Avinash Sukhwani

I left it all to pursue a dream! A few months ago, I made one of the boldest decisions of my life: I quit my job to start an AI company. I swapped a brand new apartment in Berlin for a shared flat in Madrid, cut my expenses to a minimum and started doing customer interviews. Fast forward three months—we’ve built a fully functional product, are generating revenue and are lucky to serve our first customers. What do we do? We create AI-powered "rockstar employees" for businesses. We partner with sales leaders to craft the employee of their dreams. Imagine you could clone your best performing sales rep... to infinity. The AI agent space is nascent and crowded, here are my top takeaways so far: 1. Relentless Iteration LLMs are everywhere, but the magic lies in how they’re applied. Our agents consistently achieve 50%+ response rates because we fine-tune every aspect—prompt engineering, seamless tech stack integration, and more. Success comes from perfecting the details. 2. Nailing the Niche For AI to deliver "rockstar" results, it needs deep expertise in a specific vertical. The more focused the training, the better the outcome. That’s why we customize every AI solution to match each client’s unique requirements, and the results speak for themselves. 3. Obsess Over Customer Value Our guiding star is simple: solve real problems for real customers. We’re not just building another piece of tech. Our AI agents drive meaningful results by being tailored to each client’s needs. Follow along fore more! 🏃

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The time between funding rounds from seed to late-stage companies has been steadily growing for years. Unless your start-up has crazy traction and uptake, the journey to scale is taking longer and is harder.   Some common issues:  ❗️Runway needs to last longer ❗️The importance of the right people in the right seats is critical ❗️Stress is high and patience is thin Taking risks needs to be intentional and considered; the time of cheap money and growth at all costs has long gone. BUT There is also pressure on investors to allocate capital. They need to return funds to investors in order to raise the next fund. Focus and having the right team will win in the long run. #economicclimate #fundingrounds #scalability 

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+++ exits exist +++ Last week Cobee 🇪🇸 from Speedinvest portfolio signed an agreement to join Pluxee (fka Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services) 👏 😎 quick recap: 2019 375k pre-seed round ESC Venture Capital SGEIC (antes Encomenda Smart Capital), LANAI Partners 2020 2.1m seed round Speedinvest and Target Global 2021 14m seriesA Balderton Capital DILA Capital 2022 40m seriesB Notion Capital Octopus Ventures 2024 trade sale To Borja Aranguren and everyone at the fantastic team Cobee: All the best for the next stage of your journey of redefining employee benefits and thank you for trusting us with your seed round!!! 🙏 Some personal observations and thoughts: 🔸 Pluxee spun out from Sodexo (roots dating back to 1892!!) and listed on Euronext (EPA: PLX) in January 2024 to form a pure player and the global leader in employee rewards & benefits. Pluxee serves 1.7m partner retailers, 500k corporate clients and 36m consumers. A large base for scale. 🔸 It took Cobee (only) 5yrs from pre-seed to exit. They started from scratch to build a digital player in the space. 🔸 The avantgarde of smart european corporates is actively driving the digital transformation of their industries and business models by M&A and investing in startups. With this acquisition Pluxee is going FFD in mastering the digital transformation of its industry. 🔸 If the economics make sense and the strategic and cultural fit is there then swift action pays off for all: 1) for the founders and the startup's employees who get the unique chance to grow and see their "baby" adding value to the economy 2) for the acquiring corporate to leapfrog digital transformation And last but not least for the VCs involved and all their LPs underpinning the attractiveness of the asset class VC. 🔸 We all need more of this! Esp in Europe. It produces full-cycle experienced founders in under a fund's lifespan. This is so crucial to the whole tech & VC ecosystem. And to the wider economy! Good Luck team Cobee for your onward journey!! EU-Startups has more: https://lnkd.in/eSZDKPXm Invest Europe invest.austria #venturecapital

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Stax - Startup Talent Experts - love partnering with the ‘Rebel Alliances’ of startups 🚀 We help to place the best tech and engineering talent into the most innovative deep tech and clean tech startups in Europe.⭐️ Check out our jobs page for open positions across Software Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. 👩‍💻👨‍🔧 May the 4th be with you! #starwarsday #deeptech #cleantech #startupjobs #techstartups

