ASTROLABE

The Utopia Studio · Team & Culture

Gulf navigators crossed open ocean with a brass disc and the angle of a star. The astrolabe did not tell them where to go — it told them they were still on the line. Every venture is open water; the thesis is our reference point when nothing else holds.

01 // THE TEAM

Roo Rogers

Founding & General Partner

Alina Tuhina

Founding & Managing Partner

Ollie Graham-Yooll

Chief Product & Operations Officer

Karan Pinto

Chief Technology & Growth Officer

Konstantin Behr

Chief Strategy Officer

Shamona Maharaj

Chief Financial Officer

Aly El Shalakany

Venture Partner

JJ Erpaiboon

Head of Portfolio Value Creation

Koleen Ocampo

Head of Operations & Compliance

Ahmad Nazzal

Investment Principal

Steve Prawiromaruto

Senior Investment Associate

Alex San

Associate

James Cannan

Founding Product Engineer

Abdelrehman Mattar

Founding Product Engineer

02 // COMMITMENTS

How we work together.

Operating principles and team values, distilled into commitments we can actually hold each other to.

13 passports · four continents · one studio.

We co-build with domain experts. Not around them.

Fellows are the premise; we are the lever. We translate industry scar tissue into product logic and systems we ship — starting from their reality, not our templates.

We ship to operational systems. Not to the pilot graveyard.

The point is what runs after the demo is forgotten: systems that survive messy data, regulated environments, and operators who will break anything not built properly.

We hold a view and bet the studio that way.

Pods are theses, not folders. We back our position with capital, time, and reputation — and we do not soften a thesis to avoid a hard conversation.

Tell the truth. Hold the trust.

Soft feedback is a disservice. We say the hard thing early, in the open, and we keep our word once we have given it.

Coach the room, not the deck.

We pay attention to the people in front of us before the artifact between us. The fellow's growth is the project; the slide is just a tool.

Build structures that outlast the meeting.

Every system, playbook, and prompt should make the next venture faster. We do not ship effort that evaporates when the call ends.

Humility. Empathy. Challenge. Ambition.

The fellow knows their industry better than we do. Everyone in the room is carrying more than we can see. Soft feedback is a disservice — and we are here to build what would not otherwise exist.

// 04 — THE BAR

We intend to be the best company builder in the world.

Not the best in Doha. Not the best in the Gulf. The best, measured against anyone, anywhere. That is the bar. We are here to close the distance, and we plan to prove it.