I’m Alexis Augier, founder and CEO of Vega, the AI-native operating system for alternative asset managers to scale their client operations. Vega has raised c.$30m in funding from Apollo, Motive, Picus Capital, Citi Ventures, and over 60 executives from the alternatives industry.
Prior to founding Vega, I spent seven years as an investment professional at some of the world’s leading alternative investment firms, including Elliott, KKR, and Goldman Sachs.
Ask me anything about my career and working for Vega! I’ll be here until April 26th and will respond to questions intermittently during that time, so don’t worry if I don’t answer immediately.
I would like to ask you, concerning the AI potential. How, about you, the right equilibrium between “AI-Driven”, and “AI-Assisted”? Leaving by a definition of the “good innovation”, as the “innovation capable of combining new services with market integrity, security, and investor protection”, is possibile to define a regulatory framework for this discipline in every Continent? About Bitcoin, above all.
Regarding the major risk of fraud in “transaction banking”, where the major risk, in Europe or in United States? I ask in legal and reputational risks, and about statical terms.
Hey Alexis. Impressive CV. If you weren’t at Vega and were positioning yourself for the future at your previous employers which of Elliott, KKR and Goldman would you choose, and why?
Do you find that your experience in traditional finance helped when building your own startup? It’s my dream to found my own company, but I’m looking for jobs in banking first, and I’m contemplating whether or not to just jump in.
Depends on what you want to do and whether you are more interested in private or public markets. They are all great firms, you can’t go wrong in terms of future positioning.
It is helpful for things like fundraising but finance won’t teach you the day-to-day reality of building a company. If I were you I would work a couple of years in finance for the fundamental training and then spend some time at a high-growth startup to gain more direct experience. You can then decide whether starting a company is for you.
Not directly comparable. Most successful startups are very intense but there is a wide range. It is less about the volume of hours and more about the level of emotional involvement (i.e. if you start your company you will think about it 24/7)
Do you think it’s possible to have a reverse career path to yours? Could I work in a startup for a few years then transition to a more traditional corporate career?
Thank you for your time in doing this. I just wanted to ask you: if you were a fresh-faced student again, with the wisdom and experience you have now, what would you have done differently in your career?
Also… For someone interested in launching a startup like yours, what is the best place to be in the world that is NOT San Francisco?
I assume you’ve got more of a finance background than a tech background prior to working in finance. How does the game change when you’re actually responsible for building the product? Do you find that the lack of engineering skills has held you back at all or is it easy enough to overcome that by hiring the right people around you?
Has that changed at all with AI, and do you find yourself vibe coding at all to get stuff done?
Hi Alexis. I just want to ask - how much of the “fears” about AGI are real? LLMs seem too structurally limited to offer any semblance of actual intelligence but some of the very real timelines and ways CEOs are talking isn’t to be ignored.
Is this something that could really lap us all? Or is this just an expensive marketing campaign?
Don’t think it is about AGI specifically, but anyone starting their career now needs to be almost AI-native, independently of the industry you are focused on
The key is to be able to hire people who complement your skillset and who are rockstars in their field. As an entrepreneur you don’t need to be the best product manager or engineer yourself, but being able to surround yourself with people who are exceptional at these dimensions is a big part of the job.
Don’t think there is much I would have done differently. Perhaps working for a year or two at a high-growth startup would have been beneficial before starting my own.
London is a very good option, so is NYC.
Do you find that there’s any AI fatigue in the startup industry as a result of so many firms using the technology, or do you still find that it’s easy to attract people/investors interested in the technology?
Hello Alexis, It is great to connect with you. I found Vega and your background very impressive, especially the combination of deep alternatives experience and building an AI-native platform for client operations. How does Vega handle the trade-off between LLM flexibility and the need for deterministic, traceable, and compliance-ready workflows when operating across fragmented fund data, investor communications, and internal knowledge systems?
I would love to learn more about your startup and, if possible, have a brief conversation with you about potential opportunities to work with Vega.
I am currently a Mathematics and Economics undergraduate student who is deciding which masters’ programme to do. I have narrowed down my decision to a ‘Finance’ MSc programme and a ‘Financial Analytics and Risk Management’ MSc programme. The two are identically in terms of content.
Essentially, with how similar the programmes are my decision boils down to choosing based off what sounds better on my CV. I am not 100% certain which role within the world of finance I want to pursue, which partly makes me lean towards the broader title of ‘Finance MSc’. However part of me also thinks the ‘Financial Analytics and Risk Management’ title sounds slightly more technical and may differentiate me slighly more at first glance.
I just wanted to hear your thoughts on this matter and any suggestions.