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Every new hire we've welcomed recently shares one common reason for joining Abacum: We're customer-obsessed. They were happy to join us because they know we do what is right for our customers. And as a founder, that feels amazing. People seem to forget what the North Star should be. They think it's hitting growth targets. But for us, it's to have happy customers. Of course, you have metrics you have to hit as a founder. But what truly matters is when you wake up every morning, are you doing the right thing for your customers and are they happy? When you nail that, you'll hit your targets by default. If you want a core value to truly drive your company, it has to be deeply ingrained in your team. 3 ways we do this at Abacum: ➝ When we hire, we don’t just look for skills—we hire people who are as obsessed with customers as we are. ➝ Once a month, we bring in a customer to talk to our entire team for 30 minutes about their business how they're using Abacum, and what they're liking or not liking. We want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly. ➝ We have a dedicated "customer-obsession" Slack channel where people share stories, testimonials, and just rally around how we're making our customers the heroes of their organizations. We really are intentional with integrating consistent rituals and habits that keep customer obsession top of mind for everyone. To get your team to truly embody the company values, it's our job as founders to walk the talk.

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I Weekend Reflection: Navro’s Mallorca Offsite 🌴 I’ve worked in later-stage startups and public companies, but I’d never experienced something quite like this—our Navro offsite in Mallorca was one of those moments that made me pause and realize just how fortunate I am to be part of this journey. Having nearly 90 people from across the UK, Ireland, Poland, and Portugal come together was special on so many levels. For many of us, it was the first time meeting in person. There was an incredible energy in the air, everyone being greeted with open arms by Yuliya Kniazeva & Charlotte Mepham as they arrived, and it didn’t matter if you were brand new or had been with Navro for a while, everyone was looked after. I had a personal moment of reflection when my boyfriend Derrick Sasu dropped me off after we spent the weekend hiking together. He’s heard so much about my colleagues & has spoken to my team virtually but this was the first time he met most in person. Watching him being welcomed into the Navro team just reinforced how inclusive this company is, & I realized how lucky I am to be part of such a supportive & welcoming culture. And it wasn’t just me. Our COO Peter Rowan brought his wife Maggie & stayed the weekend. Our CFO James Deane brought his son Connor since his wife Susan O’Neill was doing big things in New York. That mix of family & work—seeing partners & children as part of the experience—made it feel even more special & close-knit. The entire offsite had this vibe of being on the verge of something huge, and I felt it from the moment our founders Aran Brown & Eddie Harrison kicked things off. No slides, no formalities—just real talk about how we are all owners in this journey. We’ve got equity, a stake in Navro’s success, & it’s up to us to make it happen. It hit many that this isn’t just a job—it’s something we’re building together. During the work sessions, we were present - no phones or laptops unless dealing with clients. We were pushed to challenge each other & align on our product roadmap, working cross-functionally with teams from engineering, sales, product & operations. The Navro Pitches were another highlight—teams coming together with the energy of a Dragons’ Den competition. It was incredible to see the creativity & passion driving everyone’s contributions. But it wasn’t all work. There was still time for early morning ocean swims, hikes & dancing late into the night. The mix of work & fun made the whole experience unforgettable. I came away feeling emotional, inspired & beyond grateful to be part of something so special. A huge thank you to Eddie & Aran for bringing me on this incredible journey. I’ve never felt so lucky to work alongside such talented, passionate people & I’m excited for what’s next. We’re all in—and we’re going BIG. 🚀 We have a number of open roles - so check out our career page if you want to be part of an incredible journey 💜

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You’ve assembled a global dream team with Remote ✅ But is that dream team thriving? Do they feel like they truly belong? Hybrid work is the new frontier, and navigating it is tough. Done badly, it can spiral into loneliness, work-life imbalance, and more. That’s why Oliva has partnered with Remote. Now, you can give Remote-employed teammates and managers the mental wellbeing support they need with just a click. Help them wake up ready to excel, no matter where in the world they find themselves. #RemoteWork #EmployeeWellbeing #GlobalTeams

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After speaking to several founders last week, here are the 2 main reasons why early stage start ups fail. - They haven't hired the right founding team - They've run out of money / can't get investment. Talent and capital is 90% of your start up (in the early stages). And the reason this goes tits up? The initial strategy. Most of the time little to no research is done on the pain points your solution is trying to solve. It becomes a guessing game. A big part of this is identifying who your target audience is and speaking to them. When you think you've got enough data, go out and get bit more. you'll be thankful in the long run when you're winning. #startups #zygopeople

