VC Industry Growth Survey

WIND Ventures is running their sixth annual VC industry growth survey (brief 3-minute survey on VC sector growth outlook). Results will be shared with participants, who can also enter a raffle to win a $250 Amazon gift card.

VC Industry Growth Survey

2025 VC Compensation Survey

EVCA is running the 2025 VC Compensation Survey: a brief, anonymous 8–10-minute survey on salary, bonus, and carry. Results will be shared on EVCA.org.

2025 Compensation Survey

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• On what actually predicts YC startup success - Jared Heyman of Rebel Fund, reveals the top statistical predictors of seed-stage success based on machine-learning analysis, demonstrating that a founder’s execution velocity vastly outweighs early revenue or market size

• The Future of Venture Capital: Unlocking Liquidity and Growth - Ilya Strebulaev of Stanford Business School, highlights the massive liquidity gap in modern venture portfolios, offering a comprehensive roadmap for restoring capital recycling to fund the next generation of transformative startups

• Harnessing Conviction - Dan Gray of The Odin Times, examines why track records are often overrated in early-stage venture, offering a blueprint for how limited partners can effectively assess and back high-potential emerging fund managers

• Biotech Is Entering Its Netflix Era - Matt Shlosberg of Deep Origin, draws an insightful parallel between media streaming and modern drug development, explaining how the rise of modular tech platforms and specialized outsourcers is lowering the barrier to entry for lean, asset-light biotech startups

• What Investing in Software Looks Like in 2026 - Christoph Janz of Point Nine, analyzes the erosion of traditional SaaS defensibility and discusses how the democratization of code and hyper-productive engineering teams are forcing investors to change how they evaluate early-stage software companies

Events

• Boston Tech Week | May 26-31 | Boston, MA

• AI DevSummit | May 27–28 | San Francisco, CA

• Snowflake Summit | Jun 1–4 | San Francisco, CA

• New York Tech Week | Jun 1-7 | New York, NY

• Databricks Data + AI Summit | Jun 15–18 | San Francisco, CA

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Analyst - BMW i Ventures | Bay Area, CA

• Associate - Woven Capital | Palo Alto, CA

• Investment Manager - AMD Ventures | Santa Clara, CA

• Senior Investment Associate - Applied Ventures | Santa Clara, CA

• Pinegrove Venture Partners is hiring an Associate / Senior Associate in San Francisco. Email Dave to apply: dave@pinegrove.vc

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

For membership inquiries, please contact membership@evca.org.

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The NVCA’s freshly released 2026 Yearbook puts it plainly: AI accounted for 65% of all deal value last year, nontraditional investors (sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, corporates) drove 83% of investment value, and 859 unicorns now sit on $4.34T in paper value with exits still slow to materialize. More money, fewer deals, and a liquidity dam that hasn’t broken yet.

For emerging investors, that’s actually the interesting part. The companies that aren’t frontier AI labs still need capital, conviction, and operators who understand their businesses. That gap, between the mega-rounds dominating headlines and the rest of the market, is where this community earns its edge.

With that, let’s get into it.

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Andrew St. Clair of Prosperity7 Ventures as our featured investor of the EVCA community

Andrew is an Investor with Prosperity7 Ventures, specializing in deep tech and AI infrastructure. Some of his notable investments include Groq, Together.ai, Gimlet Labs and Upscale AI. He joined Prosperity7 in 2024 after 2 years with Barclays’ Technology Investment Banking team in Menlo Park, CA. A BYU finance graduate, Andrew enjoys golfing, weightlifting, motorcycle riding, snowboarding, and is a Washington Commanders season ticket holder.

Read the Interview

EVCA Leaders: Los Angeles Chapter Co-Lead, Nancy Ertman

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what’s going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible

Nancy Ertman is a Vice President on the investment team at Pinegrove focused on tech investments across enterprise software, defense and deep tech, fintech, and digital health. Prior to Pinegrove, Nancy was a private equity investor at K1 Investment Management, and before that was an investment banking analyst at Barclays. Nancy is actively involved in sourcing, diligence, and portfolio strategy across early and growth-stage investments. She has co-led the Los Angeles chapter of the Emerging Venture Capital Association (EVCA) and is based in Los Angeles.

Read the Interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• SaaS 2.0: When the Software Becomes the Worker - Serhat Pala of NuFund Venture Group and Cross Ocean Ventures, explores the shift from "software as a tool" to "software as a service-provider," explaining how AI-driven platforms are moving beyond workflow management to actually performing the labor and delivering end results

• Why Women Don’t Make Partner in Venture Capital - Annika Bautista, Sarah Luna Mongin, and Lauryn Mwale of Baby VC, delve into why women rarely reach partner level in VC despite strong representation in junior and non-investing roles, highlighting systemic challenges around deal access, founder preferences, unequal task allocation, and reputation compounding that disproportionately disadvantage female investors

• How to Think Like a VC Part VII: Visions of the Future - Nicholas Moryl of Recursive Industries, analyzes the specific mental frameworks venture capitalists use to distinguish between fleeting trends and inevitable technological shifts, teaching readers how to "predict the traffic jam, not just the car."

• The Case for Venture Capital in an Age of Exponential Innovation - Michael Burnett of Fuel Ventures, argues that venture capital is more relevant than ever in an era of exponential innovation driven by AI, compute, and deep tech

• Gen Z Is Turning Against AI - And What that means for AI led Startups? - Sayanee Bhowmik of Startupbootcamp, examines the rising tide of “AI fatigue” among Gen Z consumers and discusses why startups must pivot from purely automated experiences toward “human-centric” models to maintain brand trust

Events

• Google Cloud Next | Apr 22–24 | Las Vegas, NV

• ICLR 2026 | Apr 23–27 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Milken Institute Global Conference | May 3–6 | Beverly Hills, CA

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Associate, Cyber – Primary Venture Partners | New York, NY

• Analyst – 500 Global | Bay Area, CA

VC Unlocked: AI Edition by 500 Global

As AI becomes increasingly central to venture investing, 500 Global has designed a focused program for experienced investors and fund managers who want to deepen their AI expertise and sharpen their ability to identify, evaluate, and invest in high-quality AI startups.

This 4-day, in-person program conducted in the San Francisco Bay area aims to spark meaningful dialogue and challenge conventional thinking. Through curated discussions and contrarian debates, the program seeks to help investors gain confidence in evaluating AI startups while connecting them with global AI funds, founders, and ecosystem partners.

Hear from a carefully selected lineup of some of the leading AI investors and practitioners who are actively shaping the future of the AI ecosystem. Applications are open through April 30 for the June 1–4 program. Learn more!

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

For membership inquiries, please contact membership@evca.org.

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

For many of us, this moment underscores the need for discipline: how to underwrite strategies that can hold up if windows stay short and volatility elevated, how shifting geopolitical risks and energy dynamics change where capital wants to be, and how to separate durable, scaled businesses from more speculative bets in today’s AI cycle. With those questions in mind, let us dive into this month’s EVCA newsletter.

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Caoimhe MacRunnels of Reach Capital as our featured investor of the EVCA community

Caoimhe invests in early-stage healthcare technology at Reach Capital, driven by a deep passion for championing entrepreneurs who solve society's toughest challenges. She began her professional journey as an investment banking analyst at Bank of America before moving to growth investing at Adams Street Partners. In 2023, she joined Reach Capital, bringing her analytical rigor and empathetic, founder-first mindset to back entrepreneurs transforming healthcare, education, and work. She holds a B.S. in Applied & Computational Mathematics & Statistics from the University of Notre Dame.

Read the Interview

EVCA Leaders: New York Chapter Lead, Manu Sharma

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what’s going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible

Manu Sharma is a Vice President at OCA Ventures, where he focuses on early-stage investing across enterprise software, fintech, and emerging AI-driven markets. Prior to OCA, he invested at Tusk Venture Partners and was a founding team member at Dallas Venture Capital, where he helped back and support enterprise technology companies. He brings a blend of investing, company-building, and operating experience, with a particular interest in businesses operating at the intersection of technology, regulation, and large real-world industries. Manu earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his BBA from Texas A&M University.

Read the Interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• The SaaS Bloodbath: Opportunities and Perils for Investors – Kevin Zhang outlines how the current SaaS drawdown is exposing which businesses rely on undifferentiated software versus those positioned to benefit from AI‑driven productivity gains and structural constraints that can support durable growth

• Companies that should exist - Anastasia Gamick of Convergent Research, makes the case for a new class of companies that could profitably solve pressing global challenges, yet they go unrealized due to mismatched expectations around returns, timelines, and risk

• Autopsy of the Agrifood–Climate Tech Collapse – Eugen Kaprov analyzes more than 100 agrifood‑climate tech failures since 2023, showing how optimistic scaling assumptions, misaligned venture timelines, weak unit economics, and infrastructure bottlenecks collectively erased roughly $50B in value across the sector

• Build vs. Buy in the Age of AI - Brett Calhoun of Redbud VC, highlights how AI is flipping build vs. buy economics; driving more internal tool development for differentiation, squeezing margins on generic SaaS, and boosting moats built on regulation, proprietary data, or deep workflow integration

• The Cannibalization of the AI Stack – Andrew St. Clair of Prosperity7 Ventures shows how the three-layer AI stack is collapsing into vertically integrated hyperscalers, compressing margins across the stack and positioning players like SpaceX/xAI, Nvidia, and Tesla to own end‑to‑end “energy‑to‑intelligence” pipelines

Events

• Nvidia GTC | Mar 16–19 | San Jose, CA

• Tech Weekend | Mar 20–21 | Menlo Park, CA​

• 3rd Coast Venture Summit | Mar 10–12 | New Orleans, LA​

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Investment Associate, Azolla Ventures in Boston, MA​

• Senior Manager – Visa Ventures, Visa in San Francisco, CA​

• CVC Senior Investment Associate, Voy Ventures in San Francisco, CA​

• Analyst/Associate, Equal Ventures in New York, NY​

VC Unlocked: AI Edition by 500 Global

As AI becomes increasingly central to venture investing, 500 Global has designed a focused program for experienced investors and fund managers who want to deepen their AI expertise and sharpen their ability to identify, evaluate, and invest in high-quality AI startups.

