Arto Yeritsyan

This Russian billionaire just replaced VCs with AI algorithms. The result: 17 investments outperforming top investors by 2X. Meet Nik Storonsky. He built Revolut from zero to Europe's most valuable startup. $45 billion valuation. 50 million users. Over $1 billion in profit in 2024. Now he's applying his systems-first approach to venture capital. Traditional VCs rely on gut feelings and personal networks. Most startups fail anyway despite "expert" human judgment. In 2022, Storonsky launched QuantumLight with CEO Ilya Kondrashov. Their radical thesis: Remove humans from investment decisions entirely. Here's how it works: QuantumLight analyzes over 10 billion data points. It tracks more than 700,000 venture-backed companies worldwide. The AI evaluates startups across dimensions humans can't process. According to Kondrashov, this lets them "almost eliminate human judgment from the investment process." No subjective decisions. No unconscious bias. Just pure data-driven analysis. The results speak for themselves: All 17 of QuantumLight's investments were identified by algorithms. Zero human deal sourcing. Zero gut instincts. Zero personal networks. Just machines finding patterns humans miss. But here's the real validation: They just raised $250 million. Storonsky personally contributed 25% of the funding. The rest came from billionaire tech founders and institutional investors. Translation: The smartest money in the world is betting algorithms beat humans. Around a third of VCs now find at least half their deals through AI tools. The future of venture capital won't be about who you know. It'll be about what your algorithms can see. The age of algorithmic investing has begun.

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Most VC-backed founders are poor. They took a huge backseat in their own company so they can play status games, brag about headcount and monthly burn rate instead of actually creating value. And to each their own, of course. But I'd much rather be a small bootstrapper who runs everything, reports to no one, and keeps most profit for myself.

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Let me tell you the story of how a small investor from 6 years ago killed a $250M acquisition. Yes, that's exactly what happened to a founder in my network Another VC horror story they don't teach you in startup school: the deadly Right of First Refusal (ROFR) from corporate investors. This founder built an incredible business over six years. When a strategic buyer finally made an offer that would have created generational wealth for the team, disaster struck. A corporate investor who had invested just $500K in their seed round exercised their Right of First Refusal on any acquisition. The acquirer walked away immediately, not wanting to deal with the complications and potential competitive information leak. The founder never sold the company. Here's the step-by-step nightmare with acquisition ROFR clauses: - You find a buyer and sign an LOI - You MUST disclose terms to the corporate investor with ROFR - They can match the offer (unlikely) or use the information against you (likely) - Your deal momentum dies while you wait - Other buyers vanish once they learn about the ROFR Corporate VCs can provide valuable strategic insights, but giving them ROFR on acquisition is effectively handing them veto power over your exit options. I've seen this scenario play out multiple times, which is why I counsel founders to strike these clauses entirely or negotiate extremely limited versions. Your future exit depends on it. #CorporateVC #StartupExit #FounderLessons

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You can build a billion-dollar AI company… have thousands of paying customers… and still go bankrupt if you get PMF wrong. That’s exactly what happened to Babylon Health. It was once the UK’s hottest AI health-tech startup. They raised hundreds of millions, promised AI-powered clinical tools, and collapsed in 2023. Why? They never built defensible trust. On the flip side → Lovable, now at $100M ARR, takes the opposite approach. Their growth officer Elena Verna says: “You re-earn PMF every month.” And when we spoke with OpenAI’s product leader, Miqdad Jaffer - he echoed the same truth: Product–Market Fit for AI is fundamentally different. Let me explain. Traditional PMF (SaaS) looked like: One-time milestone → Hit PMF once, and you were set. Clear GTM & roadmap → You could map 6–12 months and stick to it. Retention = stickiness → If users came back, you were golden. Optimize after launch → Ship first, then polish. Sounds simple, right? That playbook worked for SaaS. But it doesn’t work for AI. Here’s why AI PMF is different: Hype ≠ PMF. Buzz and funding don’t mean adoption. If you don’t solve a real problem, hype fades fast. It’s a treadmill, not a milestone. AI evolves weekly. Customer expectations shift daily. You don’t “arrive” at PMF—you constantly earn it. Trust must be built early. Accuracy, safety, and reliability aren’t features you can patch in later. Without trust, users churn instantly. Pain solved > demo wow. Demos may go viral, but unless you solve a painful workflow, the excitement disappears overnight. That’s why we’ve partnered with Miqdad Jaffer to share the 10-step playbook to finding PMF for your AI product. Read the full guide here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ehcPQGYN

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Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is quickly being become service-as-a-software. And Sequoia thinks this is creating a $10 Trillion market opportunity (the software market is currently ~$1T). But this next-gen doesn't look like old-school SaaS: 1️⃣ Services are a feature, not a bug. In fact, they might start with services & humans-in-the-loop before writing a single line of code. 2️⃣ They own hyper-specific workflows rather than trying to be an "all-in-one platform" that sits on the shelf. This wedge unlocks the ability to take on more over time. 3️⃣ They're selling "work", not access to software. 4️⃣ Pricing is connected to results, not user seats or big $$ commits. This becomes a threat to ARR as we've previously known it. 5️⃣ The competition is services firms or FTEs, not other SaaS products. One of these breakthrough startups is Chargeflow, founded by Ariel Chen and Avia Chen. They've grown like a weed since being founded in 2022 -- reaching 15,000+ customers & recovering $100s of millions in chargeback revenue on autopilot. Oh, and they've got a true success-based pricing model, charging 25% of whatever $$ they recover. In today's Growth Unhinged: inside Chargeflow's growth & the anatomy of building a breakthrough service-as-a-software biz: https://lnkd.in/ebQpVwXv Can't wait to hear what y'all think. #ai #startup #serviceasasoftware

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If you’re not pitching to Corporate Venture Capital arms, you’re leaving strategic money and massive leverage on the table. CVCs now account for 25% of all startup investment capital, and they’re only getting stronger. Unlike traditional VCs, CVCs bring more than just funding: → They open up commercial pathways inside their organizations. → They provide access to manufacturing, distribution, and regulatory expertise. → They often think in 10- or 20-year horizons — perfect for deep tech timelines. → They can become your first customers, collaborators, and acquirers. If you’re building hard technology — robotics, semiconductors, materials, energy, biotech, AI hardware —You owe it to yourself to understand how to work with CVCs early. They might not just fund your journey. They might amplify it. But as an entrepreneur, it's not easy to know: Which corporates are actively investing? What are they looking for? How should you pitch to them? That’s why I have curated a resource of 50 Corporate Venture Capital arms in Europe that will make your funding journey easy. Comment “𝗖𝗩𝗖” and I will share the list with you.   #Venturecapital #AI #Deeptech #Startups   Follow us at APEX Ventures and subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content on groundbreaking Deep Tech startups: 🔗 https://t2m.io/EV2qHQuo   PS: Make sure you’re following me so I can send it to you right away. ------ UPDATE: For anybody who hasn't received the link https://lnkd.in/dq-YenTt

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