Odessa-born Brooklyn-raised Harvard-educated US expat living in Moscow. 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.