I help deep tech companies scale from pre-seed to Series A.
That means raising the rounds, hiring the executives, landing the first customers, and the smaller things in between.
Investor-operator. 35 investments in physical AI - those companies have raised over $1 billion - and in all of the companies I work with, my own capital is in the outcome.
An engineer before any of it: seven years commissioning industrial systems, which is how I can turn a technical story into one investors fund.
What founders say
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.Max Newlon · Founder & CEO, Alterego
He 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, and I would strongly recommend any technical founder to work with him.Gary Chen · Founder & CEO, Raise Robotics
As a European founder building in the U.S., Bogdan’s guidance has been especially important for us. His advice on the importance of being present in the Bay Area was particularly valuable and contributed to my decision to relocate with my family to San Francisco.Pavlo Pikulin · Founder & CEO, Deus Robotics
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.Jared O’Leary · Founder & CEO, SirenOpt
When we started thinking seriously about raising capital from U.S. investors, Bogdan played an important role. In addition to investing himself, he helped bring in several angels and guided us through structuring a SAFE round that made it easier for others to join.Christoffer Jørgenvåg · Founder & CEO, Hive Autonomy
Bogdan invested in Devol and then helped us move our operations from Asia to the Bay Area. He pushed on our technical story until it made sense to investors - how we explain impedance, what we show first, what we leave out. He speaks both languages, engineering and fundraising, and it changed how we talk about what we build.Sze Yuan Cheong · Co-Founder & CEO, Devol Robots
More founder perspectives at optim.vc/testimonials
Where I come in
Getting from pre-seed to Series A is a short list of jobs that all have to get done: the round that funds the next stretch, the executives who take work off the founders, the first customers, and the smaller things that still have to happen. Past the A, the company has a sales team and recruiters of its own, and that’s where I stop.
What that has looked like:
- 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.
Ways to work together
We cover topics like a raise: what investors are funding this quarter, who writes checks at your stage, and a story that survives the partner meeting. A search: the brief, the sourcing, the vetting, through to a signed offer. Or a bespoke project, like moving headquarters from abroad to the U.S.
All of it is hands-on, usually three months to start, with extensions when needed. I invest alongside the engagement, so we are in it together.
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 I’ve done hands-on work for | 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 200 founders, operators, and investors in physical AI: builders from companies like Anthropic, Tesla, and Waymo on one side, and investors from 60 funds 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 VC, host The OPTIM Update, and run OPTIM Circle from San Francisco. The model is a loop: invest, operate, invest better.
I got here through the capital side: out on my own now, early-stage venture before that, a 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@cristei.com