Surfing Tsunami Waves: Aydin Senkut on Betting Before the Crowd

The best venture bets are foundational: companies other companies build on top of, making them structurally irreplaceable no matter which end-user applications succeed.

In this episode of Technoventure, Peter High speaks with Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis, about how the firm identifies technology waves before they reach consensus, why it backs founders outside Silicon Valley's orthodoxy, and how a contractual pledge to vote with founders rather than against them changed the nature of every board conversation.

Senkut spent four years angel investing his own capital before launching Felicis in 2006. He has since appeared on the Forbes Midas List for 13 consecutive years. Portfolio companies have delivered growth curves that, in his words, make Shopify's trajectory look like a flat line.

Key Highlights:

• Why Felicis targets companies growing 500-1,000%+ and what "hyper demand" actually means in practice
• How backing foundational infrastructure rather than end-user apps creates compounding, structurally durable positions
• Why the AI wave is categorically different from Web 1.0, with contracts now measured in nine figures and instant global distribution
• How a written pledge to vote with founders, not against them, makes honest early-warning conversations possible
• Why 1% of every Felicis check funds founder coaching, and what that buys beyond goodwill