Looking Back at Founders Day 2026

Every year, OneRagtime's Founders Day brings our community together on a simple belief: the hardest parts of building a company are best navigated with peers facing the same challenges. One week on from the 2026 edition, here's a look back at an afternoon of candid conversations, hard won lessons and new connections between the founders of our portfolio, told in a few questions.

What does it take to build the next generation of AI champions?

That was the question at the heart of Founders Day 2026, explored from every angle throughout the afternoon. The conversation started with a global perspective, as Queenie Chan (Antimatter, Hivenet) and Stéphanie Hospital shared their views on what is playing out in Asia, the opportunities emerging across the region, and what European founders can learn from one of the world's fastest-moving ecosystems.

From there, the discussion moved closer to the realities of building a company. Norman Grandjean (Deel) shared practical lessons on hiring across borders and building international teams efficiently, while Philippe Guillaud (Matchtune) brought the perspective of a seasoned founder on building and managing teams in 2026. Jean-Loup Fraudin (Moso) and Mathis Batoul (Estally) explored how AI is changing the way lean teams operate, and how founders can use technology to achieve more without simply adding headcount.

The conversation naturally extended to growth. Yann Aleman (LoneScale) unpacked the new AI go-to-market playbook, while Romain Palmieri and Rafael Cohen (Groover) shared the lessons learned from taking a platform international. As companies scale faster, another question becomes increasingly important: how do you build AI that can be trusted? Yann Bilien (Rippletide) and Killian Vermersch (Miralia) discussed explainability, frugality and the implications of the AI Act, while Thierry Moncorger (Elefantia) explored how AI can become a new growth engine even in some of the least digital industries.

The focus then turned to the tools founders can use today and what comes next. Our CTO Léo Viguier opened up OneRagtime's own AI stack in a hands-on session, challenging founders to look closely at how much AI they are actually using across their organizations. Julien Simiand (OpenAI), together with Yann Bilien, then looked ahead at what it means to build companies in the AI era and where the next opportunities may emerge.

And finally, the conversation came back to the capital. Stéphanie Hospital and Jeremy Blackwell (Blackwell family office) offered a clear and candid perspective on valuing AI startups, comparing private-market rounds with signals coming from the US public markets and exploring what this means for European founders.

The afternoon culminated in a conversation between Stéphanie Hospital, David Gurlé (Antimatter) and Carlos Diaz (Silicon Carne) around the question that had brought everyone together: what will it really take to build the next generation of AI champions across Europe, the US and Asia?

Across all these conversations, one message kept coming through: the AI era is not simply about adopting new technology. It is about building leaner organizations, finding faster paths to market, allocating capital with greater discipline, and creating companies where trust and sovereignty become genuine competitive advantages.

What does all of this mean for investors?

Everything, and it starts with performance. OneRagtime delivers a 26% IRR and a 2.4x TVPI, a track record the AI era doesn't put at risk but actively reinforces: we've backed this investment thesis since 2017, long before AI became the defining force it is today, and that early conviction is now compounding.

But numbers only tell half the story. The other half is what you feel between the sessions: over coffee, in the hallways, and at our Community Drink, where founders challenge ideas, compare notes and build new connections, and where a candid question or a shared struggle turns into a lasting relationship. That is the ambition of Founders Day: a community of entrepreneurs who learn from one another, support each other and grow together.

And it's exactly what powers our returns, sharpening our deal flow, deepening the support we give our portfolio, and helping our companies scale faster. For our investors, it means backing exceptional entrepreneurs alongside a community that actively works to make them win, with the performance to prove it, well beyond the cap table.

Where can I go further?

The conversation between Stéphanie Hospital, David Gurlé and Carlos Diaz is now live. They tackle one essential question: what it takes to build the next generation of AI champions across Europe, the US and Asia.

Full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sOrpHSDxMY

A huge thank you to every speaker and partner who made this edition such a success, starting with Norman Grandjean, Julien Simiand, Jeremy Blackwell and Carlos Diaz.

And a special thank you to the founders who so generously shared their experiences: Queenie Chan, David Gurlé, Jean-Loup Fraudin, Thomas Subra, Mathis Batoul, Yann Bilien, Killian Vermersch, Romain Palmieri, Rafael Cohen, Philippe Guillaud, Thomas Guillaud, Thierry Moncorger, Guillaume Besson, Tristan Pawlak, Youssef Kanouni, Yann Aleman, Théodore Bourgeon, Johann Sponar, Antoine Clerget and Guillaume Lelong.

We're already looking forward to the next edition.

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