Episode Details

Harmonic is building what it calls a startup discovery engine, used by investors to find founders earlier than traditional deal flow ever allowed. At Slush in Helsinki, I spoke to Darri Atlason, Head of Growth at Harmonic. He talks about how funds now track talent inside companies like DeepMind or Palo Alto Networks to spot potential founders before they even start a company. In some cases the signal moves incredibly fast, with investors discovering a startup on Harmonic and getting a term sheet out within 24 hours.

The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel - check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjk

Sponsors:

SurrealDB: The multi-model database for AI agents. Check them out here: https://surrealdb.com/

Omni: The AI analytics platform trusted by fast-growing companies like Perplexity, Synthesia, and dbt Labs. Check them out here: https://omni.co/

Venture Comet: The platform that gives startups and scale-ups real-time equity tracking, daily business insights and automated management information. Check them out here: https://venturecomet.com/

Timestamps:

0:24 - Introduction to the Scaling Europe show

1:00 - Harmonic's role as a startup discovery engine

2:00 - Use cases for sourcing and evaluating startups

3:00 - Importance of early investment signals

3:44 - Importance of having a winning reason

4:10 - Role of growth in marketing explained

4:54 - Creative marketing strategies discussed

6:37 - Impact of authentic customer content