David Cruz e Silva

A successful pilot proves something can work once. It doesn't prove the economics hold, the process is repeatable or the team can deliver it without heroic effort. Scaling is a different problem.

Do hard things when you don’t have to, so you can when you do.

A moat isn't necessarily something you build once and defend forever. Markets change. Technology changes. Customer expectations change. Sometimes the more durable advantage is an organisation's ability to adapt without losing what makes it valuable.

What changes when AI agents become customers, not just tools? Discovery, comparison and checkout are built for humans today. Businesses may need to make their products understandable and purchasable by machines too.

A useful test for a fund model: change one assumption, then explain what it means for the rest of your strategy. Cheque sizes, ownership, reserves and portfolio size are connected. Understanding those connections is part of the work.

Emerging VC managers don't need to look more like established firms. They need funds whose logic holds together. Thesis, sourcing, portfolio construction, ownership, reserves and economics all need to connect. Different is good. Incoherent is not. eu.vc/p/emerging-vc-managers…

Asked friends what being rich meant to them. Most said “not having to think about money.” For me: enough passive income, time to train, meaningful work without the admin and giving my daughters my best energy, not what's left after work. Money is the means, not the definition.

Most companies are using AI to produce more. I’m increasingly interested in whether it can help a company remember what it learns. Not just what we published, but what we learned, why we believed it and what would change our minds. It feels much more valuable than just speed!

We started syndicating investments into European VC funds through EUVC in 2022. Four years and ap. €10m of commitments later, we just received our first distribution. The money has been moving in one direction for a long time. Pretty cool to finally see some of it coming back.

Pretty remarkable few days for Portuguese tech. @TEKEVER: $580m Series D at $6.4bn + up to £400m British Army contract. @SwordHQ: acquiring @Headspace. These increasingly aren’t “promising Portuguese startups”. Companies with Portuguese roots behaving like global leaders.

The more work I automate with AI, the more time I spend defining what “good” actually means. Turns out a lot of what I thought were processes were just judgement living in my head.

I’ve spent years creating optionality: more projects, more paths, more possible futures. The next phase is reducing fragility. Fewer important things dependent entirely on me. A stronger base and a clearer definition of enough.

I don’t train for a sport or competition. I train four times a week: two strength-led sessions and two engine-led sessions. The goal isn’t to maximise one quality. It’s to avoid obvious weaknesses—and remain strong, fit and capable for decades.

One of the best feelings as a founder: coming back after being away and finding progress rather than a backlog waiting for you. The team stepped up massively while I was on parental leave. Very good sign. Very good feeling. @the_euvc

I increasingly make the allocation decision before the investment decision. What job does this capital need to do? Long-term compounding, liquidity, stability and illiquid upside are different jobs. Optimising independently can produce a badly designed balance sheet.

I’m not trying to build the portfolio with the highest theoretical return. I’m trying to build one I can stick with for decades. Diversification, liquidity and optionality all have value, even when they reduce the maximum possible upside. System surviving > optimisation

Productivity benchmarks change quickly with two kids under two. Took the almost-two-year-old to the office while my wife stayed home with the newborn. 15 emails dealt with, 2 sent, one deliverable reviewed. Huge day.

Training at 5am before the house wakes up sounds like discipline. And it is, partly. But with two small children, it also means my wife is covering if one of them wakes while I’m gone. A lot of individual consistency is actually built on teamwork at home.