Nov 9, 2026 · 1h 5m
Felicis turns global sourcing into a venture advantage
[REPLAY] Aydin Senkut – Tenacious Sourcing and Founder Support at Felicis, Venture is Eating the Investment World 6 (EP.234)
Aydin Senkut explains how Felicis competes for scarce opportunities by pairing market-first investing with unusually persistent founder support.
- 1Felicis starts with fast-growing markets, then searches globally for category leaders rather than restricting itself by sector or geography.
- 2Senkut treats access as earned through persistence, emotional commitment, and practical help that continues well beyond the investment.
- 3In a crowded venture market, disciplined time management, clear success measures, and contingency planning matter as much as capital.
Don't miss
Senkut recounts how Felicis repeatedly pursued Shopify and Rovio, showing why outbound persistence became central to its investment edge.
The brief
Aydin Senkut’s path from entrepreneurial roots in Turkey through Morocco, Silicon Graphics, and Google shaped a global, action-oriented view of business.
At Felicis, Senkut begins with markets he expects to grow quickly, then searches worldwide for companies that could become category leaders.
The firm’s sourcing is deliberately outbound: Senkut describes repeatedly pursuing Shopify and Rovio until persistence earned access to their founders.
Felicis competes after investing by asking founders what matters most, then using its network for customers, talent, engineering help, and timely introductions.
As venture becomes more crowded, Senkut emphasizes ownership discipline, transparent rejection, measurable goals, and contingency plans over complaints about valuations.
What was said on this episode
20 statements · 14 positive · 2 negative · 4 neutral
Turkey and Brazil experienced 100% inflation for roughly 25 consecutive years.
“There were only two countries in the world that had 100% inflation, I think 25 years in a row. One is Turkey, one is Brazil.”
Listen at 10:21
Windows rapidly displaced Silicon Graphics after the company lacked a contingency plan.
“Silicon Graphics, which I think was an equally impressive company with amazing people, just had no contingency plan, had a really great thing going and thought it's never going to change and just got killed in record time by Windows.”
Listen at 15:00
Google’s culture taught Senkut that seemingly impossible tasks may be achievable.
“I just kind of learned to never say it can't be done or it's impossible.”
Listen at 18:53
Senkut is better suited to building companies from zero to one than scaling them.
“I think I am much more driven 0 to 1 than 1 to N.”
Listen at 22:12
Favorable timing and activity helped Senkut become an early super angel.
“the timing was so fortuitous that by being one of the most active ones, I could maybe make it to the first wave of super angels.”
Listen at 23:48
Founder power makes investor conviction and trust-building decisive.
“if the power is with the founders, then the only thing that matters is your ability to demonstrate conviction and build trust with the founders.”
Listen at 25:28
Senkut says bending conventional venture rules repeatedly produced successful investments.
“every time I bent a rule, I had success.”
Listen at 27:50
Outlier investment results require an unconventional strategy and mindset.
“if you want outliers, you need to have an outlier strategy and you need to have outlier thinking.”
Listen at 28:05
Felicis aims to concentrate iconic companies globally across sectors and stages.
“I want to have the highest concentration of iconic companies around the world, independent of sectors and stage.”
Listen at 28:37
Shopify became a $160 billion company.
“Became $160 billion company.”
Listen at 30:08
Every physical retailer will eventually have an e-commerce store supported by a facilitator.
“Every brick-and-mortar store is going to have an e-commerce store of some sort. And somebody is going to facilitate it.”
Listen at 35:18
Multiple large companies will emerge to address mental health.
“I guarantee you that there's going to be multiple huge companies getting created addressing mental health.”
Listen at 36:29
Cybersecurity will remain persistently important.
“security is never going to go out of fashion.”
Listen at 37:31
Shopify assigned a top engineer to help Rovio build its online store.
“They put one of their best engineers just by connecting the 2 companies.”
Listen at 40:35
Felicis has approximately 26 employees.
“Today we have about 26 people in our team.”
Listen at 43:21
Felicis’s latest fund has approximately $900 million committed.
“together we have, I think, $900 million committed in this latest fund.”
Listen at 44:20
Felicis leads or co-leads approximately 70% of its investments.
“we lead or co-lead about 70% of the investments we make.”
Listen at 46:25
Canva is among Felicis’s most valuable portfolio companies.
“Canva is a good example, is one of our most valuable companies.”
Listen at 47:09
Felicis’s Shopify and Adyen investments generated multiple-fund returns.
“all these investments became multiple fund makers and huge returns for us.”
Listen at 47:36
High demand and limited supply produce the current high-valuation venture environment.
“If you have very short supply and very high demand, we're going to be in a situation that we're in now.”
Listen at 59:44
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
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