This 4-day, in-person program conducted in the San Francisco Bay area aims to spark meaningful dialogue and challenge conventional thinking. Through curated discussions and contrarian debates, the program seeks to help investors gain confidence in evaluating AI startups while connecting them with global AI funds, founders, and ecosystem partners.

Hear from a carefully selected lineup of some of the leading AI investors and practitioners who are actively shaping the future of the AI ecosystem. Applications are open through April 30 for the June 1–4 program. Learn more!

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

For membership inquiries, please contact membership@evca.org.

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

It is a moment that reinforces why communities like EVCA exist, as a place for emerging and early-career investors to connect, support one another, and share what they are learning in real time. Together, we aim to foster a community where ideas, experience, and perspective can be shared openly, especially as constraints encourage focus and conviction.

If there is anything you would like to see highlighted, from fund milestones to opportunities to community updates, we would love to hear from you.

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Austin Hwang of ADVentures as our featured investor of the EVCA community

Austin Hwang is a Principal at ADVentures, the corporate venture arm of Analog Devices, where they invest globally in early-stage startups pioneering solutions in Advanced Systems & Robotics, Climate/Energy, and Human Health. Before joining ADVentures, Austin spent three years at Honda Xcelerator Ventures, sourcing and investing in strategic deep-tech startups. Previously, Austin was an operator for seven years across pressure sensor and enterprise AI startups, including serving as Co-founder and COO of LearningPal (acquired by Ripcord). Austin holds a BEng Biochemical Engineering from University College London and an MSc Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford.

Read the interview

EVCA Leaders: New York Chapter Lead, Jessica Hayes

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what’s going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible

Jessica Hayes is a Vice President at AVP, a €2.5bn+ independent multi-stage investment platform focused on high-growth technology companies across Europe and North America. She focuses on Series A and B investments in enterprise software, including infrastructure and security, as well as vertical AI across healthcare, fintech, and industrials. Previously, Jessica was a private equity investor at Ares Management and an investment banker at Moelis & Company. Born in China and raised in Texas, she studied finance and pre-med at the University of Texas at Austin. Outside of work, she enjoys practicing yoga, reading philosophy, and playing a good game whether on a screen or around a table.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• The Great Recalibration: The 2026 Pivot from Generalist Wrappers to Sovereign Application Layers and Industrialized Services - Anuj Sadani of Infrrd, argues that the AI “wrapper” era is ending and why the real winners will be teams building deep, defensible application layers and industrial-grade AI services

• The Capital Bias: Why Money Flows to Easy Innovation — and Humanity Pays the Price - Olga Krupskaya of Avin Family Office, reflects on how capital consistently gravitates toward easy, low‑risk innovation and the societal consequences of underinvesting in harder, high‑impact technological progress

• The Reserves Paradox - Dan Gray of Odin and Credistick, breaksdown how large cash reserves can reshape founder behavior, organizational decision‑making, and long‑term company performance in ways that aren’t always intuitive

• Episode 11: The River of Dreams — Navigating the Rapids of Venture Capital -Michael Wooten of Redwood Pacific Management, delves into the shifting venture landscape and the challenges founders face in an increasingly unpredictable funding environment

Events

• Tech Weekend | January 23-24 | San Francisco

• Alleycon | Feb 13 | New York

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Investor, Inspired Ventures in New York, NY

• Climate & Energy Investor, Equal Ventures in New York, NY

• Associate, Mana Ventures in San Francisco, CA

• Principal, Sanofi Ventures in Cambridge, MA

• Investment Principal, Prosperity7 Ventures in Palo Alto, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

As we look toward the end of 2025, gratitude feels like the right place to begin. It has been a challenging year across venture, with slower deployment, tighter fundraising conditions, and higher bars for both founders and funds. Yet throughout it all, this community continued to show up with thoughtful co-investments, candid perspectives, and steady optimism about where the industry is heading.

Thank you, as individuals, for the time, energy, and generosity you have invested in one another, from sharing career inflection points to supporting quick diligence and references, and opening doors for emerging and aspiring investors across the EVCA network. We wish you a restorative break, meaningful time with friends and family, and the space to enter 2026 with renewed clarity and conviction about the kind of investor, colleague, and community member you want to be. We look forward to building an even more connected, collaborative, and resilient EVCA community in the year ahead!

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Brian Litvak of Ibex Investors as our featured investor of the EVCA community

Brian Litvak is a Vice President at Ibex Investors, an alternative investment manager with geographic and thematic venture capital and hedge fund strategies. He works on Ibex’s early-stage Mobility VC strategy, partnering with founders pursuing large opportunities in mobility, manufacturing, and logistics. Previously, he was at Aster Capital, a VC firm focused on energy, mobility, and industrial technologies. Brian got his start in venture through an internship while pursuing his master’s in energy markets at ESCP, where he studied across multiple countries and indulged in perhaps one too many French pastries.

Read the interview

EVCA Leaders: Atlanta Chapter Lead, Yasho Singh

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what’s going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Yasho Singh is an Investor at Catalyst by Wellstar, the venture firm and innovation company of Wellstar, one of the largest health systems in the Southeastern U.S. He focuses on pre-seed to Series A investments in deep tech, AI, sustainability, healthcare, and supply chain, and is also involved in launching new startups through Catalyst’s venture studio initiatives. Previously, Yasho helped build autonomous vehicles at Nuro, a robotics startup valued at six billion dollars, and gained early-stage investing experience as a enterprise B2B-focused investor at Tech Square Ventures. He holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech. Outside of work, he is a lifelong student of history and world cultures and enjoys adventure sports and traveling to less explored parts of the world.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Five Lessons for Emerging VC Managers: Courtney McCrea of Recast Capital on Raising Fund I - Nathan Beckord of FounderSuite, distills Courtney McCrea’s experience raising a fund into five key lessons for new venture fund managers

• Power Overwhelming - Kevin Zhang explores whether today’s massive AI infrastructure spending can deliver returns or risks repeating the dotcom/telecom bubble

• Startup Capital vs. Scaleup Capital: The New Map of Venture Capital - Bilal Zuberi of Red Glass Ventures, argues that venture success now hinges less on early bets and more on financing growth at scale

• On AI Infrastructure in Biology - Elliot Hershberg of Amplify Partners, delves into how AI infrastructure can create value for biotechnology, beyond finding new drug candidates

• The 2026 Wellness Forecast You’ll Actually Need to Read - Rach Hirsch of Wellness Growth Ventures, shares 7 cultural shifts no one is talking about yet and that you need to know about

Events

• CES | January 7–10 | Las Vegas ​

• JP Morgan Healthcare Conference | January 12-15 | San Francisco

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Analyst, Tech Ventures, Liberty Global in London, UK

• Senior Principal, Intuit Ventures, Mountain View, CA

• Investor, AI, Samsung Next, Mountain View, CA

• Analyst, DBL Partners, Palo Alto, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

Europe is also gaining share in private AI application funding, with startups like Lovable and Synthesia scaling efficiently and narrowing the valuation gap with the United States. Beyond AI infrastructure, fintech, healthtech, and vertical software remain active, despite tighter exits, rising valuations, and more selective year-end capital. On that note, welcome to November’s EVCA newsletter!

Featured Investors

This month we highlight Tori Orr of NGP Capital and Matt Shang of Prosperity7 Ventures as our featured investors of the EVCA community

Tori Orr is an investor at NGP Capital, a $1.6B venture firm where she backs B2B startups from Series A to C across the US and Europe, with a focus on industrial technology, enterprise software, cybersecurity, and edge and data infrastructure. Before joining NGP, she held early-stage investing roles at JetBlue Ventures, Vera Equity, Harlem Capital, and Dorm Room Fund. She began her career at Intel as a Mechanical Design Engineer and later a Product Manager, and also contributed to the launch of the Model 3 during her time at Tesla. Tori earned an MBA from The Wharton School, a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. in Mathematics from Spelman College.

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Matt Shang is an Investor at Prosperity7 Ventures focused on Cloud Infrastructure and Vertical AI investments. Prior to investing, he did his MBA at Duke Fuqua’s School of Business, worked within various business development and sales groups within Oracle’s OCI group, and did his undergrad at Cornell University. Outside of work, he is an active member of several youth sports philanthropy programs, enjoys esoteric racquet sports, and all things active.

