The Full Ratchet (TFR): Venture Capital and Startup Investing Demystified 495. From CTO to $500M AUM: Entry Point Discipline, Why People Matter at Every Stage, and the AI-Driven Future of Banking (Victor Orlovski)
Nov 3, 2025
Victor Orlovski, Founder and Managing Partner of R136 Ventures, shares insights from his journey as a former CTO to leading a $500M venture fund focused on fintech. He emphasizes the importance of entry discipline in investments and how overlooked team dynamics can impact outcomes. Orlovski delves into the transformative role of AI in banking, predicting a future with fully automated banks and new emotional banking experiences. He also discusses the need for founders to deepen their domain expertise to thrive in this evolving landscape.
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From Uzbek Programmer To VC Founder
- Victor moved from Uzbekistan to Silicon Valley, built mobile banking products and later started R136 Ventures after 20+ years in banking and tech.
- He leverages his CTO experience to help startups scale sales and engineering teams.
Bypass Product Risk, Back Scale Ability
- Invest after product-market fit to avoid PMF risk and focus on scaling challenges instead of early product discovery.
- Help startups build enterprise sales and scale engineering teams as core value adds.
Entry Discipline Is As Important As Exit
- Entry valuation matters as much as exit timing for returns, especially after 2020–2022 valuation inflation.
- Concentrated, selective bets and mindful pricing improve DPI more than hoping for predictable exits.
