E676 | Poone Mokari, ewake.ai & Pietro Bezza, Connect Ventures: Building the AI Teammate for Software Reliability

In this episode, Andreas sits down with Michael Sackler, founder of Supernode Global, to unpack the thesis behind Supernode’s Fund II: backing application-layer software with great UI/UX — the tools people actually use every day at home and at work — at a time when most European funds avoid consumer and default to “AI-infra everything.” Michael shares how his background in film shaped his view on tech leverage, why Supernode focuses on consumer-grade experiences applied to B2B, what their six theme areas are (wellbeing, productivity, community, creative and professional augmentation), and why they’re putting unusually strong skin in the game with a 34% GP commit.

Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast where we dive deep into the craft of building and backing venture-scale companies in Europe.Modern software doesn’t fail quietly.It fails on Black Friday.It fails while the CFO is in a board meeting.It fails when your biggest customer is mid-way through a critical workflow.And when it does, there’s one brutal reality:The data is there but nobody has time to interpret it.Today we’re exploring one of the most under-discussed yet mission-critical parts of building modern software: reliability in production.Joining Andreas are:👩🏻‍💻 Poone Mokari: CEO & Co-Founder, ewakeParis-based startup building AI agents for software production reliability, fresh off a $2M pre-seed led by Connect Ventures.💥 Pietro Bezza — Managing Partner, Connect VenturesEurope’s most product-obsessed early-stage investors (Aikido, Typeform, TrueLayer), backing ewake as their next agentic AI investment in observability.We unpack why observability is overdue for a rewrite, how AI agents finally provide the “reasoning layer” that logs & metrics never could, and how ewake is building a global devtools company out of Paris.Here’s what’s covered:01:12 | What ewake does — AI agents for software production reliability that reason across logs, metrics & code to cut through observability overload02:32 | Why Connect backed them — trusted intros, a massive category (post-cloud, multi-$B), and founders with rare insider insight into reliability engineering05:18 | The shift AI enables — from reactive data dashboards to an intelligence layer that correlates structured + unstructured data and finds root causes07:48 | The hidden layers of tech — why deep, unglamorous infrastructure (observability, reliability, SRE workflows) is a massive opportunity for new entrants08:52 | The wedge — LLMs as reasoning engines over infrastructure data: not more dashboards, but an operator that collaborates with engineers in critical moments11:48 | Production ≠ code on your laptop — the real-world complexity: business context, urgency, multi-team coordination, and why semantic reasoning matters14:38 | “Can we trust AI?” — why agentic workflows differ from ChatGPT, how ewake constrains context, guards against hallucinations & enforces “don’t know” responses16:38 | Founder–market fit — living the pain at Criteo, deep SRE experience, and product instincts that made ewake’s pitch compelling pre-product17:16 | Connect’s thesis — product-first founders, problem insight over pedigree, and why product is the highest leverage driver of venture-scale outcomes22:31 | Product-led ≠ PLG — clarifying the difference between product-first strategy and the specific go-to-market motion of product-led growth26:02 | How Awake raised $2M pre-product — insight clarity, storytelling from lived experience, fast-moving investors, and a clear “teammate, not dashboard” vision30:40 | What Connect looks for — opinionated founders with singular insight, UX instincts, and a tinkerer’s mindset for frontier-tech categories38:20 | Why build in Paris — deep AI talent pools, strong engineering culture, global problem space, and a shift toward France as a magnet for AI founders42:15 | Geography myths — why great companies emerge anywhere, Europe’s deep industry advantage, and dual-hub (EU + US GTM) playbooks47:23 | Where ewake is now — out of stealth, hiring, in design partnerships, building alongside early users, and stress-testing agents in real incidents51:52 | Final reflections — design-led vs. tinker-led founders, why ewake fits the frontier-tech profile, and what the next wave of AI infra looks like

