Dear Friends & Family,

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in June 2007, he famously introduced it as not one, but three revolutionary products: a touchscreen iPod, a mobile phone, and an Internet communicator.

Of course, it wasn’t three devices.

It was one.

But over time, it became something closer to a hundred.

The iPhone didn’t just combine functions—it absorbed entire categories.

It rendered standalone GPS units, digital cameras, MP3 players, and even handheld gaming consoles increasingly obsolete.

For companies building those devices, the iPhone wasn’t innovation.

It was extinction.

Fast forward fifteen years, and ChatGPT & Co. are playing a similar game—this time in software.

What began as a text generator quickly evolved into an all-purpose assistant: answering questions, drafting content, helping with code, and more.

Like the iPhone, ChatGPT and its successors didn’t just compete—they collapsed boundaries between tools.

Industries built around niche capabilities are now facing an uncomfortable question: what happens when your product becomes a feature in someone else’s platform?

Imagine you’ve spent a decade building the world’s leading translation service. Or you’re a copywriter, an illustrator, a data entry specialist.

Just ask Quora, which is struggling to stay relevant as users flock to ChatGPT or Grok for instant, conversational answers.

Or Stack Overflow, once the undisputed go-to for developers, now fighting for attention in an era where AI writes cleaner code in less time.

These were billion-dollar platforms.

Emphasis on were.

I predict that large software development companies, such as Accenture or Capgemini, will initiate mass layoffs this year.

No human can compete with the speed of tools like Cursor, Replit, or Lovable.

What once took teams of hundreds or even thousands will soon be executed by ten highly skilled software architects armed with AI copilots.

This also completely changes the venture capital game.

Many software startups built in the last 5-10 years will struggle to remain relevant when AI seemingly can do everything.

Unless your software is deeply integrated with your client's business and tied to compliance, certification, specific industry insights, internal workforce agreements, etc., there is a risk that it will be replaced with an AI-native tool.

Tech moat will become less relevant, go-to-market strategies will make all the difference.

In short, there's never been a time when building and scaling a software company required less capital, or when surviving as a legacy product required more edge.

And as a microfund, we think that’s a good thing.

Builders who focus on their craft, regardless of who's in office

Talking about founders who are just the right mix of crazy and naive, the kind who believe they can bend reality, and then actually go out and do it:

We’ve made three new investments recently, still under wraps for now, but what’s equally exciting is the momentum across the rest of our portfolio.

Take Kedian Sun and David Lee at Level, for example. They began developing in the stablecoin space in March 2023—the same month USDC depegged and many declared the sector dead.

In the past six months, their total value locked (value deposited) has surged from $3 million to over $170 million. When others pulled back, they leaned in.

Roy Pereira and Alexey Adamsky at Unified are gaining serious traction with their groundbreaking API technology, designed specifically for AI-first apps. Their growth is a signal: the infrastructure layer for AI-native apps is being rewritten in real time.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Janisch and Misha van Beek at Bayesline are showing their pilot clients just how critical AI-powered risk tools are, especially in turbulent times. As volatility rises, so does the demand for deep, domain-specific analytics—and they have the expertise to deliver.

Paul Richards, Sankari Nair, and Igor Gligorević at Recall just shipped a major update to their knowledge management platform, which includes their augmented browser feature, making life a lot easier for knowledge workers.

Lukas Steiner and Johannes Kares at Talentir continue to empower creators, helping them unlock new revenue streams, no crypto expertise required. They’re showing that the benefits of Web3 can be intuitive, accessible, and creator-first.

And Jared McCluskey at Mirror Engine, who is single-handedly building a game development platform with about 1/100 of the investment required by larger companies, has just launched an amazing alpha version.

And these are only the ones that stood out over the past two months.

These founders don’t waste a moment obsessing over politics or current share prices; instead, they focus on where they can drive real change.

Relentless execution, bold ideas, and real traction.

It’s a privilege to be along for the ride.

Coming up: Token2049 in Dubai, April 28

With our friends from bitsCrunch, Li.fi, CLS, Shardeum and Sigma Capital, we are hosting an invite-only brunch in Dubai during the Token2049 conference.

If you happen to attend and would like to meet us to talk about becoming an investor in our fund, getting venture funding for your startup, or compare notes with fellow VCs from around the world, please reach out for further info on the event.

Join our stellar investors

With almost 60% of our fund volume already closed (and 19 investments made), we are gearing up to the final closings our first fund in the coming months.

If you want to join a wonderful group of investors like Yat Siu, Chairman and Founder of Animoca Brands, and prominent venture capital and private equity investors, just reply to this email (which is sent from my personal email account), and meet a member of our team in person.

Thank you for reading.

All the very best,

Wolfgang (Frankfurt) with Ben (Berlin, currently Bogota), Marcel (Munich), and Sagar (Munich and Dubai)