Some of the biggest unicorns started as “bad ideas.” In this episode, I sit down with Raimonds, co-founder of Bad Ideas Fund, live at TechBBQ in Copenhagen — to unpack why betting on unconventional founders and community-driven VC could beat traditional venture capital.

We dig into:

• Why the Scandinavian ecosystem is shifting from Stockholm to Copenhagen
• The rise of founder-to-founder VC and why community is the ultimate startup edge
• How AI is reshaping startups (and why the next unicorns will be built with fewer than 100 people)
• What Europe still doesn’t get about backing founders compared to the US
  

If you’re a founder, investor, or just curious about the future of venture capital, this conversation will challenge how you think about building and backing companies.

About Raimonds Kulbergs: 

3x founder, 1 early exit, alumn of 500Startups in SF. Building BADideas.fund, investing in startups ’22.

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raimondskulbergs/

More about the fund: https://www.badideas.fund 

🎙️Hosted by Zivile Einikyte:

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: 

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🎵 Music by Luca Nioi: 

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Chapters

00:00 Exploring the Scandinavian Ecosystem

03:19 The Founder-to-Founder Approach

05:57 Reinventing Venture Capital

08:30 The Future of Startups and AI

13:31 Identifying Opportunities in AI

16:09 Final Thoughts on Innovation and Process