EVCA Newsletter #2
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Introspection
"There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen." — Lenin.
You’ve likely read or heard this at least once in the past few months. The way we do things - such as communicate, socialize, and work - are rapidly changing.
With this rapid change, you’re also forced to re-examine how you previously went about your day. I attended a Jesuit high school where we practiced the daily Ignatius Examen, a relatively short (5 minutes) reflection on the events of the day.
On some level, we’re all having daily examens. Maybe you’ve begun to re-think that grueling commute - now a distant memory - or increasingly question paying exorbitant rent for a shoebox of an apartment built in the 1920s. Maybe you appreciate the things you didn’t have before the pandemic hit, like that extra hour with your family or significant other.
At its core, this introspection is the same exercise we’d do if we had a powerball ticket sitting on our desk (bear with me on this one). We know we won’t win, but we pay $2 for the opportunity to dream of what if we won. Personally, I’d live somewhere tropical for a few months. Perhaps I’d leave venture and run a small vineyard. Or become a ski instructor and teach kids how to pizza down the mountain.
When you get to the root of what makes you happy, you’ll realize you can pursue those things even without winning the lottery. Would you leave a high-paying and coveted job to pursue a passion project? Would you move to a new city where you don’t know anyone? Or where you don’t speak the language?
Many of us likely had parents with incredibly high expectations of us, along with a narrow view of what success looks like. Those views whether consciously, or unconsciously, shaped our views of the world. I didn’t become a ski instructor because my parents didn’t think I could support a family on a ski instructor salary. I’m fortunate they steered me in a different direction because I love what I currently do. But, I still wonder what life would have been like - what my level of happiness would have been.
Most of us enjoy competition and it’s what draws us to venture. But the grind of chasing and winning deals is the job, it doesn’t change regardless of how experienced you are. It can be the best and worst part of the job.
Use this time to think about what drives you. If you don’t find energy in your grind towards the thing you view as success (general partner, unicorn CEO, etc.), perhaps you should reconsider what success and happiness mean to you. Ultimately, life becomes less about the particular success, and more about the road to get there. You need to enjoy the ride, because it’s a long one.
In Other News…
Well maybe not an egg, but how about an Amazon gift card? Submit a recommendation to our service provider directory & receive a $5 Amazon gift card per submission (up to 5). Last day to submit is Monday, July 6th. Gift cards will be emailed out shortly after.
What We’re Reading this Week
The best 30 minutes you’ll spend all week in The One-Touch Guide to Doing a Weekly Review, Tiago Forte
If you found the above framework helpful, also check out Khe’s take on a weekly review in The High-Leverage Habit, Khe Hy
Escaping and preventing a funk in A Guide to Getting Unstuck, The Forcing Function
It’s okay if life doesn’t return to “normal” after COVID in Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting, Julio Vincent Gambuto
Venture Jobs & Internships
Internship @ Spark Capital, Remote
Internship @ Cowboy Ventures, Remote
Analyst @ Conductive Ventures, Bay Area
Associate @ Maveron, San Francisco
Associate @ Ironspring, Austin
Senior Associate @ Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Redwood City
Meme of the Week
Harry Stebbings Fireside Chat
We recently hosted Harry Stebbings, founder of The Twenty Minute VC and Stride VC for a fireside chat with the community. Harry shared the founding story behind Twenty Minute VC and Stride and his advice on content creation, starting funds, and investing.
More on Harry’s fireside chat is included in our article here.
Featured Investors
Jessica Li
I am an investor at Soma Capital, a sector and geography agnostic seed stage fund. Prior to Soma, I worked in venture at General Catalyst, Romulus Capital, Global Founders Capital, and Female Founders Fund; in startups at Morning Brew and Luxe; in public markets investing at Northwestern Mutual and family offices; and in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Outside of Soma, I head content for Elpha, Harvard in Tech, and Techstars Boston (and EVCA!). In my free time, I love running, yoga, and reading.
Grace Isford
I am an investor at Canvas Ventures which focuses on early stage investments across consumer and enterprise. I focus mostly on companies with B2B business models. Before Canvas, I finished my Masters at Stanford, worked in growth equity at Stripes Group and product at Handshake. Outside of work, I love running. I ran the Boston marathon last year and I’m excited to get back to competitions once safe to do so.
Samantha Huang
I am a principal at BMW i Ventures where I focus on early-stage investments in the mobility, Industry 4.0, automotive, and artificial intelligence markets. While I don't practice today, I'm an accredited lawyer and had a past stint working at a law firm. I also worked as a researcher at the Stanford Corporate Governance Center. My leisure activities revolve around mind, body, and stomach. Mind: I love reading--novels particularly--as a form of mental escapism. Body: I do a lot of yoga and recently discovered a new-found love of outdoor cycling (partly due to needing to get outside during the coronavirus lockdown). Stomach: I'm an avid cook of things you typically don't find easily, such as Vietnamese street food or Burmese home-cooking, and I love exploring not-so-typical ingredients like fennel pollen and annato seeds.
