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AI Pathfinder for Private Equity Podcast
I'm on a mission to guide private equity from AI uncertainty to empowerment by building a network for successful AI adoption. It's giving me firsthand access to PE leaders and experts across the AI value chain.
AI Pathfinder for Private Equity Podcast
Ties Boukema: Why Relationship Data Beats AI Sourcing Models
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In this episode of the AI Pathfinder for Private Equity podcast, host Steve Budd brings a venture capital perspective into the AI Operator series, speaking with Ties Boukema, Head of Data Tech and AI at Dawn Capital, one of Europe's leading B2B software investors. Ties shares his path from law and statistics through five and a half years at Google, including a stint in Google Health, into building Dawn's data and AI function from scratch. The conversation covers Rolodex, Dawn's proprietary relationship-intelligence platform and why buying beats building except when nothing comparable exists.
Takeaways
- Relationship intelligence, not sourcing models, became Dawn's highest-value AI use case. Mapping WhatsApp, calendar and work-history data has directly won deals, including preempting a competitive round against Sequoia.
- Buy software wherever possible. Only build in-house when nothing comparable exists and the edge is core to the business. Rolodex took roughly 18 months to prove its value.
- AI has cut Dawn's DDQ turnaround from weeks to as little as 24 hours, and removed hundreds of comment threads from quarterly reporting.
- Deliberate no-AI zones still matter. Original thinking and hard problems deserve time away from the tool, not a prompt.
- PE culture and engineering culture clash, which is why the AI operator role rarely works well when split across internal projects and portfolio support.
Links
- Ties's Dawn Capital profile
- Ties's LinkedIn
- Ties on the Handelsblatt Disrupt Podcast: Listen on Spotify
- Forbes: How Dawn is using AI to supercharge relationships
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Have a question or would like to suggest improvements, please contact steve@aipathfinder.co
