Riding Unicorns: Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | Technology
00:05:50 · Dan Lifshits
[00:05:50] S1: This is a great question. I think that this is not my first attempt of the business. This is not the first business that Ilya and Dimitri are building as well. So I think it's all kind of second or third kind of business for us. And I think that this is applicable both to develop and even before that, that I think there is something inside you at some point of time where you're thinking what you want to do in your life. And I think that at certain point, you arrive to the stage where you understand that something within you wants to build something, and this is like a desire that you cannot hold. And there is no reason to do that, honestly. That just dominates in a way, and you understand that there is no other way rather than trying and going to do that. And I think there can be different motivations. It can be... What I probably believe is the best motivation is the motivation to really make an impact in the world and change something. And I think whenever you experience renting out pretty much across the world, in The UK included, you understand that potentially there is a better way. Because I think that unfortunately, but quite rarely, people refer highly to the experience that they had in their journey. I think that for some of the founders, might be the experience coming from a personal pain, it might be the experience coming from a desire to leave the mark in the world and some legacy. But I think it's it's a combination of factors. For me personally, it was all of the above. Plus, I think that it's only the business that you're building yourself where you can leave some culture and some personal mark that you want to inherit as much as you want to be building things and not that you need to... Anyway, the culture is gonna be the summary of the key leaders that you have in the business, and I think that's fine. But the question is, like, how much of an impact and opportunity you have to navigate this culture? And I think that whenever you're feeling and whenever you get to know yourself too well at some point, and you understand what things you can compromise with, what things you cannot compromise with, you understand that it's only building your thing that can create the sort of unique feeling and vibe that you want to have.
00:07:57 · Dan Lifshits, Hector Mason
I think to some extent, it's also a mixture of it's very hard to combine the work life balance, because I think whenever you're working somewhere, you have the world work life balance. Whenever you're building something, there is no work, there is no life. Your life is work, your work is life. It's all kind of connected together. And I think that's the only meaningful way to really try to blend this all together and to leave us, like, comprehensive and wholesome kind of human beings. So I think all all factors together. But it's, in a way, never was a question of should I continue just a corporate career and build an amazing progression at McKinsey's of the world? Or if I wanna go and do something myself. I think always been a question that... It's always been a statement that I definitely would do that. Only a question of when. And I think that all previous steps were rather fundamental blocks into getting some key experience to make sure to reutilize that. But it never was the question if I'm ever going to do something. And I think most of the entrepreneurs are like that. I think that they are set in mind that they understand that they're gonna build something regardless. It's just a question of when. [00:09:06] S2: And it's amazing how few entrepreneurs that we speak to have any regrets about their decision to found a business, which suggests that more people should do it. Probably, if enough people are becoming entrepreneurs, some of them would probably regret it. And we're certainly not at that point, at least here in The UK.
00:09:06 · Hector Mason, Dan Lifshits
[00:09:06] S2: And it's amazing how few entrepreneurs that we speak to have any regrets about their decision to found a business, which suggests that more people should do it. Probably, if enough people are becoming entrepreneurs, some of them would probably regret it. And we're certainly not at that point, at least here in The UK. [00:09:23] S1: Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I mean, you know it better than anyone else. It's a very tough journey. It's a ton of compromises that you're having. It's a ton of life choices that you're making every single time. So it's not that this is the only cheerful path in your life. I think that everyone knows deep down within themselves if they want to try it or not. And if they never try, they would regret it for life. So I think that for these people, the only recommendation would be to go and try. I understand that there are some monetary limitations. One might have not enough runway to kind of to do the things or some other things. I think the only meaningful thing is worth trying. And especially whenever you have less commitments in life, go for it. That's my honor.
00:09:23 · Dan Lifshits, James Pringle
[00:09:23] S1: Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I mean, you know it better than anyone else. It's a very tough journey. It's a ton of compromises that you're having. It's a ton of life choices that you're making every single time. So it's not that this is the only cheerful path in your life. I think that everyone knows deep down within themselves if they want to try it or not. And if they never try, they would regret it for life. So I think that for these people, the only recommendation would be to go and try. I understand that there are some monetary limitations. One might have not enough runway to kind of to do the things or some other things. I think the only meaningful thing is worth trying. And especially whenever you have less commitments in life, go for it. That's my honor. [00:10:01] S0: Yeah. And Dan, Tweli isn't just an AI company. You're an AI company with a roll up model as well, which is really interesting. And I think 2025 was described as the dawn of AI roll ups, but you founded Dwelling in 2023. So what was it that gave you the belief that the venture market would also catch on with this model that wasn't new, but has really come into vogue in the roll up model is not new, but obviously AI roll ups is. So how did you get the confidence that the VC market would would really get it and buy into this model going forwards?
00:10:01 · James Pringle, Dan Lifshits
[00:10:01] S0: Yeah. And Dan, Tweli isn't just an AI company. You're an AI company with a roll up model as well, which is really interesting. And I think 2025 was described as the dawn of AI roll ups, but you founded Dwelling in 2023. So what was it that gave you the belief that the venture market would also catch on with this model that wasn't new, but has really come into vogue in the roll up model is not new, but obviously AI roll ups is. So how did you get the confidence that the VC market would would really get it and buy into this model going forwards? [00:10:36] S1: Yeah. That... That's an amazing question and a journey, really. And, I mean, you're saying 2025 is the year of year roll ups. Let's see what 2026 is gonna be. I think that is just starting, to be honest. But, I mean, it hasn't been Maybe the decade [00:10:49] S0: of rollouts. Maybe the decade of rollouts.
00:10:51 · Dan Lifshits
[00:10:51] S1: As with all kind of a bit of a hypothesis, but that do have certain proofs in the pudding, I think it's like five, seven years away that is just starting. And I think that that's what we're gonna experience in the next... Until 2030, at least, if not even longer than that. Because there's fundamental value being created. And whenever it's created, then kind of it's a big categories that can be reshaped and redefined. So hence, I believe it's with us for long term, honestly speaking. But talking about 2023, a short answer, it was rough. A bit of a longer story, It was the only meaningful way how to reshape that specific industry, because exactly of having an experience of building a tech enabled letting agents already once, we learned the hard way that acquisition of landlords, and this is effectively your two sided marketplace, you have a tenant, you have a landlord, and you are kind of a service company acting on behalf of both to some extent. But it's not about finding the tenants. This is all this business is about. Finding tenant is comparatively easy peasy. You just post the property on the likes of Zoopla that you guys, both of you know really well, and kind of other classifieds. And obviously, kind of this distribution problem has been solved by lots of other smart people like Alex Chesterman and many more. But it's all the question about how to acquire the landlord. And growing landlord organically is hard because effectively, the structural reason of the market that the landlord switch between agents is very, very rare. And that's what we learned the hard way in the previous business, that effectively, the only meaningful way to grow is not an organic growth. And then when we regrouped and started thinking other ways to overcome the limitation of organic growth, then that's where we came across such a beautiful world called... Known as roll up that, honestly, I didn't know until end of twenty twenty three, kind of no joke. And that's where we had an idea that why not we try to merge the best of the two worlds.