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Clarity

Oleg Feldgajer

Waterloo, Ontario, canada

I used AI in Technology, Finance, & Renewable Energy for 30-yrs. Now, I help VC/CVC/Private Equity during due diligence of AI investments & advise their portfolio Cos.

$16.67/min

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Entrepreneurship Startups Financing Private Equity Venture Capital Renewable Energy Branding New Business Development Artificial Intelligence Corporate Venture Capital

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BOD Members Are Not Your Friends – They Are Your Investors!

As so many companies are planning to further leverage AI-driven growth prospects, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of building OUTSTANDING Advisory Boards. My message is equally important to CEOs and to their financial backers:

• BOD members are not your friends – they are your investors!

The only impartial advice to CEOs and VCs may come from … the Advisers they choose! Please see my comments in:

• If I could only offer a single advice to a progressive CEO – this would be it!

As we know, those who are truly open to guidance end up solving their problems much better than they would have on their own. And even by offering a sounding board, it may help companies clarify and sharpen their own thinking. From experience, I find that even two opinions are often enough to make a better decision, especially for complex & ambiguous problems.

When I look back at my 30+ years of using PracticalAI™ in Technology, Finance & Renewable Energy (TFE) sectors - I see an evolving pattern: I learned to focus not only on making existing businesses better, but also on what is missing. I view TFE as 3 intersecting pillars of a modern business world. And such expertise, allows me to bring unique perspectives to problem-solving. What I enjoy the most, however, is successfully porting breakthrough strategies from unrelated fields – to new markets!

Entrepreneurial Gifts of Wisdom

I’ve been involved with both: the funding and the receiving end of entrepreneurship. Example: taking a tiny start-up and turning it into a $125MM Market Cap - by merging with a publicly trading company on Toronto Stock Exchange and employing 150 people.

In addition, I’m extremely proud of the work I did at the Microelectronics and Computer Consortium (MCC) in Austin, Texas. MCC was the first, and - at one time - one of the largest, computer industry research and development consortia in the United States, headed by Navy Admiral, Bobby Inman. At its peak, MCC housed over 400 PhDs under one roof, and I was supervising for 3 years a large group of world’s brightest neural network and Artificial Intelligence researchers – on behalf of $7B NCR Corporation.

Yet technology is only one part of a much bigger picture. After all: the graveyards of AI innovation are full of brilliant ideas with a lousy business model - no matter the industry. When I join Advisory Boards, my aim is not to help increase revenues that year, but to set exponential growth trajectories for the next 3 years!

Yes, I’ve done it with Verizon in the past, and will be delighted sharing with you my personal experiences. I wrote about it in:

• Keyword Spotting - The Art Of Listening & Observing

How to Create Profitable AI Business Models & Avoid Unexpected Losses

When companies look for a C-level executive, or an independent Advisory Board/BOD member with hands-on AI expertise – they call CGE!

I advise VC/CVC and Private Equity funds during Due Diligence (DD) of Artificial Intelligence (AI) investments. To do so, I rely on my 30-yr hands-on AI expertise. And I’m yet to see an engagement which starts with DD advice but doesn’t progress toward Strategic Business Development and Brand Enhancement counselling.

I also advise & help fund’s portfolio companies create profitable AI business models & avoid unexpected losses. In most cases, it involves joining BODs and Advisory Boards (ABs). Frequently, I also become portfolio company’s CEO - to accelerate scale-up and expansion, with emphasis on: EBITDA Growth, Revenue Acceleration, Margin Enhancement, Opening New Channels/Markets, International Expansion, Turnarounds, and Innovative Exit Strategies.

The promises of Artificial Intelligence are all around us. But you also see & hear a lot of hand-waving and “imagine-the-future” narratives. So, basically, what I do - is help separate wheat from chaff and share my 30-year “wisdom” to distinguish facts from fiction.

Due to the nature of my work, I deal with a lot of companies in diverse markets: finance, renewable energy, infrastructure, building materials, construction, real estate, manufacturing, etc. However, it’s the COMBINATION of my AI EXPERTISE and BUSINESS ACUMEN - that is so uniquely effective.

Scalable Strategy to Create New Revenue Streams and Achieve Revenue Smoothing

Since on average, less than 10% of companies in any portfolio are big winners - my “wisdom” can make a huge difference. Ambitious, tenacious, hard-working founders - are never at ease at admitting a defeat. When execution fails and their visions turn into hallucinations – the dreams of wealth are becoming the nightmares of poverty.

Investors and Founders often face a real possibility of losing it all, firing the entire team and closing the doors of the company – for good. So, let me come-in and bring my outside-the-box thinking - to turn the “mothership” around. It will also allow you to spend more time with the superstars of your portfolio – where it really counts.

I’m convinced that it’s not technology innovation, but exponential increase in value offered to clients at much lower cost – that makes all the difference. From my personal experience, I frequently demonstrate how product-oriented entities are usually losing ~70% of POSSIBLE revenue streams. In addition to Push-Only approach, I focus on generating huge secondary and tertiary revenue streams – and call it: The Push, The Pull and The AI Bull™. Such strategy is scalable and sustainable - and as a side-bonus, you also get an option for revenue smoothing.

Hands-on AI Expertise

Already 20 years ago, my startup: International Neural Machines Inc. (INM) - was the ONLY, product-oriented neural network AI company in Canada! At that time, I dealt with complexities of risk management running a whole slew of Fraud Detection & Money Laundering Detection projects at financial institutions - linked to Visa Fraud at Canadian banks, World Bank, and Workers Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB).

More recently, as a founder of Canada Green ESCO Inc. (CGE), I frequently covered Climate Change and Environmental Risks - dealing with stranded assets at largest utilities. CGE raised $1B+ in project finance linked to solar (utility scale and distributed), wind, geothermal, Waste-To-Energy (WTE), energy efficiency, and more. It covered: equity, non-recourse debt, balance sheet financing, and tax equity.

Back in 1990s, I also used to be an Associate Professor at The University of Waterloo, School of Optometry - and helped graduate students, to become proficient at advanced image processing.

Unique pattern recognition abilities allow me to see what’s still missing & how to maximize business offerings & profitability. And looking at existing problems with a pair of fresh eyes - often brings a set of creative solutions, that were never even considered in the past.

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Member since June 2019