Deciens Connect 2026: Field Notes

Observations from a gathering built around people, not an agenda.

The week before Labor Day, we brought some of the Deciens community together for our second Deciens Connect, this time at Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The goal was simple: close the gap between capital and companies by making room for real relationships.

We kept the guest list intentionally small to give people the space to spend quality time with one another. Founders and investors engaged in morning content sessions, then were joined by their plus-ones for afternoon and evening activities.

Including plus-ones is something we always value. Founders and investors don't operate in a vacuum, and having their significant others share in the experience helped turn professional connections into personal ones.

A Balloon Welcome

We kicked things off outdoors on the farm. Cocktail hour ran straight into a taco dinner under the cottonwoods. As the sun set, we surprised guests with half a dozen small RC-powered hot air balloons, called globitos. They lifted in the field and glowed overhead. It was our own small-scale preview of one of Albuquerque's defining traditions: the International Balloon Fiesta that fills the sky every October. We hope it inspired a few guests to come back someday to experience the real thing.

State of Deciens

The next morning, Dan Kimerling (Founder & Managing Partner) set the scene by putting the current market in context. Deciens launched in 2017, back when "AI" still mostly meant machine learning, and many of today's category-defining companies were already busy building.

Today, AI, looser regulation, and an increasing concentration of capital have made the financial services opportunity larger, not smaller. Deciens has evolved with the market too: operating less as an investor and more as a Third Co-Founder. We are embedded with portfolio teams week to week and steadily growing a network of operators, specialists, and LPs with every fund cycle.

Ishan Sachdev (General Partner) then laid out why it can be more compelling to build actual financial institutions rather than software companies selling into them. Building the institution can unlock bigger markets, better economics, and long-term defensibility that comes from regulation and balance sheets, rather than code alone. Historically, that has been a hard business to build. AI and shifting regulatory landscapes have altered the equation. The opportunity is there, but it requires a rare kind of founder to pull it off.

He brought that thesis to life through two Fund III portfolio companies: June Point Lending and Transparency Analytics. Each is focused on large markets with significant gaps, building differentiated technology from the ground up with AI, and navigating rigid regulatory and competitive hurdles.

Vishal Rana (Partner, Portfolio & Operations) closed by looking across all three funds. Fund I companies are retooling with AI after building in a different era. In discussing Fund II, he pulled an important thread in our core strategy: a few breakouts are proving that a concentrated portfolio with meaningful ownership doesn't require every outcome to be heroic to deliver extraordinary returns. For Fund III, he covered some fast movers already taking shape and a couple of our newest investments.

The Big Conversations & the Smaller Ones

We don't like to hear ourselves talk all day, so we opened the floor to hear from our founders on two panels, before breaking into smaller groups to keep the conversations going.

Building with AI: Lessons from the Field

There's a difference between adding AI to a company and building a company around it. Vishal sat down with three founders - Maijid Moujaled (Chipper Cash), Navya Reddy (Unvault), and Matheus Riolfi (Tint) - who know that difference and have spent the last two years rebuilding from the ground up with AI. The conversation covered how their hiring has changed, the tools they use daily, and how they're generating their own agents to catch issues before customers notice. Something they all agreed on: the engineers adapting best are the ones who see their job as solving problems and not just shipping code.

What Matters in Private Markets Today

Ask anyone in private markets what's changed, and the answer keeps coming back to liquidity. Dan brought together three founders (all CEOs) who work in different corners of the market: Nik Talreja (Sydecar), Andrew Kofman (Parachute), and Michael Brawer (Transparency Analytics). Each is building infrastructure the market lacks. They covered the rise of secondaries and SPVs, the transparency gaps still hiding inside how private credit gets valued, and what it takes to work with regulators racing to keep up.

Breakout Sessions

Two rounds of smaller conversations allowed people to go deeper on whatever they were most curious about. The breakouts included fund and portfolio performance, whether AI and deep tech investing is reshaping startup economics or just inflating valuations, where defensibility comes from once anyone can build software, venture's next chapter as holding periods stretch, and what it takes to raise capital today.

Farm, Fields, and Free Time

The afternoon spread out across the farm. We had two one-hour slots for small-group activities. Each hour had the following activities to choose from: walking tours through the fields and the property's history, a walk-and-talk with Deciens partners in the surrounding neighborhood, a culinary and cocktail tasting of house-made gin with Los Poblanos' MICHELIN-recognized cocktail team and head chef Chris Bethoney, a hands-on weaving workshop led by fiber artist Leigh Oviatt, and restorative yoga in the wellness yurt. There was something for everyone, depending on how they wanted to spend the afternoon.

One Last Toast

Our final evening together called for festive Southwestern attire, and plenty of guests leaned into it. Cowboy boots, brimmed hats, dressed-up denim, and bolo ties made an appearance. People brought the looks, but they brought the energy even more. Conversation continued after the plates were cleared, then moved into the library and carried on over drinks.

And that, to us, is a measure of a successful event: investors and founders who want to keep talking to each other. That's Deciens Connect.

Photos by Alicia Lucia Photography