Reset Camp

The Reset Camp: A Transformative Retreat for Modern Minds!
Struggling with a fast paced lifestyle, burnout or a daily routine? Get a chance to disconnect
from the chaos of a modern world through our beginner-friendly, Vipassana-inspired retreat
aimed at reviving your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
🧘‍♂️Why Reset Camp?
● Adapted for beginners, zero experience required!
● Learn ancient Vipassana techniques for modern resilience.
● Nurture your body with gourmet meals crafted by our chef specialising in food for
longevity.
● Limited spaces for personalised attention.

Founder

Directimo

Advisor

CREOATE

Utopia Analytics

Utopia Analytics is a leading provider of AI content moderation with a full suite of products: AI Moderator, AI Claim handler, AI Support Hero, AI Text Analytics and AI Consulting.

Carbon

Carbon is helping companies build globally distributed product and engineering teams
As a technical hiring partner in strategic nearshore markets, it enables global companies to scale product & engineering teams outside of HQ.

MEETOPTICS

MEETOPTICS is making photonics more accessible by helping thousands of engineers and researchers find the optics they need.

Getting specialised optical components for photonics technologies can be complex and time-consuming. With over 100 000 optical components, each with tens of specifications crucial to performance and thousands of suppliers, you could spend days or weeks searching for the right components to build your setup or new photonics device.

MEETOPTICS has a clear objective: making the search for photonics technologies easy and accessible.
MEETOPTICS is a central platform with a highly customizable search engine designed especially for researchers and optical engineers, making it easy and fast to find, filter and compare optical components from suppliers around the world.

ActioGlobal®

Actio Global is a boutique consultancy supporting the digital transformation of leading global organizations such as Unilever, Danone, Angelini Pharma and Adevinta.
Actio Global has developed a proprietary, hands-on methodology that it deploys in order to support its clients in building agile high-performance organizations.

Paternity leave 

Spending time with my two young children and learning about balance, patience and self-awareness

Stay-at-Home Parent

Adevinta

Adevinta is the leader in online classifieds marketplaces, providing technology-based services to connect buyers and sellers, from job offers to real estate, cars, consumer goods and more. Adevinta operates online marketplaces in 10 countries with an average of 3 billion visits every month.
Adevinta is the leader in online classifieds marketplaces, providing technology-based services to connect buyers and sellers, from job offers to real estate, cars, consumer goods and more. Adevinta operates online marketplaces in 10 countries with an average of 3 billion visits every month.
As a COO Europe:
- Operational responsibility for 11 operations in 5 countries with 1000 employees and more than €170m in revenues
- Grew revenues by +16% and increased Ebitda by +50%
- Led the Post Merger Integration in Europe after the acquisition of eBay Classifieds
- Led the strategy process across European Markets focusing on the transformation to a transactional business model

COO European Markets

- Operational responsibility for 13 operations in 16 countries with 1500 employees and more than €160m in revenues
- Drove an innovative transformation program while delivering on ambitious financial targets from public markets. I have delivered a topline growth of 16% p.a., improved Ebitda by more than 50m€, while completely revamping the operational model, portfolio structure and product mix. 
- Transformed the culture, the technology stack and the operating model across a portfolio spanning Europe, Latam and North Africa.
- Played a key role in Adevinta's acquisition of eBay Classifieds for 10B€ in 2020, leading several due diligence streams, dealing with competition authorities, leading the post-merger integration program in Europe and delivering 30m€ of synergies in 6 months.
- Led the investment of more than 30m€ in startups and VC funds (proptech, fintech, mobility) and oversaw several M&A transactions across the full deal lifecycle.

SVP for Global Markets

Distilled SCH

Distilled is the home to Ireland’s  four most successful internet brands: Adverts.ie, Daft.ie, DoneDeal.ie and Gumtree.ie
As a Board Member, I have worked closely with the Founder & CEO in order to support Distilled on its growth path.

