productizes those workflows
4/ And the timing is perfect. AI is compressing organizational change from years into months. However, the tools companies use to make decisions about people haven't moved at all. Someone had to build this.
Last call for @altalabai, a hands-on program by @altairvc for founders building AI startups — whether you're validating an idea, searching for PMF, or preparing to raise.
Three stages: a three-week online sprint, then Founder Residency with one-on-ones, then Build and Scale, where selected teams have a path to a $50K SAFE for GTM. Teams showing strong traction and metrics may receive up to $500K from AltaIR Capital.
Applications close September 4, cohort starts September 7.
Apply now: altalab.ai/apply
❓ Know a founder who should apply? Send it their way, or tag them in the comments.
"AI will kill your job," they said.
An engineer posted their salary history on Reddit. From $247k to $552k in one year by becoming a forward-deployed engineer.
AI still needs someone in the room making it actually work.
AI still isn't plug and play. That's where the opportunities are.
We've automated a lot of routines at @altairvc. It works, but I still wouldn't call it's finished. It needs someone who understood both the tool and how we actually work. That person is hard to find.
A whole new market is forming around this problem. June raised $20 million pre-seed to automate what FDEs currently do by hand. @usenaive raised $28.5 million to automate operations setup end to end.
None of this existed three years ago.
Can solo founders with deep domain expertise build credible enterprise-grade products?
Absolutely.
But you have to understand what enterprise actually requires. The list is well-known and substantial: reliability, security, compliance, support, etc.
The good news: a solo founder doesn't have to build everything themselves. Master your core advantage and outsource the rest (today that means both human talent and AI agents).
If you're a solo founder trying to work out where your focus should go, that's exactly the kind of thing we work through inside @altalabai.
Applications for the next cohort are open.
Program starts September 7.
Apply now: altalab.ai/apply