Aaref Hilaly

Never lose peripheral vision

I moved to Silicon Valley after graduate school, with pretty much just two suitcases and the ambition to start a company. When I became a founder, I learned to never lose peripheral vision for unexpected opportunity. Nothing worked out as I planned. My first start-up, CenterRun, couldn’t find product-market fit and we sold early. My second, Clearwell, grew from almost zero to a $100m revenue run-rate in four years. For both companies, we raised seed from a multi-stage firm and it really helped. Talking to my board members each week helped me grow from being a terrified founder into a confident CEO. I joined Sequoia and then BCV to help other founders in the same way.

I’m originally from Pakistan and grew up in England

Neither of my parents went to college, and I was very lucky to get scholarships and grants to attend great schools. Being among such talented people was eye-opening, and it raised my own level of aspiration. It also convinced me not to follow a conventional path – I never shook the feeling of being an outsider.

For me, the joy of venture is working with founders after we invest.

Of the ~20 early-stage companies that I've worked closely with over the years, two have gone public, several had happy acquisitions and a few were total disasters. None of these journeys were easy, there was no "overnight success". For me, the joy of venture is working with founders after we invest. I know how hard and lonely it is to be a CEO. I think hard about what each founder needs, and how best to support them -- my main focus is often on the non-obvious things the company needs to do now, so that it's well-positioned in 6-12 months time.

Generative AI is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, of a similar scale to the Internet.

We're early in the cycle and benefiting from two compounding effects: the models are improving rapidly, and humanity is getting ever more creative in how best to use them. That's massively expanding the universe of what's possible with software. For the first generation of GenAI companies, the ideas are conceptually obvious -- code generation, customer support, legal, healthcare and so on. That means every category is over-funded and intensely competitive. To win, founders need to out-execute in product design and go-to-market. It creates tremendous pressure to move fast.

I tend to get very involved with the companies I work with. At Decagon, I'll spend an afternoon at the company every couple of weeks. Mainly, I work on recruiting, org design and strategy. Building an AI company is different from the prior SaaS/internet generation in some important ways -- so most questions require first-principles thinking. The Decagon team does a great job of balancing that with a bias to action and maniacal execution. Looking ahead, I'm excited to see more GenAI-native ideas emerge over time. As models improve, UIs like voice become ubiquitous, and new behaviors like vibe coding take off, I'm hopeful there'll be a new generation of apps that we struggle to imagine right now.

My advice to founders

We like to dream with the entrepreneur, to imagine the world as they see it, and then ask ourselves what we can do to support them. Tell a story. We only partner with a small number of new companies each year and we’re drawn to those with a clear, compelling narrative.