I interviewed Sunny Dhillon, Associate Signia VC @C2SV. Signia is an early stage fund set up June 2012. They focus on Seed & Series A investing in a wide range of sectors inc mobile. Some focus areas happen to be gaming, ad tech, customization of the enterprise, ecommerce. He’s passionate about making an impact, to work with companies who are making an impact on how we interact with each other, how we interact with the environment. He likes to work with entrepreneurs who are the brightest people in the room, getting smarter by talking to smart people. He spoke about what a great learning experience it has been going to LP’s for their fund. They have a great team, a great story & track record. He spoke about the changes to the vc industry: the cost of setting up a business, particularly a mobile one is significantly lower than its ever been. You have platforms that provide services like Twilio or Sendgrid that would have required a great amount of capital previously. From the investment perspective having a lot more access & democratization to financing process. A lot of what was once esoteric knowledge around the venture industry is now becoming much more commoditized & available. A lot of VCs do a great job of blogging & being very open. Brad Feld, Foundry Group & Mark Suster, Upfront Ventures is a great example. Also Angellist & what Naval Ravikant is doing there is great to paint a picture that this is something that can happen anywhere not just Silicon Valley.
Foundry Group
Jason Mendelson, Managing Director Foundry Group
I interviewed Jason Mendelson, Managing Director Foundry Group @NVCA Venturescape. He spoke about how being a musician has helped him connect better with entrepreneurs. Music has helped him develop an emotional connection with himself & as a result he finds it easier to relate to entrepreneurs. “Hey look at that dude out there on the stage, hey he’d be a great Board member!” He also spoke about the changes in the venture industry. (1) Fundamental change is the democratization of being an entrepreneur: you don’t have to be in Silicon Valley & raise $5m to start a company. 15 years ago that was the paradigm & you had to be in Boston or Silicon Valley. Gone! Boom! Anybody can start a company anywhere! The venture industry has had to adapt & react to that both moving earlier & doing smaller deals & spending a lot more time mentoring (that’s what the Office Hours is about). VCs are spending much more time mentoring even people that they’ll never invest in just because its the right thing to do. The way that the industry is reinventing itself is really understanding that the customer is the entrepreneur not necessarily the investor. Our clients are the investors & obviously we need to make sure that they get a good return on their investment but the customer is the entrepreneur.
Wendy Lea, CEO GetSatisfaction
Nima interviewed Wendy Lea, CEO GetSatisfaction in TechnologyinaTent. She is now ‘cool in Silicon Valley’ & she spoke about her background 30 years in the business. She spoke about how she didnt know about venture capital & how Brad Feld educated her about venture. She had bootstrapped so was unaware of venture. Brad, Seth & Jason, Foundry Group took Wendy under their wing & updated her. “Then I got my hands dirty in that world & I couldn’t get out! It was like a spider web of addiction.”