Pietro Bezza
Who they are
Pietro Bezza is Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Connect Ventures — co-founded the firm from scratch in 2011 as a product-focused pre-seed and seed investor, and holds board seats at TrueLayer, Plain, Oyster, and Aikido Security.
Person
Pietro co-founded Connect Ventures in January 2011 — building it from inception as a European pre-seed and seed firm explicitly oriented around product founders, at a time when that framing was far from standard in European VC. Before that, he passed through NYU Stern (post-degree, 1994–1995), giving him a transatlantic business education that likely shaped an early interest in the US product playbook and how it could be applied in Europe. His long tenure — over 14 years at the same firm he built — marks him as someone who compounds patiently rather than cycling between platforms. His current board portfolio spans fintech infrastructure (TrueLayer), developer security (Aikido Security), customer support tooling (Plain), and global employment (Oyster), showing a clear appetite for B2B software and API-first businesses. The through-line is backing founders who treat product craft as a competitive moat. He took product management training through Silicon Valley Product Group in 2020 — unusual for a VC, and a signal that he stays close to the practice rather than just the thesis. Possibly — his content interests in AI-native product development and category design suggest he's actively thinking about how LLMs reshape the seed-stage product playbook.
Company
Connect Ventures' most recent publicly visible move is its participation in the Series A round of Music.AI in 2026 — a signal that the firm is following portfolio or thesis bets into later rounds when conviction holds. Connect Ventures positions itself as a lead investor at the pre-seed and seed stage, with access to CAA's network for follow-on introductions. The firm's focus is product-led companies in Europe across consumer, health, fintech, and SaaS. It describes itself explicitly as a 'Product VC,' which is both a sourcing filter and a positioning statement in a crowded early-stage market.
Market
Connect Ventures operates in the pan-European pre-seed and seed segment, competing with a wide field of early-stage generalist and specialist funds. Geopolitical dynamics — trade realignments and regulatory scrutiny — are actively reshaping how European VCs assess risk and opportunity, particularly in emerging markets. The firm's product-led positioning and CAA network access are its stated differentiators in a segment where deal flow and conviction speed matter most.
Network
No direct edge data is available for Pietro's personal network. His board portfolio — TrueLayer, Aikido Security, Plain, and Oyster — puts him in regular contact with their respective founding teams and leadership. These companies span London's fintech and B2B SaaS scene, suggesting a tight network within European product-led startups.
- TrueLayer (board)· Portfolio company — fintech infrastructure
- Plain (board)· Portfolio company — customer support tooling
- Oyster (board)· Portfolio company — global employment platform
- Aikido Security (board)· Portfolio company — developer security
How they likely show up
- Co-founded Connect Ventures in 2011 and has run it for 14+ years → thinks in fund cycles and decade-long relationships, not quarterly metrics.
- Firm explicitly positions as a 'Product VC' backing product founders → he likely engages at the craft level, not just the market-size level.
- Took SVPG product management training in 2020, mid-career as a VC → signals he keeps his practitioner knowledge current and respects operators who do the same.
- Board seats across TrueLayer, Plain, Oyster, and Aikido Security simultaneously → comfortable holding multiple complex stakeholder relationships in parallel.
- Content themes include category design, AI-native product development, and design in production → engages with first-principles thinking about where products are going, not just where they've been.
- Possibly — long tenure at a single firm he co-founded suggests high conviction in his own thesis and low interest in trend-chasing.
Conversation tips
- → Come with a specific product opinion — he filters for founders and operators who think rigorously about craft, not just market opportunity.
- → Reference one of his portfolio companies by name and ask about the thesis behind it — he'll engage much more specifically than with a generic 'what do you invest in' question.
- → His SVPG training in 2020 is a useful entry point: asking how he thinks about product frameworks in the context of AI-native companies will land better than broad AI questions.
- → He's been building the same firm for 14 years — don't pitch him on novelty for its own sake; he responds to durable conviction.
- → Lead with European context — he's London-based, seed-stage focused in Europe, and his portfolio reflects that geography.
Toolbox
Openers
- Open on the Music.AI Series A participation in 2026 — it's his most recent publicly visible deal and raises a natural question about when Connect Ventures follows its seed bets into later rounds.
- Reference his SVPG product management training in 2020 — taking a practitioner course mid-career as a VC is an unusual move that signals how he differentiates himself from generalist investors.
- Lead with Plain — it's a narrowly scoped, opinionated B2B product (customer support tooling) that fits his 'product-led' thesis precisely, and asking what drew him to it opens a specific conversation about category design.
Discovery questions
- When you say Connect Ventures is a 'Product VC,' what does that actually mean at the board level — how does your product background show up in how you work with founders post-investment?
- Your portfolio spans fintech infrastructure (TrueLayer), security (Aikido), employment (Oyster), and support tooling (Plain) — is there a shared product characteristic that connects those bets, or are they genuinely sector-agnostic?
- You took SVPG product management training in 2020 — what prompted that, and has it changed how you evaluate early-stage product teams?
Avoid
Don't pitch broad market-size arguments without a product foundation — his firm's identity is built on backing product craft, and leading with TAM before product thinking will signal you haven't done the homework.
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Try Brief →Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on June 5, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.
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