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EVCA Leaders: San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Lead, Stefan Sandoval

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Stefan Sandoval is an investor at SKY VC (formerly JetBlue Ventures), a San Francisco-based venture capital firm where he focuses on Seed and Series A investments across travel and transportation. Prior to SKY VC, Stefan worked at Mendoza Ventures and Bright Ventures and began his career at Bank of America within the structured products (options and derivatives team). He holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a B.S. in Finance from Boston College. Originally from Colombia, Stefan is passionate about increasing access and reducing barriers to entry within the startup ecosystem for underserved communities.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• The Venture Capital for Life Scientists Blog 4: Cognitive Illusions - Dr. Will Alaynick of Phase Two Ventures, lists 20 logical fallacies and cognitive biases present in venture capital and shares structured due diligence techniques to counter them

• The secret sauce of a venture investor - Alex Belov of Selective VC, argues that a venture investor’s edge lies in recognizing founders’ product competence

• Honey, We Need To Talk About Venture Capital - Sinéad O’Sullivan of Harvard Business Review and NASA, believes that Venture capital has shifted from risky bets to a state-backed “venture-industrial complex,” where megafunds secure returns through policy, regulation, and government contracts, leaving smaller VCs in a losing, outdated game.

• Bubble & Build: The 2025 MAD (Machine Learning, AI & Data) Landscape - Matt Turck of FirstMark, created a market map + 25 crisp ideas for an over‑heated, heads‑down year in AI & data

Events

• Microsoft Ignite | November 17–21 | San Francisco ​

• KubeCon | November 6–9 | Atlanta ​

• AWS re:Invent | December 1–6 | Las Vegas ​

• Neurips | December 2-7 | San Diego

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Vice President, Impact Investing, Liberty Mutual Investments in New York, NY

• Investment Associate, Aramco Ventures in Boston, MA

• Senior Analyst, Venture and Growth Operations, ICONIQ in San Francisco, CA

• VC Investment Associate (Enterprise AI), Singtel Innov8 in San Francisco, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

Featured Investors

This month we highlight Aditi Purandare of Hitachi Ventures and Kai Sidhant of WestBridge Capital as our featured investors of the EVCA community

Aditi Purandare is an Analyst at Hitachi Ventures, a $1B AUM independent financial fund of Hitachi. She focuses on investing across the enterprise software stack, from the infrastructure layer to the application layer. Prior to starting at Hitachi Ventures, Aditi conducted research in applied Machine Learning and data science across a range of domains, including a Fulbright exchange in AI-enabled portfolio optimization. She holds a Computer Engineering degree from Northeastern University.

Read the interview

Kai is an Investor at WestBridge Capital where he invests in Cybersecurity, Gen AI Infrastructure and Applications. He invests from Series A to the Public Markets. Kai studied EECS at Berkeley and was previously a PM at Microsoft Azure.

Read the interview

EVCA Leaders: Chicago Chapter Lead, Peri Ehlman

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Peri Ehlman is an investor at Chingona Ventures, a Chicago-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in fintech, future of work, education, and health technology. Prior to joining Chingona Ventures, Peri spent her early career at Goldman Sachs, where she provided public and private portfolio solutions to independent broker-dealers and RIAs across the U.S. She also served as an ambassador for Launch with GS, Goldman Sachs’ $1 billion commitment to invest in diverse-led companies and investment managers, grounded in a thesis that diverse teams drive strong returns.

Peri graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Economics along with a certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications and a minor in Religious Studies. Outside of work, Peri serves as the chair of the Loyola Academy Young Alumni Council and a member of the Misericordia Young Professionals Council, Catholic Charities of Chicago Junior Board, and Alumni Admissions Council for Northwestern University.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• ARR is Dead. And AI Just Buried it. - Avi Goldfinger, shares why he believes ARR has become the most useless vanity metric in tech and how the AI boom has proved his point

• The Founder Myth: There's No Perfect Founder Type - Ben Yoskovitz of Highline Beta, tackles the notion that people believe they know how to define “the perfect founder.”

• The Edtech Disruption: Revolution or Risky Hype? - Silvino Presa, PhD, explores the transformative potential and ethical challenges of edtech, highlighting its promise to personalize learning and democratize education while warning of risks like the digital divide, teacher displacement, and data privacy concerns

• The End of Unicorn Hunting: Why Portfolio Alpha is Your Only Path to 10x Returns - Greg Reynolds of Zyro Hive, argues that venture capital must shift from seeking “unicorns” to unlocking entire portfolio value through a “Synergy Hedge” system for secure, collaborative data sharing and non-dilutive revenue.

Events

• SF Tech Week | October 6 - 12 | San Francisco

• LA Tech Week | October 13 - 19 | Los Angeles

• Dreamforce | October 14–16 | San Francisco

• TechCrunch Disrupt | October 27 - 29 | San Francisco

• GitHub Universe | October 28 - 29 | San Francisco

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Senior Principal, Intuit Ventures in Mountain View, CA

• Corporate Development and Ventures Manager, Databricks in San Francisco, CA

• VC Associate or Senior Associate, Strike Capital in San Francisco, CA

• Senior Associate, M12 in San Francisco, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

Investors are also backing next-generation companies. ElevenLabs is prepping a $6.6 billion share sale, ASML now leads Mistral AI's shareholder list.

Beyond AI, momentum is building in frontier tech, with New Mexico’s $315 million quantum initiative and Unitree Robotics targeting a $7 billion IPO, signaling growth in quantum, robotics, and deep tech.

Explore these signals, insights, and opportunities in this month’s EVCA newsletter.

Featured Investors

This month we highlight Viki Huang of Prosperity7 and Vishnavi Paruchuri of NTTVC as our featured investors of the EVCA community.

Viki Huang is an Investor at Prosperity7, a $5B global growth fund backed by Aramco, where she focuses on investments in AI, semiconductors, and enterprise software companies from Series A to pre-IPO. Prior to joining Prosperity7, she worked in business development at Tetramem, an analog in-memory computing chip company, and was previously an investor at Atlantic Bridge, specializing in deep tech. She began her career at Credit Suisse and holds a Master’s in Quantitative Management from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business as well as a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Columbia University.

Read the interview

Vishnavi Paruchuri is an investor at NTTVC, a $500M venture capital firm founded in partnership with NTT, a global technology services provider. Vish focuses on early-stage enterprise AI investments and supports founders with go-to-market and partnership opportunities, leveraging NTT’s global network of over 100K clients across 50+ countries. Prior to joining NTTVC, Vish was an investor at Touchdown Ventures, where she made early-stage enterprise investments across industries including legal, financial services, and manufacturing. She holds a Master’s degree in Financial Economics from University of Oxford Saïd Business School and received her undergraduate degree in Statistics and Economics at UC Berkeley.

Read the interview

EVCA Leaders: Proptech Vertical Co-Lead, Shahriar Shams-Ansari

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Shahriar Shams-Ansari is a long-time growth and private equity investor and the founder of Prospector Equity, an independent sponsor focused on acquiring and operating a single lower-middle-market services business. Prospector steps in as owner-operator and applies technology and process automation to modernize and scale traditional services companies. Prior to launching Prospector, Shah was a Vice President at Energy Impact Partners following his time at Brookfield and H.I.G. Capital. Through his experience, he has deployed more than $400 million across software, marketplaces, and services. He holds a B.S. in Finance with Honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Capital and Industry - Kevin Zhang argues that the foundation model game is a capital game at this point, and that it’s too late for new challengers

• Venture Capital for Life Scientists, Chapter 1 - Dr. Will Alaynick of Phase Two Ventures, shares the first installment of an 18-chapter textbook to help life scientists, founders, and investors work with and in venture capital focused on life science

• Andreessen Horowitz Is Not a Venture Capital Fund - Leslie Feinzaig of Graham and Walker Venture Fund, believes that VC is not bifurcated, but rather that it's two totally different strategies: Venture Capital and Consensus Capital

• The three types of AI startups that will define the next decade (and why a lot of SaaS companies could be screwed) - DC Cahalane of Sure Valley Ventures, introduces a taxonomy - AI Native, AI Enhanced, and AI Enabled - that clarifies how different AI startups will shape the future value creation in the tech world

Events

• DiverseVC 2025 | September 10 | San Francisco

• 2nd Annual VC Familia Awards Reception | September 11 | San Francisco

• Bits & Pretzels | September 29–October 1 | Munich

• In Good Company: Founders and Funders Mixer | September 26 | New York

• SF Tech Week | October 6 - 12 | San Francisco

• LA Tech Week | October 13 - 19 | Los Angeles

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Investment Analyst at Clocktower Ventures in Los Angeles

• Venture Associate at Silicon Foundry in San Francisco

• Investment Analyst at Canaan in San Francisco Bay Area

• Venture Associate at Alumni Ventures in Menlo Park

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

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Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

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My goal is to build on the strong foundation already in place by connecting and fostering the exchange of fresh perspectives from emerging investors, as well as sharing diverse stories from across the venture capital world. Hearing about your experiences, collaborating, and helping our community thrive is a top priority for what comes next.

Suggestions, news, or just a hello are always welcome. My inbox is open, and so is my LinkedIn.

Looking forward to what lies ahead and excited to dive in together.

Welcome to this month’s EVCA Newsletter!

Featured Investors

This month we highlight Tiffany Huang of Translink Capital and Katya Evchenko of BGV as our featured investors of the EVCA community.

