🎞️ Since joining the board in 2021, it’s been quite a journey — for the company and for all of us around the table. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside an exceptional group of leaders: thoughtful, resilient, and deeply mission-driven. The kind of people who genuinely believe that doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive — and prove it every day.

Over the past few years, I’ve watched Donkey mature in all the ways that matter: sharpening its strategy, strengthening its operations, sustaining strong growth, reaching profitability, and continuing to build a product that makes cities more livable and sustainable.

That kind of evolution doesn’t happen by accident — it’s the result of consistent, disciplined work by a committed team.

I’m incredibly proud to have been part of this chapter. Grateful for the experience, the conversations, and the people. And excited to see what’s next for Donkey — I have no doubt the best is still ahead.

#DonkeyRepublic

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Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a fundamental shift in how my team and I spend our time. Previously, a big part of our work was analyzing documents, building models, and preparing presentations 🔎

Today, much of that has been replaced by researching, testing, and “training” AI tools to do it for us and optimizing our internal processes based on what we found.

So far, the workload hasn’t decreased (yet). If anything, it has increased. But it feels very different. It feels like we are onboarding and training a very large, very fast-learning team — one that will soon operate at a level of speed and scale we couldn’t achieve before.

📗 To share some tools that made my life easier: GensparkAI is great for presentations and Excel-based modeling, a significant productivity improvement. Microsoft Copilot has been increasingly strong for modeling and presentation preparation. I have worked with AlphaSense for a bit for market and company scans. In addition to public data, they ingest analysts' research reports, company filings, and management calls. Hence, they do well with the analysis of large corporations, but are quite pricy.

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💡 I think that an underrated business use of AI is using it as a company’s contextual memory. A way to make fragmented business information actually usable.

In corporate life, important context rarely lives in one place. A topic starts in a meeting chat. Then continues in several email threads - one for the executive team members and several for different work groups. Then it appears in a presentation. Then gets referenced in a board update. Then six months later, someone needs the latest status — fast. And that’s where work becomes inefficient. Not because the information doesn’t exist. But because it is spread across too many tools, too many formats, and too many moments in time.

In my view, one of the strongest AI opportunities in business is not automation alone, but context orientation. Helping people answer questions like: What is the latest status on this issue? Which document is the most recent one? What decisions were made, by whom, and in what sequence? What still needs follow-up?

That kind of support matters not only for execution teams, but also for leaders, support functions, and anyone who needs to step into a topic quickly before a decision, a meeting, or an escalation. ROI of this is harder to measure than customer support team automation, but leaders know that making institutional knowledge easier to access and act on is invaluable.
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As a leader, your questions define your direction. But there’s a hidden tension: if you ask too many 'exploratory' questions, you can inadvertently signal indecision, put unnecessary pressure on your team to find immediate answers, or simply annoy your colleagues.

For me, one of the biggest gifts of AI was getting the ultimate sparring partner. I’ve found that using an AI agent allows me to 'dwell deeper' into complex subjects—like navigating the current geopolitical shifts, understanding new industries, new technologies, and shifts in strategy —without annoying my colleagues or distracting the team from execution. It helps me uncover the blind spots I’ve missed and the aspects of a problem I simply forgot to consider.

As with people, don't trust everything AI says. It can be wrong. It can be biased. You must double-check the statements. But as a tool for stress-testing your own logic, it is invaluable. It turns 'not knowing' into a private mentor, providing you with a high-speed learning loop.

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I have truly enjoyed my time in Japan. Exploring Buddhist temples provided a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with Buddhist philosophy, including the concept of maintaining a nimble and curious mind.

“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind, there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki

This applies equally to life and business. The greatest risk of experience is the "expert’s trap"—the belief that what worked yesterday is the right way forward, or the assumption that past success guarantees future results.

