Odessa-born Brooklyn-raised Harvard-educated US expat living in Moscow. Partner at Kismet Capital Group, which raised the first Nasdaq SPAC out of Russia in 2020. 13 years at Goldman Sachs Special Situations Group, most recently as Executive Director. Executed GS investments in HH (Nasdaq: HHR), Kaspi (LSE: KSPI), and other tech leaders. Angel & board observer in Miro and Dostavista.

Key expertise: negotiations, fundraising, investment analysis, equity story.

Andrey Khusid

Founder and CEO at Miro — leading whiteboard platform with 20m+ users and 95% Fortune 100 customers. Raised over $75М from top global VCs including Accel, Iconiq and others. Built a team of 800+ awesome Mironeers across the globe.

Key expertise: B2B SaaS, team building, product design and GTM strategy.

Aleks Shamis

3-times entrepreneur, built marketplaces across 3 industries and 13 countries. Co-founder & Deputy CEO at Borzodelivery.com – leading on-demand crowdsourced delivery service for B2B, operating in ten countries.

Key expertise: marketplaces, product development, fundraising, product strategy, people.

Founder and ex-CEO of Food Party, later Yandex.Chef — Russian largest meal kit delivery service acquired by Yandex ($YNDX) in 2020.

Key expertise: D2C e-commerce, FoodTech, marketing & brand building.

Founder of Webinar Group, one of the leading B2B SaaS companies in Russia and Eastern Europe with 8M monthly users and 200+ employees, which includes the leading Russian web conferencing service Webinar.ru, virtual events service COMDI, and knowledge-sharing platform We.Study. Webinar Group is venture-backed by Intel and EBRD in 2014th.

Key expertise: B2B SaaS, video collaboration.

Anatoly Marin

An ex-military officer served at two armed conflicts. Failed twice before founding a super-effective fintech company Payment Systems with 20m installs / 5m MAU and profit per employee > Amazon, Tencent, and PayPal. Runs our legendary community's camp on Burning Man.

Key expertise: human connection, interpersonal dynamics, FinTech, mobile marketing

Leo Batalov

Partner, Global Co-Head of Emerging Growth Companies & Venture Capital at DLA Piper, top international law firm.
Also, swam across the Bosporus Strait.

Key expertise: legal expertise in corporate finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions, venture capital transactions, private equity transactions and general corporate matters for companies in the technology and emerging growth sectors.

Kazakstan-born, ex-physicist, Russian with German roots. Founder and CEO at Profi.ru - leading services marketplace in Russia and Eastern Europe (Russian Thumbtack). Raised over $70M in venture capital. Co-founded Hands.ru - first Uber-like marketplace in home improvement market. Invested in 10+ companies as a business Angel. Together with S16 partners, build the Smith16 community of entrepreneurs: CEO-clubs, media, festivals, Burning Man, etc...

Key expertise: people management, executive coaching, marketplaces, community building, design & product management, fundraising.

Our strategy of building a Founders for Founders Fund: ① attract world-class global entrepreneurs and operators as LPs ② invest at late seed / Round A in stellar entrepreneurs and teams with global product and vision ③ connect Founders with fund LPs through our Advisory platform and help them grow.

Quick decisions, 1-2 Zoom calls. Fast and 100% clear feedback to Founders.

Seed to Round-A stages with an average check of $350k.

Companies with a focus on global markets, especially the US and Europe

Existing traction confirming strong product-market fit.

We follow, don't lead. But we can help to bring the lead and advice on who to choose

Access for Founders to our unique S16 Advisory Platform.