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Venture Capital Trends Roundtable @SmartMoney 2012: Cathy Lego, Lego Ventures; Eurie Kim, Principal Forerunner Ventures; Gamiel Gran, Partner Sierra Ventures; Saad Khan, Partner CMEA IT; Sarah Cone, Associate Illuminate Ventures; Christine Tsai, Partner 500Startups; Jacob Ner-David with moderator Christina Farr, writer Venturebeat. Bios follow & video below:
Cathy Lego, Lego Ventures, is currently the chair of the audit committee for Lam Research a $4 Billion semiconductor equipment company. She also chairs the audit committee for SanDisk Corporation, a $5 Billion company specializing in removable storage products based on NAND semiconductors. Last year she joined the board of Cosworth Group a private UK company specializing in precision motors and electronics. Over the past 30 years Cathy has sat on the boards of a number of other public technology companies, namely Etec Corp, Uniphase Corp, WJ Communications, MicroLinear Corporation and Zitel Corp as well as a dozen private companies. In the eighties Cathy was a partner at Oak Investment Partners and then in 1992 started her own ventures funds, Lego Ventures, an angel fund and in 1999, The Photonics Fund. She began her career at Coopers and Lybrand where she was a CPA on the audit staff. She has a BA in economics and biology from Williams College and an MS in accounting from NYU School of Business.
Eurie Kim, Principal Forerunner Ventures, joined in May 2012. Over the past 10 years, Eurie has evaluated and aided a wide variety of companies in their quest to define business models, identify target markets, and overcome operational and competitive challenges to drive growth. Most recently Eurie was a management consultant at Bain and Company, where she advised large retail and e-commerce clients on strategy, acquisition opportunities, and consumer insights. Prior to Bain, Eurie was an associate at Castanea Partners, where she evaluated and led growth investments in consumer and retail businesses. Beyond her experiences with established companies both large and small, Eurie also has a deep personal passion for entrepreneurship, which inspired her to launch, MAVN, an artisanal leather goods company catering to the needs of professional women. Eurie also served on the founding team of BYESSE, a European luxury brand incubator, which sought to invest capital and business support in top fashion designers around the world. Eurie earned an MBA with honors at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a B.S. with honors in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. You can find Eurie on Twitter @eurie_kim
Gamiel Gran, Partner Sierra Ventures joined in 2008. He leads the Business Development Strategy for the Firm that allows broad market outreach for Sierra Ventures. Key elements of the Business Development effort are formal external advisory boards such as the Sierra Ventures CIO Advisory Board, Sierra Strategic Advisory program, partnerships with services providers such as Angel investors, recruiters, venture banking, and law firms. Serving in the role of Business Development is a unique role for the venture capital community and a role that Sierra Ventures has seen significant impact across each stage of the investment process from sourcing deals, accelerating portfolio company market adoption and successful exits. In his role, Gamiel develops lead sources for the firm and is focused on the broader software sector. Gamiel holds a BA in Economics/Social Science from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a California native, and lives in Portola Valley with his wife of more than 20 years and his 3 children. He also serves as a board member for the Menlo-Atherton High School Foundation for Future. You can find Gamiel on Twitter @gamielg
Saad Khan, Partner CMEA IT, invests exclusively in bad asses, including leading all seed and early stage investments in the people behind Zaarly, Blekko, Luminate, Jobvite (and some awesome others you’ll hear about). Saad has spent his career innovating. From R&D to entrepreneurship, from Hollywood to Silicon Valley, Saad has always sought the bleeding edge of technology and creativity. “I’m happiest when I am surrounded by whiteboards and thought provoking people.” His pursuit of innovation often takes him to unexpected places. Saad grew up between Pakistan and the Bay Area, and attended an American high school in Karachi where his soccer tournaments and theater performances were often played out in locations including Kathmandu, Delhi, and Islamabad. Prior to CMEA, he was a Venture Partner at Garage.com where he helped build Silicon Valley’s first startup incubator. There he worked closely with early stage entrepreneurs across the Garage portfolio including Pandora, cFares, and TripleHop (ORCL). In addition to his day job, he co-founded the Film Angels (working with actors and producers like Carlos Santana and Barrie Osborne, producer of Lord of The Rings). He is also an Advisor to Lending Club (peer-to-peer lending platform), SamaSource (micro-work for the next billion), and the Thiel Fellowship’s 20 under 20 program. “Whenever I’m considering an investment, I ask ‘Do these guys make me want to quit my job and change the world with them?’ If the answer is yes, then I know I’m on the right path.” He has been a guest lecturer at the Stanford Design School and the UC Berkeley Business School. He is a frequent speaker at the US State Department and can be found supporting the cause of entrepreneurs from Startup Weekend in Egypt to “Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia”. He has been featured in Forbes (an advisor to Forbes 30 under 30), the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. You can find Saad on Twitter @saadventures
Sarah Cone is a Venture Associate at Illuminate Ventures, a Micro VC firm in Silicon Valley that invests in B2B cloud computing. Sarah has over 10 years of experience in high tech, beginning her career at Amazon.com. She has worked in technology public policy both at the non-profit Public Knowledge and at Google. Sarah was the founder and CEO of a social news start-up. She began her venture capital career at Omidyar Networks in the emerging technologies investment group. Sarah has a JD from U.C. Berkeley. You can find Sarah on Twitter @sarah_cone
Christine Tsai, Partner 500Startups can herd pugs (or cats) like no other. Before 500, she was at Google and YouTube for many years. While steering the 500 Mentor network, platform partnerships, & marketing, Christine can also be found deflecting speeding bullets with her bulletproof pointe shoes and serving as 500’s artistic director & choreographer. You can find Christine on Twitter @christine_tsai
Christina Farr, writer Venturebeat (moderator) is a San Francisco-based writer covering enterprise, education technology, venture capital trends and startup culture. Prior to VentureBeat, she worked in public relations representing companies in the Big Data, cloud computing and analytics space. Before that she worked as a freelance writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, TheNextWeb and Digital Trends, among others. In 2011, she received a Masters from the Stanford Graduate School of Journalism. Growing up, she divided my time between the urban sprawls of New York and London. You can find Christina on Twitter @chrissyfarr
