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.
Victoria Cross
Dafina Toncheva, Partner USVP #smartmoneysv
I interviewed Dafina Toncheva, Partner USVP @C2SV Conference. Shes been in venture capital for about 5 years. She likes to invest in the enterprise sector: enterprise IT & enterprise applications as well as security. USVP has been focusing on these sectors for over 30 years. There’s a lot of money to be made in this area over the next 10 years. Over the years there have been a few female vcs @USVP but Dafina is the only one at present (altho that is still 1 more than 99% of vc firms). A good friend of hers Nat Goldberg says that women fundamentally see the world differently & if you dont have a female @the table, you are missing out on that part of the world. She is the youngest partner @USVP & she has a technical background, shes a foreigner so international perspective. She believes she adds to the diversity of USVP which is important. She spoke about how the vc industry has always been interested in disruptive ideas & models & now the industry itself is being disrupted. She feels the changes are positive because it makes everyone think more carefully about the right ways to invest for their LPs. Competition is good for everyone & ultimately only the best succeed. They all have to be the best they can be in order to deserve & earn the money & the trust that is in their hands. ‘We all need to be challenged & if we are not challenged then we become lazy. This is one of the reasons that venture returns over the past 10 years haven’t been very good. Some firms will have to shut down but thats ok, that’s just the business of Life!”
Stephanie Palmeri SoftTech VC: From Start to Close, Getting Good Deals Done
Stephanie Palmeri Principal SoftechVC. Steph invests in early stage consumer internet companies including next generation commerce, mobile services, and saas. She has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of marketing and technology. At SoftTech VC, Steph’s work includes opportunity reviews, due diligence, market analysis, and dealflow management, in addition to active involvement with SoftTech VC portfolio companies. Prior to joining SoftTech VC, Steph was an active member in New York City’s emergent VC and entrepreneurial community where she was an Associate with early-stage venture fund NYC Seed and launched the NYC SeedStart incubator. Additionally, she worked with Lot18 on business development and marketing initiatives. Steph’s early experience includes working for Accenture and Estee Lauder as well as building SaaS applications for customers including SAP AG, JP Morgan, and Diageo. Steph holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University with joint degrees in Marketing and Management Information Systems. In her spare time, Steph enjoys bikram yoga, skiing, and getting lost in foreign countries. @stephpalmeri
In this session you’ll learn how to attract, filter & close the best deals as an angel investor. First learn how to build your deal pipeline by leveraging your experiences & aligning with others. Once your pipeline starts flowing, understand how to sift through potential opportunities to focus on best deals. And when it comes time to invest, know what to expect at the close, including terms & the closing process. Stephanie also covers portfolio management.