Tiffany Huang is an investor at Translink Capital, a $1B AUM early-stage venture fund backed by leading multinational corporations from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. She also invests on behalf of the NEC Orchestrating Future Fund, a stage-agnostic vehicle focused on startups strategically aligned with the Japanese technology company NEC. Her investment interests span broadly across Enterprise SaaS, with particular attention to sectors like healthcare, supply chain, and other industry-specific applications. Prior to joining Translink, Tiffany was an investor at the Sony Innovation Fund and previously worked at Lux Research, a spin-out of Lux Capital. She holds a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois and earned her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University.

Read the interview

Katya is an investor at BGV, an early-stage cross-border VC fund focused on Enterprise AI. She joined the team in 2023 after graduating from the Stanford MBA program, where she co-founded Duckfund, a fintech startup, and participated in multiple venture capital programs and classes. Before Stanford, Katya was a consultant at McKinsey, most recently in its Private Equity practice, conducting commercial due diligence for large buyout funds. She holds an undergraduate degree in Economics with honors and a graduate degree in Philosophy. Born in Eastern Europe, she has built an international career spanning roles in India, where she managed AIESEC’s student exchange program with TCS, and in Belgium, where she worked on big data analytics at Nokia.

Read the interview

EVCA Leaders: Miami Chapter Lead, Aimee Xu

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Aimee Xu is a Vice President at I Squared Capital and joined the Global InfraTech VC Fund in June 2022, based in Miami. Prior to joining I Squared, Aimee graduated with a dual MBA/MA degree from Wharton and The Lauder Institute at UPenn. Before business school, Aimee was in NYC and spent two years as a PE Associate at Goode Partners, a consumer-focused growth equity fund, and two years as an IB Analyst at J.P. Morgan on the Consumer & Retail Coverage team. In her spare time, Aimee enjoys electronic music, cooking Chinese food, exploring new countries and spending time with her husband and fur baby.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• The Race to Diffuse AI - Maggie Gray of Shield Capital, discusses how China and the U.S. stack up in AI development and deployment

• Frontier AI Labs: the Call Option to AGI - Kevin Zhang takes a look at US-China tariffs through the lens of American competitiveness and argues that tariffs are a net negative to America long-term

Events

• Ai4 Summit | August 11–13 | Las Vegas

• Hot Chips | August 24–26 | Palo Alto

• TechBBQ | August 27–28 | Copenhagen

• Bits & Pretzels | September 29–October 1 | Munich

• EVCA Virtual Workshop: Mastering Venture Negotiations | August 28th at 9am PT

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Investor at Entrepreneurs First in San Francisco

• Investor at Samsung Next in Mountain View

• VC Associate at StepStone Group in La Jolla

• Venture Associate at Point72 Ventures in New York

• Investment Partner at Reservoir in Salinas

Connect with us: EVCA, Daisy, Adam, Isaac, and Dan

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Featured Investors

This month we highlight Tom Springer of BMW i Ventures and Summer Hua of Aramco Ventures as our featured investors of the EVCA community.

Tom Springer is an Analyst at BMW i Ventures, where he focuses on investments across robotics, energy, and climate tech. He joined BMW i Ventures in early 2023, initially based in Munich. Now back in San Francisco, he's leveraging the region's unique concentration of talent and contrarian perspectives to identify meaningful outliers and feed an insatiable curiosity. Previously, Tom began his career at an enterprise software startup, where he experienced firsthand the challenges of product-led growth—discovering intense customer engagement and precise alignment between product and market often matter far more than sheer technical innovation alone. Since 2018, Tom has actively engaged in social impact initiatives in South Africa, working to drive meaningful outcomes in resource-constrained environments through higher education sponsorships and technology access initiatives, leading NGO Ditsala.

Summer Hua is an investor at Aramco Ventures, a $7.5B AUM venture capital arm of the world’s largest energy company. As the first hire in California, Summer wears an “entrepreneurial” hat, playing a pivotal role in establishing the firm’s presence on the West Coast through sourcing and investing in deeptech companies from seed to pre-IPO. Her passion in impact-driven solutions drives her to develop theses and investments across energy efficiency and industrial digitization. Summer graduated from UC Berkeley with degrees in Business Administration, Economics, and Data Science.

EVCA Leaders: Climate Tech Vertical Co-Lead, Sydney Chiu

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Sydney Chiu is a Senior Associate at Clearvision Ventures and focuses on investing in early stage as well as growth stage companies at the intersection of sustainability, infrastructure, and technology. She started off her career in investment banking at Deutsche Bank in the NYC Industrials group, covering industries such as transportation, diversified conglomerates, and industrial tech. Prior to Clearvision, Sydney was at Apple in Cupertino, working to bridge supply chain shortages as well as plan cost and operations strategy across both sustaining and future products. Sydney has a BSBA in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis. In her free time, Sydney enjoys practicing martial arts, attending music events, and finding ways to practice sustainability on a regular basis.

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Pandora’s Box: What History Teaches Us About Tech Revolutions - Phoebe Zhang of DivcoWest provides an overview of the historical evolution of some of tech’s most revolutionizing inventions.

• Builders Are Everywhere - Jesse Rodgers of Builders Club, explains why startup ecosystems thrive when we stop chasing founders and start supporting the people doing the work

• The Wisdom of Bill Gurley - Kevin Zhang takes a look at US-China tariffs through the lens of American competitiveness and argues that tariffs are a net negative to America long-term

• Why We Need to Log Some Hours Holding Babies - Nicole Ruiz of CompoundVC, shares why holding a baby might be the most radical thing you’ve done in your lifetime

• For LPs evaluating new VC managers: my 2x2 framework - Raph Grieco of Olive Capital, provides a framework for aligning vision with readiness when backing first-time VC funds (micro ones in particular)

Events

• RSA Conference | April 28 - May 1 | San Francisco

• Super Venture | June 2-4 | Berlin

• Tech Week | San Francisco, New York City, and Los Angeles | June 2-4

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Corporate Venture Capital Principal at SAIC in San Francisco

• Principal - Venture Capital - at the StepStone Group in Palo Alto

• Junior Partner or Partner at Outlander VC in San Francisco or New York

• Senior Associate / Principal at Propel Venture Partners

• Associate/senior associate at Infinity Ventures in San Francisco or New York.

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, and Isaac

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Dave Mullen, Partner at Pinegrove Capital Partners

We had the chance to interview Dave Mullen, who is a Partner at Pinegrove Capital Partners, an investment platform focusing on serving the innovation economy. Dave shares his story—from starting his career in finance at JP Morgan, transitioning to the tech world, and investing in the next generation of founders and fund managers at Pinegrove Capital. He also shares his learnings on life and career.

Read the interview.

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Jake Epstein of Canaan Partners as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Jake Epstein is an investor at Canaan, a 37-year-old early-stage venture capital with over $7B in assets under management investing in companies from seed to series B. He focuses on enterprise software and deep tech investments, splitting time between, cybersecurity, infrastructure, AI apps, and various deep tech categories (robotics, energy, space, etc.). Prior to this, he was a product manager at Uber, most recently leading a team building Uber experiences & marketplace tech for emerging markets. Jake also spent time in product at legacy public enterprise technology companies, working at Pegasystems on low code / no code business process management systems and at Juniper Networks on internal supply chain management tooling. He graduated from Dartmouth where he majored in Computer Science, Engineering, and Economics.

Read more.

EVCA Leaders: LA Chapter & Defense & Space Vertical Co-Lead, Rafaella Fontes

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Rafaella Fontes is a Partner at Fulcrum Venture Group, an LA-based firm focused on critical technologies for dual-use and defense adjacent markets. As Head of Capital Formation, Rafaella plays a pivotal role in fundraising, strategic LP engagement, and ensuring the fund’s financial and operational foundations are poised for scalability. She also works closely with founders in the portfolio, offering hands-on support with their capital raises to secure the resources they need to grow and scale. Prior to Fulcrum, Rafaella was on the founding team as an investor at Supply Change Capital and an investor at SOUND Ventures’ climate strategy. She earned her MBA from MIT Sloan, with a focus on Sustainability and Entrepreneurship, and a dual Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology from Columbia University. Rafaella is also an avid marathon/ultra-marathon runner, proud dog mom to her perfect mini goldendoodle, and in a previous chapter of her life, she was a sommelier, cultivating a love for fine wines, especially Champagne.

Read the interview.

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• The Unicorn Boom Is Over: Why Startups Must Pivot to Culture to Survive - John-Miguel Mitchell of Ekipo, provides reasons for why he believes companies that win in this new era won’t be those with the biggest valuations — they’ll be the ones with the strongest cultures

• Venture Buyouts - Harry Wruck of The Capitalist, delves into Jeremy Giffon’s investment strategy of restructuring venture-backed software companies which have unrealistic valuation targets

• The 7 Deadly Sins of Venture Capital (with Dan Gray) - Kyle Harrison of Contrary, chats with Dan Gray on the 7 deadly sins of venture capital as well as a variety of other topics

• The Future of Foundation Model Business Models - Eric Flaningam of Felicis Ventures, discusses the path to profitability for companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and others

Events

• InnovationBoston | March 5 | Boston

• SXSW Conference | March 7-13 | Austin, TX

• Serving Breakfast to Incarcerated Firefighters| March 8 | Sylmar, Los Angeles | Please email rafaella@fulcrumvg.com if interested

• Foundation | March 8 | Lockhart, Texas

• Driving Business : Inspiring Purpose | March 10-13 | Washington, DC

• Global Summit | March 13-14 | Paris

• Super Venture | June 2-4 | Berlin

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Analyst at Trilogy in Bellevue, WA

• Associate at Princeville Capital in San Francisco, CA. Please email your resume to recruiting@princeville-capital.com with a short description of your professional background, with the subject line "San Francisco Investment Associate."