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It's taken me years of both exciting wins and humbling mistakes to learn how to hire A-players. There are 3 traits we look for at Abacum to make sure we never compromise and always hire the best person for each role: 1. Intensity Someone with intensity has a certain fire in their eyes that you just can't teach. I've noticed some folks have this fascinating internal drive—they roll out of bed already thinking about moving mountains. They have extremely high standards and a work ethic that helps them meet that bar. When they hit obstacles, they don't just stop and wait for directions... They naturally start looking for another path. Not because they're trying to impress anyone, but because that's just who they are at their core. They are committed to delivering results, no matter what. 2. Street smarts This one's interesting... I've worked with some brilliant minds who got so caught up in perfection that real opportunities just drifted by. You know what I prefer? The 80/20 approach. Give me someone who can read the room, flex their approach when needed, and find solutions that actually work in the real world. They get that a good solution you can use today usually beats a perfect solution that's always "almost ready." High intelligence is key but it's far more valuable when combined with pragmatism. True mastery comes from knowing when to make a trade-off in pursuit of progress over perfection. 3. Low ego This might be the hardest trait to find. These rare folks are laser-focused on getting results, not collecting credit. They stay coachable because they're more interested in growing and learning than proving themselves right. They don't burn energy protecting their turf or territory or managing their image. When things go sideways (and they do sometimes), they own it and grow from it. And when the team wins? They're genuinely excited about the collective victory. Finding people who bring all three qualities? Yes, it takes time. But that's actually the point. I've learned that hiring slow doesn't mean your business moves slow — it means you're building things right from the ground up. So take your time; think about what matters most in your team. In my experience, that's how you find the right people.

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✴️ See who raised $50M and has 19 jobs open! 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 Last week saw a number of startups across Europe raise funds and they are hiring!! 🇫🇷 Happydemics (Paris, France) Founded by Tarek Ouagguini, Happydemics raised  €13M (Series B) to help advertisers worldwide measure and optimize the ROI of their media strategies with precise, benchmark-backed insights.The round was led Adelie and Wille Finance. ❗ Hiring: 10 open positions – https://bit.ly/4itf9pZ 👤 Tagging Audrey Gabélus - Head of HR to learn more about opportunities at #Happydemics 🇫🇷 Orakl Oncology (Paris, France) #Biotechnology Founded by Diane-Laure Pagès, Fanny Jaulin, PhD, and Gustave Ronteix, #Orakl Oncology a precision oncology company that combines data and biology to bring new drugs to cancer patients, raised €11M in a Seed round. The funding was led by Bpifrance and Singular. ❗ Hiring: 8 open positions – https://bit.ly/3ZIxlo6 👤 Tagging Diane-Laure Pagès- COO to connect about their hiring needs. 🇬🇧 Briefcase (London, UK) #Accouting #AI Founded by Reuben Steenkamp and Ján Stehlík, Briefcase an AI-native bookkeeping & accounting automation for practice, raised €2.8 million in a seed round. Funding led by Earlybird Venture Capital. Other participants included Entrepreneur First, #Tiny, and a group of angel investors, such as the founders of Pennylane, a prominent accounting tech unicorn, as well as executives from companies like #Deel, #Pleo, and #11X.  ❗ Hiring: 3 open positions – https://bit.ly/3CZrfH5 👤 Tagging Reuben Steenkamp- CEO & Founder who is leading #Briefcase's vision and mission 🇬🇧 🇺🇲 9fin (London, UK / New York, NY) #FinTech Founded by Steven Hunter and Huss El-Sheik, B9fin raised $50 million in a Series B funding to enhance its AI technology, expand its analytics team, and accelerate U.S. expansion. The round was led by Spark Capital, redalpine, Seedcamp, #500Startups, and Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital. ❗ Hiring: 19 open positions – https://bit.ly/3VtLvHt 👤 Tagging Liz Bell, Head of People & Alice Simpson, Director of Talent to learn more about opportunities at #9fin 🚀 If you're exploring new opportunities, or just want to see who is raising capital, make sure to follow me! #EuroTech #StartupFunding #HiringNow #Innovation

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𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐉𝐨𝐛 We have had a lot of conversations with startup founders who are trying to tackle hiring on their own. It seems simple at first: post the job and wait for the right person to apply. But then the flood of applications hits. Hundreds of CVs, most of them irrelevant. Hours spent sifting through, sending rejections,setting up interviews, getting ghosted and often, still no hire. Here’s what can help keep your focus where it’s needed: ✅𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧- A structured hiring plan with clear steps keeps you organised and makes the whole process a lot smoother. ✅𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤-People you know can often give quick, qualified referrals and save you time. ✅𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭- Working with a recruiter or agency can filter out a lot of the process for you Hiring is essential, but it shouldn’t sideline the work that keeps your business growing.

