Mikael Hugg

There are some VCs that I love. Those who can see beyond the buzzwords and FOMO, and make investments that make sense in the business landscape. And some are FOMO junkies. Imagine, for a moment, the concept of "Vertical AI". If you are somewhat intelligent, you would know that for early-stage VCs, pushing that narrative is the smart thing to do because it is easier to achieve initial ARR and traction for a vertical-based solution compared to one that is vertical-agnostic or horizontal-based. So, of course, in an early-stage VC, they would want to discuss vertical AI because it increases the chances of their companies reaching Series C or Series D and being able to sell those shares or raise another fund based on the on-paper results of the current one. But for later-stage VCs, Vertical AI doesn't make sense. For a company to truly scale in the competitive landscape, it needs to be the preferred or one of the preferred horizontal solutions to increase ARR significantly and achieve revenue levels that make sense in terms of the multiples later-stage investors are willing to offer. So you could say, "Well, the total addressable market of this vertical is super huge." Well, yes, but that means many other competitors will also come in and try to take that vertical. It is just a very ineffective strategy.  VCs always try to escape uncertainty. So they make investments that sound smart to their LPs based on current buzzwords or FOMO that is being thrown out into the market. And the only reason they're able to get away with it is that, unlike Hedge Fund managers, VCs can showcase so-called results on paper, and they have many years until people are scrutinizing their fund's activity. In the meantime, they continue to raise additional funds and receive management fees. Hedge funds cannot do that because they invest in publicly traded companies, and you can see the results at any given time. That is why 90% of venture capitalists would never be able to be in a hedge fund, while 90% of hedge fund managers will probably make great VCs. Do you agree? 

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AI and No-Code dev tools are moving fast, and that’s exciting! But a quick clarification: OpenAI’s Agentkit isn’t going to replace n8n nor Make. They solve different jobs and can happily live side by side. Also, an AI-powered tool is still just a tool. There’s no magic without mastery: clear specs, guardrails, tests, and good observability. Vendors ship new features every day, but spinning your strategy with every release rarely helps. I’d rather use an “imperfect” stack I truly understand (costs, limits, and maintenance included) than a “perfect” black box I can’t reason about. Plot twist, tools are never perfect! 😉 Stay curious, absolutely. Just learn new tech in a structured way: time-box your exploration, set success criteria, test on real workloads, decide, and move. Curiosity + discipline beats hype every time. 🚀 #AI #DevTools #Automation #AgenticAI #n8n #Make #SoftwareEngineering #ProductStrategy #MLOps

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Will is LYING - Valley did not help him book 3 Calls in a day out of “𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦” Time for some real talk about AI sales tools. Something I’m sure all our competition will also agree with. A year ago, I used to pitch Valley differently and I was wrong. I used to pitch Valley as a 24*7 digital worker. You set it and forget it. That is no-where near the case. After watching hundreds of customers use our product, here's what’s common in teams that see massive success with AI tools (Valley or not): 1. They're actively involved - Put in quality data - Select the right leads - Monitor signals - Review and approve messages 2. They treat CX as a strategic partner - Ask about patterns in successful teams - Learn from winning campaigns - Understand what separates top performers  3. They personalize everything - Strategically understand and analyze which SDR in your team is the highest performer and what tone and writing style do they use. Replicate that inside Valley. - Spend some time crafting your offer, make it specific and not something vague like “𝘞𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸” - Have a team member actively approve messages and add feedback till the tool understand what your style is and what works for you. The simple truth is.. 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻 = 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁 These tools are amplifiers, not replacements. They'll multiply the effort you put in- for better or worse. Want results?  Put in the work.

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I don't like to use big words, but the freshly published EU Startup & Scaleup Strategy will be a gamechanger for Finnish Deep Tech 🇫🇮🇪🇺 So no fluff – here’s how it affects Finland’s innovation ecosystem: 🔧 Legal fast-track for spinouts: a new EU-wide 28th regime will let university spinouts and startups incorporate across the EU with harmonized digital rules, tax, insolvency & labour simplifications. Target: company setup in 48h by 2026. Great news for Finnish TTOs & incubators. Helsinki Innovation Services Ltd MIMIR Ghita Wallin Marjo Pihlavisto 💶 New Deep Tech Scaleup Fund: a privately co-managed Scaleup Europe Fund (launch 2026) will directly invest €100M+ tickets in strategic sectors (AI, medtech, biotech, etc.). 🇫🇮 VCs should get ready to co-invest. Innovestor Voima Ventures Nordic Science Investments Saara Vettenranta Maki.vc 🎯 Lab to Unicorn Initiative: EU will support Finnish universities via shared licensing/equity templates, TTO upskilling, and startup-ready legal structures. This helps align Finnish spinout terms with global VC expectations. Maija Kontto Kajsa Kajander 🧳 Startup Visa Acceleration: A new “Blue Carpet” scheme will harmonize startup founder visas across the EU. Expect smoother relocation & hiring of global talent into Finnish startups – no more fragmented residence permit chaos. 🌍💼 Sisu Factory Sergey Troshkov 📊 Standard Definitions & Tracking: For the first time, startups, scaleups, centaurs & unicorns will get an EU-wide legal definition by 2026. This means clear access to EU funding, equity incentives, and scoreboard-based performance metrics. 🔎📊 📣 Finland’s innovation players: now’s the time to align, apply, and amplify 🇫🇮 Suomen startup-yhteisö / Finnish startup community Startup Refugees Helsinki Incubators SPARK Finland Business Finland #startupstrategy #finlandstartups #spinouts #deeptech #scaleupfunding #EIC #helsinkitech #venturecapital #korkeakoulu #kuntavaalit2025 #EUfunding #tiede #keksintö #innovaatiot

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I spent 4 hours building my first end-to-end AI marketing video. This is what I learned... Admittedly, a lot of this was to test out the hype with Google's Veo 3. TLDR, a great tool if you build content in 8 second clips. 60% party trick, 40% viable business tool. HOWEVER, if you have a marketing background you should be learning these tools NOW. The next version might no longer be a party trick. Don't get me wrong. The videos are beyond impressive. NO SHOT in the world I could have made something like this in 4 hours a year ago. I had fun throughout the process, but not as easy as many try to make it look. Here is the real story: 1. Videos take a ton of tokens. You'll burn through $100 worth of Google AI Pro subscription quickly. VERY quickly. 2. Many of the videos kept trying to add captions into them. I had to put "DO NOT PUT TEXT IN THE VIDEO!" at the start and end of all prompts. 3. Many tools are needed to build a video, not just Veo 3: - ChatGPT o3 model to design the video, scenes, and copy. - Veo 3 to create the videos. - Veo 3 "Scenebuilder" isn't great. Loses audio when mixing videos. - CapCut to stitch all the 8 second videos together. - CapCut to add the additional GenAI voiceover. 4. AI is imperfect. I blew through a ton of tokens trying to get my "best" cut. Voices / facial expressions still seem a bit robotic, City of Chicago is off, etc. 5. Companies with budgets and marketing talent would be better than me at developing the scenes and directing AI. They would crush this. 6. Don't believe all the videos you see online about "how easy it is to build videos", unless the videos are only 8 seconds long. Anyhow, hope you enjoy. As AI gets better, I'll keep exploring how to use these tools for someone that isn't a marketing expert by trade. [This post was Human Generated, Human Approved]

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