Welcome back to another EUVC Podcast, where we explore the lessons, frameworks, and insights shaping venture ecosystems across the globe.In this special Southeast Asia edition this week, David Cruz e Silva from EUVC and Ambika from Circle Capital sit down with Binh Tran from AVV (Ascend Vietnam Ventures) - a VC firm headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, backing tech founders across Vietnam, Southeast Asia, and the U.S.A serial founder turned VC, Binh sold his first company Klout for $200M in 2014 before launching 500 Startups Vietnam and later AVV, which has now backed about 500 startups, including unicorns Turing, Skymavis, and ApplyBoard.Together, they unpack Vietnam’s ecosystem growth, power-law returns in emerging markets, government catalysts, and how to back founders with both grit and global ambition.🎧 Here’s what’s covered03:24 “Build Boldly, Scale Faster” — The story behind AVV’s tagline and how speed correlates with ambition and performance.06:29 Vietnam’s ecosystem in one decade — 60% of startups founded between 2015–2025; how AVV rode the first wave.07:47 From founder to funder — Binh’s journey from the Bay Area’s AI wave to seeding Vietnam’s first generation of tech startups.09:42 Power law in Southeast Asia — Why it absolutely applies, and how maturing cycles in India, China, and now Vietnam prove it.12:26 Government as catalyst — From post-embargo GDP per capita of $300 to 8% growth; early signs of state-backed VC emerging.14:46 Vietnam’s startup data points — Six unicorns in under five years and a domestic ecosystem hungry for risk and innovation.17:14 Investment focus: Vietnam+ — Why AVV backs tech talent, not just local markets; global mindset, local execution.17:59 VC learnings: It’s hands-on — From operator to builder of ecosystems; why early-stage in developing markets means getting your hands dirty.20:54 Impact meets returns — How government collaboration enables “ecosystem shaping” as part of the VC mandate.23:37 Advice for global LPs — Think India 10 years ago: early, cheap, high-talent markets; AI as the great equalizer.26:23 LP mix: 45% U.S., 45% East Asia, 10% Europe; corporates using AVV for China+1 exposure and tech-talent pipelines.28:50 Working with founders — From hacker houses in Da Nang to U.S. rounds; AVV’s boutique, founder-first approach.33:26 Cultural calibration — Helping Vietnamese founders learn storytelling, global GTM, and hiring for scale.34:04 Changing beliefs — From Valley-style hypergrowth to Vietnam-style resourcefulness and grit; building despite constraints.37:31 Next five years — Mobile gaming, Web3 for developing markets, AI developer tools, and agri-tech as Vietnam’s global edge.42:09 Final reflection — “Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t” — why Southeast Asia’s next decade is ripe for breakout returns.

If you’ve spent any time in European venture lately, you’ve probably noticed two things:Everyone says they “do AI now.”Almost nobody wants to touch consumer.That’s exactly where Michael Sackler and Supernode Global are leaning in.Michael started his career not in venture, but in film. He founded and ran Rook’s Nest Entertainment in London, producing and executive producing 12 feature films, including cult horror hit “The Witch”, which still makes the rounds every Halloween.As the streamers rose in the early 2010s, he watched technology companies steamroll the media value chain. At the same time, he began angel investing around the edges of content and tech. It didn’t take long before it was obvious where the real leverage was.Today, Michael runs Supernode Global, an early-stage fund focused on application-layer software that people use every day at home and at work. Fund I proved out the model. Fund II is where it scales.This episode is essentially Michael’s Fund II pitch and it’s a good one.Here’s what’s covered:02:40 | Fund I → Fund II — expanding from “content + tech” to technologies that enhance daily personal and professional life03:55 | The thesis shift — six themes across wellbeing, productivity, vitality, life-ops, community, and creative/pro-work augmentation05:27 | The unifying thread — application-layer software + UI/UX obsession (consumer-grade experiences applied to enterprise)07:50 | Fund II in motion — 13 companies already deployed and why the portfolio itself tells the story10:36 | Sourcing edge — 50/50 inbound/outbound, a gender-balanced team, and why that drives deal flow from overlooked founders12:57 | Speed as a superpower — winning competitive deals through fast conviction, aggressive execution, and deep consumer focus14:42 | Value add in practice — growth support, fundraising pathways, and SuperNode’s “connector” identity (with a shoutout to Naomi)15:33 | 34% GP commit — why Michael and Gina put unusually large personal capital into the fund (and what it signals to LPs)18:51 | The AI elephant — where AI enhances work vs. where it risks erasing human craft (with the Graswold example)21:56 | Human creativity vs. automation — why AI will reshape the menial, not the art, and why stories still anchor value23:32 | AI art, authenticity & meaning — when fully AI-generated output loses emotional value, and where hybrid human–AI creation wins

