Episodes

  • Building Pre-Seed Infrastructure in CEE

    Building Pre-Seed Infrastructure in CEE
    Jun 16 2026

    Episode 11 – Building Pre-Seed Infrastructure in CEE (with Petr Šíma, DEPO Ventures) Prague, Czechia

    00:00 – Intro & setup

    Welcome to Emerging Forward and introduction to Episode 11.

    Who is Petr Šíma and what DEPO Ventures does at pre‑seed across CEE and Baltics.

    01:00 – Europe’s fragmented early‑stage market

    Why Europe has “many problems,” but early‑stage financing is the one Petr is trying to fix.

    Local angels, local funds, and the structural fragmentation across regions.

    01:35 – Building a pan‑CEE pre‑seed platform

    60 investments in six years; moving from angel funds to a VC fund while staying at the first round.

    Why there are still very few groups investing across the region at this stage.

    02:15 – “Helping founders by helping investors”

    The problem of occasional angels, family offices and “equational investors.”

    Why investing is a professional job, and how bad early‑stage investing harms founders.

    04:00 – Educating angels and emerging investors

    Petr’s work in teaching angels and investors to join the right groups, networks and co‑investors.

    Why talking to startups as a fund manager is often clearer than as a loose group of angels.

    10:00 – Fund + angel network mechanics (DEPO model)

    How DEPO combines an institutional fund with an angel network.

    Decision‑making, co‑investment rules and why co‑investors’ specific knowledge matters.

    26:50 – Co‑investors and going beyond your home market

    Why “early‑stage investments are always cooperative.”

    Using co‑investors to invest in countries where DEPO is not fully present, and what each party brings beyond money.

    28:00 – US PowerPoint vs European deep tech

    Petr’s comparison of the typical US deal (“everything looks amazing… just PowerPoint”) vs. deep‑tech in Europe (“terrible presentation, amazing substance”).

    Why pre‑seed investors in European deep tech can’t be superficial and must be willing to go deep.

    28:45 – Where the next generation of investors will come from

    Operators and exited founders as Europe’s future “real business angels.”

    Nordics/Baltics vs traditional economies like Germany and Czechia; who believes in startups as an asset class.

    29:30 – LP risk appetite and resilient Europe

    Traditional European LPs’ risk aversion vs American LPs’ appetite for European resilience plays.

    Why it’s “crazy” to see a huge European resilience opportunity where ~70% of LPs are American.

    30:30 – Light closing: food & global tastes

    A quick detour into Italian and Thai food as Petr’s comfort go‑tos.

    31:10 – Closing thoughts: a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity

    Petr’s message that European resilience is a huge, time‑bound opportunity.

    Final encouragement to listeners to engage with this moment.

    About Petr Sima:Partner of DEPO Ventures, pre‑seed fund investing in European tech startups building resilient Europe. Board member of European Business Angel Network.

    Links:

    DEPO Ventures website - https://depoventures.cz/

    Petr’s LinkedIn profile - https://cz.linkedin.com/in/petr-sima-a294681

    EBAN (European Business Angels Network) - https://www.eban.org/

    Episode 10 (last week’s exits‑focused episode) - https://emergingforward.substack.com/p/cee-liquidity-lab-viktor-manev-ipo-beginning



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • CEE as a Liquidity Lab: What LPs and Emerging Managers Still Miss About Exits