• Investment Associate at RestiveVentures in SanFrancisco or NYC. Please send a note to jobs@restive.com and mention your name so we prioritize their application.

• Investor at Osage University Partners in Philadelphia. Please email your resume to tolcott@spmb.com.

• Associate/senior associate at Infinity Ventures in San Francisco or New York.

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Emily Fritze, Partner at Westly Group

We had the chance to interview Emily Fritze, who is a Partner at The Westly Group, an early-stage VC firm. Emily shares her story—from working as a political appointee under the Obama administration in Washington D.C. to investing in early-stage climate, energy, and mobility startups. She also shares his learnings on life and career.

Read the interview

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Austin Yu of Taiwania Capital as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Austin Yu is a Senior Associate at Taiwania Capital’s Tech Team, where he specializes in investments at the intersection of advanced robotics, AI-driven automation, and the future of data infrastructure, capitalizing on the convergence of these technologies to drive large-scale industrial transformation. Since joining Taiwania three years ago, Austin has developed a strong thesis around the future of the computing stack given the advent of AI-enabled systems. Prior to this, he was an analyst at Mesh Ventures, focusing on mobility tech, edge devices/connectivity, and data center technologies. Austin holds a degree in Design | Media Arts from UCLA.

Read the interview

EVCA Leaders: Fintech Vertical Co-lead, Abdul Abdirahman

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Abdul Abdirahman is a New York-based principal at F-Prime Capital. He has been with the firm for four years and invests in seed - series B stage fintech, vertical SaaS, and AI startups. He also leads the firm’s effort around the F-Prime Fintech Index. Prior to joining F-Prime, Abdul invested in emerging markets-based technology startups and worked with Nala – a VC-backed cross border payments startup. Abdul holds joint MBA & MPA/ID degrees from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• 5 Takeaways from CalSTRS’ Private Equity Performance Report - Kevin Zhang of Sealth, analyzes CalSTRS’ returns (California State Teachers Pension System) over the past 20+ years, focusing on DPI / IRR trends and specifically how VC compares to growth equity / private equity

• Hype, FOMO, And Investor Psychology: How To Make Smarter Investment Choices - Ankit Sharma of Exitfund, explores the Risks of FOMO — and why you shouldn’t let it fool you into poor investments

• AI Isn’t the Future. It’s Already Changing the Game - Alastair Goldfisher of Venture Lens, AI boom compare

• The Four Pillars of Venture Investing - Kyle Harrison of Contrary, explains the trade-offs within the four pillars of venture investing (finding, picking, winning, and supporting)

Events

• Developer Week | February 11-13 | Santa Clara, CA

• Product-Led Summit | February 11-12 | Austin, TX

• Customer Success Summit | February 11-12 | Austin, TX

• NEVCA Trivia Night | February 6 | Boston, MA

• Gartner CIO Leadership Forum | February 24-25 | Phoenix, AZ

• New York 2025 Venture Capital World Summit | May 14 | New York, NY

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Healthcare Fellowship at Black Opal Ventures in New York, NY

• Technical Fellowship at Black Opal Ventures in New York, NY

• Investment Associate at Princeville Capital in Berlin, Germany

• Investment Associate at Zeal Capital Partners, please email your resume and background at emily@zealvc.co

• Venture Capital Associate at S3 Ventures in Austin, TX

• Associate at OMERS Ventures in Bay Area, CA, please email your resume and background at jvitolo@omersventures.com

• Investor at Pruven Capital in Palo Alto, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Featured Investors

This month we highlight Caroline Chick, Senior Associate at Activate Capital, and Jon Healy, Investor at Cathay Innovation, as our featured investors of the EVCA community.

Caroline Chick is a Senior Associate at Activate Capital, a growth-stage venture capital firm investing in the sustainable, resilient transformation of the global economy. As an investor, Caroline is driven by a passion for partnering with companies and founders at the forefront of the large-scale climate and technology-driven shifts that are poised to redefine our core systems and infrastructure over the next decade. Prior to joining Activate, Caroline worked at Nomura Greentech, an investment bank specializing in M&A and capital raise advisory for public and private companies accelerating the energy transition. Caroline is a proud Ohioan and graduate of The Ohio State University, where she studied finance, history and Spanish.

Jon Healy is an investor at Cathay Innovation, a global venture capital firm with over $2.5 billion in assets under management. He specializes in investments at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. Before joining Cathay Innovation, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised advanced industrial clients on growth strategy and operational excellence. Earlier in his career, he contributed to venture formation at FedTech, sourcing breakthrough technologies and leading startup studio team formation. He also worked as a Materials Engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare Center - Carderock Division (NSWCCD), focusing on cutting-edge material innovation and industrial base qualification. Jon holds degrees in Materials Science and Finance from Case Western Reserve University.

Read the interview

EVCA Leaders: San Francisco Chapter Co-lead, Mel Demma of Swift Ventures

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Mel Demma is an investor at Swift Ventures, where she invests in early-stage enterprise AI and automation companies. Mel is a force multiplier for her companies with a sincere desire to roll up her sleeves early to help build teams, flesh out ideas and find potential customers. Mel grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley, which exposed her to tech and venture capital at a young age and fomented an admiration for founders who break barriers and the investors who back them. Mel graduated from the University of Southern California, earning a BS in Business Administration. She is on USC's Marshall Partners Board and the executive team of Destined for X, a nonprofit that connects students from underrepresented backgrounds with top-tier technology companies in the Bay Area.

Read the interview

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Scouting Early-Stage Opportunities: A Research Approach For Any Niche - Ravi Khurana of Stealth, created a guide for early-stage VC Analysts to filter out the noise and find stand-out startups in any industry/niche

• AI Trends 2024: Power Law and Agents - Kenn So of Smartsheet, shares 80+ pages of data and analysis covering macro to scaling laws - including the latest from Neurips and OpenAI's shipmas

• What to Watch in 2025 - Mario Gabriele of The Generalist, reached out to more than 60 of the world’s greatest venture capitalists to understand the companies, markets, tokens, and themes that will define the year

• AI in 2025: What Comes Next? - Fabian Flatz of Frontier Ventures, delves into his top predictions for AI for 2025.

• Revolutionizing Manufacturing Through Software - Isabel Young and Olivia Tanzman of AXA Venture Partners, discuss the emerging role of software innovation in the manufacturing environment.

Events

• Rookie Roundtable: Master Multifamily Investing | January 14

• How to Prepare for AI's Industry Transformation and Job Market Disruption? | January 15 | New York City

• CEO Summit/Power Lunch | January 21 | New York City

• The Queer Decarbonization Summit | February 18-19 | Hudson Valley

• New York 2025 Venture Capital World Summit | May 14 | New York City

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• VC Associate at NGP Capital in Palo Alto, CA

• Venture Capital Graduate Student Internship at Precursor Ventures in San Francisco, CA

• Venture Capital Investor Accelerator at Venture University in San Francisco, CA

• Head of Emerging Manager Programs at VC Lab in San Francisco, CA

• Venture Partner at Global Millennial Capital Ltd. in San Francisco, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Dan Moskowitz, Partner at Third Point Ventures

We had the chance to interview Dan Moskowitz, who is a Partner at Third Point Ventures, the venture capital arm of the New York-based hedge fund, Third Point. Dan shares his story—from starting his career as an engineer at Lockheed Martin’s rotation program, exploring corporate development at Cisco, and finally, investing in early-stage enterprise startups as a venture capitalist. He also shares his learnings on life and career.

Read the interview here!

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Kate Meacham, Analyst at Bullpen Capital, as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Kate Meacham is an analyst at Bullpen Capital, a post-seed venture firm focused on high-performing but overlooked companies that exist outside the current fads of Silicon Valley. Prior to joining Bullpen, Kate spent several years on GTM teams developing demand generation strategies in B2B SaaS. Kate is a proud alumna of Mount Holyoke College where she studied entrepreneurship and world religions. In her free time, she enjoys trying new recipes and going to the beach.

Read the interview!

EVC List Thesis Briefs

The EVC List recognizes the top emerging VCs across the industry. In partnership with Terra Nova, the EVCA publishes research insights from our EVC List winners. Below are this month’s Thesis Briefs from our 2023 EVC List Honorees.

• AI and the Next Generation of Vertical Software - Lisa Xu, Partner at Threshold Ventures, explores how software solutions can tap into the huge market opportunity presented by these often overlooked businesses.

