Why I chose to start this journal

My name is Bogdan Irina, I was born in 1975 and together with my wife we have three wonderful children. Family is the greatest achievement of my life and the point of balance in everything I do.

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What defines me professionally?

First of all, my over 25 years at Bitdefender.

I was part of the team that started with an idea and contributed, alongside exceptional colleagues, to its transformation into a global technology brand.

Over time, I coordinated key business areas and led the company's operations globally for many years, developing marketing, sales and product teams in key markets such as the USA, Western Europe and, of course, Romania.

Today I am the COO and a member of the executive team, and I currently lead the consumer business unit.

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Between discretion and visibility

Although I have always had an active role in building and leading a global brand, I have preferred to remain discreet and let the results speak for themselves. I have never given interviews and have avoided public exposure.

Today, however, I feel the need to tell the story directly, in my own voice.

Not for personal visibility, but because I am starting an entrepreneurial journey where transparency and authenticity matter.

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The birth of a new project

In parallel with my role at Bitdefender, I chose to personally invest in a project in a completely different area: hospitality.

This is how IL TACCHINO was born, a soul project that combines my passion for building a business with the pleasure of exploring tastes and culinary experiences.

Other projects are on my radar for the future and might become reality in the next years.

For me, the two paths are not in competition, but complementary – in one I lead, alongside an extraordinary team, operations worth hundreds of millions of euros and coordinate hundreds of people, in a company that has become one of the most well-known and used Romanian brands in the world; the other gives me the freedom to start from scratch and build, step by step, a new concept.

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Responsibility and future

I am grateful for the chance to have gained experience and resources during all these years of work.

That's precisely why I feel the responsibility to build something relevant in Romania, that will matter, over time, and globally.

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Why am I writing?

For me, writing is a form of clarity.

I don't intend to give lessons. They are just my stories, and if someone sees them as a drop of inspiration or as a source of knowledge and information, then this diary has achieved its purpose.

Where I see AI market today and why I believe the moment for accelerated growth and adoption is only a few years away?

I've been getting questions for a while about where I think the AI market is and how it will evolve. The question is not just theoretical – the answer also defines the right time to launch investment projects dedicated to this area.

Of course, the answer depends on the risk profile and investment portfolio of each entity. If we are talking about experimentation, market learning and technological innovation, the time is now! – and in fact, this stage has already begun a few years ago.

However, I will continue to refer to growth investments, after validating technologies and business models.

Two fundamental landmarks

To explain where I think we are now, I refer to two classic theses:

📖 Crossing the Chasm – Geoffrey Moore – the theory that shows how difficult it is for a technology to move from early adopters (enthusiasts) to early majority (pragmatic users, who only adopt when there is a clear ROI).

📊 Gartner Hype Cycle – the model that describes the stages of perception of an innovation:

• Technology Trigger – the moment when innovation occurs

• Peak of Inflated Expectations – hype and exaggerated promises

• Trough of Disillusionment – disappointment, when reality doesn't keep up

• Slope of Enlightenment – the first solid and scalable applications

• Plateau of Productivity – maturation and widespread adoption

  
  

Where are we now

Today, in my opinion, AI is somewhere between crossing the chasm and trough of disillusionment. The initial enthusiasm (2022–2023) led to a huge wave of startups and funding, but many quickly died out.

At present:

• Investment funds have become more selective and are looking for real product-market fit.

• Big companies experiment, but they demand measurable ROI, not just “cool demos.”

• The infrastructure (cloud, GPUs, open-source models, regulation) is consolidating, but it is still far from mature.

In other words, the hype has passed, the disappointments are visible, and the market is entering a filtering phase.

What's next?

If we look at the history of other technological waves (cloud, mobile apps, cybersecurity), we see a pattern: the initial hype is followed by a few years of disappointment and consolidation, then the first solid applications appear and enter the mainstream.

In all these cases, the transition from hype to early majority generally took 3–5 years.

That's why I believe that AI will also enter the pragmatic adoption phase (early majority) between 2027 and 2029. That's when we will see companies that truly scale, on validated business models and with clear ROI.

Conclusion

This is also the reason why I chose to see the launch of a dedicated AI fund – NextAi Capital – as a project for the future, not the present. I believe that the optimal time to enter the market will only be when the hype has settled and the real colors of accelerated growth will appear.

I wrote more about the model I envisioned for this fund in this article about NextAi Capital .

NextAI Capital – a growth ecosystem for AI tech companies

In recent years, I've been thinking about future projects, one of which combines two things I believe in deeply: the extraordinary potential of artificial intelligence and the experience I've accumulated in building and scaling an international business.

It's not a plan for now. I see this project as an initiative that I would like to start in the next 2, maybe 3 years. But I think it's important to start shaping it, to find the right partners, because the direction in which the AI market is evolving shows that then will be the right window.

Why NextAI Capital?

The AI market is at a pivotal point. After the hype phase and the first disappointments (peak of inflated expectations → trough of disillusionment), the stage where companies with real value will start to scale will follow. I believe this transition to early majority will take place in the next 3–5 years.

I wrote in more detail about how I see the evolution of AI and where I think we are now in this dedicated article

NextAI Capital Model – Growth Ecosystem

The NextAI Capital project aims to be a niche, specialized investment fund dedicated to technology companies that have AI as a core component of their business model and rely on AI technologies.

It will invest through minority stakes in companies in the Series A or B phase - companies with an MVP (Minimum VIable Product) already validated on the market, but still at the beginning of the journey, which need smart capital and know-how to start or accelerate their international growth.

The goal is not to take control, but to partner: we support founders to take the business global.

Four pillars define this model:

1. Smart Capital – targeted financing for growth companies.

2. Strategic Know-how – hands-on expertise in business, finance, legal, sales and marketing.

3. Shared High Profile Resources – access to premium resources (marketing, brand, legal, validated consultants) at modest costs.

4. Gateway to the Big League – a path to international funds, clients (from consumers to enterprises) and global markets.

More than capital - a growth ecosystem

In my experience, it's not the money that makes the difference, but how you know how to use it. Growing companies need more than funding: they need a growth ecosystem that provides them with strategic support, shared resources, and access to international opportunities.

NextAi Capital wants to be exactly that: more than a fund, a partner for AI-based technology companies that want to take the step from local validation and technological innovation to global scaling.

Conclusion

It is not a project for now, but it is one that I believe in and that I see coming to life soon, exactly when the market will be ready for acceleration. Of course there is a long way to go, now is the idea, the planning and structuring phase will follow and of course the identification of partners for this project. It will not be a project that I will build alone, I will need the right partners with whom we can offer this vital ecosystem for international growth and expansion.

👉 NextAI Capital – Growth Ecosystem. Smart Capital. Shared Resources. Global Access.