Jul 6, 2021
Meet Mina Mutafchieva, Partner at Dawn
Mina is our newest Partner at Dawn, having joined us nearly two years ago, and primarily manages our VC and founder relationships in the Nordic markets, as well as leading our fintech and future of work deals across Europe. Let’s meet her!
Why B2B software VC?
There is definitely a lot for me to unpack here! The easy answer is because I love it. Software is almost infinitely scalable (and now more so than ever) and the pace at which innovation and disruption are happening is absolutely breakneck, which makes it a thrilling (and sometimes intimidating) place to be. I grew up in the midst of creative destruction — the 1990s in Bulgaria were a genuinely crazy period — the world was turned upon its head and few things were as they were before, but many good things grew out of the chaos. It may seem dramatic to draw parallels between the collapse of communism in Bulgaria and the disruption that cloud deployment and rapid decline of software development costs have brought upon the tech sector, but I will do it anyway! The broader point is that we are in the middle of an accelerating tectonic shift in technology, which is completely changing the fabric of our society. This can make it as daunting as it is exciting.
B2B versus B2C is very much a personal preference as it is recognising “where the money is” — if you look at the most valuable companies in the world today, I would say that only Apple is a B2C company. Microsoft is obviously a B2B giant and Amazon, although it has an extremely strong consumer brand, is actually making most if not all of its money from its B2B divisions. B2B companies and brands take longer to build, but are ultimately hugely resilient due to the stickiness of business customers and, for the best of them — the power of the queen of SaaS KPIs — high net dollar retention.
Most exciting moment at Dawn?
Always the last competitive deal that I won. And the promotion to Partner, obviously!
What do you think is the most interesting trend in the industry, and why?
I spend a lot of my time in B2B fintech and e-commerce. B2B e-commerce volumes are 5x the size of B2C e-commerce, yet the experience remains extremely unfriendly for users, especially for SMEs. A lot of trends are converging to bring huge disruption to this tech stack — rapid digitalisation spurred on by Covid, continued innovation and fragmentation of the payments landscape — so business users are now expecting to have a slick B2C-like experience, too. Combined with the fact that the current tech stack supporting most of this has either been custom built in-house or is at least 10 years old, which is ancient in tech terms. So it is a space I am watching closely.
What have your two years at Dawn been like and how do you see your role evolving as Partner?
I will allow myself another potentially overly dramatic statement here and say that my two years at Dawn have been the most fulfilling time in my career. After meeting the Dawn team and hearing the strategy for the firm, it is fair to say I had very high hopes when I joined. Even with the world being on fire for most of my time here, it has surpassed every expectation. I have invested in a number of hugely exciting companies, each bringing major disruption to their respective market.
But my role at Dawn has been much broader than leading and winning top deals. I was heavily involved in the fundraising of Dawn IV — the largest B2B-only tech fund in Europe to date. I had the privilege of overseeing our recruiting efforts and helping to hand pick our extremely high performing team. I’ve re-shaped the way we think about our core theses and the way we cover the European market, having worked closely with the rest of the partnership to define and keep refining our playbook for winning deals and working with our companies. And then of course there was Covid and navigating the challenges and opportunities this brought.
As Partner, I expect to continue to lead on our fintech and e-commerce work, as well as coverage of the UK and Nordics, and also Eastern Europe. One thing I hope will change soon is the opportunity to finally meet in person my peers in the broader ecosystem and some of the fantastic founders I have been following over the last year.
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And the quick-fire round!
Netflix series you most recently binged on and would recommend
The Queen’s Gambit. Anya Taylor-Joy is phenomenal.
Favourite SaaS metric and why
Net dollar retention — it encapsulates so much of what you need to get right in a successful SaaS company — lower churn, choose the right pricing model, work out your flywheel within the client organisation, continue to innovate on product and get your customer success right.
Best book for a much-needed holiday
A classic that I re-read all the time: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
One I am just finishing now: Utopia Avenue.
Best and worst thing to see in a deck
Best: a killer answer to the question “Why does your product deserve to win?”
Worst: A ridiculously overstated TAM — makes me question everything else in the deck
Recipe for the perfect evening/weekend?
Friends + family + wine, with a splash of high-quality alone time (VC is hard for introverts).
Best piece of advice you have given or received?
The best advice I have received was from my father when I was about 15 — “If you only knew how little other people care about what you do, you would live your life with a lot more courage and determination”. I give this advice to everyone.