Welcome back to another EUVC Podcast, where we explore the lessons, frameworks, and insights shaping Europe’s venture ecosystem.Today, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Matti Hautsalo, Founding Partner at Nordic Science Investments (NSI), a €60M early-stage fund dedicated to university spin-outs across the Nordics and Europe. With a team spanning tech transfer, research, founding, VC, and investment banking, NSI backs science-powered companies at pre-seed and seed, then helps recruit commercial leaders, navigate TTOs, and transfer IP cleanly so these companies can raise from broader deep-tech syndicates.🎧 Here’s what’s covered03:23 Why spin-outs now? - Conventional wisdom flipped: great companies can start with researchers — provided you build the tech + commercial duo early.05:14 The “Dynamic Duo” model - Founder-scientist stays CSO/CTO; bring in an external CEO/CBO early. Titles are flexible, execution isn’t.06:50 Why a dedicated spin-out fund? - Traditional VCs pass when boxes aren’t ticked (team/IP). NSI bridges the Death Valley with first private capital.10:17 Working with TTOs - Best practices, process vs. policy, and what’s “OK” on ownership (≈10% fine; >20% gets tricky — but context matters).12:56 Reality check - Hard negotiations happen — but good deals get done; the constraint is resourcing, not intent.14:42 How VCs should navigate universities - It’s a people & trust business; adapt to each campus, don’t try to rewrite policy from the outside.17:25 Team building - Two paths: (1) interim CEO from within; (2) recruit CEO fast — and set expectations from day one.20:51 Attracting CEOs - Offer meaningful equity and a credible follow-on plan; industry operators will take risk if the tech is real.21:27 Incentives & cap table - Set a ~20% option pool early; avoid dead equity for non-operating senior academics; educate on vesting.23:27 Terms that fail - Over-allocating to passive contributors; unclear vesting; under-sizing option pools for key hires.24:55 When founders return to academia - Standard 12-month cliff, then linear vesting; cap table rewards future commitment, not past papers.26:39 Beyond silos = alpha - Why the best spin-outs are multidisciplinary — and why most investors miss them.28:10 Case: Perfect Technologies - Physics × food science; ultrasound-structured oils mimicking butter at ~0% saturated fats; small Series A just closed with food-tech co-investors.32:51 Tranching & milestones—Pre-seed is small and milestone-based (one tech + one commercial); Nordics soft funding extends runway.35:37 Ticket sizes - ~€100k pre-seed, ~€500k seed (case-by-case); “From seed onwards we act like any other VC.”44:58 Why specialization wins - Networks to validate state-of-the-art, patience with TTOs, and willingness to roll up sleeves on team building.