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• AR/VR and the Future of National Security - Maggie Gray of Shield Capital, delves into the future of IVAS, Meta's AR glasses, generative 3D models, and more

• The Future of Programming: Copilots vs. Agents (Part I) - Kevin Zhang of Sealth, explores the current AI coding copilot landscape given recent trends of some very large funding rounds

• An honest review of AI coding tools by someone who doesn't really know what they are doing - Fabian Flatz of Frontier Ventures, shares his personal journey building a Chrome extension from scratch using AI coding tools

• Developing Taste as an LP - David Zhou of Cup of Zhou, tries to answer the question of how an LP can develop a taste for quality in the venture asset class

Events

• The Queer Decarbonization Summit | February 18-19 | Hudson Valley

• Founders & VCs: Building Revenue Through Strategic Partnerships in MedTech | December 12 | San Francisco

• Los Angeles VC Holiday Party | December 11 | Los Angeles

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• VC Associate at NGP Capital in Palo Alto, CA

• Internship at Future VC in London

• Investment Director at Bosch Ventures in Sunnyvale, CA

• Content development specialist at Lyonshare in New York City

Asks

•  WIND Ventures is conducting its annual survey of the venture community’s view of global growth markets for tech startups. If interested in participating in the survey, please see here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/windsurvey24

• Prudential, Plug and Play, and Stevens Institute for Technology are soliciting applications for the second cohort of their NJ FAST Accelerator; applications are due December 20th. All Fintech, Insurtech and Enterprise Tech companies (at any stage) are welcome to apply - please share any relevant portcos! Apply here.

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

While I would have liked to share my typical musings on the state of venture capital, it would be remiss of me to repeat my ordinary routine. After all, we’re coming off one of the most divisive presidential elections in history, one in which Silicon Valley thrust itself onto center stage. Granted, a lot was on the line for the future of tech—from antitrust enforcement and crypto regulations to the intricacies of tax policy. Yet, this election has shown us, more so than any past election, that our sector is not immune to the ideological fractures running through the nation.

Here in the tech ecosystem we’ve long prided ourselves on a shared culture of openness and exchange, of pushing boundaries and questioning orthodoxy. We’re united in the belief in the power of innovation to improve lives and transform industries. We may differ on policies and approaches, but our values transcend political lines. Republican or Democrat, optimist or pessimist, if we are indeed on the brink of a new world order, let us approach the project of our future together as possibilists.

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Andy Triedman, Partner at Theory Ventures

We had the chance to interview Andy Triedman, who is a partner at Theory Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on investments in early-stage software companies. Andy shares his story—from exploring academia as a former lab researcher to working in consulting at Bain & Company, to operating on the startup side, and finally, investing in early-stage startups as a venture capitalist. Andy also provides his learnings from life and career.

Read the interview!

Featured Investor: Ale Vergara, Principal at Bee Partners

This month we highlight Ale Vergara of Bee Partners as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Ale Vergara is passionate about AI companies that transform knowledge into prosperity, fostering collaboration between humans and machines. She focuses on AI platforms that boost productivity and creativity, alongside essential developer tools. Previously, she spent six years as a portfolio manager and FX trader, developing strong investment strategies and adapting quickly to market shifts. A competitive athlete since age four, Ale now races in road and gravel biking. Having lived on three continents, she brings a broad worldview and is a native Spanish and English speaker.

Read more here.

EVCA Leaders: New York Chapter Co-lead, Keshav Reddy of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Keshav Reddy is a senior analyst at the corporate development & venture investments team at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, where he focuses on Seed & Series A+ Healthcare investments. His investment areas include behavioral health, healthtech, analytics, telehealth, care navigation & virtual care platforms. Prior to becoming a healthcare investor, Keshav worked in management consulting & portfolio valuation. In his free time Keshav enjoys traveling, boxing, attending comedy shows, and watching the Knicks win.

Read the interview.

EVC List Thesis Briefs

The EVC List recognizes the top emerging VCs across the industry. In partnership with Terra Nova, the EVCA publishes research insights from our EVC List winners. Below are this month’s Thesis Briefs from our 2023 EVC List Honorees.

• Investing in the Age of AI Acceleration - Wesley Tillu, Partner at S32, details how application AI startups are differentiating themselves from cloud and incumbent software providers by establishing ownership of the user experience and leveraging proprietary data to continually improve their models.

• The Rising Tide for Deep Tech Innovation in Consumer Health, Wellness, and Longevity - Daphne Che, Principal at Montage Ventures, examines how startups are leveraging advances in AI and biotech to innovate across beauty, longevity, and novel drug and peptide discovery.

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Why Companies Invest in Open-Source Tech and Research - Devansh of Clientell, tries to answer the question of how a company gains from spending so much time and effort into R&D for a tool only to give it to the public for free

• VC Math 101: Stages, Strategies, and Exit Distributions - The Artemis Fund created a VC math 101 crash course to help people understand what VCs look for and how they make decisions

• Building the Infrastructure Backbone for Autonomous Systems - Maggie Gray and Akhil Iyer of Sheild Capital, asks the question of why haven’t autonomous systems and robotics lived up to their promise of revolutionizing transportation, logistics, warfare, and more

• How AI is Powering the Future of Material Science: From Lab to Real-World Breakthroughs - Ilena Mece of Kompas VC, explores how advancements like Physics AI and generative models are unlocking new opportunities, from revolutionizing energy storage to addressing climate change

Events

• Dev Innovation Summit | November 6-7 | Santa Clara, CA

• Mobility Tech 10 | November 12 | Santa Cruz, CA

• YOU BELONG Series: Female Founders & Funders Dinner | November 12 | Miami, FL

• Robotics Inflections | November 19 | Menlo Park, CA

• Silicon Valley November Summit 2024 | November 19-21 | Sunnyvale, CA

• Afore Capital's 7th Annual Pre-Seed Summit | November 21 | San Francisco, CA

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Investment Associate at Conductive Ventures, email recruiting@conductive.vc with your resume if interested

• Investor at Altos Ventures in Silicon Valley office

• Network Operations Associate at NextView

• Investor at Unusual Ventures in the Bay Area, email wei@unusual.vc with your resume if interested

• Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Sage Geosystems, email nadia@helium-3ventures.com with your resume if interested

• Venture Capital Innovation Fellow at Braven (remote)

• Visiting Investment Analyst at Antler in Amsterdam, NH

• Investment Associate at Audacious Ventures in San Francisco, CA

• VC Associate at Flourish Ventures in Washington, DC

• Investment Associate at Starlight Ventures in Miami, FL

• Associate at McKesson Ventures in San Francisco, CA

• Investor at Celestica Ventures in San Jose, CA

• Investment Team Member at Struck Capital in Los Angeles, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

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And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Kleida Martiro, Partner at Glasswing Ventures

We had the chance to interview Kleida Martiro, who is a partner at Glasswing Ventures, an early-stage AI-originalist venture capital fund investing in founders reimagining the future of the enterprise and security industries. Kleida shares her story—from moving to the U.S. from Albania, working as Head of Data Science at a startup, and investing in cutting-edge startups as a venture capitalist. Kleida also shares her thoughts on life and career.

Read the interview!

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Caleb Appleton of Bison Ventures as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Caleb Appleton is a Principal at Bison Ventures where he has led investments in Vivodyne, Cobot and a stealth AI drug discovery company.  Prior to investing at Bison, Caleb was an investor at Innovation Endeavors, where he focused on frontier technology investments and left to join portfolio company TuneIn, as Senior Vice President and GM leading its $50M subscription business. Caleb began his career at Bain & Company and has a degree in engineering. He also sits on the advisory board for the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. When not investing, Caleb can reliably be found on two wheels trying to outrun the San Francisco fog. He is also way too particular about his coffee: roasting his own beans and constantly tinkering with his latte art.

Click here to read more.

EVCA Leaders: AI/ML Vertical Co-lead, Connie Wang of Montage Ventures

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Connie Wang is a VP at Montage Ventures, backing technical founders at the early stages (Pre-seed through A) in AI applications across financial services, commerce, and built world verticals. Before Montage, Connie held GTM operating roles at a variety of startups from Series A to Enterprise stages, across construction software (PlanGrid, acquired by Autodesk) and SMB fintech (Karat Financial). She started her career in investment banking and is a USC grad. Outside of works she loves doing Barry’s, making ceramics, and being a Frenchie mom.

Read the interview.

LP Spotlight: Lucas Fernandez, Senior Vice President, Venture Capital, Talipot

This month we highlight the work of Lucas Fernandez, our featured LP for the month.

Lucas Fernandez is an experienced private markets investor across buyouts, growth equity and venture capital. At Talipot, Lucas is focused on investing across the venture asset class, including emerging managers. Prior to Talipot, Lucas worked with pre-seed and seed companies at Simplexity Venture Studio Fund and supported the Venture Capital and Growth Equity investment team at StepStone Group (NASDAQ: STEP), focusing on building and monitoring customized private markets portfolios for pensions, family offices, endowments, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds.

Read more here.

EVC List Thesis Briefs

The EVC List recognizes the top emerging VCs across the industry. In partnership with Terra Nova, the EVCA publishes research insights from our EVC List winners. Below are this month’s Thesis Briefs from our 2023 EVC List Honorees.

• The ‘Unlockable Potential’ in Lending, Investing, and Insurance - Kevin Zhang, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, assesses technological tailwinds for emerging players in this category, as well as areas for innovation that extend beyond vertical tech for financial services.

• The Next Wave of Vertical Software Adoption Will Be driven by ‘Subterranean’ Industries - Paraj Mathur, Vice President at BIP Ventures, explores the many ‘hidden’ industries that are poised to drive Wave 2.0 of vertical software adoption.

