Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC Podcast, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.

Today, we’re joined by Ties Boukema, Head of Data, Tech & AI at Dawn Capital, one of Europe’s leading B2B SaaS and Fintech investors. With a background spanning law, statistics, Google Health, and five brain surgeries, Ties brings a rare mix of grit, optimism, and technical firepower to Venture and he’s putting it to use by building Rolodex, an internal AI-powered operating system for Dawn.

This is not an AI trends episode. This is an inside look at what it takes to build and deploy technology within a venture firm—and why the industry has been lagging behind.

🎯 This Episode’s Themes:

• How a near-death experience shaped Ties’ perspective—and his edge

• Why most software in VC is “surprisingly bad” and what to do about it

• How Dawn is building Rolodex: AI-powered prep, network graphs, and event intelligence

• The myth of “no data in early-stage” and why private markets still need software

• What Gawande’s checklist manifesto can teach European venture

Here’s what’s covered:

• 02:00 | Meet Ties: From New York brain surgery to Google to Dawn

• 04:00 | Life Before Surgery: Growing up with 200+ hospital stays

• 09:30 | A Second Life: What changed post-op—and how it shaped his drive

• 11:00 | From Sales to AI: Ties' journey at Google and pivot into health

• 12:45 | Why Venture: “These people are smart… but why are they fixing slides at 2 AM?”

• 14:00 | Perspective as Edge: Handling pressure, breaking rules, and ignoring experts

• 17:30 | AI vs Experts: The false trust in tradition—and how AI challenges it

• 20:00 | The Speed Mismatch: We can produce info 100x faster than we can understand it

• 24:00 | Building Tech for Venture: The reality, the resistance, the rewards

• 29:00 | Buy vs Build: Why VC firms should think like operators, not tinkerers

• 32:00 | Rolodex Origins: The deal Dawn lost—and what it taught them

• 36:00 | Entity Resolution Hell: Why syncing your contacts is harder than you think

• 40:00 | Rolodex in Action: Deal prep, relationship mapping, board meeting alerts

• 44:00 | Quantifying Network Power: How Dawn tracks angels & co-investors

• 46:00 | Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Why Ties changed his mind on VC’s “human core”

• 50:00 | The Checklist Revelation: What brain surgeons taught him about process