Can AI find The New Steve Jobs?
Jacob Graubaek Houlberg, co-founder of Evertrace, on building a founder detection engine used by 250+ VCs to spot exceptional talent early.
Jacob Graubaek Houlberg · Co-Founder at Evertrace · Copenhagen · 41 min · 2026-09-01
About this episode
Evertrace is a Copenhagen-based startup building a founder detection engine for early-stage investors. It monitors real-time data sources to spot exceptional founders before they appear in any startup database. Jacob Graubaek Houlberg is its co-founder.
He started in investment banking, spent time as a consultant at Bain, and then became a VC investor before deciding to build the tool he wished he had on the investing side. His career is a useful case study in moving from advising to building.
What we cover
- How Evertrace detects founders months before they show up in startup databases
- From Bain consultant and VC investor to building tools for the industry he used to work in
- Why spotting founders early is as much about filtering signal as collecting data
- What VCs actually look for before a startup is even incorporated
Key takeaway
The best founders are often invisible to traditional databases. The edge is finding them before they announce themselves.