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How Aaron, co-founder of fast growing B2B accounting SaaS, under pressure to scale fast with no internal talent team, scaled their engineering team by 30% in 3 months (without overspending on traditional agencies): When Aaron reached out, they’d just secured funding. Great news, but they had to ramp up quick: - Increase engineering team talent - Increase product team talent They needed 9 high-quality hires, fast. But they had 3 big problems: 1. No internal talent team 2. Pressure to scale fast 3. High stakes for quality Recruiting was wrongly falling on leadership. Growth targets were big. Past experiences with bad hires was scary. It was crucial we nailed this for Aaron. But I knew Move could fix their hiring problem. We needed to do 3 things quickly: 1. Install a dedicated talent lead, sourcer and co-ordinator 2. Integrate with their hiring managers (extension to Aaron’s team) 3. Align with the brand to attract talent excited about the vision The difference to traditional agencies: not just a recruiter. We gave Aaron a support system with recruiters working constantly. But that’s not it. In just 3 months: - 9 high-quality hires, scaling Aaron’s team by 30% - 2 weeks average time to hire, hitting growth targets - £81,340 cost saving vs traditional agency fees Here’s the best bit though... Leadership was buzzing with the quality of hires, saying: “The quality bar has really been raised.” And Aaron was buzzing too: “The results have been fantastic. We scaled our team by 30-35% with high-quality hires, all without overwhelming our time or resources.” Securing funding should be exciting for a business. Don’t let the worry of hiring take that excitement away. P.S. if you’re a fast-scaling startup struggling with: - No internal talent team to manage recruitment - Pressure to hire quickly without compromising on quality - Concerns about the costs of traditional recruitment agencies - The challenge of attracting top-tier candidates to your mission - A lack of seamless collaboration with past recruitment partners And you want to scale your team efficiently, raise the quality bar and save on recruitment costs? DM me “Scale” and I’ll show you how.

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How to become indispensable as TA & People Partners? 5 DOs and DON’Ts We asked TA leaders at some of the most advanced tech companies ( Glovo, Adevinta, OLX etc.) in Europe a simple question: "How can we make ourself indispensable as TA & People Partners?" Important to note that: ❕They sometime disagreed with each other ❕They don’t have all the answers ❕They spoke for themselves Now, summarising what I understood from the discussion, let’s start with 3 DONTs ❌ Don’t be scared of changes and about AI ❌ Don’t build large internal teams ❌ Don’t lack in self-confidence Here, how I’d summarise the main takeaways as 5 DOs: ✅ Mindset: add business value, not only within TA ✅ Jump on the AI train, focus on efficiency ✅ Small internal team + flexible resources ✅ Position yourself as a strategic advisor ✅ Own your craft and be proud Overall, the sentiment was cautiously optimistic about the future, with everyone mostly agreeing that: ☝️Human connection and recruiting will make recruiters needed ☝️We have to be OK with not knowing how things will change ☝️TA Professionals will still be fundamental in the future What am I missing?

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Growing in the US is a dream for a lot of startups! Cake is doing it and we are keen to continue to learn, share our learnings with other founders and help out where we can. Thanks for a great US GTM panel with SVB, Deel., Andreessen Horowitz Awesome learnings about bringing your startup to the US: - get your legals in place - a lot of compliance requirements in SF - be careful with costs - SF is super expensive, go around if you can - set up a c-corp from start - set up for the long term - health insurance will be your second highest cost, next to salary and is necessary to attract top talent - look 12-18 months ahead to be ready to scale up your startup Great chats with Sunil Joshi, Sara Rona, Daniel Nickel, Jordynn Johnson-Knoops, Kenan Kitchen, Andy Tsao, Dawn Nott, ★Phillip Alvarado★, Nuné Zadoyan, MBA, Shun Katayose, Ryu Ishihara, Martin Walian