As we navigate a world where AI is rewriting the rules, our historical expertise is only as valuable as our willingness to unlearn it. True leadership today isn't about having all the answers; it’s about possessing a flexible mindset that stays open to new potential.

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Whenever a company asks me, "What should our M&A strategy be?" my answer is always a question: "What is your company's strategy?"

M&A is not a standalone plan. It is a tool - a specific lever to pull when you face a "Buy vs. Build" decision. If you don't know your destination, you can’t decide if you should build the road or buy the highway.

Once you know where you are going, acquisition becomes a strategic accelerator. You "Buy" instead of "Build" to:
1. Enter a new market years ahead of an organic launch.
2. Achieve a scale that would take years to grow.
3. Buy a new capability, plug a gap in your tech stack or service offering.
4. Defensible move to secure a unique resource before your competitors do.

M&A strategy shouldn't exist in a vacuum. It must be the servant of your company’s direction, not the driver.

First, set the vision. Then, decide if M&A is the right engine to get you there.

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💡 Traditionally, in Corp Dev teams spend 80% of their time on spreadsheets and slides, with only 20% for what actually closes deals: relationships. By using AI, we are flipping that ratio. We’ve offloaded the "grunt work" to unlock our team's premium skills, and here is how we did it.

What AI Does (Speed)
- Pipeline Discovery: Finding and validating targets instantly.
- Instant Analysis: Deep-dives that take minutes, not days.
- Due Diligence: Parsing thousands of pages to find hidden risks.
- Reporting: Drafting pitch decks and investment memos.

What Our Human Team Does (Human relationships and Intuition)
- Seller Rationale: Reading between the lines to find the real reason for a sale.
- Negotiation and deal structuring: Finding the 1+1=3 scenario.
- Cultural Fit: Navigating the human friction of merging two teams.
- Trust Building: Moving a founder from "not for sale" to a handshake.
As a result, a team of 2-3 experienced corp dev people can do what in the past required 10+ people - multiple deals a year, running deals in parallel. And it can do it much faster now.

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Standard due diligence focuses on the WHAT - the Ebitda, the tax liabilities, the legal standing. But even more important is to understand the who and the how.

We conduct Commercial and People Diligence with as much rigor as the financial audit. Because a deal can go wrong even if the numbers were right, but because the organizations couldn't work together post-closing. You can fix a balance sheet, but you can’t easily fix a broken culture.

🔔 Our "Human" Diligence focuses on:
- Decision-making in the organization: How are decisions actually made? Is it a hierarchy or a meritocracy? Is there a strong leadership team or just one leader who calls all the shots?
- The Talent Map: Who are the "quiet influencers" in the target company who will be critical for Day 1 and Month 1? Who is essential to be retained?
- Do we speak the same language: Does their "fast-moving", “best”, and “on time” match our "fast-moving", “best”, and “on time”?

By the time the deal closes, we should already know exactly where the cultural friction points will be - and have a plan to address them.

Deals don’t just die; they rot in the "waiting room" of slow due diligence.  In a fast-moving organization, velocity is a competitive advantage. If your diligence process drags on for months, you don’t just lose momentum—you lose the trust of the target and the window of market opportunity.A nimble Corp Dev team acts as the "Air Traffic Controller" of the deal. While we oversee the Big 4 accounting firms and legal powerhouses, our internal task is to keep the deal moving effectively.How we drive velocity:

• Parallel Processing: We don’t wait for financial diligence to finish before starting cultural or commercial reviews.
• Focus on the "Red Flags," not just the "Checkboxes": We use AI tools to quickly surface anomalies in data, allowing our human experts to focus on the high-impact risks.
• External Management: We treat our outside advisors as an extension of our team, providing clear scopes and aggressive timelines to avoid "scope creep."

Speed should never sacrifice quality, but a well-oiled process ensures that "thorough" doesn't become "slow."