Welcome back to the EUVC Podcast.Today Andreas is joined by Stefan Roebel, Co‑Founder & CEO of ARX Robotics — one of Europe’s fastest-rising defense tech startups.From his 12 years in the German Armed Forces to leadership roles at Amazon, eBay, and Grover, Stefan has lived both sides: the military front line and the global business battlefield. Now, he’s combining that experience to tackle one of the most pressing challenges of our time: Europe’s ability to defend itself in a new era of war.In this episode, Stefan shares ARX’s journey from DIY decoy robots to NATO-backed modular robotic systems already deployed in Ukraine. We dive deep into why Europe must break with its slow procurement culture, how startups can become the “new primes,” and what it really takes to build dual-use autonomy in a defense-first world.Here’s what’s covered:00:56 | From Afghanistan to Amazon to ARX Robotics: Stefan’s unlikely founder journey02:30 | The broomstick that became a digital decoy — ARX’s origin story06:34 | The first breakthrough: selling duct-taped prototypes that worked08:30 | ARX’s modular robotics suite explained (500kg payload, autonomy, retrofits)10:47 | Educating VCs: how defense tech went from “too weird” to oversubscribed13:55 | Picking investors: big names vs true believers with military insight16:53 | Real deployments in Ukraine: ammo supply & medevac in the kill zone19:49 | Why Ukraine’s lessons are shaping Europe’s defense future23:24 | The drone war changed everything: solving Europe’s “lack of mass”27:31 | Will ARX become a “new prime”? Why incumbents can’t move fast enough29:17 | Dual use beyond defense: disaster relief, critical infrastructure & NGOs32:36 | AI in defense robotics: solving missions, not chasing the holy grail35:21 | Hiring for defense: when military background matters (and when it doesn’t)40:57 | Why Stefan is hopeful for Europe’s defense tech ecosystem44:56 | Veterans, perception, and why “peace comes from strength”

This week on the EUVC Podcast, Andreas Munk Holm sits down with Matthew Wilson, co-founder of Jack & Jill, and Peter Specht, General Partner at Creandum. Fresh off a $20M seed to take their AI recruiting agents global, they dig into how conviction is built in Europe, from founding insight to investor belief, and what it now takes to scale an agent-native company with speed, precision, and craft.Jack helps candidates find and optimize their careers. Jill helps companies hire brilliantly. Together, the two agents form a high-signal, two-sided network that aims to become the world’s most networked AI-powered recruitment agency — without the classical incentive conflicts of human middlemen.Here’s what’s covered:02:35 | Why Creandum leaned in, conviction on voice-based interfaces and why recruiting is a massive, broken vertical for agent AI03:38 | The founding moment: leaving Omnipresent, 18 months in the wilderness, and the February insight that agents make talent marketplaces finally viable07:07 | Recruiting is broken (and AI made it worse): why first-principles thinking is needed to avoid “more noise, not more signal.”09:15 | Investor conviction: founder/market fit, why this moment is different, and the defensibility of a two-sided agentic marketplace12:22 | The user experience: the “coffee chat” with an AI recruiter: deep voice conversation → matching, prep, coaching, introductions16:30 | Solving the incentives trap: why Jack works 100% for candidates and Jill works 100% for companies (fixing agency conflicts)19:10 | Coaching as core: how AI unlocks career guidance, interview prep, and hands-on support that humans rarely get today22:47 | Building fast in the AI era: talent density, global expansion, and why a 20M seed makes sense for a dual-product marketplace26:35 | Two companies in one: scaling Jack (consumer) + Jill (B2B) simultaneously, across markets, with AI leverage34:02 | The GTM playbook: engineering-led marketing, AI-driven creative testing, instant value, and rethinking B2B buying entirely37:47 | The new AI go-to-market: speed, PLG dominance, virality-by-design, and why distribution now matters more than ever43:52 | Two GTM worlds: viral AI products vs. slow, enterprise-heavy AI deployments (and why both will coexist)47:15 | The “productization” of marketing — why engineering now powers growth, not headcount-heavy marketing orgs50:29 | Final advice (VC POV) — start with a unique insight, not a trend; think in 5–10 year arcs, not quick ARR bumps

Welcome back to another episode of Upside at the EUVC Podcast, where ⁠Dan Bowyer⁠,⁠ Mads Jensen⁠ of ⁠SuperSeed⁠ and ⁠Lomax Ward⁠ of ⁠Outsized Ventures⁠⁠⁠ gather for a holiday-home special to cut through the noise around Europe’s tech, geopolitics and AI shifts. What begins as an innocent debate about whether DeepMind is “still a UK company” quickly spirals into a tour of sovereign AI strategy, the SpaceX mega-raise, Europe’s increasingly uncomfortable place between China and the US, defence-spending reality checks and a surprisingly uplifting set of deep-tech deals across the continent.It is classic Upside: the takes are sharp, the geopolitics gets spiky, and the optimism… well, it arrives eventually.What’s covered:04:36 AI-for-Science, robotics and the new “AI scientist” era06:50 A national-curriculum Gemini and the vision of a tutor for every child09:39 The SpaceX 2026 IPO: what investors are actually buying14:00 Starship, orbital compute and the trillion-dollar imagination gap18:07 Why Europe missed the space race once again19:43 Portugal flips the script: “Economy of the Year”22:58 Europe between China’s export tsunami and America’s cold shoulder32:07 Defence budgets: the hype, the delay and the reality for startups34:25 AI Corner: bubble fears, Mistral’s comeback, Meta goes closed, China goes full-stackComms Strategy Expert SessionApply or share the opportunity with a founder or investor in your network: https://luma.com/euvc-comms-expert-session

