I help deep tech companies land customers, raise rounds, and hire executives.

Investor-operator. 35 investments in physical AI - those companies have raised over $1 billion - and six of them have hired me back to do operator work.

Tell me where you’re stuck

What founders say

“I first met Bogdan during my time at UC Berkeley, when I was beginning to explore spinning SirenOpt out of the lab. He was our first angel investor and has been a trusted advisor ever since - helping me think through the spin-out process, guiding us on which investors to approach, advising on term sheet negotiations, and supporting our fundraising. Beyond capital, he’s gone out of his way to help with the little but important things, even bringing monitors for our very first office conference rooms - and has remained one of the investors I trust most as we’ve grown.”

Jared O’Leary · Founder & CEO, SirenOpt

“As we refined the idea behind Alterego, Bogdan provided helpful perspective from the very beginning. His encouragement and feedback during our first pitch practices were invaluable, and he later introduced us to the investor who went on to lead our round. We are grateful to have him as one of our earliest angel investors.”

Max Newlon · Founder & CEO, Alterego

“Bogdan helped us significantly during our seed fundraise, including introducing us to our lead investor, and remains a valuable sounding board for major decisions. He’s one of the few people who have materially influenced the trajectory of our company.”

Gary Chen · Founder & CEO, Raise Robotics

More founder perspectives at optim.vc/testimonials

Situations I’ve helped with

Landed the advisor a founder had been chasing for six months - a well-known name in the space who kept stalling. A few in-person meetings later, he signed on.
Took a round with one term sheet and made it competitive - the right investors heard about it the same week, and the founder picked from several offers.
Ran the executive search a founder had been circling for months - wrote the briefs, sourced the candidates, vetted the finalists.
Rebuilt a raise story after a founder lost a cofounder - managed the investor conversations through it, rewrote the narrative around the team that stayed, and the round closed.

Where I come in

By the time a founder calls me, they usually know who has to say yes - the buyer, the lead investor, the key hire. The hard part is everything between knowing and signed: what that person needs to see, who they listen to, how the deal has to be structured for them to move.

I open the doors, and we walk in together.

An introduction is where most help stops and where I start. We prep together, take meetings together, and when it helps, I take one alone. I stay on it until something signs - the contract, the term sheet, the offer - and the relationships are built in your name, so they stay with you.

An investor who does the work

I’m an investor first - usually in the companies I work with, with my own capital in the outcome. The operator work happens from that seat: no agency behind me, no report-and-disappear, no full-time title on your org chart.

Ways to work together

Three shapes, depending on where you’re stuck. A short project to map who holds the budget at your target accounts and get deals moving. A few days a week as fractional Chief Business Officer to get the commercial motion started, book the business, and recruit the executive who takes it over. Or a raise: what investors are funding this quarter, who writes checks at your stage, and a story that survives the partner meeting. All of it is hands-on, usually three to nine months, doing the work with you. No full-time seat and no board demands; I stay an investor, you stay in control. And every engagement ends the same way, with a handoff: contract signed, hire made, round closed, and the relationships stay yours.

The record

Investments in applied & physical AI	35
Raised by those companies, collectively	$1B+
Financings worked hands-on	20
Companies funded through my introductions, past 12 months	10 · 3 as leads
Portfolio companies that hired me back for operator work	6
Years commissioning industrial systems before venture	7

The co-investors alongside those 35 companies include Khosla Ventures, Playground Global, General Catalyst, NEA, Sequoia, and Y Combinator. Placements across the portfolio include CTOs, founding engineers, and key advisors.

OPTIM Circle

Half the practice runs on a room I built. OPTIM Circle is 180 founders, operators, and investors in physical AI: builders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Tesla, and Waymo on one side, and investors from 60 funds - Playground Global, Bison Ventures, Matter Venture Partners, Omni Ventures - on the other. When a client raises, this is where the round picks up momentum. When a client hires, this is where the shortlist starts. It’s also how I hear what investors are funding each quarter.

Alongside it: The OPTIM Update, my newsletter and podcast on physical AI.

How I landed here

Today I invest through OPTIM, SHACK15 and OMNI, I host The OPTIM Update, and run OPTIM Circle from San Francisco. Six of the companies I’ve backed have hired me back for operator work - that loop, invest, operate, invest better, is the whole model.

I got here through the capital side: out on my own now, early-stage venture before that, a $400M corporate fund before that, and a Berkeley Haas MBA that moved me off the plant floor.

Before venture, I spent seven years as an industrial and systems engineer, commissioning control systems and plant startups for clients like Emerson Electric, Genentech and Broadcom. Systems that had to work in production. Founders trust me because we speak the same engineering language.

And before all of it: Romania, until I emigrated at 18.

If one of the situations above sounds like yours

Reach out: bogdan@optim.vc