Kieran Scully

Recruiting AI and Data for UK/EU startups and enterprise. 15 years in. Running searches across agentic AI, knowledge graphs, FD data science etc.
Wave Talent

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

I have spent 15 years placing tech and GTM, currently data and AI talent, in US and EMEA.

Here's what I actually see in the market right now, not what the reports say.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@adamdawood @LetsDiscoverApp I'll go for 30

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@kirill_shevch It's a great time to move, giving me SF vibes right now tbh.

There's something in the air,less burnt out people and more hope, positivity and social connecting. I'm loving it

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@TheHashton @CodePrepped @X This looks sick!

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@AlexChhk Damn that picture 🔥

I kept trying to take one on my train home but it wasn't doing it justice through the mucky windows

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@TomasMann1878 @DustHQ Maybe catch you at one of these
https://t.co/FLRdqgeYOx

[fawn @natashalfawn]

okay it’s time to launch the pub club

a chat for london ppl building in tech, ai, crypto + startups

every week we’ll hit a different pub in the city

once we hit a certain number of people we’ll close it and only allow member referrals

so, you in? reply or dm me ur tg handle🍻

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

P(Doom) is a hot topic in AI.

Something that resonated with me were the words from @mmuthukrishna

"Our greatest achievements and our greatest atrocities are both cooperative acts"

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@alexmamyy Side note, if you want to increase your network check out https://t.co/w9arvAXAkd

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@alexmamyy Folkestone/ Sandgate

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@alexmamyy My GCSE French failed me/ I forgot.

Coincidentally I now live closer to France than London 😅 tempted to see if I can padelboard over to Granville for breakfast one day

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Seed median has gone from $8m to $28m since 2017.

What I'm seeing as a result: founders hiring for scale from day one. First engineers are expected to build like it's Series B. The bar has risen.

(Info from @twistartups with @Jason @jeff @jefielding @davemcclure

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Bonus highlight:
After 21 years of running Uncork, @Jeff has handed the reins to Andy McLaughlin and launched Clos Clavier in Walla Walla.

The red is called Series B. The next release is Carried Interest. His tip: decant the Series B for an hour.

Super tempted to order a case and be a tech recruiter with a Series B from him 😂

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

What this means for hiring in data and AI, from where I sit:

Bigger seed rounds mean founders are hiring for scale earlier. First engineers are expected to build like they're at Series B.

Cheaper inference and open-weight models are rewarding engineers who can evaluate, serve and fine-tune models, and who treat compute cost as a design constraint.

Defence, cyber and sovereign infrastructure are opening up real demand across the UK and Europe for security-cleared data and AI talent.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Dave extended Jensen's Law ("AI won't take your job, a person using AI will") during a P(doom) debate. AI won't end humanity, but a human enabled with AI might. Now named it McClure's Law.

The serious point underneath it: the risk and the upside both sit with the people using the tools. Accountability, judgement and good monitoring matter more, not less.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Jenny Fielding is still writing $250K cheques into pre-seed B2B rounds of around $1m, across categories. As she put it, there are about ten of them left doing it.

If you're a founder at that stage with a focused pitch, @EverywhereVC is worth knowing.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

@davemcclure shared a smart liquidity idea for fund managers: the single-asset continuity SPV.

Within 3-6 months of a Series B or C, move part of a position from the fund into an SPV at the new post-money price. LPs choose to take liquidity or roll into the new vehicle. The fund generates DPI in years 5-8 and keeps exposure to the upside.

He's presenting it at the Sidecar SPV Summit in New York next Tuesday.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Great portfolio news from the show:

@LoftOrbital raised $1bn to build what Jeff described as the largest AI compute constellation in space. They run models in orbit and send down the answer, not the raw data.

@micro1_ai: Jason invested at a $12m valuation, and they've just raised $100m at $4bn, profitably.

@AskTaxGPT went from Founder University to LAUNCH to Y Combinator, and is now at tens of millions in revenue.

@numeral , an Uncork company, announced a $100m Series C led by Insight.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Where to look next:

Sovereignty and defence tech are what everyone in Europe is trying to work out right now, and cyber is set to be a massive space. There's a wave of startups building for resilience across critical infrastructure.

Fintech and healthcare also came up as underrated. These are huge markets with strong technical founders, currently less crowded than AI-native categories. That's a good place for founders and investors to find an edge.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Consumer AI is back in play.

@noahrshinn's Instinct, a personal agent you text or call that acts on your behalf, has attracted some of the best consumer investors in the market within months.

The broader read: agents that do things for you, not just answer questions, look like the next platform.

[Kieran Scully @KieranWave]

Big week for AI builders. @OpenAI and @AnthropicAI both shipped new models with major price cuts on the same day.

Add the fact that open-weight models now handle roughly 78% of tracked token volume, and builders have more choice on cost and capability than ever. Products that didn't pencil out a year ago now do.