AI has been credited with making San Francisco hot again. People who drifted away during the pandemic to work from anywhere or try to colonize new hotspots like Miami have returned in droves, bringing traffic, house prices, and valuations soaring once again.
So it was a surprise to hear the latest hot AI startup say this: “This company couldn’t have been built in Silicon Valley.”
Last week, at our final Venture Underground event of the year, Decile Group CEO Adeo Ressi interviewed Boardy CEO Andrew D'Souza. Boardy is an AI that acts as a super-connector, having conversations with founders and investors to understand what makes them unique, then making warm introductions between the right people. It made huge news just days earlier, with the AI reportedly raising its own $8 million seed round from top Sweden-based VC Creandum, before launching its own $200M venture fund and recruiting a global network of scouts.
As the news spiraled around social media, it was hard to know what to make of any of it. Was this real?
At Decile, we’re huge fans of AI making venture capital faster, easier, and more scalable. Our internal AI tools replicate a lot of what admins and EAs do at much larger funds, so solo-GPs can compete more effectively.
But a completely AI-run fund is a different matter.
Here’s what Andrew meant by that opening comment, and it’s what he has in common with our ethos. He built Boardy to help entrepreneurs on the outside get access to capital. If he’d been an insider, he wouldn’t have had the empathy to know what they needed.
“I believe that everyone has a company inside of them that only they can build,” he said. “Next year, I want every single founder that thinks about raising capital, I want them to talk to Boardy first. Tell him what you are working on and why. And then he’ll introduce you to the right investor. My job is to make sure Boardy has that level of trust with you that when he says you should meet this person, you trust him.”
That’s what Boardy did for itself. It found an investor in Europe and warmed them up before introducing them to Andrew.
“I had no dialogue with most of the partners, I only talked to the two that led the deal, the rest of the partners only talked to Boardy,” he says. “Boardy is not closing deals, Boardy is opening doors. He’s getting you in the right room and teeing you up for success.”
Andrew described Boardy as the ultimate super-connector, like any so many VCs, founders, or even journalists are in the business world. “I have a great imagination and a terrible memory,” he said. “Boardy has a great imagination and a great memory.”
That enables him to put the right connections of people together instantaneously, better than any human node ever could. It talks to you long enough to figure out exactly what makes you unique, and what you need, and then positions you in the right way, to the right people, so that they want to connect to you and vice versa.
The parallel between Boardy and Decile is striking. Boardy's AI had conversations with Creandum's partners so Andrew didn't have to cold-email his way in. Decile's AI tools let solo GPs handle deal sourcing, due diligence, and LP research without hiring a team of associates.
In both cases, AI isn't replacing humans, it's giving talented outsiders the infrastructure that used to be reserved for insiders.
VC Lab operates on the same principle. You don't need to spin out of a legendary venture firm. You don't need to meet the central casting profile of a typical Silicon Valley investor. You need the right tools, the right playbook, and the willingness to move. That's exactly what we provide.
“The problem is the meetings we take now are based on who your uncle is,” Andrew said. “I didn’t know Creandum; they are one of the top firms in Sweden. They didn’t know me, but I had built a multibillion dollar company. We didn’t know each other. Our paths had never crossed. We should have, but we didn’t. That’s what Boardy fixes. I guarantee that right now, there is a fund-returning deal sitting in every VC’s inbox growing cold because they’ve never crossed paths with that great founder.”
In other words, we’re both in the business of giving talent the edge it should have gotten in a more fair world. And using AI to help even the playing field.
This is what Venture Underground is about. We bring together the people reshaping venture capital. Next year, we have a full slate of conversations like this one. If you're in the Bay Area and part of the Decile community, join us on the second Thursday of every month.