Sitar Teli

Who they are

Sitar Teli is Managing Partner at Connect Ventures — co-founded the firm in 2012 and created Built By Few, a founder summit for product builders across Europe.

Person

Sitar co-founded Connect Ventures in August 2012 alongside Pietro Bezza and Bill Earner, launching the firm as a seed-stage vehicle focused on $500k–$2M checks into product and design-led internet and mobile companies across Europe. She studied Engineering at Duke University, graduating in 2001 — an unusual technical foundation for a VC who ended up becoming one of Europe's most prominent advocates for product culture. The through-line across her career is a consistent bet that product craft and UX are not soft attributes but business fundamentals — a thesis she articulated explicitly at Turing Fest in a talk titled 'Why Focusing on UX Makes Business Sense.' She writes for TechCrunch on European tech, VC, and product culture, and publishes on LinkedIn, including a co-authored piece on frameworks for how VCs decline startups. Beyond investing, she built Built By Few — a founder summit she organises for product builders across Europe, run in cities including Barcelona. In April 2026 she participated as a speaker and mentor at the Newton Fellowship.

Company

Connect Ventures' most recent disclosed investment activity includes participating in the Series A round of Music.AI in 2026 and leading Zellify's €3.1M seed round, backing the company as an AI-native growth platform for subscription apps. The firm also backed ai|coustics, a portfolio company in audio intelligence. Connect Ventures positions itself as a pan-European pre-seed and seed stage lead investor, concentrating on consumer, health, fintech, and SaaS sectors with a product-led lens. The firm has been active across European cities, and Sitar has been publicly vocal in endorsing portfolio companies through LinkedIn.

Market

Connect Ventures operates in the European early-stage VC market, competing with other pan-European seed funds as well as larger global firms like a16z and Insight Partners that have also invested in companies in its portfolio. The broader venture landscape is being shaped by geopolitical dynamics — trade realignments and regulatory scrutiny — that are affecting how funds approach emerging markets and cross-border deals in 2026.

Network

Sitar works closely with Connect Ventures partners Gabriella Hachem and Nim Cheema, who co-invested alongside her on Dessn's $6M seed round. On the portfolio side, she has publicly championed founders including Marcus Persson and Nils Nygren Liljenstrand at Zellify.

How they likely show up

  • Long tenure at Connect Ventures since 2012 (co-founded the firm) → thinks in decade-long conviction arcs, not reactive deal cycles.
  • Engineering degree from Duke → likely applies a systems and first-principles lens to product evaluation rather than relying purely on pattern-matching.
  • Active LinkedIn presence with portfolio announcements and published frameworks → comfortable being publicly accountable for investment decisions; transparency is part of her brand.
  • Built By Few founder summit (her own initiative) → high agency operator who builds community infrastructure, not just a cheque-writer.
  • Turing Fest talk explicitly arguing UX is a business fundamental, not an aesthetic — she has a thesis she will defend, not just a vague 'we back great product companies' line.
  • TechCrunch contributor alongside a co-authored LinkedIn piece on VC rejection frameworks → writes to teach, not just to signal — suggests she values precision and structure in communication.

Conversation tips

  • → Reference the Built By Few summit specifically — she designed and runs it herself, so asking what she's learned from bringing product founders together will land better than a generic 'tell me about your community work.'
  • → Come with a view on product culture in Europe vs. the US — this is a topic she has thought about for 13+ years and will engage with immediately if you have a real perspective.
  • → Don't pitch AI generically; she's backed ai|coustics and Zellify for specific reasons — be precise about what problem the AI is actually solving.
  • → If you've read her TechCrunch pieces or the VC rejection framework piece, mention the specific argument, not just 'I read your work' — she writes to make a point and will appreciate engagement with the actual idea.

Toolbox

Openers

  • Open on Built By Few — she organises this founder summit herself for product builders across Europe, most recently in Barcelona. Asking what patterns she's seeing across the founders who show up is a direct line into her thesis.
  • Lead with the Zellify investment — she led a €3.1M seed into an AI-native growth platform for subscription apps and announced it publicly. It's a specific, recent bet that reveals where she sees product-led AI applying right now.
  • Reference her Turing Fest talk 'Why Focusing on UX Makes Business Sense' — it's a pointed argument that UX is a financial variable, not a nice-to-have. Engaging with the actual claim ('do you think the market now agrees with you, or are you still fighting that battle?') signals you did real homework.

Discovery questions

  1. You co-founded Connect Ventures in 2012 focused on product-led companies in Europe — how has the definition of 'product-led' changed for you as AI has become the default layer in every new company?
  2. Built By Few brings together product founders across Europe — what's the sharpest disagreement you keep hearing between founders about how to build right now?
  3. You led Zellify's seed as an AI-native growth platform for subscription apps — what made that a conviction bet rather than a wait-and-see?

Avoid

Don't come with a generic deck or abstract pitch — she has backed dozens of product companies over 13 years and will disengage quickly if you can't name the specific problem, the specific user, and why design or product is the actual moat.

Make it yours

Tailor these openers to what you sell

These openers are generic. Sign in and tell Brief what you sell — it rewrites the hooks and questions around your pitch.

Sources

Brief on your next meeting?

Type any name. Get a structured pre-meeting brief in seconds.

Try Brief →

Generated by briefthecall.com from public web sources on June 5, 2026. Each claim is linked to its source above.

Automatically generated by AI from public sources. May be inaccurate or out of date. Remove or correct this profile →