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Lending 2.0: How Verticalisation Will Change Lending Forever - Sheng Wang of Illuminate Financial, delves into the drivers that are causing the verticalization of lending fintechs and what verticalization actually looks like for startups

• Where Returns Lie in Venture Capital - Kevin Zhang of Stealth, explains why he believes non-consensus picking remains an under-appreciated source of alpha

• Inverted crossing the chasm problem in cybersecurity: what founders and investors need to keep in mind - Ross Haleliuk of Venture in Security, unpacks what crossing the chasm is, why it matters, and what it means for founders and innovators looking to build the next generation of cybersecurity products

• Mo' Money, Mo' Problems - Kyle Harrison of Contrary, examines the math behind venture fund AUM

Events

• a16z SF Tech Week Party 2024 | October 7 | San Francisco

• Scaling Your Crypto Company | October 7 | San Francisco

• Blue Angels and Beers | October 11 | San Francisco

• a16z LA Tech Week Party 2024 | October 14 | Los Angeles

• Startup Breakfast Mixer | October 15 | Los Angeles

• The Future of Hard Tech | October 17 | Los Angeles

• TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 | October 28 - 29 | San Francisco

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• VC Associate at Allegis Capital, email stuart@allegiscapital.com with your resume if interested

• Senior Associate at Flagship in NY

• VC Analyst at Springbank in NY

• Part-time data science intern at Terra Nova, email adam@terranova.vc with your resume if interested

• Ventures Associate at Point72 in NY

• Investment Analyst / Associate at Lumos Capital Group in NY

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

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And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Puneeth Meruva, Partner at Trucks VC

We had the chance to interview Puneeth Meruva, who is a Partner at Trucks Venture Capital, a venture capital firm that funds entrepreneurs building the future of transportation. Puneeth shares his story—from growing up in India, Germany, and the U.S.; working as a software engineer; and investing in early-stage mobility startups. Puneeth also shares his thoughts on life and career.

Read the interview!

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Jenny Sui of Craft Ventures as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Jenny Sui is a principal on the investment team at Craft Ventures. Prior to Craft, she was an early employee at Brex across Operations and Strategic Finance, driving cross-functional strategic planning and scaling the company's operational processes to serve thousands of customers. She also helped launch the company's ecommerce offering, which quickly grew to become Brex's largest and fastest growing product. Jenny started her career at Visa, where she worked on various product teams across consumer credit, IoT, and digital product. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and minor in Statistics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Read the interview!

EVCA Leaders: Austin Chapter Co-lead, Carolyn Houren of S3 Ventures

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Carolyn Houren is an investor at S3 Ventures. S3 invests in Seed, Series A, and Series B stages across B2B software, healthcare technology, and digital experiences. Carolyn’s primary focus includes sourcing new investments, working with S3’s portcos (board observer for 7 portcos), and due diligence/research. Prior to S3, Carolyn was Chief of Staff at Cosmic Bliss supporting operations, finance, accounting, and sales. Carolyn was also an investor at a global alternative investment firm, Stafford Capital Partners $8B+ AUM, and an M&A consultant at PwC.

Read the interview!

LP Spotlight: Chris Douvos, Founder at Ahoy Capital

This month we highlight the work of Chris Douvos, our featured LP for the month.

Chris Douvos founded Ahoy Capital in 2018 to build an intentionally right-sized firm that could pursue investment excellence while prizing a spirit of partnership with all of its constituencies. Chris has been a fixture in venture capital for over two decades. In addition to successfully identifying and catalyzing nascent funds, he bridges a gap between the providers of capital and the consumers of capital by creating platforms for transparent dialogue. Chris authored the blog SuperLP throughout the 2010s and more recently was a co-founder of the OpenLP platform. Prior to Ahoy Capital, Chris spearheaded investment efforts at Venture Investment Associates and The Investment Fund for Foundations. He learned the craft of illiquid investing at Princeton University’s endowment.

Read the interview!

EVC List Thesis Briefs

The EVC List recognizes the top emerging VCs across the industry. In partnership with Terra Nova, the EVCA publishes research insights from our EVC List winners. Below are this month’s Thesis Briefs from our 2023 EVC List Honorees.

• Catalyzers of the Next AI Era - Carli Stein, Investor at M12, explores how smaller language models, robust security tools, and improved testing methodologies will enable broader AI adoption.

• Bringing Innovation to Scale with Value-Add Sustainable Infrastructure - Thomas Englis, Principal at Clearvision Ventures, examines the landscape of startups that are pioneering low-carbon substitute goods and processes in categories including transportation electrification, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), battery recycling, thermal energy storage, carbon capture and more.

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Future of Robotics - Angèle Sahraoui of Slow, shares some thoughts on the future of robotics and the different nuances of vertical integration

• Zombiecalypse in Startupland - Kevin Zhang of Stealth, examines the current low valuations of public SaaS companies, the reasons behind the scarcity of IPOs for growth-stage firms with substantial ARR, as well as other topics

• Unpacking Big Tech's quasi-acquisitions of GenAI companies - Kenn So of Smartsheet, unpacks the rapid takeover of top AI talent

• Death by a thousand subscriptions - Angela Santurbano of All the Angels, dove into the rise software-as-a-service, how the business model might evolve, and whether we might see consumer purchasing change

• Understanding Capital Efficiency vs. Capital Intensity in VC - Inaki Berenguer of LifeX Ventures, demystifies the confusion between capital efficiency and capital intensity

Events

• GeoMeetup: Cloud Native Spatial Data Stack | September 5 | San Francisco

• 2nd Annual Private Company Sustainability Summit | September 12 | Menlo Park

• Country Fair at Playground | September 15 | Palo Alto

• SoCal Deep Tech Week | September 15 - 20

• Dreamforce | September 17-19 | San Francisco

• HRTech Conference | September 25-27 | Las Vegas

• NYCW'24 Climate Tech Events Tracker

• Startup World Cup | October 2 | San Francisco | EVCA members get a 50% discount with code: SWC_GF_EVCA_50

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Analyst at Automotive Ventures (Remote)

• Investment associate at Brookfield Growth in Menlo Park, email cindy.chen@brookfield.com if interested

• Growth Equity Internship at Princeville Capital in Berlin, email your resume at recruiting@princeville-capital.com with a short description outlining your background, with the subject line "Berlin Intern - Resume" if interested

• Chief of Staff (post-MBA) at OmniDesign a Series A semiconductor company in the Bay Area, email amanda@fmcap.com if interested

• Investment Analyst at Mission BioCapital in San Francisco

• Associate at Nyca Partners in New York, NY

• Venture Capital Graduate Student Internship at Precursor Ventures (Remote)

• VP of Finance at Advaita Capital. Email william@advaitacap.com if interested

• Investment associate at OMERS Venture in Bay Area. Email resumes at mmoore@omersventures.com

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Yash Patel, GP at Titanium Ventures

We had the chance to interview Yash Patel, who is a GP at Titanium Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies. Yash shares his story—from working in investment banking, leading corporate development and strategy at Adknowledge, and investing in early-stage consumer and enterprise software companies. Yash also shares his views on the VC industry and thoughts on life.

Read the interview!

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Elisa La Cava of Trilogy Ventures as our featured investor of the EVCA community

Elisa La Cava is a Principal at Trilogy Equity Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in Pacific Northwest startups focused on cloud infrastructure, AI-powered B2B software, and consumer applications. With prior experience at Madrona Venture Group, Deloitte Consulting, and early-stage startups, Elisa brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to her investments. She holds a BA from Claremont McKenna College where she majored in Environment-Economics-Politics and Spanish and an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management.

Read the interview!

EVCA Leaders: Pacific Northwest Chapter Co-lead, Colin Tobias of SemperVirens

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Colin Tobias is a partner at SemperVirens, an early stage fund investing in healthcare tech, fintech, and workforce technology. Colin looks to invest in companies that are transforming the future of work as employers look to help their employees work, live, and earn better. Prior to SemperVirens, Colin was an investor at Tenaya Capital, an early-growth stage fund with $2 billion under management. At Tenaya, Colin worked directly with Tenaya's managing partners to evaluate early-growth investments in consumer and enterprise sectors. Colin graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of San Diego with degrees in finance and accounting.

Click here to read more.

EVC List Thesis Briefs

The EVC List recognizes the top emerging VCs across the industry. In partnership with Terra Nova, the EVCA publishes research insights from our EVC List winners. Below are this month’s Thesis Briefs from our 2023 EVC List Honorees.

• Transforming Healthcare Innovation Through Automation and Structural Change - Vig Chandramouli, Partner at Oak HC/FT, examines opportunities for solutions that enhance productivity, improve patient outcomes, and reduce unnecessary costs across many facets of the healthcare industry.

• ‘Built Data’ Will Enable the Next Era of AI Adoption - Dave Mullen, Partner at SVB Capital, details why ‘Built Data’ – Big Data in its next generation form – will be the critical mechanism that unlocks the power of AI for global enterprises.

• Navigating Disruption In Vertical AI SaaS - Karthik Ramakrishnan, Partner at IVP, explores how these new solutions are disrupting the status quo, spanning from IP management in retail to field sales in offline industries.

• Opportunities for AgeTech Innovation - Emily Zhen, Principal at Zeal Capital Partners, explores opportunities for technology and business innovation in AgeTech that span from healthcare to fintech.

