Hi, I'm Martin Le.

I was the first hire at what would go on to become one of the fastest-growing VC funds in Central & Eastern Europe, a region that shares more with Vietnam than most the people would think of. I rode the crazy-multiples years, and then the reckoning that followed them.

Five years and hundreds of deep-dived businesses later, one conclusion kept resurfacing no matter the sector: marketing sits underneath everything a company does - of course sales, product adoption, but also hiring, fundraising... all of it. Growth, really, is just what marketing looks like once it starts to compound.

Then AI arrived and shifted the ground. For decades, money was marketing's cheat code - businesses spent to be seen, to move first, to look polished, and often enough, spending money also meant building something genuinely good.

AI has undoubtedly broken that link. The tools that used to cost money and time - good copy, good design, fast execution - are now cheap and instant for anyone. Which is why trust and taste - both interlinked - have become the scarce thing.

In venture capital I learned to think in terms of compounding, where early positioning and returns build on themselves over time.

Because every company has now become a media company.