Why Businesses Can't Rely on Regulation - Mahir Sahin (Cloudberry Ventures)
Innovation and Private Capital x auliumShow Notes
Can a business survive if its economics depend on anticipated regulation? Mahir Sahin, General Partner of Cloudberry Ventures, argues it cannot — a lesson that shapes every deep-tech investment decision his firm makes, from quantum computing to hydrogen generation.
The conversation unpacks how early-stage investors navigate highly technical markets where product-market fit is measured not in downloads but in customer validation calls with industrial buyers who may take two years to pay. Sahin explains why his fund focuses on infrastructure-layer companies that can retrofit into existing production lines, why 80% of deep-tech exits happen through acquisition rather than IPO, and how decentralized on-site hydrogen generation sidesteps the transportation challenges that have plagued the hydrogen hype cycle. The discussion also reveals a counterintuitive portfolio construction strategy: three verticals — AI compute, industrial infrastructure, and financial infrastructure — deliberately chosen not because they correlate, but because they don't, allowing the fund to lean into whichever sector offers the best value when others overheat.
**Key discussion points:**
🔬 Why error-corrected qubits matter more than raw qubit count in quantum computing's path to commercialization
🏭 The hidden $4 trillion sitting idle in pre-funded cross-border bank accounts — and how stablecoin rails unlock it
🤖 How 4D photonic radar gives autonomous vehicles 360-degree vision through rain and fog, up to 500 meters
⚡ Why high-purity hydrogen's first killer app isn't cars but lab-grown diamonds
🌍 The arbitrage opportunity in European deep-tech valuations versus US equivalents doing identical work
Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/WfmTuzLjgbU
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About Mahir Sahin [General Partner of Cloudberry Ventures]:General Partner of Cloudberry Ventures, a European deep-tech fund investing across industrial, financial, and compute infrastructure. He spent sixteen years at Google, including time at Google X where he advised Taara, Alphabet's laser-internet moonshot. A German-born economist from Bonn, he founded Cloudberry in 2025 and has since built a portfolio of roughly a dozen companies across quantum computing, hydrogen, stablecoin infrastructure, and physical AI.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/
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