Bringing Scientific Expertise to the VC Market—with Arkady Kulik of RPV

According to a BCG report, only 19% of VCs have some kind of scientific or technological competence. And that creates a translation problem between deep tech founders and investors.  To close that gap, Arkady Kulik and his cofounder, Tamaz Khunjua, built RPV, a venture fund that brings scientific expertise to the market and helps scientists become strong entrepreneurs. On this episode of The Boost VC Podcast, Arkady joins us to explain how the RPV team’s extensive background in science and entrepreneurship serves deep tech startups. Arkady describes how starting a venture fund differs from founding other companies and shares his excitement around ‘being at the edge of science’ as a frontier tech VC. Listen in for Arkady’s unique take on what it means to be useful to others and learn how RPV is working to make talented scientists billionaires! Topics Covered The idea behind RPVHelp scientists become strong entrepreneurs‘Commercialization of science’ How Arkady got into venture capitalMoved to US to be part of scientific exploration of humanityLack of funding in prototyping stage of deep tech startups Arkady’s biggest accomplishment before age 20Launched first company at 18 without external investmentScaled to annual revenue of $5M in third year How starting a venture fund differs from starting other companiesMore competitive, thousands of similar funds raising moneyHarer to differentiate and properly tell story of niche What part of being a VC Arkady enjoys the mostBeing at edge of science and meeting interesting peopleFinding processes that make things work The secret skills Arkady is most proud ofDeveloped extreme level of disciplineExtremely organized in managing time and data How Arkady thinks about being useful to othersProvide with relevant information or connectionsPut smile on someone’s face, make life better The most valuable thing RPV provides for deep tech startupsExternal proof point for science and technologyEntrepreneurial experience and change management Arkady’s ‘deathbed test’ to measure successNothing ‘could have but didn’t achieve’Self-actualization (happy, complex person) Connect with Arkady Kulik RPV https://rpv.global/RPV on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/rpvglobal/Arkady on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/arkady-kulik/Arkady on X https://twitter.com/arkadykulik  Resources Starburst Aerospace https://starburst.aero/Cantos VC https://cantos.vc/Countdown https://countdown.capital/Fifty Years https://fiftyyears.com/Productivity Planner https://www.intelligentchange.com/products/productivity-plannerTerraforming Mars https://www.fryxgames.se/games/terraforming-mars/Breakfast with Pops: A Venture Capital Handbook by Adam Draper and William H. Draper III https://www.amazon.com/Breakfast-Pops-Venture-Capital-Handbook/dp/B0C1JHXTQF Connect with Boost VC Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/Boost VC on X https://twitter.com/BoostVCBoost VC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/boost_vc/