In a competitive landscape, waiting for an investment banker to send you a deck means you’re already in a bidding war. A nimble Corp Dev team doesn’t just "search" for targets; we build relationships with them long before they are ready to sell. We convince them to sell to our buyers by describing a future together that benefits both the seller and the buyer.

Proactive outreach is about finding that "diamond in the rough"—the founder-led company or the specialized boutique that isn't actively looking for an exit but aligns perfectly with your strategic vision.

Why proactive outreach wins:
- Exclusivity: You aren't competing with ten other buyers in an auction.
- Relationship-First: You have time to understand the founder's personal goals and legacy.
- Strategic Fit: You choose the target based on your roadmap, not because a broker put it in your inbox.

It takes more time and "people skills" than a typical transaction, but the ROI on a proprietary deal is almost always higher.

Speaking to some business people with limited M&A experience, I realized that they don’t fully appreciate that as a buyer, you're not just presenting an offer; you're selling the promise of a future. You have to convince a founder of the company you want to buy that you are the right partner to take the keys to their business.

And the seller? They aren't just cashing out. They are buying into your vision. They are making a deeply personal decision that goes far beyond the financial terms on a sheet of paper.
They are asking themselves questions that a financial model can’t fully capture:
- Will you be a true partner during the earn-out period and beyond?
- Will you take care of their team and clients?
- Will you provide their people with new opportunities for professional growth?
- Will you protect their legacy and make them proud of the company they built?

The most successful buyers understand this dual dynamic. They know that to buy the company, they first have to be bought as a partner. It’s the human side of the deal that ultimately makes it a true success.

I've been reflecting on how much I admire truly exceptional M&A lawyers I've had the privilege to work with over the years.

These rare individuals aren't merely legal practitioners - they are demiurges of new business realities building them from logical models and verbal constructs.

While average lawyers operate within existing legal frameworks, these exceptional minds use legal structures as raw material to sculpt entirely new business paradigms. They don't just interpret legal boundaries and document the deal - they transform them into foundations for creation.

The recent acquisition of ACL in Chile has significantly boosted hashtag#DataArt's capabilities in the region. With over 500 talented IT professionals joining our team to deliver innovative solutions, DataArt is now 1000 people strong in Latin America. Building on this momentum and our strengthened global presence, we are now strategically exploring new horizons.

India, with its dynamic tech landscape and an exceptional talent pool, is on our radar as a strategic frontier. I have been involved in business in India for 20 years now and have a large professional network of founders and entrepreneurs from Indian companies. This year, I'm particularly keen to connect with professionals within this vibrant Indian tech ecosystem to exchange insights on market trends, investment opportunities, and potential collaborations.

When a leading Indian IT firm laid off 12,000 employees in July 2025, it revealed an uncomfortable truth: single-skill coding jobs are becoming extinct. But it also unveiled an opportunity that smart companies are already seizing.

Recently, I met with an innovative Indian tech company that's thriving precisely because they rejected the traditional outsourcing model. Their secret? They hire versatile technologists who think like product owners, code like architects, and strategize like consultants. These professionals don't just execute tasks - they solve complex business problems that AI can't touch.

The Indian tech ecosystem is undergoing a profound transformation. While anti-globalization policies and AI automation threaten traditional service models, they're also catalyzing a shift toward higher-value, diverse talent. Forward-thinking companies are already pivoting to new markets, with some experiencing explosive growth by serving regions beyond the US. The message is clear: in an AI-dominated future, human creativity, adaptability, and cross-functional expertise become the ultimate differentiators.

The question isn't whether Indian IT will survive — it's how quickly it can evolve.

“Wrapping up an incredible week filled with learnings, experiences, and fresh ideas that keep inspiring us to grow. It’s been a week full of meaningful conversations, new opportunities taking shape, and above all, great moments shared with amazing people — talented professionals, generous with their insights and full of positive energy.
This shows the strong commitment and drive from DataArt and ACL to advance technology, AI, and data across Latin America.
Big thanks to everyone for making it an amazing experience — and to all who traveled to be part of it!”

