I'M LAUNCHING VC MARKET FIT!!!

The best investors in the world. In your inbox.

Feb 28, 2026

GIVE SOME LOVE TO OUR LINKEDIN LAUNCH!

For years, the real craft of VC lived in private dinners, internal memos, partner meetings and backchannel WhatsApps.

Not because it was secret. Because access was limited.

The people who actually know how to build $1B+ companies don’t usually publish how they think.

Until now.

Today, we’re launching VC Market Fit 🚀

A daily platform where top investors behind Spotify, Klarna, Trade Republic, Mistral, Lovable, Mercor and more will breakdown:

The stories behind their craziest deals (insane) 🔥
How they actually spot winners
Built billion-dollar companies (this batch is cracked) 🔥
How they think about AI, distribution and moats

The kind of insight that used to require a warm intro, a $50M fund, or a seat at the table.

This is venture from the source. Straight from the partners.

Now it’s in your inbox. Free.

Subscribe now here to get them in your inbox every day

Not only this: We are launching with an ABSURD first batch 🔥

These are investors who have helped build and invest in companies like Spotify, Trade Republic, Mistral AI, Lovable, Mercor, Klarna and many more billion $ companies.

This has always been inaccessible.
Now we’re publishing their stories.

Batch 01: The first writers

Creandum (team)

One of Europe’s most iconic venture firms. A full team coming in strong.

Staffan Helgesson (Creandum)

General Partner & Founder at Creandum

If you want a snapshot of Staffan’s taste, look at the companies he led investments in:

Spotify (2008 – first venture round), Klarna, iZettle, Bolt, Trade Republic, Epidemic Sound, Lovable…

From early Spotify to multiple European unicorns, his track record spans two decades of category-defining companies.

He’s a generational European investor, and we’re incredibly excited to have him onboard.

Peter spent several years at Bain before moving into venture, sharpening the strategic lens he now applies to early-stage investing. At Creandum, he has become one of the firm’s driving forces across AI and B2B software.

His track record reflects that focus:

Factorial (Spain’s fastest growing unicorn), cargo.one, Jack&Jill, Leapsome, Black Forest Labs & more

Peter understands where AI infrastructure meets real enterprise distribution.
From vertical SaaS to frontier AI labs, he consistently backs companies building the backbone of the next software era.

We’re very excited to have him onboard.

Carl Fritjofsson (Creandum)

General Partner at Creandum. Founder turned VC.

Before venture, Carl co-founded Wrapp, a mobile social gifting startup backed by top-tier investors, later acquired by Meniga. He’s built, raised, scaled and exited.

Now he invests. And he invests big.

Carl helped build Creandum’s U.S. presence and operates globally across AI, infra, consumer and fintech. He’s proudly supported companies like:

Spotify, Klarna, Trade Republic, Depop ($1.6B exit), Cornershop ($3.5B exit to Uber), YuLife, H Company & more

Founder energy and global ambition.

Carl backs companies that bend reality, from fintech giants to frontier AI labs.

Can’t wait to hear his story.

Simon Schmincke (Creandum)

General Partner at Creandum. Founder turned operator turned VC.

Before venture, Simon co-founded HelloFresh, which went public in 2017 and later reached a €20B+ market cap at its peak.

He was also Global Co-Founder of Foodpanda, one of the earliest global food delivery platforms, later consolidated into Delivery Hero, a company that grew into a multi-billion-euro public group. He has built category leaders from zero to global scale.

At Creandum, Simon has backed some of Europe’s strongest fintech and B2B names, including: Tide, Factorial, cargo.one, Navan, doinstruct & more.

Simon understands hypergrowth from the inside (IPOs, global rollouts, operational chaos at scale) and now applies that founder DNA to backing Europe’s next generation of category leaders.

We’re incredibly excited to have him onboard. 🚀

Fredrik Cassel (Creandum)

General Partner at Creandum since 2003.

One of the longest-standing partners at Creandum and one of the early architects behind its most iconic wins. Fredrik was a Board Member at Spotify (2008–2011) during its early breakout years.

He later served on the boards of: Depop (exited to Etsy for $1.6B), Kahoot!, Xeneta, Lindus Health, Lovable & more

Two decades of boards. Multiple category leaders. IPOs and billion-dollar exits.

Fredrik is pure institutional memory of European tech, and still backing the next wave.

Individual members

Andrew Tan (TLDR & Humans)

Founder of TLDR (1.5M+ readers). Founding Partner at Humans. Exited Founder.

Andrew is a pure AI-native founder turned investor.

Stanford & Berkeley CS + Statistics (Summa Cum Laude), ex-Sequoia Capital and then he built.

He founded Nova, scaled it, and exited to Handshake. At Handshake, he co-founded their GenAI team from 0→1. In parallel, he built TLDR into one of the largest tech media platforms globally.

Companies he’s backed include: Mercor, Charta Health, Cluely, Superpower, TierZero AI, Starcloud & more

Andrew operates at the center of distribution + product + capital in the AI era.

Michael Stothard (firstminute capital)

Investor at firstminute capital. Cambridge. Journalist turned VC.

Before venture, Michael spent almost a decade at the Financial Times as a foreign correspondent. He later became one of the founding editors of Sifted, which today reaches 10M+ readers across Europe’s tech ecosystem.

He understands startups from the inside and from the outside. At firstminute, he’s backed breakout companies including: Mistral AI, Nabla, Granola, Typology, Vocca AI & more

Backer of some of the most exciting AI companies in the region. We’re incredibly excited to have him onboard. 🚀

Gaultier Brun (199 Ventures)

Tech Investor at 199 Ventures.

Operator-minded early-stage VC focused on AI, fintech and vertical software.

At 199 Ventures, Gaultier backs ambitious European founders at the earliest stages, often before institutional capital shows up.

Portfolio highlights include: Wellapp, DermaScan, Lucis, Stairling, Spiko. He’s also an Angel investor in Nothing.

Small checks. High conviction. Backer of AI healthcare, fintech infra and next-gen vertical SaaS.

Jay Patel (Picus Capital)

Investor at Picus Capital (AUM $1B+). Ex-McKinsey.

Jay invests in early-stage companies challenging the status quo across fintech, climate, SaaS and emerging markets.

He’s been involved in investments such as WeRize, Measure, and Invact and as part of Picus, the firm has invested in category leaders including: Personio(~$8.5B), Enpal(~€2.2B), Hawk AI, Taxfix, Forto & more

Global platform. Early conviction. Billion-dollar portfolio.

Saran Davies (Moonfire Ventures)

Associate at Moonfire. Oxford PhD.

Associate at Moonfire Ventures. PhD from University of Oxford, where she researched antibiotic resistance and bacterial survival mechanisms.

She understands the science. She understands the data. She understands how frontier research becomes real companies.

At Moonfire, she backs category-defining startups at pre-seed and seed, including: LiveFlow, Humaans, Lightdash, GOALS & more

Scientific rigor. AI-native investing. We’re very excited to have her onboard. 🚀

Jack Cantillon (Green Room)

Partner & Co-founder at Green Room.

Green Room is built around a simple idea: find exceptional people early and help them become category-defining founders.

Alongside Green Room, he’s an active angel investor backing companies at pre-seed and seed, including: Kular (YC, EF), Pycoworks (Fly, EF), Dubsof (20VC), QStory…

Founder-first. Early conviction.