Co-Founder & CEO, Juna AI. Berlin, Germany. ETH Zurich + UC Berkeley. Prior exit (AiSight to Sensirion). Building autonomous AI agents for industrial process control.
Why VIP: Kleiner Perkins led the seed with John Doerr writing a personal angel check. This is the highest-conviction early bet in European industrial AI. Series A is 12-18 months away, and there is zero finance infrastructure. Engineer founding pair, German GmbH funded in USD, enterprise industrial contracts with milestone-based billing.
The play: Lead with the Series A prep gap. Matthias has exited before (AiSight to Sensirion) but that was an acquisition, not an equity round. He has never navigated a VC-led Series A from the founder's seat.
The hook: "You've got Kleiner in your cap table and Doerr personally. Your Series A timeline is real. Right now you don't have a finance function."
Offer: PS3K 30-Day Round Readiness Sprint
Highest-conviction European seed signal. At $7.5M raised, ~$990K ARR, 16 employees, with Kleiner Perkins and John Doerr on the cap table, Juna AI is the exact profile Phellos targets. No finance function. Engineer founding pair. German GmbH with USD funding creating multi-currency complexity. Enterprise industrial contracts with milestone-based payment structures. This is not a future problem - it is a now problem.
Why it works: Matthias is the decision-maker and he has done this before - he sold AiSight to Sensirion, so he understands what a clean cap table and clean books mean at exit. The Round Readiness Audit entry point (free) creates a credible, low-friction first touch. The Fractional CFO engagement (PS3-6K/month) fits the budget of a $7.5M-funded company pre-Series A. Most importantly, the core problem - no finance function at ~$990K ARR heading into a Kleiner-backed Series A - is precisely Phellos's lane.
Risk: Matthias might believe he can get to Series A on spreadsheets and a part-time bookkeeper. The counter is simple: Kleiner Perkins will ask for a data room. What is in it right now? The Forbes Cloud 100 Rising Star recognition means visibility is increasing - which means investor inbound is increasing - which means the finance gap becomes visible faster than expected.
Matthias already sold a company. He knows what M&A diligence looks like. He knows what happens when buyers find gaps in your financials. The frame for Phellos is not "you need a CFO" - it is: "You have been through an exit. You know the difference between clean books and messy books. Right now, with Kleiner on your cap table and a Series A coming, your books are not clean enough for what is about to happen." That is a peer conversation, not a vendor pitch.
Seed-stage, ~$990K ARR, 16 employees, engineer founding pair, no finance function, Kleiner Perkins lead, German GmbH with USD funding. Every dimension of this company is a Phellos ICP signal. CEO is the direct decision-maker and has already navigated an M&A exit - he knows what clean financials mean.
The core problem - no finance function heading into a Kleiner-backed Series A - is precisely what Phellos solves. Matthias is an engineer who respects rigor. He will respond to a finance-as-engineering frame. The Round Readiness Audit (free) is the ideal entry point. Fractional CFO at PS3-6K/month fits the budget of a $7.5M-funded company.
Each angle is a standalone way in. Jamie should pick the one that feels most natural and lead with massive free value.
What Jamie does: Record a 10-minute Loom walking through castellum.ai. Apply his framework: "Who is this for? Is the customer's problem stated above the fold, or is it all about the product?" Show the gap between Castellum's compliance language ("AML/KYC screening," "watchlists," "false positive reduction") and the actual story ("We correct the UN's sanctions data. Our AI passed the professional certification exam. We stop financial criminals using AI"). The homepage tells the technical story. It should tell the human one.
Why it works: Peter is a compliance expert, not a marketer. He thinks in data quality and regulatory frameworks. Jamie thinks in positioning. The Loom delivers immediate, specific value - showing Peter that his own website undersells his most compelling asset: the founder story. Compliance officers buy from people they trust. The story builds trust faster than any product demo.
What Jamie does: Send a thoughtful LinkedIn message: "Peter - I read your PYMNTS interview. 'We actually correct governments on a regular basis.' That is one of the most audacious things a startup CEO has ever said. But it's buried in a fintech trade publication. That line should be in Forbes, not PYMNTS. Your story - Afghanistan, Treasury, building an AI that passes the CAMS exam - is bigger than the audience that's currently hearing it. I think there's a strategic conversation worth having about that."
Why it works: It names the thing Peter probably already feels. He has done PYMNTS, AlleyWatch, FinovateFall - but none of those reach the general business audience. Jamie is not criticizing his media strategy - he is pointing out that the story deserves a bigger stage. That is flattery and insight combined.
What Jamie does: Create a one-page PDF: "5 Things That Break After an $8M Series A - and the one most compliance tech founders miss." Not about Castellum specifically - about the pattern Jamie sees across post-Series A companies in vertical SaaS. Send it with a personal note: "I wrote this after working with 20+ founders at your exact stage. Number 4 (the messaging ceiling) might be relevant given what I am seeing at Castellum."
Why it works: It positions Jamie as someone who understands the post-Series A challenge without being salesy. The PDF gives Peter something concrete to evaluate. The "Number 4 might be relevant" creates curiosity without being presumptuous.
What Jamie does: Frame the conversation around the CUSO expansion: "You have 130+ credit unions in your investor base through Curql. Their compliance officers don't read TechCrunch. They listen to podcasts recommended by peers and attend industry events. Your story - the former OFAC officer who now helps credit unions stay compliant with AI - is the perfect trust-builder for that audience. But it needs to live on mainstream platforms they encounter outside their compliance bubble."
Why it works: It connects Jamie's value to Peter's most urgent business priority: converting the 130+ credit unions in Curql's network into customers. By framing founder visibility as a customer acquisition tool for the credit union channel, Jamie makes the conversation about revenue, not ego.
Jamie should pick ONE of these and record a 5-10 minute Loom. The goal: deliver so much free value that he has to respond.
Hit multiple channels in the same week. The goal is not to be annoying - it is to be impossible to miss. Each touchpoint delivers value, not asks.
Send a connection request with a short, specific note (not a pitch):
Record the Website Positioning Audit (Loom 1 above). Keep it under 10 minutes. Be specific about the compliance-language-vs-story gap. End with actionable advice. This is the centerpiece of the entire outreach.
Do NOT send it via LinkedIn. Hold it for the email on Day 3-4.
Send a personal email (not from a campaign - from Jamie's personal email) with the Loom embedded:
Look for mutual connections through the fintech/credit union ecosystem. Curql, BTech, Framework Venture Partners all have networks Jamie can tap:
If no response, send a brief follow-up with a new piece of value:
Send a physical package to Castellum's New York office. Pattern interrupt. Ideas:
These are not templates. They are starting points Jamie should rewrite in his own voice. The specific details are what make them work.
Peter Piatetsky is a dream lead for Jamie's Unstuck Growth Intensive. He has the budget ($8.5M Series A just closed), the decision-making authority (he is the CEO), and a crystal-clear positioning problem that Jamie is built to solve: Castellum's story is trapped in compliance niche media when it should be a mainstream business narrative.
The website positioning audit is the way in. Jamie pulls up castellum.ai and shows Peter the gap between compliance jargon and the extraordinary story underneath - Afghanistan, Treasury, correcting the UN, an AI that passed the CAMS exam. That Loom will be impossible to ignore because it reveals something Peter already knows but has not articulated: his website undersells the most interesting company in compliance tech.
Even if Peter does not buy the $15K Intensive immediately, getting Jamie in front of this founder opens the credit union and fintech ecosystem - Curql (130+ credit unions), BTech (12+ banks), Framework (RBC). One conversation with Peter creates access to hundreds of potential referrals. This lead is worth the personal attention.