Aleksandrina Ikonomova FVS

I built companies for 7 years - a supplement brand I formulated myself, a B2B therapy platform, and a software company for event managers that we sold to one of our own pilot clients. The exit came at a strange moment when we had finally understood the business, and we stopped anyway, because we were tired. That taught me more about why companies stall than any of the wins did. Since then I've worked on the other side of the table. It started when VCs I know asked me to go into portfolio companies that weren't performing. The pattern is consistent, and it isn't a founder-quality problem. The pandemic produced a large cohort of perfectly good businesses that were never going to be unicorns, and the funds holding them are now six years into a seven-to-ten year life with no returns and no ability to raise the next fund. Roughly 39% of Europe's distressed venture-backed companies sit in the UK. That's the work I care about. I go in, find what's actually limiting the company, get the operations and economics into a defensible state, and then take it to whichever outcome is more possible, either a next round for the few, an acquisition for most. I'm now building the structures to do that on my own account rather than as a hired operator. I invest as an angel, though selectively these days, since most of my capital and attention goes into the buyout side. I mentor in Beyond Accelerator's HealthTech and Longevity cohort, and Founders Institute. I have no industry lens. Marketplaces and B2B SaaS are where I've done the most, but I read business models quickly, and I bet on people before products. If I don't understand something, I'll say so. My work has helped me create and use a lot of frameworks that helps companies quickly identify their market, product, model and channel