Peter Moustakerski

Most startups die trying to get what an existing business already has — Customers Cash flow Systems Brand trust Why start from zero when you can buy from momentum? Buy a business doing $500K–$2M in revenue. Leverage seller financing, SBA, or private capital. Keep the team, fix the margins, and scale. It’s not about being an entrepreneur anymore. It’s about being an acquirer. Startups are hope. Acquisitions are math. And math wins. 🦈

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One of the most important conversations I heard in Davos today wasn’t about more AI. It was about whether we trust the systems we’re building enough to deploy them at scale. At a Rethinking Risk session at Davos 2026, leaders from media, government, multilateral institutions, and global finance kept circling the same concern: the erosion of trust. The conversation included Ravi Agrawal, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy; Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Amer Bisat, Minister of Economy and Trade, Republic of Lebanon; Amb. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Stephanie von Friedeburg, Managing Director & Global Head of Public Sector, Citi. Across very different vantage points, the message was consistent: misinformation, selective or low-quality data, and a growing post-truth environment are undermining consensus, multilateralism, and sound risk analysis. When trust erodes: — due diligence weakens — uncertainty rises and risk premia increase — fact-based decision-making breaks down for governments and businesses alike The key takeaway: AI doesn’t fail at deployment because the models aren’t powerful enough. It fails when the systems around it aren’t trusted. Rebuilding trust isn’t just a technical challenge. It requires rigorous verification and higher-quality data; transparent analytics and governance; and inclusive, cross-stakeholder consensus-building. As the World Economic Forum continues to emphasize, trust isn’t a soft value layered onto innovation. It’s a prerequisite for scale, resilience, and long-term economic coordination. If we want AI to reduce risk rather than amplify it, we have to start by designing systems people and institutions can trust. That may be the hardest work ahead. And also the most important.

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Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi, doubled their profits by quietly acquiring 20+ companies…Here's her genius M&A strategy👇 Nooyi is the first woman of color and immigrant to lead a Fortune 50 company. In 1994, she joined PepsiCo as Senior Vice President. At the time, Pepsi relied heavily on carbonated soft drinks for revenue. But soda sales were declining due to rising health concerns and intense competition from Coca-Cola. So she decided to shift the portfolio toward healthier products. Her first target: Tropicana, a chilled juice company with 44% U.S. market share. In 1998, PepsiCo acquired Tropicana, a $3.3B deal This boosted non-soda revenue and created distribution synergies for future acquisitions. Moving forward, Nooyi led major deals, including: 2001: Quaker Oats  2009: Anchor Bottlers 2011: Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods Each move was aligned with a clear strategy. As a result, net profits increased from $2.7B to $6.5B post deals. Here's how Nooyi pulled this off: 1/. Portfolio Diversification The main goal was to expand beyond carbonated drinks. Think juices, sports drinks, and snacks to create a more balanced portfolio. Each acquisition supported that shift: → Gatorade brought in sports drinks → Tropicana targeted non-fizzy drinks → Quaker added nutritious breakfast items. This broadened revenue streams by appealing to health-conscious consumers. 2/. Competitive Positioning Coke’s rivalry was steadily eating into Pepsi’s market share. So these acquisitions helped Pepsi compete directly: ↳ Tropicana challenged Coke's Minute Maid ↳ Gatorade got 80% dominance over Coke's Powerade Quaker’s distribution network helped scale Tropicana faster and diversify revenue. 3/. Global Expansion Middle-class demand was rising in emerging markets. Nooyi tapped into these to reduce U.S. reliance. She targeted companies such as: • Russia's Lebedyansky juice and dairy  • Wimm-Bill-Dann, bolstering Eastern Europe presence. Products were also localized to match regional tastes through bottling partnerships. This expanded distribution across Asia, Latin America, and India. International sales grew from 27% to 40%. In the end, she built a compounding machine that: ✓ Avoids hype and product cycles ✓ Targets businesses with real cash flow ✓ Builds moats through industry diversification And it’s still growing.

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ROE should gradually stabilize, and the drag on group OPAT should disappear in 2026. Management noted that ROE sits at a relatively low level after a three‑year strategic transition, weaker NIM (an industry‑wide issue), and a shift toward lower‑yield but higher‑capital‑consumption corporate loans. Management expects revenue and profit growth to recover in 2026, supported by a rebound in loan growth, more stable NIM, stronger retail‑AUM growth, and lower credit costs – which should largely remove the drag on group OPAT.

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Instead of asking how can we grow, or how can we last, we must ask first how can we satisfy our moving market, our elusive customer

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The eFishery scandal, weak IPO pipeline, and tightening governance scrutiny have redrawn the investor map. Yet, not all is bleak. New Retail is rising. Early-stage still has fire. And Fore Coffee’s IPO shows the public market is waking up. Dive into the most important numbers shaping Indonesia’s tech landscape below 👇 - Indonesia startup funding in H1 2025 reached $161.3M, down 54.3% YoY - In Q1 2025 alone, funding dropped nearly 97% YoY—largely triggered by the eFishery fraud case - 46 total deals were recorded in H1 2025, down from 68 in the same period last year - Series A dominated with $74M across 10 deals, while Series B+ activity was minimal (only 6 Series B and 1 Series C1 deal) - Seed & Pre-Series A secured around $40M from 25 deals, showing early-stage resilience despite overall caution - New Retail was the most funded vertical, led by D2C brands like Hangry, SeIndonesia, and one% Nutrition - M&A activity doubled to 4 deals - Only 1 IPO in H1: Fore Coffee (April 2025), raising IDR 353B and surging +34% on debut. Fore Coffee market cap hit IDR 5.57T (USD 337M) with IDR 1.04T (USD 64M) in 2024 revenue - Another tech IPO, Indokripto Koin Semesta Tbk ($COIN) launched in July 2025 (H2), surging +144% on day one - Southeast Asia recorded 7 IPOs in H1 2025 (▲40% YoY), while unicorn creation stagnated - Indonesia's share remains small and shrinking—raising alarms over governance, regulatory clarity, and exit-readiness Let’s fix governance, build trust, and make Indonesia investable again. Link to complete report in the comment! #StartupFunding #IndonesiaTech #VentureCapital #SEAtech #DigitalEconomy #Startups #EmergingMarkets #InvestInIndonesia DSX VenturesDiscovery/Shift DailySocial.id - Indonesian Startup Media & Research

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The biggest risk for emerging venture managers isn’t lack of capital. It’s lack of clarity. One of the most powerful ideas I’ve taken from VC Lab discussions is that early-stage funds don’t win by being slightly better generalists. They win by being unmistakably specific. In ocean and maritime systems — a sector often labeled “too niche” — specialization is actually the advantage. The blue economy sits at the intersection of climate resilience, food security, energy transition, and infrastructure. That complexity demands capital that understands regulatory pathways, grant leverage, and capital intensity from day one. In smaller ecosystems like Portugal, clarity is leverage. A sharply defined thesis attracts the right founders, filters noise, and signals credibility to LPs. Generalists compete on access. Specialists compete on insight. I’m increasingly convinced the future of venture in Europe will be vertical, not horizontal. #VentureCapital #BlueEconomy #OceanTech #EmergingManagers #VcLab

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My review of Pablos Holman's seriously probing (yet occasionally witty) book, Deep Future, about the core technologies that can transform key industries, in CTech by Calcalist. A must-read for any DeepTech investor or entrepreneur.

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