    CEE as a Liquidity Lab: What LPs and Emerging Managers Still Miss About Exits
    Jun 10 2026
    CEE as a Liquidity Lab: Why the IPO Isn’t the ExitShort episode intro:After a short break, Emerging Forward returns with Episode 10, a deep dive into what real liquidity looks like in ecosystems that never had enough growth capital in the first place.I’m joined by Viktor Manev, Co‑Founder and Managing Partner at IMPETUS Capital, to explore CEE as a “liquidity lab”: using small, disciplined IPOs as funding rounds rather than ceremonial exits, building quality of revenue and earnings before chasing mark‑ups, and asking harder questions about continuation funds, secondaries and real portfolio value.What we coverWhy Series B barely exists in much of CEE – and what founders actually do when they hit the growth cliff.The idea of an IPO as a beginning, not an end – and how that changes founder, LP and exchange behaviour.CEE small IPOs as a missing rung in the funding ladder, underwritten by local wealth, AMs, and pensions rather than mega‑banks.Viktor’s “quality of revenue → earnings → valuation → liquidity” ladder – and why clever liquidity engineering can’t fix weak fundamentals.The “conductor” role IMPETUS plays in small IPOs: coordinating banks, auditors, exchanges and lawyers so the whole “symphony” works.How continuation funds and secondaries solve liquidity for GPs/LPs but may not answer the question “is there real value in this portfolio?”.What LPs and emerging managers are still missing about exits and time horizons in CEE and similar markets.A fun closing detour into Viktor’s agnostic travel‑food philosophy – always eat where the locals eat, whether it’s gondoliers in Venice or a canteen in Amman.Timestamps00:00 – Intro and who Viktor is. IPOs as a beginning, not an end.05:00 – How “IPO = exit” became dogma – and why IMPETUS is going back to an older model where public markets fund growth.10:30 – Big vs small IPOs: 4% of deals get 100x the media coverage; the hidden world of sub‑€25m listings.13:00 – Acting as a “conductor” for €10–20m IPOs: aligning banks, auditors, exchanges and lawyers to create real liquidity.16:00 – The niche: profitable, 40–50% growth companies that are “too boring” for VC but perfect for public funding.22:00 – Shelly Group: from “nobody will buy us for €10m” to €1.2B SDAX company and what that journey actually looked like.32:00 – Continuation funds, secondaries and the hard question: is there real realizable value behind the marks?40:30 – What LPs and emerging managers still miss about liquidity in CEE and similar markets – and why many managers will fail.41:30 – Viktor’s agnostic approach to food when he travels – and why he always asks what the locals actually eat.About Viktor ManevViktor Manev is Co‑Founder and Managing Partner at IMPETUS Capital, a private equity firm focused on early‑growth and scale‑up companies in Central and Eastern Europe. He previously served as chief financier of Bulgaria’s Center for Mass Privatization, overseeing the institutional financing of more than 1,000 enterprises and participating in the privatization of roughly 18% of state‑owned assets. Since 1994, Viktor has been involved in structuring corporate‑finance and M&A deals with an aggregate value of over €900m, and has been engaged in the listing process of more than 1,100 companies as a public official, adviser and institutional investor. He holds a BS in Finance from West Virginia Wesleyan College and completed comparative studies at the University of Oxford, and sits on several boards as a non‑executive director.Links & references :📝 Viktor’s thoughts – “The IPO as a Beginning, Not an End: Rethinking Capital Formation in Central & Eastern Europe” (0100 Conferences).🌐 IMPETUS Capital – firm website: https://www.impetus.capital/🔗 Viktor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktormanev This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
  • Power Laws at SEA Scale: Why 50–250M Exits Matter More Than Unicorns

    Power Laws at SEA Scale: Why 50–250M Exits Matter More Than Unicorns
    May 12 2026

    In this episode of Emerging Forward, I sit down with Kevin Brockland, CFA, Founder & Managing Partner of Indelible Ventures, a seed-stage fund focused on Southeast Asia’s B2B ecosystem. We unpack what power-law investing actually looks like in a nascent region, why 50–250M exits matter more than unicorns right now, and how emerging managers and founders should recalibrate their mental models.

    We cover:

    Why Southeast Asia is still in an extended funding winter – and why each market (Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore) has its own funding “personality”.

    The “single-source funding” trap created by government money, CVCs, or family groups dominating early capital – and what that does to the early-stage pipeline.

    How Kevin designs Indelible’s fund model around realistic 50–250M exits – and why power law still holds even when the numbers are smaller than in the US.

    Failure rates as a structural fact of life, and where value-add can and can’t move the needle.

    What this all means for emerging managers trying to raise their first fund in SEA or comparable markets.

    A grounded discussion of programs like VC Lab: how they help compress the emerging-manager learning curve without replacing the need for deep local context.

    If you’re an LP, GP, or founder operating between Europe, Southeast Asia, and other emerging markets, this episode offers a candid look at how to think about power-law returns at the scale your ecosystem actually operates in.Episode links

    Indelible Ventures - https://indelible.vc/

    Kevin on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/kbrockland

    Emerging Forward newsletter – https://emergingforward.substack.com



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • Rebuilding Early-Stage Capital in Southeast Asia: An Insider Map with Ankit Upadhyay from A2D Ventures

    Rebuilding Early-Stage Capital in Southeast Asia: An Insider Map with Ankit Upadhyay from A2D Ventures
    Apr 20 2026

    Rebuilding Early-Stage Capital in Southeast Asia

    In this episode, Adi speaks with Ankit Upadhyay, Founder & GP of A2D Ventures and Senior Advisor at McKinsey, about how early-stage capital in Southeast Asia is being rebuilt in 2026.They cover the collapse of earlier early-stage funds, the rise of accelerators, government grants, and angel syndicates, sector opportunities from fintech to food innovation, and why success in SEA may look more like 1,500 profitable 100–500m companies than a wave of unicorn IPOs.

