Victor Orlovski
Podcast appearances as guest
Episode 29 - Victor Orlovski
In this episode, I sit down with Victor Orlovski, Managing Partner at R136 Ventures.
On the podcast
Victor was CTO at two of the region's largest banks; from 2008 to 2015 he took the largest from almost no digital footprint to 90 million users and over 45 million daily active users.
At that bank more than 25,000 people in technology and product reported to him.
In 2015 Victor moved to California and started a venture firm; today he is one of four partners with a team of ten, managing a little under $500 million.
One portfolio company went from over 100 software engineers at the end of 2023 to 35 in mid-2025 while tripling output, with each senior developer overseeing 30–40 AI agents.
A stealth deep-drilling company he backed planned to grow its research team to 12 but stopped at five because ChatGPT's deep research did the rest.
Victor's firm invested in Airwallex.
When code is written by AI agents, only proprietary data, deep industry knowledge and sales efficiency still differentiate companies.
The biggest obstacle to AI adoption is experts, and unlike past revolutions AI will displace highly qualified jobs first.
AI will create far more jobs than it destroys, and a virtual economy will become the main source of growth.
Today's AI leaders are not settled; big companies cannot lead disruptive innovation, and paying huge salaries is a last resort.