It began with small decisions, seemingly unremarkable at the time. A piece of advice from his father over a beer. A chance coffee meeting. The realization that good enough wasn’t enough.
For Bogdan Iordache, Karol Szubstarski, and Borys Musielak—three venture capitalists at the heart of Central and Eastern Europe’s tech ecosystem—these were the turning points that set them on the path to becoming investors. Their journeys reveal that becoming a VC isn’t always a deliberate choice but often an organic alignment of self-awareness, passion, and opportunity.
From self-awareness and perhaps empathy and passion, these people’s career path shows that one doesn’t necessarily plan to become an investor, but it’s rather an alignment of thoughts and opportunities.
This article dives into their stories, uncovering how they found their way into venture capital. Drawing from their conversation on The Recursive Podcast, we explore the question: “How and why did you become a VC investor?”
“Some people work, some people think”
For Bogdan Iordache, General Partner at Underline Ventures, the transition from founder to investor was shaped by his own recognition of his strengths. After a decade of working in venture capital—including co-founding TechAngels, one of Romania’s angel investor networks—he founded Underline Ventures, a €18.5M fund dedicated to early-stage startups in CEE and its diaspora.
“My father told me when I was 20, ‘Some people work, and some people think.’ He was right,” Iordache shares with a smile. “I’m not operationally that good. I’m much better at thinking things through, analyzing stuff.”
Underline Ventures, which Iordache considers a startup in itself, is built on that foundation. “We’ve got to be lean and mean, not get cocky, and build a company founders want to partner with,” he says. His meticulous, detail-oriented approach has been critical, though he admits, “I obsess over the things that don’t work—it can be tiring for people around me.”
The cup of coffee that changed the direction
While Iordache’s journey was rooted in reflection, Karol Szubstarski, an investor with OTB Ventures, attributes his entry into VC to a sheer chance. “To be very frank, my adventure with VC was a pure coincidence,” he admits.
A pivotal moment came during his time at Intel Capital, where he was working in market research. Over a casual coffee with Marcin Hejka, a then investment director at the same company, Karol’s career trajectory shifted. “I was looking for another project, and Marcin recommended I explore investment opportunities. Within a few months, I was working full-time in this field.”
That coffee marked the beginning of an 11-year partnership with Hejka, first at Intel Capital and then at OTB Ventures, a €170M fund focused on deep tech. “The passion for technology grew from encountering amazing entrepreneurs and technologies,” Szubstarski says. “It forged my obsession with DeepTech.”
Failing forward into VC
For Borys Musielak, managing partner at SMOK Ventures, the leap to VC came after realizing he wasn’t cut out for his initial career paths. “The reason I’m a VC now is because I suck as a programmer and I suck as an entrepreneur,” he says bluntly. “So I’m trying to find something I’m good at. Hopefully, it’s this.”
Musielak’s early years as a programmer were marked by a focus on results over refinement—a quality that made him effective at prototyping but ill-suited for corporate engineering. “I loved getting things done but didn’t care about quality,” he confesses. “That’s great for startups, but for a big corporation, not so much.”
His foray into entrepreneurship wasn’t smooth either, delayed by eight years of hesitation. “I was afraid to start,” he says. Yet his love for engaging directly with clients and shaping products hinted at his future in VC, where building relationships and envisioning solutions are key.
Common threads in uncommon paths
Despite their diverse beginnings, all three investors share a common thread: the realization that their strengths lay in empowering others rather than being at the center of operations themselves.
For Iordache, it’s about underlining founders’ successes. “We named the fund Underline Ventures to remind ourselves that it’s about the founders,” he says.
Szubstarski finds fulfillment in the long-term impact of his investments. “DeepTech is hard and requires patience, but it’s incredibly rewarding when you see it change industries,” he notes.
Musielak, meanwhile, thrives on the variety VC offers. “I’ve been changing careers every five years. Now it’s been five years as a VC, so I’m worried I’ll wake up and want to do something completely different,” he jokes. But with SMOK Ventures closing its second fund of €23M this year, he’s far from done.
As these three stories show, the journey to venture capital is rarely a straight road. Rather, it is a winding path shaped by personal reflection, unexpected encounters, and the courage to pivot when opportunity knocks.
Each of them started somewhere different—an engineer chasing results, a researcher with a curiosity for technology, a founder seeking the right fit for his talents. Yet today, they share a common mission: to amplify the impact of the next generation of entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe.