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Popular belief is that Silicon Valley is the only viable destination for startups looking to expand and tap into a larger market. However, I assert that Iberia (Spain and Portugal) offers significant untapped potential for startups aiming to dominate a larger slice of the global market. Here's why: Iberia forecasts a continued increase in passenger traffic between Europe and Latin America, creating a substantial demand for startups in the travel and logistics sectors. Furthermore, over 80% of funds raised by Spanish startups come from international investors, highlighting the strong global support and confidence in this region's startups. Startups in industries like big data, fintech, marketing, transport, travel, and housing have seen substantial success, indicating a robust ecosystem for innovation. So, instead of solely focusing on Silicon Valley, it's high time we also start looking at Iberia as a prime hub for startup expansion and growth. #IberiaStartups #GlobalMarket #StartupExpansion #IberianSales #Fintech #TravelStartups #Logistics #InnovationEcosystem #StartupGrowth #Iberia

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second-time founders vs. first-time founders: - Value Connections - Cost-Conscious - Decision-Quick - Risk-Savvy Still deciphering the patterns of third-time founders. 😄

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Equity Vesting Schedule for a few major companies including Uber Google Amazon DoorDash Stripe ByteDance etc. 4 year vesting schedule, 25% per year, 1 year cliff used to be norm, but companies have created all sorts of different structures adjusting to their needs. Google, Uber, Doordash, Pinterest all front load their vesting to make the first year comp package look attractive. It should be common to receive additional equity each year on a similar vesting schedule to make sure employee comp doesnt go down year over year. Amazon is famous for having a back loaded vesting schedule with 80% vesting in the last 2 years. What most people don't share is that Amazon will commonly give a cash "sign-on bonus" that is broken up into 24 installments for the first 2 years, to help cover for lower vesting amounts. Amazon tends to lose many people at year 5 unless a new equity package is granted, and by year 5, you are part of the 5% longest tenured employees. Mercury doing a 6 year vest is a newer strategy, but smart when thinking about how to reduce employee churn in the industry. Stripe takes the opposite approach with a yearly vest and a year grant. This shows that there is not 'best' equity vesting approach, and is something a company creates and adjusts based on the hiring problems they are looking to solve at that time. This also makes apples to apples comparisons very hard when comparing equity, but also a point were many companies have flexibility to adjust equity and get the candidates they want. Equity vesting schedule seems to always be aligned across the globe so no big changes across regions, other than the actual grant amount Thank you Levels.fyi for consolidating this data

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Most Startups want senior talent, Do you know why? Its because, the companies do not want to train new hires for mainly 2 reasons: 1️⃣They do not have enough budget to allocate towards training Or 2️⃣They do not have enough time to allocate towards training That's why you hear the saying: "Come in & hit the ground running" BUT 🔴 If you are a CEO/Founder of a startup, Training is important for growth! Investing in employee training early, can allow you to 1️⃣Hire entry level professionals & create leaders within your company 2️⃣Boost company culture 3️⃣Grow your team rapidly with stability & structure You as a startup founder, did not need 5+ years of experience to start your own company, So why does your team need it? #startup #hiring #learninganddevelopment #training

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Want to move to Spain? Here's a list of well-funded startups from June 2024: - TravelPerk (business travel) raised up to $135M. - Tinybird (real-time APIs) raised $30M. - Bespoke Pixel Studio (gaming) raised €25M. - Cabify (transport) raised €20M. - Bcas (student finance) raised €17M. - Job&Talent (marketplace) raised €18M. - NeuronUP (cognitive rehabilitation) raised €10M. - Samara (solar energy) raised €9M. - Mitiga Solutions (data analytics) raised €8M. - Badi (room rental app) raised €7M. - FOSSA Systems (IoT satellite) raised €6.3M. - Ray studios (tattoo removal) raised €4.62M. - Danelfin (AI stock analytics) raised €2M. - Alinia AI (alignment platform) raised $2.4M. - Sincrolab (digital therapies) raised €1.7M. - Leemons LXP (edtech) raised €1.62M. - Bit2Me (crypto) received investment from Unicaja. - Azitek (IOT) raised €750K. - inBiot Monitoring SL (biotech) raised €500K. Get dealflow in your inbox monthly, subscribe with link below 👇 #startups #emprendimiento #spain #tech 📸: credit to contxto

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