Vasily Alekseenko | Startup Pulse

Oliver Buchannon

Vasily Alekseenko

The founder @ Rare Founders, one of the fastest growing communities of founders and investors in London. Facilitating the craziest and biggest events in London for the startups and investors.

Join Rare Founders on Our Journey

Join Rare Founders on Our Journey

Rare Founders is raising a £250K SEIS round to launch a data-driven social graph that helps founders and investors build stronger, more intentional relationships. Early investors have a chance to join before the round closes.

Mar 12, 2026

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8 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Behind the scenes

The Reason I Can’t Sleep

The Reason I Can’t Sleep

AI agents are moving from hype to real operational impact, and founders who ignore this shift risk falling behind. In this personal reflection, I share my early experiments with OpenClaw, the uncomfortable realisation about automation, and why learning to work with AI agents is quickly becoming a survival skill for modern startups.

Mar 11, 2026

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9 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Behind the scenes

+1

Before You Try to Raise Money, Read This

Before You Try to Raise Money, Read This

Fundraising is one of the most misunderstood parts of building a startup. At our Open Mic Pitch Night, Jamie broke down what founders consistently get wrong and what investors actually want to see. These are the practical lessons founders in the room walked away with.

Mar 4, 2026

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11 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Fundraising

Running on Empty? This One Is For You.

Running on Empty? This One Is For You.

Stories She Never Told is a space for women in the startup ecosystem to pause, reset, and have honest conversations about the real pressure of building while balancing life and family. It combines breathwork, reflection, and raw founder stories to create a supportive room where women feel understood and not alone.

Mar 2, 2026

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3 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

SaaS Apocalypse: One Prompt Broke the Illusion

SaaS Apocalypse: One Prompt Broke the Illusion

This week $300B was wiped off SaaS stocks after one simple realization: AI agents don’t need seats. Seat-based pricing, thin workflow tools, and sales-heavy growth models are being exposed as agents commoditise large parts of traditional SaaS value. The real question for founders is simple: if an AI agent had full access to your customer’s data tomorrow, would your product still be essential?

Feb 25, 2026

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10 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

Why You Should Never Make Decisions After an Investor Meeting

Why You Should Never Make Decisions After an Investor Meeting

If you feel like your brain is fried after talking to investors, you are not crazy. It is a real psychological phenomenon called "Mentor Whiplash" that confuses even experienced founders. I explain why this happens and how to fix it so you can sleep at night.

Feb 18, 2026

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11 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Chris Howard Series

+2

Raising SEIS? It’s Crunch Time Baby!

Raising SEIS? It’s Crunch Time Baby!

There are only 8 weeks left to close your round before the end of the financial year, so if you miss this window, you might have to wait months for the next one. Investors are looking to deploy cash right now to secure their tax relief, but you need to be ready with your Advance Assurance and allocation. Read the full post to understand exactly which investors are buying and fill out the form to get matched before the deadline.

Feb 11, 2026

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13 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Fundraising

The Comfortable Lie of "Pre-Seed" is Over

The Comfortable Lie of "Pre-Seed" is Over

The "idea stage" is dead for 2026, so you need to stop waiting for funding and start building traction if you want to raise pre-seed capital. Investors are done with generic AI "wrappers," so the smart money is now flowing into specific, unsexy verticals with deep domain expertise. To survive, you must ruthlessly qualify investors to avoid "zombie VCs" who haven't written a check in months.

Feb 4, 2026

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13 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

For the Women in Our Network

For the Women in Our Network

February updates for female founders: 50% off annual newsletter plans and a new networking lunch in London. We are hosting "She Rises" to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Check the full details and grab your discount here.

Feb 3, 2026

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3 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

The Money is Moving (What You Need to Build for 2026)

The Money is Moving (What You Need to Build for 2026)

We forced investors to pitch on stage and used water guns to keep them honest. But before the chaos, SuperSeed VC's Dan Bowyer revealed exactly where the money is going in 2026. Stop building for yesterday’s market and see why "Defense" and hardware are the new winners.

Jan 28, 2026

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8 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

Health Tech is Eating the World (Again)

Health Tech is Eating the World (Again)

The health tech landscape just shifted under our feet. OpenAI is buying "medical memory," Anthropic is automating the back office, and Big Pharma is panic-buying to fix a $200bn revenue hole. The era of the simple chatbot wrapper is dead; here is what you need to build to survive 2026.

Jan 21, 2026

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12 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

Are The Days Of The Startup Founder Numbered?

Are The Days Of The Startup Founder Numbered?

New data suggests AGI could arrive in just 3 years, making most of our 5-year roadmaps completely obsolete. In this week's newsletter, I break down why "digital" startups might be dead in the water, and why the smartest move right now is betting on the one thing AI can't touch: the physical world.

Jan 14, 2026

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13 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

The Startup World is a Bloody Circus

The Startup World is a Bloody Circus

I launched Startup Circus podcast because the industry is full of noise and fake experts. This is my no-filter podcast where I share the honest truth about the startup world and my predictions for 2026. The first episode is live now.

