The Generalist Why Being a Generalist VC Is a Competitive Advantage | Aydin Senkut (Founder and Managing Partner at Felicis Ventures)
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Dec 9, 2025 
Aydin Senkut, the founder and managing partner of Felicis Ventures, shares invaluable insights from his two-decade journey in venture capital. Growing up in Turkey, his entrepreneurial upbringing shaped his risk-taking perspective. He emphasizes the benefits of a generalist approach, advocating for broad portfolio diversification with 50-70 companies per fund. Aydin discusses Felicis's aggressive investments in AI, the importance of timing and market factors, and lessons learned from both successes and misses, like Airbnb. His unique strategies reveal a compelling vision for the future of technology.
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Global Upbringing Shaped Investing Edge
- Aydin recounts moving from Turkey to the US, learning languages and living on four continents which prepared him for global investing.
- His international comfort made him effective at Google and later helped Felicis spot winners worldwide.
Google Taught Nonstandard Problem Solving
- Aydin describes Google's outlier culture where teams repeatedly chose unconventional solutions that worked spectacularly.
- That experience trained him to seek and recognise outlier founders later as a VC.
Exploit Incumbents' Blind Spots
- Design a VC strategy where your strengths exploit what incumbents struggle to do, not copy them.
- Invest in many companies (50–70) to raise odds of unexpected winners and reduce portfolio risk.
