Before moving into venture capital, Dmitry Chikhachev spent years running and scaling an offline business, Uvenco, and doing M&A and international expansion work, and he later carried that hands-on style into his investments—helping shape CEO searches, bringing in Michael Dell during diligence, and working directly on channel strategy and U.S. hiring for portfolio companies. He places heavy weight on founder speed and stamina over product polish alone, sources many deals through referrals and his own reputation rather than cold outreach, and brings a technical background in applied math and physics that shapes his interest in infrastructure and deep tech.