If you’re in B2B SaaS, you probably feel it already: the old way of “just hire more SDRs and send more emails” is broken.Everyone has the same tooling. Everyone is running the same sequences. Everyone is “personalising at scale” with the same prompts. Yet pipeline quality is down, efficiency is under scrutiny, and suddenly… go-to-market (GTM) design has become a first-class strategic problem.Few people are better positioned to talk about this shift than Harrison Rose.Harrison co-founded Paddle, helped turn it into one of the UK’s fastest-growing software companies, and has now raised a $13M Series A (led by Notion Capital, with participation from Robin Capital, Inovia, Salicap, Common Magic, Andrena and more) to build GoodFit – an AI-driven GTM data platform.Here’s what’s covered:00:47 | What GoodFit actually does — mapping your entire market and scoring every account01:32 | Paddle origins → the first-principles GTM problem that later became GoodFit03:31 | From internal tool to standalone company — recognizing the “product inside Paddle”04:18 | Who buys GoodFit — why B2B tech is the first adopter (and why the market is much bigger)06:28 | Second-time founder advantage — credibility, networks, and selling before the product exists08:29 | Choosing investors — why Notion, avoiding echo chambers, and constructing a syndicate13:24 | Bootstrapping for four years — optionality, profitability curiosity, and knowing when VC is the right path18:34 | AI’s real impact on go-to-market — why most teams are just automating bad outreach22:25 | The GoodFit vision — deciding who to sell to, why, and how (and leaving execution to others)35:34 | Leaving Paddle — identity, founder evolution, and learning to lead differently the second time around46:40 | Giving back — why Harrison opens his inbox for “weird, gnarly, unsaid” founder questions

This week, Andreas Munk Holm talks with Sergey Jakimov, Co-founder and Managing Partner at LongeVC, a leading longevity-focused venture fund backing breakthroughs in biotech, AI-driven drug discovery, and the science of healthy aging.From pre-seed biotech spin-outs to multi-hundred-million-dollar exits with Big Pharma, LongeVC is building the category-defining fund at the frontier of life extension. In this episode, Sergey walks us through the team’s 3x+ MOIC track record, how LongeVC’s scientific advisory board unlocks proprietary deal flow, and why longevity and healthspan investing could be venture’s next trillion-dollar frontier.🎧 Here’s what’s covered01:15 – Who is Sergey Jakimov? From biotech entrepreneur to longevity investor03:00 – What is LongeVC: thesis, structure, and Fund II snapshot06:20 – The market for longevity & age-related disease: a $1.6 trillion opportunity09:30 – Track record: Fund I’s 3x+ MOIC, 0 write-offs, 20 portfolio companies12:40 – How LongeVC sources deals: scientific advisory board and AI-driven diligence15:15 – Ecosystem advantage: from nonprofits to physician networks18:00 – Case study 1 – Insilico Medicine, the $1.5 billion AI-drug-discovery unicorn20:15 – Case study 2 – Turn Biotechnologies and $300 million + HanAll partnership22:30 – Case study 3 – Rubedo Life Sciences and Beiersdorf’s dermatology deal25:00 – How pharma’s pipeline erosion fuels biotech M&A28:10 – Fund II: $120 million target, 20 % carry, 10-year term31:20 – LP privileges: access, co-investments, and semi-annual IC observation34:00 – Sergey’s vision: longevity as both moral and financial imperative