Jan 8, 2026

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3 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

How to Herd Investors Into a Close

How to Herd Investors Into a Close

Most founders ask investors for money too soon and kill the deal. My friend Chris Howard shared his "Snail Strategy" with me, a method he used to raise over $100M by spiraling from advice to commitment. Here is the exact 6-step process to close your round without appearing desperate.

Jan 7, 2026

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10 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Chris Howard Series

+1

My 2026 Predictions: The Reality Check

My 2026 Predictions: The Reality Check

As the tech market consolidates and the initial AI hype corrects, the smart money is shifting toward sovereign tech like defense and energy. The blog's major 2026 prediction is an "agent-to-agent" work revolution that will obliterate the traditional "per seat" pricing model. B2B founders must pivot to usage-based pricing immediately to survive this coming shift.

Dec 30, 2025

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10 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

Why You Shouldn't Slow Down in December

Why You Shouldn't Slow Down in December

The Budget scare is over, and investors are now rushing to deploy cash before the April tax deadline. Don't stop working; use this quiet time to close deals and apply for accelerators while your competition is sleeping.

Dec 17, 2025

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8 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Fundraising

Europe Is Waking Up: The Quiet Trends That Will Shape The Next Decade Of Tech

Europe Is Waking Up: The Quiet Trends That Will Shape The Next Decade Of Tech

A quiet transformation is happening across European tech. New AI breakthroughs, emerging robotics startups, roll-up operators, and early IPO signals reveal where the real momentum sits. This summary highlights the trends founders should pay attention to now.

Dec 10, 2025

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8 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

What Your MVP Should Actually Prove

What Your MVP Should Actually Prove

Your MVP has one job: prove real behaviour change through users who return or refer, because this is the only early signal investors trust. Chris explains that every stage of fundraising follows one main signal, and founders who focus on the right one move faster and waste less time.

Dec 3, 2025

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10 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Chris Howard Series

+1

The Budget: A "Scale-Up" Dream, An Early-Stage Reality Check

The Budget: A "Scale-Up" Dream, An Early-Stage Reality Check

The 2025 Budget is a "Scale-Up" dream but an "Early-Stage" reality check, delivering major wins for deep tech and hiring (EMI expansion) while squeezing founders with higher fixed costs and tougher exit taxes. While the government claims to back builders, the operational reality for pre-seed startups is harder than ever, risking a disconnect between policy ambition and grassroots survival. We’re launching a founder-led coalition to fix this - join us to draft the Startup Blueprint for Growth before the February tax deadline.

Nov 28, 2025

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10 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

The Exit Tax Week: What It Exposed About The UK Startup Scene

The Exit Tax Week: What It Exposed About The UK Startup Scene

The exit tax drama created panic across the ecosystem, but it also united founders and investors in a way I haven’t seen before. The policy is gone now, and the reaction proved that our community has more influence than we think.

Nov 19, 2025

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10 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Behind the scenes

+1

B2B Sales 101: Make Them Look Good and You’ll Get the Deal

B2B Sales 101: Make Them Look Good and You’ll Get the Deal

Most founders think B2B sales are about logic and ROI, but they’re really about ego and emotion. You’re not selling to a company — you’re selling to a person who wants to look smart, get promoted, or feel in control. The faster you learn to sell to the human inside the machine, the faster your deals close.

Nov 12, 2025

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8 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Chris Howard Series

+1

Should You Be Raising Right Now?

Should You Be Raising Right Now?

The market’s tightening, and a correction isn’t a matter of if — it’s when. Founders now face a harsh reality: raise before the window closes or be forced to fight for scraps later. Those with real traction will thrive; those selling stories will finally get exposed.

Nov 5, 2025

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11 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Trends

+1

How to Expand Your Investor Network

How to Expand Your Investor Network

Many founders think they’ve run out of investors to pitch, but in reality, they just haven’t tapped into their second-degree network yet. Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and a simple double opt-in email approach, you can expand your reach, get warm introductions, and build genuine investor relationships without spamming anyone.

Oct 29, 2025

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10 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Chris Howard Series

+1

Why Being a Control Freak Is Killing Your Startup

Why Being a Control Freak Is Killing Your Startup

A raw look at what happens when you try to do everything yourself as a founder — the constant juggle between control, burnout, and growth. It’s about reaching that point where you realise that scaling yourself is just as important as scaling the business.

Oct 22, 2025

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13 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Founder stories

The Scammer Who Tried to Infiltrate Our Community

The Scammer Who Tried to Infiltrate Our Community

A fake “investor” tried to infiltrate our community after the embassy event, approaching multiple founders with a crypto kickback scam. I’m sharing this story to raise awareness — because while scammers are getting smarter, founders who talk to each other are even stronger.

Oct 15, 2025

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9 min read

Vasily Alekseenko

Founder stories

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