    - Why 2026 looks “better but different” than 2025 for SEA founders valuations stabilising and resilient teams emerging from a capital-scarce cycle.

    - How early-stage VC pulled back after fund II struggles, and why CVCs in Thailand and the region moved up to Series B+.

    - The four realistic fundraising routes for SEA founders today: accelerators, government grants/equity schemes, angel syndicates/family offices, and legacy personal networks.

    - Why A2D Ventures decided to build a productised angel platform: educating angels, providing regulated SPVs out of Singapore, and giving global investors safe access to local deals.

    - Sector signals: fintech as infrastructure, consumer & health tech for 700m people, food innovation, and applied deep tech in materials, construction, and biotech.

    - Rethinking exits in SEA: fewer IPOs, more local and regional M&A, and why “many 100–500m companies” may be a better success metric than chasing unicorn counts.

    Timestamps

    0:00 - Why 2026 looks different for SEA founders

    4:00 - What broke in early-stage venture (and why fund II never came)

    10:15 - The previous era of startups - four early-stage routes: accelerators, government, angels, legacy networks

    11:00 - Building A2D: turning loosely organised angels into a productized platform

    15:00 - Cross-regional capital Flow

    21:00 - Fintech, consumer, food, and deep tech opportunities with a SEA lens

    25:00 – Exits, recalibrating success, and what investors should really expect



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    30 mins
  • Beyond Earth, Beyond Hype: Alexandra Vidyuk on Frontier Tech That Actually Works

    Beyond Earth, Beyond Hype: Alexandra Vidyuk on Frontier Tech That Actually Works
    Apr 14 2026

    In this episode of Emerging Forward, I’m joined by Alexandra Vidyuk, CEO and Founding Partner at Beyond Earth Ventures, for a conversation on how deep tech really gets funded and scaled across global markets. We explore what physics teaches us about venture judgment, how a healthy deep-tech cap table is actually built, why geography is often overrated as an investment lens, and where the next generation of frontier companies may emerge.

    We cover:

    - Why a physics background changes how you evaluate frontier companies.

    - How deep-tech funding stacks combine grants, VC, specialists, and strategics.

    - Why Europe’s research strength still struggles to convert into aggressive venture outcomes.

    - How valuation gaps between Europe, Asia, and the US can create real alpha.

    - Why dual-use space, energy, materials, compute, and robotics remain underpriced but highly selective.

    - What LPs should really worry about: scientific, engineering, team, and geopolitical risk.

    Guest links:

    Beyond Earth Ventures: Website | LinkedIn

    Alexandra Vidyuk - LinkedIn

    Episode highlights:

    03:00 - First-principles investing and the bottleneck map.

    06:40 - Capital stacks, grants, and what deep-tech funding really looks like.

    18:30 - Why geography is not the thesis.

    29:30 - The next frontier themes worth watching.

    34:00 - The real risk stack in deep tech

    Emerging Forward : Newsletter | Spotify



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • Structured Equity, Secondaries, and the 2% Anomaly: Special investor edition with Gillian Muessig (Mastersfund)

