E541 | Ties Boukema, Dawn Capital: Building Rolodex: Why Venture Needs Its Own Tech Stack

Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC Podcast, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping European venture.Today, we’re joined by Ties Boukema, Head of Data, Tech & AI at Dawn Capital, one of Europe’s leading B2B SaaS and Fintech investors. With a background spanning law, statistics, Google Health, and five brain surgeries, Ties brings a rare mix of grit, optimism, and technical firepower to Venture and he’s putting it to use by building Rolodex, an internal AI-powered operating system for Dawn.This is not an AI trends episode. This is an inside look at what it takes to build and deploy technology within a venture firm—and why the industry has been lagging behind.🎯 This Episode’s Themes:How a near-death experience shaped Ties’ perspective—and his edgeWhy most software in VC is “surprisingly bad” and what to do about itHow Dawn is building Rolodex: AI-powered prep, network graphs, and event intelligenceThe myth of “no data in early-stage” and why private markets still need softwareWhat Gawande’s checklist manifesto can teach European ventureHere’s what’s covered:02:00 | Meet Ties: From New York brain surgery to Google to Dawn04:00 | Life Before Surgery: Growing up with 200+ hospital stays09:30 | A Second Life: What changed post-op—and how it shaped his drive11:00 | From Sales to AI: Ties' journey at Google and pivot into health12:45 | Why Venture: “These people are smart… but why are they fixing slides at 2 AM?”14:00 | Perspective as Edge: Handling pressure, breaking rules, and ignoring experts17:30 | AI vs Experts: The false trust in tradition—and how AI challenges it20:00 | The Speed Mismatch: We can produce info 100x faster than we can understand it24:00 | Building Tech for Venture: The reality, the resistance, the rewards29:00 | Buy vs Build: Why VC firms should think like operators, not tinkerers32:00 | Rolodex Origins: The deal Dawn lost—and what it taught them36:00 | Entity Resolution Hell: Why syncing your contacts is harder than you think40:00 | Rolodex in Action: Deal prep, relationship mapping, board meeting alerts44:00 | Quantifying Network Power: How Dawn tracks angels & co-investors46:00 | Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Why Ties changed his mind on VC’s “human core”50:00 | The Checklist Revelation: What brain surgeons taught him about process