Ignacio Portus
CFO & COO at ACL

Over the past few years, I’ve had more and more conversations with founders in Central Europe - and Poland keeps coming up. Quietly, it’s reshaping its economy in ways that are hard to ignore.

On a purchasing-power-parity basis, hashtag#Poland’sGDP per capita has nearly caught up with Japan’s - roughly $49K vs $50K (IMF 2024). That means the average Pole can now buy almost as much as the average person in Japan. Ten years ago, that would’ve sounded impossible.

You can feel the momentum: €45 B in EU SAFE loans for defense, a new offshore wind project, €1B+ in e-health, and steady 3.9% GDP growth. The IT sector alone is projected to hit $31.6 B in 2025.
For founders, this isn’t just data — it’s an invitation. Poland combines world-class talent, competitive costs, and a stable, forward-looking economy.

I believe the next wave of scalable IT growth may start not in Silicon Valley, but in Warsaw.

At a recent roundtable with a Head of Corporate Development and a Head of Business Development from private equity, we compared how differently strategics and private equity approach deal sourcing PE firms are hunters. They build relationships early, follow companies for years, and often structure deals directly — before anyone else knows those companies are “for sale.”

Most strategics, meanwhile, wait for bankers to bring them deals — often overpriced, crowded, and often filtered in ways that make the real story of the business harder to see. And in doing so, they miss out on approaching great companies that never hire bankers at all.

Last year, I decided to change that for DataArt. We launched a proactive outreach campaign — one that led to DataArt’s acquisition of ACL in Chile earlier this year. A year later, ACL is having one of its best years ever, growing at double-digit rates. It’s a good reminder that the best transactions often start long before the formal process begins — with a conversation, a shared idea, and the initiative to reach out first.

Recently, I had the honor of hearing HBS Professor Ranjay Gulati speak about his new book, How to Be Bold: Courage in Times of Change. If you are looking to be inspired - add it to your must read list!

I joined today because, like many of us, I’ve been feeling unsettled by the speed of change — in geopolitics, technology, and the global order itself. The world as we know it is changing ever faster, and what’s ahead feels increasingly unclear to most. This year, CEOs have used the word uncertainty three times more than ever before! Mitigating known risks is science — but planning for unknown outcomes can feel impossible. And it’s scary. But as Dr. Gulati reminded, “Just because you are scared does not mean you do nothing.”

As business and community leaders, we must summon our courage — and help those around us do the same. It doesn’t mean we are fearless; it means we make a conscious choice to act despite fear. Winston Churchill once said, “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”

Courage, however, is not recklessness. Jumping into the unknown without thought is unforgivable for a leader. Yet waiting on the sidelines, hoping for clarity, often leads to stagnation — or decline. True courage is taking disciplined, thoughtful steps into the unknown. Small, deliberate actions that move us — and those we lead — forward, one decision at a time.

Thank you, Professor Gulati, for reminding us that courage is a skill we can practice — not just a trait we inherit.

After a challenging 2 years for the IT services industry, it is refreshing to see forecasts eyeing 2026 with cautious optimism. While some firms are already feeling the upswing, others are still navigating the headwinds. But who will actually capture this returning demand? This disparity got me thinking about the survival playbooks companies often use during recessions.

There are two extremes:
The Cutters:
Firms that slash expenses so deeply they lose their competitive edge.
The Deniers:
Firms that maintain a culture of toxic optimism, ignoring budgetary realities until it’s too late.

Neither approach yields long-term winners. The most resilient companies take a dual approach. They make the hard decisions to streamline operations and remove inefficiencies (defense), but they simultaneously double down on future growth (offense). They reallocate the capital saved from operational improvements into the areas that actually drive value: R&D and strategic marketing. By staying close to evolving customer needs, these companies ensure that when the market rebounds, they aren’t just lighter—they are faster and more capable.