15 must-follow people on LinkedIn for VCs and founders

Compiled by Viktoriia Kolomiiets , comms specialist at F1V

Your LinkedIn feed is your compass today.

Set it well, and it points to builders, innovators, and free practical advice. Your following list also makes up your network — your social bubble. So, in digital life, on LinkedIn in particular, it’s just as essential to choose the people around you as it is in real life.

We’re ambassadors of LinkedIn personal blogs and have expanded our first selection with 15 more people in tech to follow.

Ihar Mahaniok 

Ihar Mahaniok leads Geek Ventures, a venture capital firm that backs immigrant founders building tech companies in the U.S. After working as an engineer for 17 years, including roles at Google and Meta, he turned to investing. Mahaniok is an early investor in Decacorn, Instacart, PandaDoc, and People.ai. He has achieved two 100x exits.

Current position: managing partner at Geek Ventures .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mahaniok.

Jason M. Lemkin 

Jason M. Lemkin built SaaStr, often described as the world’s largest SaaS founder community. He’s a two-time founder: EchoSign (sold to Adobe in 2011 in a nine-figure deal) and NanoGram Devices ($50M exit). On LinkedIn, he writes about SaaS growth, sales, and AI.

Current position: founder and CEO at SaaStr.ai .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jasonmlemkin. 

Borys Musielak 

🌈 Borys Musielak is a former engineer and founder with an exit. Now he invests across CEE at SMOK Ventures, connecting startups with Silicon Valley capital. He also runs the SMOK Angels network and co-founded Reaktor and ReaktorX — often cited as Poland’s first startup coworking space and first private accelerator.

Current position: founding partner at SMOK Ventures , founder at SMOK Angels CEE .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/musielak.

Pawel Maj 

🎯 Pawel Maj has co-managed three VC and PE funds, made over 60 investments with more than 20 exits, and served on supervisory and management boards at over 30 companies. Now he fundraises for profitable tech scaleups in Poland and across CEE. 

Current position: fundraising expert at Sybilla Technologies .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maj-pawel.

Tania Ladanova 

Tania Ladanova is the CEO of TRMNL4, an organization connecting over 8,700 consumer tech startups with global partners, investors, and mentors. This initiative currently runs two programs: Startup Academy with Meta and Traction Builder with Snapchat. Previously, Tania worked in fashion tech and launched a global fashion tech incubator.

Current position: CEO at TRMNL4 .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tania-ladanova. 

David Cruz e Silva 

David Cruz e Silva 🎙 is a business development manager and consultant turned investor. In 2015, he co-founded EUVC, a media outlet and community for venture capitalists. Beyond that, he co-hosts The European VC Podcast with Andreas Munk Holm.

Current position: founder at EUVC , venture partner at Isomer Capital .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/david-euvc.

Richard Branson 

Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group, a global empire spanning airlines, music, space travel, and more. He’s known for record-breaking balloon flights, bold business stunts, and his support for Ukraine. He also runs the “Ask Richard” newsletter on LinkedIn, answering his fans’ questions about his views on business and life.

Current position: founder at Virgin .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rbranson.

Elena Mazhuha 

Elena M. is a partner and first employee at Flyer One Ventures. She’s led over 15 investments in its portfolio, including Awesomic , Scalestack , 99math , Field Materials AI , and RemotePass . Elena's built the firm’s PR team and led it for five years. She was recognized in both the Ukrainian and European Forbes 30 Under 30 lists.

She’s currently scouting CEE tech startups that automate “boring” industries, such as healthcare, construction, logistics, or sales.

Current position: partner at F1V.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mazhuha.

Bogdan Nesvit 

bogdan nesvit founded HOLYWATER, an AI-powered media tech company behind My Drama, My Passion, My Hero, and My Muse (over 20 million users; $90M ARR in four years). On LinkedIn, he reflects on daily meditations and building his Hollywood disruptor.

Current position: co-founder and co-CEO at HOLYWATER .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bogdannesvit. 

Steven Bartlett 

Steven Bartlett is a serial entrepreneur, investor, speaker, author, and he probably uses a Time-Turner. He’s currently working on Flight Story (a media company and investment fund) and thirdweb (a web3 startup). He also hosts The Diary Of A CEO, where he interviews interesting people, including businessmen, actors, and footballers.

Current position: founder at FLIGHTSTORY , co-founder at thirdweb . 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stevenbartlett-123. 

Heini Zachariassen 

For 16 years, Heini Zachariassen was building Vivino, a global wine marketplace and app for choosing the right wine. In 2025, he started a new project, Vota, which serves as a platform for independent restaurant ratings. He shares practical startup advice on LinkedIn and on his YouTube channel, Raw Startup.

Current position: founder at Vivino & Vota .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/heini. 

Nick Telson-Sillett 

Nick Telson-Sillett co-founded DesignMyNight in 2010, scaled it with minimal funding to over 100 employees and 15,000 customers, and sold it for £30M in seven years. He went on to co-found Horseplay Ventures’ angel arm and launch the Pitch Deck podcast. Having caught "the founder bug" again, he’s now building trumpet, a B2B sales tool.

Current position: co-founder at trumpet 🎺 .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nicktelson. 

Allie K. Miller 

Allie K. Miller has dedicated her career to working with AI systems — she’s been in the field for nearly 20 years. In 2016, she led the first multimodal AI team at IBM, then she launched and scaled machine learning at AWS. Today, she teaches, speaks at events, and consults Fortune 500 companies.

Current position: Fortune 500 AI advisor and angel investor.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alliekmiller. 

Andrew Chen 

Andrew Chen is a general partner at a16z and a prolific blogger, backing early-stage startups in tech, entertainment, and AI. He previously led rider growth teams at Uber, and in 2021 he published The Cold Start Problem, his first book on using network effects to scale products.

Current position: general partner at Andreessen Horowitz .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrewchen. 

Timothy Motte

Timothy Motte is the founder of The Realistic Optimist, a publication about the global startup scene that posts interviews with founders and VCs. He previously worked in startup ops and co-founded GrowHome, a platform connecting Palestinian and Tunisian startups with their diasporas.

Current position: founder at The Realistic Optimist .

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timothy-motte-27470a169. 

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