AI Pathfinder for Private Equity Podcast · 2026-07-28 · 34 min
Contact AI Pathfinder AI Pathfinder website Subscribe to our Substack Follow AI Pathfinder on LinkedIn Join our next AI Pathfinder Private Equity Event: In this episode of the AI Pathfinder for Private Equity podcast, host Steve Budd brings a venture capital perspective into the AI Operator series, speaking with Ties Boukema, Head of Data Tech and AI at Dawn Capital, one of Europe's leading B2B software investors. Ties shares his path from law and statistics through five and a half years at Google, including a stint in Google Health, into building Dawn's data and AI function from scratch. The conversation covers Rolodex, Dawn's proprietary relationship-intelligence platform and why buying beats building except when nothing comparable exists. Takeaways Relationship intelligence, not sourcing models, became Dawn's highest-value AI use case. Mapping WhatsApp, calendar and work-history data has directly won deals, including preempting a competitive round against Sequoia. Buy software wherever possible. Only build in-house when nothing comparable exists and the edge is core to the business. Rolodex took roughly 18 months to prove its value.
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