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• A Deep Dive on AI Inference Startups - Kevin Zhang of Stealth, deep dives into AaaS (AI-as-a-Service) startups, specifically focusing on AI inference startups

• Beyond the pitch: from building to funding companies - Lauren Shufran of Harmonic.ai, interviews EVCA board member and SF chapter lead, Riley Rodgers of Valia Ventures, through an investor case study

• AI Agents and the Future of National Security - Maggie Gray of Shield Capital, delves into what AI Agents actually are and how they might affect national security

• Examining SEC v. Consensys - Daniel Barabander of Variant, compares the wallet/swaps allegations in Coinbase and Consensys and drill down on some of the specific claims the SEC is making

• Venture Capital's Nuclear Error? - Julien Lepleux of Bleu Capital and Carl Perez of Exodys, try to correct the investor’s blind spot to build a true atomic age

Events

• Founders & Funders Pickleball Picnic | August 1 | San Francisco, California

• Black Hat USA | August 3-8 | Las Vegas

• NewBuild VC + MUFG Host Supply Chain Summer Event | August 13 | Menlo Park, California

• Silicon Valley AI and Tech Investing Summit | August 14 | Palo Alto, California

• SHACK15 Angels Meetup | August 15 | San Francisco, California

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Associate / Senior Associate at PruVen Capital in San Francisco

• Investment Analyst at Quona Capital in Mexico City

• Associate at F-Prime Capital Tech Team

• Senior Portfolio Manager at Parallel18 in San Juan, Puerto Rico

• Investment Associate at Blumberg Capital in San Francisco

• Associate at Bond Capital. If interested, email katie@bondcap.com for more details

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Beatris

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

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Subscribe now

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Ally Warson, Partner at Up.Partners

We had the chance to interview Ally Warson, who is a Partner at Up.Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in companies helping transform the moving world. Ally shares her story—from working in consulting and startups, landing a job at Google, and investing in early-stage startups at Up.Partners.

Click here to read more!

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Phoebe Zhang of DivcoWest Ventures as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Phoebe Zhang is a Director at DivcoWest Ventures, an early and growth-stage fund that invests in technologies shaping the future of real estate and the urban environment. DivcoWest Ventures is part of DivcoWest, a vertically integrated real estate investment firm. Previously, Phoebe was a Senior Consultant at IBM’s Strategy and Corporate Development team where she helped the company in identifying new growth opportunities and potential acquisitions in the data and AI sector. Before that, she was an Investment Banking Associate at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, offering advice to technology firms on equity financing. Phoebe holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce from University of British Columbia. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, doing yoga, playing golf, and reading books.

Click here to read more!

EVCA Leaders: Board Member and SF Bay Area Vertical Co-lead, Riley Rodgers of Valia Ventures 

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Riley Rodgers is currently a Principal at Valia Ventures and has been an early-stage investor for the last 11 years. He splits his time between searching for new investment opportunities at the pre-seed and seed stage and supporting an ever-growing portfolio. Before joining Valia Ventures, Riley spent 3.5 years at Arctaris Capital Partners in Boston and started his career as an entrepreneur building Crash Alert – a mobility focused startup that aimed to detect and respond to car accidents.

Click here to read more!

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• Simplifying AI Deployment for Defense - Maggie Gray of Shield Capital and Max Dauber of Primer AI, provide a guide to navigating ATOs, classified data, hardware constraints, security testing, classified networks, and more

• What will be the personal GenAI device? - Kenn So of Smartsheet, researches the potential of personal AI devices and the opportunity for GenAI on smartphones

• Estimating the Market Potential for a New Category - Isaac Batashvili of Melio’s, shares 10 valuable dos and don’ts for determining the market potential in untapped markets

• Investing in the Age of Generative AI - Kevin Zhang of Stealth, explores the current AI investment landscape and presents a framework that a typical early-stage fund might want to adopt

• How to Level Up Your VC Network - Elisheva Marcus of Earlybird Venture Capital, shares 5 Tips for further experimentation to level up your VC network from 3 pros in the industry

Events

• CDR Happy Hour | July 9 | San Francisco, CA

• SEMICON WEST 2024 | July 9-11 | San Francisco, CA

• VB Transform 2024 Women in AI Breakfast | July 9-11 | San Francisco, CA

• MOMENTUM AI: AI Summit & Global Broadcast | July 16-17 | San Jose, CA

• VC Summer Mixer | July 18 | San Francisco, CA

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Investor at ODD BIRD in San Francisco Bay Area

• VC Vice President at ICONIQ Capital in San Francisco, CA

• Investment Analyst at Quona Capital in Latin America

• VC Principal at Afore in San Francisco, CA

• VC Associate at Nomura Ventures in San Francisco, CA

• VC Investor at Korea Investment Professional in San Francisco, CA

• VC Internship at Andreessen Horowitz in San Francisco, CA

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

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Last month venture capitalists from across the EVCA community gathered at the picturesque Silverado Resort in Napa for our 3rd Annual Summit. Against the backdrop of Napa’s vineyards and rolling mountains, attendees engaged in a day-long event full of panel discussions, small group discussions, and celebratory festivities. We across the EVCA Leadership want to express our sincere thanks to all of you who were able to join, and for those who couldn’t make it, we had you in our thoughts. We look forward to see you all in person again next year.

And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!

Meet Morgan Polotan, Partner at Monashee Capital

We had the chance to interview Morgan Polotan, who is a Partner at Monashee Capital, a hedge fund backed by Leucadia Asset Management where he leads the group’s private tech investments. Morgan shares his story of his unconventional path to venture capital—from moving to Los Angeles to become an actor, teaching himself to code to work as a software engineer, and investing in tech startups as a VC. Morgan also provides his lessons learned from taking a nonconventional path to a career in venture.

Read the interview here!

Featured Investor

This month we highlight Justin Yue of Geodesic Capital as our featured investor of the EVCA community.

Justin Yue is an Investor at Geodesic Capital, a software growth equity firm with ~$725M AUM. What drew Justin to his current firm was twofold: the fund’s focus on enterprise investing and the team’s value proposition of helping startups with expansion into the Japanese market. Prior to Geodesic, he spent two years in Bank of America’s Technology Investment Banking group, working on IPO and M&A transactions for software and semiconductor businesses. Justin’s foray into the technology industry began with his internship in Corporate Development at SAP in 2018, when he worked on building out market landscapes for AI/ML, data analytics and experience management startups. Justin was born and raised in Fremont, California and now lives in the Castro District in SF. When he is not busy crunching models in Excel and putting together slide decks, Justin stays active through swimming and soccer and hosts dinner parties for friends at his apartment. 

Click here to read more!

EVCA Leaders: New York Chapter Lead, Bridget Duru of Rethink Education

This EVCA Leadership Series is intended to help the broader community get to know what's going on behind the scenes at the EVCA and highlight the contributions of the over 50 leads across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.

Bridget Duru is a senior associate at Rethink Education, an early-stage venture fund focused on edtech, workforce, and life skills. Prior to joining the firm in January 2022, Bridget was a consultant at EY-Parthenon where she focused on commercial due diligence for companies in the consumer and education sectors. Outside of work, Bridget enjoys running, boxing, and finding the best vodka sauce pasta in NYC. Bridget graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and holds a B.A. in Political Science and Gender Studies. 

Click here to read more!

LP Spotlight: Miles Deamer, Vice President at Crossover VC

This month we highlight the work of Miles Dreamer, our featured LP for the month.

Miles Deamer is a Vice President at Crossover VC, an early-stage venture fund that invests in the operator-led pre-seed and seed funds that are the first call of today’s best founders as well as select direct investments at the Series A and B. Miles has spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley designing and implementing business strategies in the fintech and proptech verticals. Prior to joining Crossover, Miles spent seven years as an early employee of multiple venture-backed startups including Kiavi, Sundae, and AlphaFlow, where he led initiatives relating to capital markets, operations, and business development. Miles received a BS from USC, where he was also a member of the D1 National Championship water polo team. Outside of work, you can find Miles early on Sunday mornings cheering on his hometown soccer team Fulham at a local San Francisco pub.

Read the interview!

What We’re Reading

Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:

• TikTok, Robots, and Opportunities in Consumerland! - Kevin Zhang of Stealth, asks what can Western startups learn from Chinese consumer companies?

• Finding Your North Star in Venture Capital by Vijay Rajendran - Vijay Rajendran, formerly of 500 Global, shares why personal growth is essential to your professional development as a VC.

• Ignore the Noise - Michael Wolfe of Point Nine Capital, explains why startup founders and investors should avoid all the noise (distractions, excuses, and haters) that can surround them

• GovTech Market Overview - Paulina Szyzdek of Bosch Ventures, delves into the key issues government entities grapple with, along with examples of how startups can help

• Legal-ese for Startups - Avik Ashar of Artha Ventures, created a guide to explain the broad rights a VC usually asks for, as well as ones Founders should care about

Events

• Robotics Invest 2024 | June 11 | Boston, MA

• Shift VC | A conference empowering BIPOC investors across venture capital hosted by VC Unleashed | June 13-14 | San Francisco, CA

• VentureTogether: DignityMoves | June 14 | San Francisco, CA

• AI Engineer World's Fair | June 25th, June 27th | San Francisco, CA

➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.

Jobs

• Associate at LiveOak Ventures in Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area.

• Marketing & Research Summer Intern at Stellifi VC in Austin, Texas.

• Associate/ Senior Associate at Counterpart Ventures in San Francisco, CA.

• Investment Associate at Princeville Capital in San Francisco and Berlin.

• Venture Capital Associate at Moonshots Capital in Austin, Texas.

• Associate at 25madison in NYC

• Fellowship Program at Mighty Capital in USA

Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac

Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!

Submit your newsletter requests here!

Thanks for reading EVCA’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

Subscribe now