Board Member

I am passionate about growing people, organizations and businesses as an Advisor, Board Member and Entrepreneur.
I advise technology companies that are looking to accelerate their growth, by improving their go-to-market and building the right organizations and operating models.
As a Board Member, I have more than 10 years of experience with marketplaces companies in Europe, with revenues between 40m€ and 200m€.
As an SVP and COO Europe with Adevinta, the leading online marketplace operator, I have led a P&L of over 170m€ in revenue and 1500 employees, driving an innovative transformation program. I have delivered a topline growth of ~15% p.a., improved Ebitda by more than 50m€, while completely revamping the operational model, portfolio structure and product mix.
I have extensive experience along the whole capital lifecycle, from venture investing to public markets. As a C-suite at Adevinta i have been part of an 8B€ IPO and the 10B€ acquisition of eBay Classifieds, gaining a deep understanding of public markets and governance. I also oversaw the investment of more than 30m€ in startups and VC funds (proptech, fintech, mobility) and led several M&A transactions.
As an Entrepreneur, I started 4 companies and these battle scars help me empathise with founders. My current project is Reset Camp, a meditation bootcamp for modern minds, aiming to make meditation more accessible and empower people on their journey of self knowledge.

Ovidiu Solomonov

Jonathan George

Enabling global companies in building nearshore engineering capabilities

Co-founder & CEO

When it’s simply more efficient to buy rather than build.

Same applies to nearshore expansion.

Instead of burning time, capital, and energy on setting up your own satellite offices, a strong BOT partner lets you plug into an existing engine - with distribution and process already built in.

Faster, cheaper, and with fewer fires to put out. 

Speed always wins.


💎 Carbon | Honouring exceptional talent ®

Satellite Offices as a Service | Angel Investor

Building the systems to scale E-Comm & Retail Brands Profitably | Over $300M in client results | Ex-Amazon | Founder, Veya Strategy Group | Speaker

Apple just taught the market a $70 billion masterclass in Build vs Buy.

Everyone is talking about Google Gemini landing on the iPhone.
Most people are missing the real story underneath.

This is not just an AI partnership. 
It is a ruthless display of operational discipline.

$70B is not Apple's savings.
It is the annual price of admission to build frontier AI infrastructure.

Consider the landscape.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿.
OpenAI leads consumer AI with 60%+ market share.
They burn billions on compute to defend the lead.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗱 𝗚𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵.
Meta has spent ~$72B on Capex in 2025.
Google is even more:  $90B+.
Microsoft is close behind.

And in 2026? They are doubling down. 
Forecasts have Meta ramping to $100B+ this year just to stay in the race.

They are all paying the "Infrastructure Tax."

Apple made a different call.

Apple has the same balance sheet.
They could build AppleGPT.
They chose not to.

Instead, Apple rented the capability.

Why?

Because Apple's moat is not the model.
It is the device.
It is the interface.
It is the customer.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗻:

𝟭. 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿?
Apple does. Full stop.

𝟮. 𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆?
Apple builds devices and user experience.
Not massive language models.

𝟯. 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽.
Google needs iPhone distribution to keep Gemini relevant.
Apple used that leverage to negotiate a sweetheart deal.

𝟰. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝘆.
Simple tasks run on device.
Complex tasks run through Apple's Private Cloud Compute.
Only the hardest queries touch Gemini.

Google gets query volume.
Apple keeps the user.

𝟱. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘃𝘀 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺.
Netscape had the best browser.
Microsoft had the operating system.

History picked the ecosystem.

By embedding Gemini into Siri, Apple turns the smartest AI in the world into a background feature.
You stay inside the Apple ecosystem.
On Apple's terms.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀:
Meta and Google are fighting a capital intensive war to own the power plant.
Apple is content owning the light switch.

In the next decade, the winner will not be who builds the best model.
It will be who controls the question.

🎯 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆:
Never build what you can lease.
Unless it is the singular reason your customer stays loyal.

The engine gets headlines.
The ecosystem collects rent.

♻️ If this sharpened your thinking, share it.
Follow Zoë Rowell for more operator insights.

#VeyaStrategyGroup

Most talent teams rely on LinkedIn outreach.

Cursor’s founders get on planes to meet engineers who already said no.

That’s what the hunt for a true 10X engineer looks like.

A classic Paul Graham do-things-that-don’t-scale move, and exactly how we operate at Carbon: 

High-touch. Offline. And plugged into the strongest nodes across CEE’s developer network.

This is where real talent alpha is built.

Open article: Cursor courted top engineers by flying across the world to meet them and making up dinners — even after they said no by businessinsider.com

Cursor courted top engineers by flying across the world to meet them and making up dinners — even after they said no

Today, we’ve asked Amber Ion, our Chief of Staff, to reflect on a role that’s often hard to define, but critical in practice.

She shares how she thinks about the role, what’s surprised her most, the biggest lessons she’s learned so far, and how she recharges outside of work. 

Check out how Amber shows up in a role that’s as dynamic as the person in it.

