Alex Zhuravlev

Hi, I’m Alex - GP @ Mento VC. Started as a courier. Still prefer Doing > Talking. We back products that save people time. When you invest in startups - you are casting your vote for the future you believe in.

Big announcement today. We raised $5M to build the first coding agent that continuously learns your coding taste. Introducing Command Code. $ npm i -g command-code `cmd` learns how you write code. Every accept, reject, edit is a signal. Code 10x faster. Review 2x quicker.

@lightspeedvp Big milestone - congrats. Raising at this scale is a strong signal of conviction in the next AI cycle!

Today we're announcing over $9B in capital for a new family of funds — our largest raise in 25 years. AI is rewriting the rules. We're backing the founders building what comes next.

@a16z Big funds don’t guarantee big outcomes - but they do enable long time horizons. Excited to see which "impossible" projects get funded because of this

@thechangj @elevenlabs Congrats Jonathan! Big step

I am excited to share that I’ve joined @elevenlabs to build out the Startup Partnerships program, designed to best support founders who are eager to build with voice AI. Voice has always sat at the core of how we humans communicate. I’m excited to work on a mission that transforms how AI and voice enhance the way we live, work, and build. This starts with supporting the best builders at the earliest stages. My goal is to give founders the resources they need to kickstart their journey with Voice AI. Our startup grants program includes: • 12 months free of ElevenLabs • 33M characters or about 680 hours of agents • More to come, including access to exclusive IRL and online founder events If you’re a founder building in voice or exploring it, feel free to dm me. I’d love to support you. If you’re a VC and want to give your portfolio companies exclusive access and free credits, also reach out. As we continue building, I’d love feedback on how we can further make ElevenLabs the core voice infrastructure for founders, from idea to unicorn.

@amywumartin This is the dark side of growth at all costs: short-term revenue, long-term damage to the network

I spoke with marketing startups the past month who are delivering real sales for clients by creating fake user accounts with fake testimonials that DM real users. Are social platforms blocking these accounts? Since the posts are good it’s clearly driving engagement on platform

@GJarrosson This is the "math vs momentum" moment. Incredible traction - but $200M seed means you’re buying a near-perfect future

A YC company closed a ~$200M valuation at Demo Day (Highest I've seen in six years of tracking every batch) Prev. record was $100M. They doubled it. The company has great revenue and strong traction for a seed-stage company. But… Most seed funds make 30-100 investments. To return your fund, each investment needs to return 60x if you're making 60 bets. At $200M entry, you need a $12B exit just to return 1x. Wild? Impossible? Well… Coinbase turned a $300K Demo Day check into $2.5B at peak. Elsewhere, SpaceX will go public at $1T prove (30,000x for Seed)... and they also prove that pure hardware companies can reach these outcomes. Maybe this founder is the next Elon Musk? Let’s hope so! But valuations like this assume best-case scenarios…. Every investor at Demo Day is underwriting the same billion-dollar outcome. Most will be wrong. American dynamism is driving capital into hardware and investors see deeptech and think about massive government contracts and category dominance. That narrative might be right… If so, Hardware companies with real traction DO deserve premium valuations compared to 2023. But $200M at seed stage compresses all future upside into the exit!! (How many years, and how much dilution!?) Margin for error disappears completely at that entry price.

@matt_gray_ 100%. Motivation is a spike. Systems are compounding.

Your team doesn’t need motivation. They need a system that doesn’t wait for you.

@aeejazkhan If AI is the only edge, you don’t have an edge

how would you build if AI is no longer available?!

@hthieblot y1 is storytelling. y2 - y6 is execution + stamina. That’s where the company is actually made

Founder journey: Y1: “We’re going to change the world” Y2: “We’re lost and co founder quit” Y3: “We’re broke.” Y4: “I need therapy” Y5: “Wait… it’s working??” Y6: “Scaling is just as brutal.” Y7: “Turned down 1B acquisition offer.” Y8: “We are going public”

@themorapour If you’re still thinking about customers at 3am (and again at 9am), you’re doing it right. Keep going.

Founders at 3 AM questioning if all this hard work will ever pay off

@tfadell Agree. The best products don’t need explaining - they need repeating.

We don’t need more startup theatre. We need more innovators quietly building and shipping products that feel like magic. Building trust > buzzword filled posts.

@aymanalabdul CEO = storytelling + trust-building. Early you sell the product. Later you sell the mission.

Startup CEO is actually just a salesperson Scaleup CEO is actually just a recruiter

@Kazanjy red flag 6: “we’re just exploring options for now.” translation: free consulting, zero intent.

Founders: Discovery call red flags checklist: 🚩 No clear pain metrics 🚩 Can't name decision maker 🚩 No similar tool spend 🚩 No timeline pressure 🚩 Won't share budget range Any 2 flags = unqualified. Save your time.

@bhalligan Low road wins arguments. High road wins decades.

If in doubt, take the high road.

@hustle_fred This is why co-founder choice feels more like marriage than hiring.

my ex co-founder f**ked me over many years ago we had a startup that grew to 10k users and 200 contracts with restaurants but he flew to another country for a high paying job and stopped working on the product at all he was the only dev since I couldn't code at that time we needed to do promised updates to get the revenue and keep growing i tried to get other devs but transition was really hard eventually i got into a lot of debt and had to close the company i got a full time job and worked for a whole year to pay my debts before starting my next venture this scarred me so bad that for my next tech startup I spent 5 months learning to code (best decision ever) and built it myself (Beep startup) i still believe working in a team is better and more fun than doing it solo, but you gotta choose people wisely

@Batmantallk Protect your focus

Pitch me your best advice in 3 words

@austinxwalker Our job is to doubt, your job is to believe - somewhere in between a real company appears.

if an investor rejecting you makes you rethink being a founder, you’re in the wrong game. it’s your job to believe when no one else will.

@elonmusk Abundance is the easy part - updating our scarcity-era mindset and institutions is the real boss fight.

The future is going to be AMAZING with AI and robots enabling sustainable ABUNDANCE for all!

@forgebitz “It’s all distribution” usually means “we haven’t found something worth talking about yet”

"product doesn't matter, it's all about distribution now" - people with no customers

@WizLikeWizard If you’re chasing “maybe” after a first VC call, it’s already a no. Real interest feels obvious, not cryptic.

Founders often struggle to decipher true level of investor interest coming out of a first VC meeting. Here's a dead simple system: If you hear from them within 0-3 days with next steps, they're interested. If you don't hear from them within 0-3 days, they're not interested.