    Structured Equity, Secondaries, and the 2% Anomaly: Special investor edition with Gillian Muessig (Mastersfund)
    Mar 30 2026
    “Women have been returning an average of 35% higher ROI for more than 30 years of data. Hedge funds go nuts for a point. We’re talking 35. And yet the money doesn’t follow the money.” – Gillian Muessig, Mastersfund​This issue is a special investor edition of Emerging Forward, a deep dive into how venture is (and isn’t) evolving for founders who don’t fit the “archetypal” mold, and for LPs/GPs who actually care about both yield and impact.1. The 2% anomaly that refuses to dieGillian starts with a statistic she can’t let go of: women receive around 2% of traditional venture equity, despite multiple decades of data showing that women‑led companies are unusually capital‑efficient and generate higher returns.​She walks through the numbers:* Women‑led companies raise about 44% of the capital that male‑led companies raise in the same industry, then exit at similar valuations.​* That translates into roughly 56% less dilution for investors: every new dollar raised dilutes existing equity, and women tend to raise fewer of those dollars on the path to exit.​* In the datasets she cites, women‑led companies exit one to two years sooner than their male‑led peers; time as both a risk factor and a cost factor.​* They generate roughly 2.5x the revenue per dollar invested. Gillian’s example: if a male‑led company makes 38 cents per dollar invested, a comparable women‑led company is closer to 76–78 cents.​* Roll all of that up and you get the killer number: about 35% higher ROI for women‑led companies over more than 30 years of data.​If these numbers sat inside any other asset class, the capital would stampede toward the anomaly. Hedge funds shift entire books for a single extra percentage point of return.In women‑led venture, 35 points of outperformance has barely moved the needle.​So Gillian and her co‑founder, Anne Kennedy, chose to treat this as an investor problem, not a motivational poster.2. Why the money doesn’t follow the moneyMastersfund’s thesis doesn’t assume the anomaly exists because women are somehow “better” founders. A big chunk of the outperformance is structural: when capital is that scarce and the needle’s eye is that tight, the companies that make it through tend to be unusually strong.​But that still leaves a question: if the anomaly is this obvious, why hasn’t the market corrected?Gillian’s answer is anthropological:* For most of human history, survival meant sticking with your own kind. The infant that cozied up to a saber‑toothed tiger didn’t survive long enough to pass on its genes.​* The same pattern shows up everywhere: flocks, herds, schools, clusters. “We’re carbon‑based life forms; we’re wired for similarity,” as she puts it.​* In today’s venture context, that instinct shows up as over‑funding of a very narrow archetype: tall, white, US‑educated, able‑bodied, youthful, baritone‑voiced men from institutions like Harvard and Stanford.​Her point is not that these founders shouldn’t be funded. It’s that the human wiring behind this pattern is “vestigial behavior”, it made sense when huddling with your own tribe improved your odds of not being eaten, but it no longer serves a planet trying to solve 21st‑century problems.​Crucially, she doesn’t believe the answer is endless shouting at Sand Hill Road:“Don’t shout at the tall white men with baritone voices in Sand Hill Road. They’re doing exactly what they’re programmed to do.”​Instead, she argues, the money must flow from different hands.At Mastersfund, that means working on the activation of women’s capital:* Women are often taught to write philanthropic checks, not to manage their own investable capital.​* They already hold and are inheriting significant wealth, but it is largely intermediated by institutions who have 101 good reasons not to move any of it into higher‑risk alternatives like venture.​* Men will often say “yeah, Joe, just write the check.” Women get run over by that logic.​The fund’s work sits at the junction of gender‑lens investing, agency over capital, and new instruments that reduce risk while preserving upside.3. Venture is not just venture equity anymoreOne thing Gillian is very clear about: “venture capital” is a broader category than “venture equity.”Founders and investors, she says, need to stop treating the classic Silicon Valley equity fund model as the default for every startup on the planet.​At the very top level, she splits the world into:* Venture equity* Venture debtUnder each, there’s a much richer toolkit than most founders (and many LPs) use:* Dividend models* Royalty agreements* Revenue‑share structures* Variants of convertible instruments and SAFEs* Hybrid models that blend equity‑like upside with debt‑like protection​Her counsel to both founders and investors:“Take a scalpel to this job, not a hatchet.”​The existence of a “...
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • How a Nordic Industrial-Tech Partner Actually Runs the Funnel, and What Emerging Managers Must Prove in 2026 with Sagar Chandna

    How a Nordic Industrial-Tech Partner Actually Runs the Funnel, and What Emerging Managers Must Prove in 2026 with Sagar Chandna
    Mar 27 2026

    Episode 5 - How a Nordic Industrial-Tech Partner Actually Runs the Funnel (with Sagar Chandna, RunwayFBU)

    About Sagar

    Sagar Chandna is Senior Partner and CTO at RunwayFBU, an industrial tech VC backed by one of Norway’s largest industrial groups. A Top 100 Data-Driven VC Leader, he brings experience from scaling global technology platforms and investing in deep tech companies across Europe.

    Bullet highlights:

    - Why 2025 was “one of the hardest” fundraising years for European emerging managers.

    - How RunwayFBU uses automation and AI for sourcing and evaluation instead of relying on interns and manual rubrics.

