Delusional Podcast

Sheel Mohnot is the co-founder of Better Tomorrow Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's favorite fintech investors. Previously, he built FeeFighters [acquired by Groupon], Innovative Auctions, and Thistle while having angel invested in companies such as Ramp, Flexport, and Mercury. Timestamps: 00:00 - In this episode 01:29 - Introduction 03:33 - First liquidity event $$$: selling Fee Fighters to G...

Jake Gibson is a co-founder and GP at Better Tomorrow Ventures, Silicon Valley's coolest early stage fintech VC firm. Previously, he co-founded NerdWallet, a $1b publicly listed company. Timestamps:00:00 - In this episode01:00 - Introduction03:04 - Inception of Nerdwallet, not taking VC money, building a marketing machine07:36 - Ringing the NASDAQ IPO bell and being a small part of something m...

Karim Beguir is the co-founder and CEO of InstaDeep, a Tunisia/Africa-born company that grew into a global deep-tech AI powerhouse and got acquired by german biotech giant BioNTech for $700m. Timestamps:00:00 - In this episode00:53 - Introduction01:42 - Modeling protein folding with AI08:26 - Solving combinatorial optimization with AI12:58 - Identifying upcoming COVID variants with AI17:06 - Curin...

Hisham Halbouny is a managing partner at P1 Ventures, a $50m Africa-focused fund who's often referred to as contrarian. Hisham was previously a partner at Man Capital, the family office of Egyptian Billionaire Mohamed Mansour where he invested in Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Bolt, and more. Timestamps:00:00 - In this episode00:36 - Introduction01:13 - Investing in Uber/Airbnb/Spotify03:16 - Going al...

Karim Jouini is the founder of Expensya, an expense management platform sold to Medius Group for $100m. Karim is now building his second company called ThunderCode: an AI testing agent for software teams. Timestamps:00:00 - In this episode01:58 - Introduction02:59 - Missing PMF, SMB sucks, pivot to mid-market06:03 - Brex, Ramp, & copycats in Africa/LatAm/Asia10:31 - Karim's new AI company1...

Melvyn Lubega is a Partner at Breega, one of Europe's fastest-growing VC firms ($700m) which recently launched its first Africa-dedicated fund. This episode was recorded in October 2023. Timestamps: 00:00 - In this episode 00:50 - Introduction 01:53 - From founder, to angel, then VC 04:37 - Growing Go1 to a $3b edtech giant 07:15 - Breega's DNA and its expansion into Africa 09:47 - Global...

Wael Nafee is a General Partner at Raed Ventures, the leading Saudi early-stage VC firm with $450m in AUM.This episode was recorded in October 2023. Timestamps:00:00 - In this episode00:49 - Introduction01:51 - Careem and Deeptech background06:00 - Identifying exceptional founders08:33 -  Portfolio risk-reward modeling tool for VCs09:48 - Better returns or more management fees?12:42 - Egyptian tec...

Jacques Marco is the founder and CEO of Axis Pay. The company raised a $8m seed round and is now one of Egypt's fastest-growing fintechs. Timestamps: 00:00 - In this episode 00:46 - Introduction 01:21 - Lawyer dad and an intuitive grasp of regulations 02:59 - Non-fintech folks building fintechs?! 06:06 - Why building Axis Pay is so hard 07:56 - Founder dilemma: plug into APIs or build everything i...

Amir Farha is a prominent figure in MENA VC. Having previously co-founded the first and largest early-stage VC firm in the region [BECO Capital, $500m AUM]. Timestamps:(1:49) Building a second VC firm(3:02) What does 'strong founder' even mean?(4:29) Investing in underdogs(6:15) Aren't we all improvising?(7:05) The evolution of Amir 1.0, Amir 2.0, Amir 3.0(11:18) Aren't VCs just monetizing access?...

Tamer Azer is a partner at Shorooq Partners, a prominent VC firm in MENA. Timestamps: ( 1:12 ) Finding your true investor self ( 4:30 ) Building reputation in a new geography ( 6:21 ) Is Egypt gonna recover, startup-wise? ( 9:31 ) Breaking down fintech models via P&L items ( 10:50 ) Why infra/API plays are tough to build in the region? ( 13:27 ) The 'western vs. local' VC disagreement...

Johan Bosini is a partner at Quona Capital, a $800 million pan-emerging-markets fintech VC firm. Timestamps: (1:58) Quona overview in numbers (4:05) Imposter syndrome and self-assessment (5:08) Investing in LatAm vs Africa: different mental models (8:07) Lose-lose situation: too many VCs backing a model/space (10:38) Africa & LatAm: similar [but delayed] growth trajectories (12:49) Do not expa...

Enrique Martinez-Hausmann is a principal at Speedinvest, a €1 billion European VC firm, with a stellar track record in Africa, the Middle East, and emerging markets at large. Timestamps: ( 1:54 ) Speedinvest's key success factors in emerging markets ( 5:54 ) Portfolio winners, in numbers ( 7:14 ) Using a different lens for emerging markets vs. Europe ( 9:18 ) Embracing lending models while oth...

Omair Ansari is the co-founder and CEO of Abhi, one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in South Asia and the Middle East. Timestamps: ( 1:36 ) Quick background on Omair and Abhi ( 2:32 ) Abhi's performance in numbers ( 4:12 ) Dirtiest MVP and figuring out the market need ( 6:12 ) Early Wage Access is a tax on the poor? ( 08:19 ) The moment when numbers went exponential ( 11:58 ) Does SME...

Lexi Novitske is a General Partner at Norssken22, who just launched Africa's second-largest VC fund. Timestamps:( 1:05 ) How to raise a $205m fund during a global downturn( 3:50 ) Current growth stage valuations and how to deal with unreasonable prices( 5:38 ) Growth deals that require restructuring( 9:44 ) Debt requirements for growth-stage companies( 11:28 ) Norrsken's thesis in financial servic...