Line of research
How does generative AI change the creation of new ventures, and what does that mean for founders, for investors and for society?
I work on the topic at two levels. The macro level looks at markets and society. The micro level looks at the people who make the decisions: founders and investors.
The wider picture
How ventures are created
Generative AI changes the dynamics of starting a company: how many companies are created, by whom, with how many people and with how much capital. I am interested in what is really changing and what only appears to change.
Society and work
When a company needs fewer people to exist, the effects go beyond the startup world. Roles change, some positions are no longer created, and more people may have the chance to start something of their own. I want to understand who gains and who loses from this.
The people involved
Founders
The behaviour of founders is changing: why they choose to build alone, how they work with AI and with specialists, and what they aim for. The founders I study are Gen AI solo founders.
Investors
Venture capital firms, angel investors, accelerators and incubators built their playbook when startups needed teams. I study how they are rethinking it, with particular attention to Europe.
How I work
I combine the academic literature with direct contact with founders, investors and startup programmes. My own results will appear in academic journals first. Until then, this site reports on research already published by others, with every source named.
Talk to me
If you invest in startups, run a programme, or are building a company alone with AI, I would like to hear how you see these changes. Write to hello@thesolothesis.com.
Key references
Some of the studies that frame the work so far:
- Cai, J. J., Gu, X., Sheng, L., Xia, M., Zhao, L., & Zhu, W. (2025). AI as "co-founder": GenAI for entrepreneurship (arXiv:2512.06506). arXiv. Preprint, not yet peer reviewed. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.06506
- Carta. (2025). Solo founders report. https://carta.com/data/solo-founders-report
- Dell'Acqua, F., Ayoubi, C., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., Sadun, R., Mollick, E. R., Mollick, L., Han, Y., Goldman, J., Nair, H., Taub, S., & Lakhani, K. R. (2025). The cybernetic teammate: A field experiment on generative AI reshaping teamwork and expertise [Working paper].
- Kim, H., & Kang, H. (2026). Generative AI expands solo entrepreneurial entry, yet team advantage persists (extended abstract). Proceedings of the AAAI Symposium Series, 9(1), 215–216. https://doi.org/10.1609/aaaiss.v9i1.42928
- Wasserman, N. (2012). The founder's dilemmas: Anticipating and avoiding the pitfalls that can sink a startup. Princeton University Press.