I've met two types of Y Combinator founders:

1. The Splurgers - with in-office chefs, OTT perks, and premature “culture.”
 2. The Penny-Pinchers - hiring the cheapest talent to stretch runway.

Of course, there’s a whole spectrum in between, but these two extremes show up a lot. And the founders who truly go the distance rarely sit in either camp.

You raised capital for a reason: to deploy it where it drives the highest ROI and gets you closer to PMF.

Not to blow it on vanity perks.
Not to hoard it out of fear you'll never raise again.

In today’s US venture market awash with AI capital, traction unlocks follow-on funding far faster than founders expect. And the YC stamp only amplifies that advantage.

Your job is to put capital to work quickly and intelligently in the areas that unlock real value. 

Being overly frugal simply leads to weak hires, slow execution, and lost ground — a psychological trap for founders from humble backgrounds.

And going perk-crazy doesn’t help either. The employees who will carry you to the finish line care about the mission, not the lunch menu. 


Carbon | Honouring exceptional talent ®

🚨 US jobs numbers are out — and they tell an unexpected story.

Once you exclude healthcare (a sector far less sensitive to interest-rate cycles), employment growth is clearly weakening.

Yet growth indicators and US corporate earnings remain surprisingly resilient.

Those two things don’t usually coexist — unless productivity is rising meaningfully.

Quarter over quarter, businesses appear to be generating more output without expanding headcount. That suggests something structural rather than cyclical may be underway.

Whether this reflects true efficiency gains, tighter cost discipline, or early AI impact remains an open question.

Is the US labour market resetting — where growth no longer requires proportional hiring?

Or are we finally seeing AI show up in the macro data?

Either way, it's a signal worth watching very closely. 


https://lnkd.in/ewW37q_t

Open article: BlackRock's Rieder Sees 'Productivity Revolution' in US by bloomberg.com

BlackRock's Rieder Sees 'Productivity Revolution' in US

Prediction: Anthropic will acquire Perplexity within two years. 

Not because they need “mass market.” 
But because they need the consumer channel; the front door to daily AI usage.

Let me explain - 

💎 1. Anthropic has the model, but no consumer “home screen.”

Claude is incredible, but Anthropic still lacks:
	•	a daily search interface
	•	a mobile-first consumer entry point
	•	a browser surface
	•	stickiness among non-technical users

Claude Code is powerful, but it’s developer reach, not consumer reach. Developers are less forgiving if the underlying tech is marginally superior elsewhere. 

OpenAI owns ChatGPT.
Google owns Search + Gemini.
Anthropic owns… the engine, but not the route to the user.

—

💎 2. Perplexity is the consumer channel, and that’s the moat.

Perplexity isn’t a viral app.
It’s becoming a new search layer, a replacement for Google for millions of people.

Middle-aged, non–tech-native users don’t churn much once Perplexity becomes their default way of “looking things up.”

This is the stickiest consumer behaviour in the entire AI ecosystem.

And Perplexity is locking down the surfaces that matter:
	•	mobile
	•	browser
	•	Samsung & Bixby partnership
	•	Snap partnership
	•	TV
	•	web

Distribution is the moat.

—

💎 3. Perplexity’s brand amplifies this channel.

In a chaotic AI market, Perplexity has carved out a unique position:

“The trusted AI answer engine.”
Clean. Cited. Reliable.

That brand ➡️ trust ➡️ retention loop is a massive asset.

—

💎 4. The economics line up.

Perplexity valued at ~$18–20B.
Anthropic at ~$350B+ with deep capital access.

For Anthropic, buying the consumer channel is far cheaper than trying to build one from scratch.

Perplexity already brings:
	•	daily active users
	•	high-intent queries
	•	a browser
	•	distribution deals
	•	a retrieval + ranking stack
	•	a trust-first brand

Put Anthropic’s model under Perplexity’s channel and you get a full-stack consumer AI powerhouse.

—

Anthropic gets distribution.
Perplexity gets a frontier model.

I also predict OpenAI will be bankrupt within this same timeframe, and be sold to a hyperscaler (Meta) for ~30 cents on the dollar and its talent.

Software's YouTube Moment is Happening Now

“There’s a lot of angst about ‘the kids’ these days. I have no angst, but maybe a little envy. AI has massively democratized leverage and productivity for creative people. There has never been a better time to be a young person with great ideas. I think the kids are gonna be alright.”

Read the full piece from a16z GP Anish Acharya: https://lnkd.in/ga9zGSPJ

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The Battle

Ovidiu Solomonov

Jonathan George

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