| We’re bringing you the scoop on a new Under 30 community member. Up this week: 2026 Under 30 Europe Finance lister Astrid Moullé-Berteaux. She’s based in Paris, where she grew up. And she made the list for her work at venture capital firm Headline, where she focuses on backing AI companies.
The following has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
You’re a VP at Headline. What does this role entail day-to-day? The VP role sits at a real crossroads. It’s challenging and formative at the same time, because you’re expected to do a lot of sourcing without yet having the title of “partner.” But as a VP, you belong to the generation that’s expected to bring a fresh wave of energy and ideas into the firm.
Day-to-day is a mountain of work that never looks the same twice, but includes a lot of cross-functional responsibilities: helping run the team, contributing to LP fundraising, marketing, and you have to be great at due diligence.
What’s an investment deal you’re most proud of being part of? Vizzia was my first deal at Headline, so I have an emotional attachment to that deal. But beyond that, it’s also a company that I find remarkable on several levels. Their thesis is bringing AI to video protection and making it the standard across Europe. It’s tangible, you can see the need in everyday life, the addressable market is obvious, and the demand is enormous.
The product is complex and the go-to-market is just as complex, because the ideal customer profile is one that VC-backed companies have rarely gone after: local authorities, municipalities, mayors, with all the budget constraints and the slow sales and administrative cycles that come with them.
It’s a company making a wild bet, but the founders are exceptional. We invested at Series A, and ten months later they raised a Series B. Now they’re a team of 120 and they’re crushing the market.
You’ve worked at startups, as an investor, and as an analyst. Is there anything your different roles have taught you about business that you now keep in mind every day when looking for new companies to back?
One thing that my experience in M&A and private equity taught me is that when you’re weighing whether to invest in a startup, you have to think about the exit. You have to think long-term.
In VC, the only question that really matters is “how will you return money to your LPs?” That’s it. That’s a consideration we sometimes lose sight of, but it’s the only one that counts, and my more finance-driven roles are what trained me to keep coming back to it.
What are some of the biggest investment trends today? Anything that’s over-hyped or under-hyped?
There’s a real shift in how venture capital is being allocated toward deep tech—from defense, space, robotics, or more hardware-driven plays around things like data centers. Internally at Headline we call this whole space “critical sectors.” It’s everything with a hardware component, which makes the businesses highly defensible.
That said, you shouldn’t over-hype deep tech investing. Not everything labeled “deep tech” is actually backable by a VC, however hyped it may be. I think founders’ ability to raise in deep tech has gone up tenfold compared to a few years ago. But you always have to come back to the first question: How do I return money to my LPs?
It’s essential not to over-hype categories blindly. You have to keep doing the math, because that’s what we’re here for.
What’s the most important thing you look for in the entrepreneurs you invest in? A characteristic? A metric on their pitch deck?
The most important thing is the people. But I don’t want to sell something overly virtuous, like the idea that they have to be deeply human, kind, and so on. Because plenty of founders have shown they’re not exactly paragons of humanity and benevolence, and yet they’ve built exceptional, generational companies.
My point is I want to invest in people who sell you a vision. Outsized ambition, and the ability to sell a relentless vision, those are the two metrics.
Since you were raised and are based in Paris, how would you describe the Parisian AI and startup ecosystem?
The French ecosystem deserves a very French answer. France has genuinely exceptional talent, we have excellent universities, and we have engineers who compete on a global scale.
But I’ll go a step further: There’s a certain notion of French grandeur. Whether it’s justified or not, the French have a certain opinion of themselves and of France. And I think holding that opinion of yourself lets you do great things and aim high, to be a little crazy, to have a certain irrationality, audacity. And that matters, especially in AI companies and the startup ecosystem, which I think is booming.
Outside of work, what’s your favorite hobby?
My hobbies are the ones that empty my head. Literature, for one, has always been a big part of my life thanks to my father. And I don’t mean tech literature like a lot of VCs who spend their holidays reading the Elon Musk biography. While I find that extremely interesting, I read the great classics of French literature. I’m very attached to Victor Hugo and Camus, or I read biographies of major figures like Stendhal.
I feed off these different life stories that also have points of convergence with my own, and they help me grow.
Beyond literature, I run a lot, I do Pilates, I ride horses, I hike, I swim. I dabble in a bit of everything. I’m excellent at none of it, but I’m good at a lot of it, and that versatility keeps me in a state of newness and discovery.
Europe is known for its work-life balance, especially in the summer. What do you do to find that balance?
I’m a very social person, which actually helps in my job. So I like to have summers with what I call “guilty pleasures.” I love going out, letting loose, indulging, and I never regret it.
And then there’s a whole other side of my summer where I go discovering cultures I don’t know. I’ve trekked in Nepal, been to camps in the Amazon, and walked in the desert. And Europe has beautiful countries, too. Scotland is absolutely incredible. Then there are the Balkans, Slovenia, Montenegro, Albania, Georgia, all extraordinary. These countries move me deeply, and they’re still relatively untouched by tourism.
What’s a book or podcast all young founders, investors, or other young leaders should read or listen to?
I dabble in everything, and I’m a huge podcast person. I listen while walking, running, in the car, on the train, on planes, all the time, everywhere, even at home. I genuinely can’t stand silence, so I fill it with podcasts and very little music.
A few I love: “Génération Do It Yourself”; “Silicon Carne,” which is a podcast made by French people living in San Francisco that sheds a lot of light on U.S. and France differences and convergences, with very geopolitical, high-level discussions; and “Invest Like the Best.”
On the newsletter side, I really like Tomasz Tunguz’s newsletter, and Clouded Judgment I always find insightful, with takes that are sometimes orthogonal to the conventional wisdom.
What’s something about you the Under 30 community might not know?
I have a whole set of strange hobbies. I’m fascinated by great apes, orangutans in particular. I’m a huge fan. I’m fascinated by UFOs, a deep fascination with everything paranormal. I’m fascinated by true crime and unsolved cases. That’s my geeky side.
I also love a good Caesar salad. I’m a serious foodie. |
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