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Slava Solonitsyn
Changing construction via Automation & 3D Printing
Slava Solonitsyn is the CEO and Co-Founder of Mighty Buildings, a construction technology company based in Oakland, California. He is recognized for his innovative approach to addressing the housing crisis through the use of 3D printing, advanced materials, and robotic automation. Mighty Buildings aims to create beautiful, affordable, and sustainable homes while significantly reducing carbon emissions associated with traditional construction methods.
Background and Experience
Slava has a diverse background as an investor, entrepreneur, and inventor. Before founding Mighty Buildings in 2017 alongside Dmitry Starodubtsev, he held various positions, including managing partner at EnchantVC and roles in marketing and strategy at Touchjet. His entrepreneurial journey also includes participation in Y Combinator, a prominent startup accelerator.135
Mission and Achievements
Under Solonitsyn's leadership, Mighty Buildings has developed a near-zero waste production process that prevents between 1,100 to 2,000 kg of CO2 emissions per 3D-printed home. The company is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2028, positioning itself as a leader in sustainable construction practices—22 years ahead of the industry standard.23 Notably, Mighty Buildings was the first to achieve certification under California's Factory Built Housing program and the UL 3401 standard for evaluating building structures.1
Vision for the Future
Slava Solonitsyn emphasizes the importance of innovation in tackling the dual challenges of housing shortages and climate change. His vision includes transforming how homes are built by leveraging technology to produce carbon-neutral housing solutions that are both efficient and environmentally friendly.23
For more information about his work and insights, you can connect with him on LinkedIn under the username solonitsyn.4
Highlights
🙋 Why I started Socap.ai (YC W23) as the top YC founder and what’s next
Thanks all for the support during last week’s Socap.ai (YC W23) announcement! A lot of you were curious why I decided to start it after transitioning from CEO to a Board Member at Mighty Buildings (a top Y Combinator company) — here’s why 👇
I’m a rare founder who has been at the other side of the venture table (just to remind you, I started as a VC having founded a number of firms — Ruvento Ventures, EnchantVC, and HaxAsia to name a few — and have famously invested in 2 unicorns out of 17 seed investments while at Ruvento).
Being a VC was fun and all, but I wanted a more interesting challenge. When we started Mighty, I couldn’t have imagined how complicated this road would be. As a deep tech company, we needed to raise A LOT of funding and needed to raise it fairly quickly. So far, Mighty has raised over $150M all the way from YC W16 to Series B in 2023.
During this journey, I learned from the best of the best — at the YC Series A program and from the unicorn founders who have angel invested in us/advised us. Hundreds of people have helped me along the way with their generous feedback and, most importantly, intros/connections. I don’t think we would have been able to get there if not for my meticulous approach to parallel fundraising and activating/growing my social capital.
I started Socap.ai (YC W23) because I grew tired of seeing founders completely misunderstanding what the successful fundraise looks like as well as lacking a quality way of growing their network. Oftentimes it’s a one-time opportunity and if you fuck up the process, that’s it. My mission with this is to change the mindset and make it 10x easier with the help of AI and the right kind of infrastructure (e.g. community).
The tech startups scene and fundraising as the use-case is just the beginning for Socap.ai (YC W23) — I, my partner Alexander Nevedovsky, and our team (former VC associates and finance leaders) are so well-connected and well-versed in this beachhead market segment, that it would be stupid to start anywhere else, especially seeing founders pain every single day (I get around 50 connection requests daily from founders seeking help).
I’m proud that along with the official Socap.ai announcement we have started hosting regular Socap.ai fundraising bootcamps as the initiative where founders can learn from me and a slew of other top founders (Abakar Saidov, Aaron Holm, Michael Ma, Salman Ahmad, Sly Spencer-Lee, Eric Sanchez to name just a few, there are dozens more whom I'll tag in the coming posts) — for free. We’re pioneering a more streamlined way for these top founders to share their social capital and help companies/founders they like, all powered by the AI platform we’re currently beta testing.
Excited to kick off our bootcamp cohort #1 this Thursday — we’ve already started sending out first cohort acceptance letters — check them out if you applied!
#fundraising #startups #socap
Opportunity alert — over the last few months I’ve been doubling down on my fundraising experience ($180M+ raised for my startups, 2 unicorns from my seed investments) and want to find a scalable way of giving back to fellow founders 🚨
I’m so tired of seeing founders misunderstanding what a successful fundraise looks like. Oftentimes it’s a one-time opportunity and if you fuck up the process, that’s it.
That’s why I decided to partner with Alexander Nevedovsky from FundraisingHackers and do a collaborative Seed+/Series A fundraising bootcamp. We’ll start with the experimental cohort this February and keep doing this on an ongoing basis if it works well ⏭️
My mission with this is to change the mindset and help founders build a fundraising process that yields results: parallel fundraising, maximally concentrated in time, with lots of warm leads, and at the right moment.
If you’re currently raising your institutional seed/Series A (or planning to do that in the next ~3 months), sign up using the link in the comments. We’ll have a short screening call (there will be a selection process) and take it from there 💬
⏱️ The start date is on the 12th of February 👉 For more info, visit the link in the comments 🏷️ Tag a friend who’s currently raising and might benefit from this
PS: Are any of my more experienced friends interested to come and share their stories and hacks as the private Q&A? DM me!
