Silvija Gelevski meeting with a business leader at External Lens Consulting
    Investing and deal advisory

    Capital, plus five perspectives on your side of the table

    I back founders with my own private capital, and I bring in angel groups and VC funds I work with when a round needs more than one cheque. I also buy out long-established businesses and rebuild them with technology on top.

    I bring five perspectives:

    • Operator (Serial Entrepreneur)
    • Team Member (Employee)
    • Funder (Investor)
    • Advisor (Consultant)
    • Scholar (Dual Exec. MBA, York and Strasbourg)

    A dozen investments so far across SaaS, manufacturing and Health Tech.

    Two ways I invest

    Early-stage & scaling companies

    Investing in ambitious companies from the early stages through periods of significant growth. Angel tickets come directly from my own capital, while larger rounds are put together alongside trusted angel groups and investment funds. I look for strong founders, clear market opportunities, and businesses with the potential to become category leaders. The investment can be made at an early stage, when the company is proving its model, or later as it enters a more aggressive scaling phase. The objective is long-term value creation: backing companies with the ambition, market, and fundamentals to grow substantially over time.

    Long-established businesses

    buyout or investment. Companies with decades of history, real customers and tired systems. Options are: Buy them out or Invest, then rebuild the operating model with technology on top so the business fits how the market works now. Owner stays or Owner exits: we agree which one it is before anything is signed. Technology rebuild led by a PhD in IT and myself, with a dedicated engineering team that turns strategy into working systems, automations, and AI.

    In the room with founders and teams

    Working sessions, board rooms, and stages. I engage as an investor, advisor, and sometimes interim operator, depending on what the business needs.

    Silvija Gelevski in a working session with a founding team.
    Silvija Gelevski reviewing data with a team at a workstation.
    Silvija Gelevski on a panel discussion with founders.
    Silvija Gelevski speaking on a startup funding panel.
    Silvija Gelevski presenting startup stages of development.
    Silvija Gelevski presenting sales data to a company team.
    Silvija Gelevski in a training room with a management team.
    Silvija Gelevski moderating a conference session on AI.
    Silvija Gelevski running a workshop with a team of managers.
    Silvija Gelevski in a board room discussion with executives.
    Silvija Gelevski with a leadership team on a production floor.
    Silvija Gelevski leading a session with founders and teams.
    Silvija Gelevski with a student group after a lecture.
    Silvija Gelevski with a certified trainer group at a startup academy.
    Silvija Gelevski moderating a tech conference panel on AI.
    Silvija Gelevski recording a podcast episode in a studio.
    Silvija Gelevski speaking on stage at a startup meetup.
    Silvija Gelevski in a television interview.
    Silvija Gelevski reviewing production data on a factory floor.
    Silvija Gelevski in a working discussion with a company team.
    Silvija Gelevski reviewing product samples with a design team.
    Silvija Gelevski at the Council of Europe chamber in Strasbourg.
    Silvija Gelevski taking notes during a founders roundtable.
    Silvija Gelevski in a small group discussion with founders.
    Silvija Gelevski reviewing a term sheet with a founding team.
    Silvija Gelevski with a full cohort of founders and mentors.

    What I look for

    You do not need to be perfect on all of these. You do need to know where you stand on each one.

    Your differentiator

    What can you do that a well funded competitor cannot copy within six months? Name it in one sentence. If the answer is speed or price alone, we should talk about that first.

    Founders and team

    Why this team for this problem. What you have already shipped, how you handle being wrong, and who is missing from the table right now.

    Diversity

    Mixed teams at founder and leadership level, and a hiring plan that keeps it that way. Homogeneous rooms make the same mistake at the same time.

    Long-term goals

    Where the business is in five years, not only what the next round buys. Whether the ambition is a category leader, a profitable niche, or a trade sale, say it plainly.

    Strategy and focus

    The sequence of moves, and what you are deliberately not doing this year. Focus is easier to fund than optionality.

    Market and timing

    Real market size, who you take share from, and why this works now when it did not three years ago.

    Traction and unit economics

    Revenue, growth rate, retention, gross margin and payback period. Early numbers are fine. Numbers you cannot explain are not.

    Use of funds

    What the money buys, which milestone it reaches, and how long it lasts. Round size should follow the milestone, not the other way around.

    Clean structure and governance

    Cap table, IP ownership, key contracts, and a reporting habit. Messy structure kills more deals than weak numbers.

    Submit your deck

    Everything you send stays private. Fields marked with an asterisk are required.

    Your deck *

    Upload a file or paste a link. At least one is required.

    What happens after you submit

    1

    First read

    I read every deck myself. You get a reply within about two weeks, including a no with a reason.

    2

    Call

    If there is a fit, we take 45 minutes on the business, the team and what the money is for.

    3

    Decision

    A short diligence round, then a clear answer. If it is bigger than an angel ticket, I bring in the groups and funds I work with.

    Advisory

    Separate from investing: Advisory for readiness and exit

    Most companies lose value in the process, not in the business. This advisory work fixes that before you go to market: whether you are raising, selling, or bringing in a partner.

    Readiness diagnostic

    A structured review across finance, operations, technology, legal and people, ending in a ranked gap list with owners and dates.

    Equity story and narrative

    The story and the numbers lined up so they hold under questioning. Deck, model assumptions and the answers to the hard questions.

    Data room build

    Documents, metric definitions and historical clean-up prepared in advance, so diligence runs instead of stalling.

    Operational clean-up

    Processes, systems and reporting that survive a buyer's questions, and keep working after the deal closes.

    Valuation and deal structure

    What actually drives your multiple, what erodes it, and how earn-outs, escrow and preferences change what you take home.

    Investor and buyer approach

    Target list, outreach materials, meeting preparation, and a process run on your timetable rather than theirs.

    Through the process

    Diligence support, negotiation input, and an integration plan ready before the day the deal closes.