PMF.AI Reflections: A Front-Row Seat to the Next Wave of Product Building
A few days before the Easter break, I had the chance to attend PMF.AI, a bold experiment by Eleven Ventures exploring how AI is reshaping the path to product-market fit—and, ultimately, the way we build companies.
The room was buzzing with energy. Nearly 200 people came together—founders, product leaders, investors, and builders—driven by the same urgency: AI is no longer a future horizon. It’s the ground we’re already walking on.
“Start building superpowers.”
In the opening keynote, Svetozar Georgiev, Partner at Eleven Ventures, challenged us to think differently—not just about product design, but about mindset.
“Focus on the outcomes—not on individual actions. It looks obvious, but it’s a difficult shift. Our goal is not to build screens anymore. It’s to build superpowers.”
He offered a string of pragmatic yet visionary principles—from minimizing UI and eliminating data entry, to transforming workflows and personifying features.
The underlying message?
AI is not just a technical shift. It’s a creative one. And those who embrace it early will shape what comes next.
“It’s existential now.”
Vesko Kolev, founder of Icanpreneur, opened with a story we’re all feeling:
“One day, we had happy customers. The next, they told us: ‘We want conversation. Intelligence. Interaction.’ That was the moment AI became existential to us.”
He didn’t just talk features—he talked friction. Vesko shared how they built Eva, their AI assistant, to turn guidance into interaction, blank pages into launchpads, and principles into context-aware actions.
“It’s not deterministic anymore—it’s like leadership. You’re not coding outcomes. You’re co-creating with intelligence.”
“AI isn’t the product. The experience is.”
Marily Nika, Ph.D, Gen AI Product at Google, reminded us to stay grounded:
“Every product manager will be an AI product manager. But AI itself isn’t the goal. The experience is.”
She laid out three roles for the future PM: the AI-enhanced PM, the AI-powered experience PM, and the deep platform PM. Regardless of which one you are, the call is clear:
“You’ll either embrace AI—or be replaced by someone who does.”
And yet, she warned against the “shiny object trap”—building AI just for show:
“Stick to the craft. Solve real problems. And sometimes, the smart choice is not to use AI.”
“We barely had a case where AI didn’t help.”
Hristo Todorov, Co-Founder and CEO at CleverPine, brought things back to operational reality with a powerful example of quiet, company-wide transformation.
“AI isn’t a department. It’s in everything—legal, testing, content, customer success.”
They didn’t mandate usage. Instead, they introduced a use-case system where every team member could share how AI helped—or didn’t.
“We barely had any case where someone said AI didn’t help. And seeing that all in one place? That sparked more and more ideas.”
Today, their agents code, test, and even collaborate.
“At one point, they started thanking each other. It was a little eerie. But honestly? Also beautiful.”
“Tools like n8n turn everyone into a developer.”
Simeon Penev, Data & Analytics at VertoDigital, demoed something close to every startup’s heart: how to handle messy user feedback and feature requests at scale. Using n8n, he showed how AI agents could:
- Categorize and summarize support tickets
- Check for duplicates
- Push clean, ready-to-go entries into Jira
“Customer support doesn’t have to triage anymore. They just approve. Or not. AI handles the mess.”
His closing thought landed quietly:
“You don’t need to be a coder anymore. Just start building smart automations. It’s already easier than you think.”
The message across every talk was unmistakable:
We’re not just upgrading our products—we’re reimagining how they think, feel, and interact. From the interface to the architecture, the bar has shifted.
And at Starttech Ventures, we’re here for it.
We’re not watching from the sidelines.
We’re part of the momentum—showing up, learning, and backing the kind of founders who don’t just adapt to change, but create it.
🎯 Are you one of those rare ones?
The ones who don’t wait for the future to arrive—because you’re too busy building it.
The ones who challenge defaults, question the obvious, and don’t mind getting their hands a little messy to make something real.
The ones who see AI not as a shortcut, but as a lever to design better companies, smarter systems, and more human experiences.
At Starttech Ventures, we’re not just investing in ideas—we’re co-building with the kind of founders who lead with intent.
Founders who don’t need loud exits to prove themselves—just the right partners to go the distance.If that sounds like you?
📣 Here’s our open call for co-founders
Let’s skip the small talk—and start making things that matter.
