Earlier this summer we brought together our portfolio founders for our annual Big Dog Founders Summit to exchange ideas, strengthen connections, and explore shared opportunities and challenges.

Why do we call it Big Dog?

Adara Ventures takes its name from a constellation of twin stars called Canis Major, which translates to Big Dog. The "Adara" star is the 22nd-brightest star visible during the night, shining 30,000 times brighter than the Sun. We like to say that the founders in our portfolio form the Big Dog constellation. And as in any constellation, the connections between the stars (founders) reinforce the bigger picture and help founders to shine even brighter individually.

Connecting founders and sharing insights

We kicked things off with a warm welcome from our Founding Partner, Nico Goulet, before diving into a packed agenda that explored one of the most transformative forces in tech today: artificial intelligence.

Arun Subramaniyan, CEO and Founder of Articul8, set the tone with a session on AI strategy and where startup founders should focus their attention. 

We then heard from Daniel Lopez, CEO and Co-Founder of Endor, who shared his perspective on reinventing software development with AI. 

Ángel Márquez, CTO and Co-Founder of Quality Clouds, followed with insights on how to rethink product design in the age of generative AI.

After a short break, the focus shifted to perspectives from investors and partners. Jorge Nogales, Head of Customer Engineering for Digital Natives at Google, gave us a deep dive into how Google sees AI shaping industries. 

Andrea Traversone, Managing Partner at NATO Innovation Fund, shared his take on scaling, raising capital, secondaries, and exits. 

We then heard a candid founder story from Sanjin Goglia and Gianni Baroni, CFO and CEO of Cyber Guru, about the lessons learned from their $25 million Series B funding and their first acquisition.

Workshops and collaboration

In the afternoon, we split into breakout groups where founders could exchange experiences more directly regarding scaling, fundraising, and go-to-market challenges.

An evening to celebrate

We closed the day with dinner and drinks, overlooking Madrid’s skyline. It was the perfect setting to wrap up an intense and inspiring day of learning and connection.

Thank you

We’re grateful to all of our speakers, portfolio founders, and partners for making Big Dog 2025 such a success. These moments of open dialogue and shared experience are what make our constellation shine.

Until next time! 💫