    - Why industrial tech is still stuck in the “90s” and why only around 3% of captured industrial data is used today.

    - What a credible emerging manager looks like in Sagar’s eyes: platform, ecosystem, and more than capital.

    - Regulation as safety belt and moat in industrial contexts where it helps and where it overreaches.

    - How LPs with “skin in the game” beyond capital think differently, and what this means for GP–LP relationships.

    - Thoughts on exits, AI “massacring” generic SaaS TAMs, and the future of data vs intuition in investing.

    - Why Nordic founders will increasingly look at Asia, Africa and other emerging markets as next steps beyond Europe.



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    28 mins
  • From Angel Chaos to Angel OS: How Taya Kudashkina Systematises Early-Stage Investing Across Europe and the US

    From Angel Chaos to Angel OS: How Taya Kudashkina Systematises Early-Stage Investing Across Europe and the US
    Mar 10 2026
    Episode: From Angel Chaos to Angel OS: How Taya Kudashkina Systematises Early-Stage Investing Across Europe and the USAbout TayaTaya Kudashkina is a 4x founder turned angel investor and syndicate lead.She is currently building an investment syndicate that automates parts of angel investing while providing curated deal-flow for LPs and experienced operators.Based in Luxembourg, she mentors founders at the national Fit 4 Start program through Luxinnovation and works closely with early-stage companies across the European startup ecosystem.In this conversation, we go from origin story to mechanics: how she filters 95–98% of deals in minutes, designs her red‑flag engine, uses AI to scale judgment without losing nuance, and thinks about Europe vs the US as different “engines” inside one global portfolio.​What we coverStarting from zero in Luxembourg: Moving countries with no local network, why she flipped from founder to angel, and why she sees backing founders as “her part” in building a better world.​​Thesis first, not deal first: How a simple geo–segment–stage thesis (US only, AI/B2B SaaS/fintech she deeply understands, post‑traction) instantly cuts 95–98% of inbound deals, and why mis‑match is the real reason most pitches die.Designing dealflow like a product funnel: Manual exploration → semi‑automation (intake questions) → full automation (n8n/Zapier + ChatGPT agents reading decks, generating follow‑ups, and flagging issues) for a low four‑figure build cost.The Red‑Flag Engine: Why experienced angels see the same patterns over and over, how she codifies red flags into a system, and which repeatable signals make her say “no” even when everything looks shiny.Human vs machine boundaries: What she’s comfortable automating (everything before the first serious founder conversation) and what stays stubbornly human (first calls, data‑room deep dives, final founder meetings).Europe vs US – stop comparing apples to oranges: How she uses the US for speed, volume and software upside, and Europe for deep‑tech, climate, industrial and long‑cycle R&D backed by grant‑heavy programs like Fit 4 Start.Cross‑border SPVs are a solved problem (psychology isn’t): How she wired a US clean‑tech/med‑device SPV in ~30 minutes, why infrastructure is no longer the bottleneck, and why many angels still default to “local coffee only” despite wanting US upside.AI growth vs AI moats: Why 0→500k ARR in six months no longer impresses her in AI, and what she actually looks for in data, distribution, regulation or workflow embedding that can survive the next model release.Designing dealflow that respects angels and founders: How codified ICPs, standardized intake, and fast “no’s” reduce noise for both sides—and why founders should qualify investors with the same discipline investors use on them.Angel OS as a repeatable system: The components of her own Angel OS, sourcing, ICP filters, red‑flag engine, scorecards, and why she believes process, not access, becomes the moat for cross‑border angels in 2026.​​Timestamps00:00 – Intro, Taya’s background as 4× founder turned angel and syndicate lead; why helping founders is her way of “building a better world.”​02:08 – Defining a tight angel thesis (geo, segment, stage, traction) and why that single page filters out most inbound.​04:48 – How she layered automation on top of manual work: intake questions, Typeforms, then n8n/Zapier + ChatGPT agents to read decks and triage.​08:06 – Building the red‑flag engine, what can be automated vs delegated, and why the first founder conversation is still human.​10:40 – Advice to operators and angels starting a micro‑syndicate in 2026: the one dealflow design mistake to avoid from day one.​Later – Europe vs US portfolio roles, cross‑border SPVs, AI moats, and Angel OS as an investment operating system.LinksConnect with Taya on -Substack: https://taisiya.substack.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taisiyakudashkina​ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit emergingforward.substack.com
    Show More Show Less
    33 mins