What is your most contrarian view on an existing or emerging technology trend?
Jessica: I think traditional industries boundaries are much less robust than they appear, and these strict delineations contribute to asset underutilization. During COVID-19, we saw Uber drivers and restaurant waiters become Amazon workers. We saw startup employees join large corporations after massive layoffs. We saw luxury manufacturers pivot to mask making. We saw car manufacturers shift to ventilator production. Moving forward, I think and hope there will be more solutions (not just temporary, nonprofit COVID initiatives but more long term ones and even stand alone companies) to enhance cross-industry fluidity.
Grace: Meeting others through Zoom/video is not just a trend due to COVID, it’s the new normal. We won’t meet people in person the way we used to before, and there will be a proliferation of platforms to imitate real life virtually. Provides a great opportunity to start a company with video as an interface to replace in-person interactions.
Samantha: In the last couple years, we have seen a flourishing of venture interest in smart cities, which is an area of innovation centered on using better information and technology to make cities more operationally efficient and effective for its citizens. You have probably encountered many flavors of the vision of smart city in your daily lives: apps that help you find parking faster and cheaper, IoT plays focused on gathering data on car traffic or human movement, or other types of software that help municipalities make the digital transformation.
The idea of the smart city sounds great in theory, but I have yet to see a stellar opportunity to invest in this area. Why? For one, many such companies have to either partner or sell to municipalities. Governmental bodies, however, are some of the slowest, disorganized, and bureaucratic entities in the world. They don't make for great customers because they tend not to care about innovation and have very slow sales cycles that can extend well over a year. Accordingly, smart city companies that have municipalities as their primary customers struggle to hit the type of growth trajectory that venture capitalists like. Secondly, the market for such companies is relatively small. There are some forward-looking cities like Los Angeles and New York that are upping spending on smart city initiatives, but the number of such cities is too few to constitute a big enough market in which startups can play.
How have the skills you developed in your pre-VC work played into your role now?
Jessica: I really liked this piece from Alex Danco, and it was fun to think more about new financing structures that can arise from this economic period.
I also really liked this podcast with Floodgate co-founder Ann Miura-Ko on Venture Stories. She shared some great thoughts around company building during COVID-19, which included some great advice we share with our portfolio.
Grace: Two articles to recommend! One is this awesome article on the data space by Dan Friedman and another by Erin Bromage providing practical advice as insight on how COVID spreads.
Samantha: I just finished reading Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, which won the Booker Prize in 1989. It is a book told in the perspective of a subservient butler who reflects on his experiences serving a British Lord in the time leading up to and following World War II. I admit--the premise of the book sounds horribly boring, but I couldn't put it down. The Remains of the Day is in the "top 3" of books I've ever read in my life.
What is the best work or social tool that you have discovered since starting VC?
Jessica: Webflow! I recently created a webflow site for our 230+ portfolio companies to better access each other, our mentor network, our knowledge base, and our service provider partners. It was super easy and fun to use, and I have gotten tons of great feedback on how slick and useful the site is for our founders. I highly recommend!
Grace: Twitter! I’ve had a Twitter account for a while but didn’t start using It until last year - but it’s a great way to consume information quickly across the tech and VC community and stay up to date on new deals and emerging companies.
Samantha: I admit that I technically "discovered" it before venture capital, but it feels like I've only truly "discovered" the importance of LinkedIn upon entering venture capital. Networking is critical in venture capital, and LinkedIn is that universal platform where everyone has an account and you can digitally solidify connections with those you've met in person. If used correctly, LinkedIn can help you build your brand and stay top of mind of others in your ecosystem. People read your posts on their newsfeeds, you react to their posts, and all of the sudden, you've strengthened those social bonds with the click of a button.
Community News
Events
Wednesday, July 15th: InsurTech vertical’s fireside chat with Kyle Nakatsuji, co-founder and CEO of ClearCover (RSVP in the insurtech channel)
Thank you to our recent speakers: Harry Stebbings, founder of The Twenty Minute VC and Stride.VC, Terry McGuire, former NVCA Chairman, Midas List, and founder/MP of Polaris, Tillman Gerngross, founder of GlycoFi, Adimab, Arsanis, Alector and Avitide and Amy Snook, COO of Haus and former exec at Glossier.
Articles
Bliss: a monthly newsletter on consumer, enterprise, and culture - Morgan Mahlock, In-Q-Tel
Innotopia: A podcast with leading Asia-based innovators - Kelly An, SoGal Ventures / Paypal Innovation
Asks
Join the recently launched healthcare vertical channel co-lead by Emily Zhen, NEA & Amanda Way, Emerson Collective
Subscribe to the EVCA Growth Vertical newsletter, written by Russell Yue, HIG Growth Capital and Jeremy Zhu, CapitalG
Envision is an accelerator for women and people of color in college. Interested in mentoring, hosting office hours, or speaking? Email jessica@somacap.com!
Is your portfolio looking to hire diverse talent? Getro.org from Monday.vc is a pro-bono initiative sending curated jobs to talent and curated talent to hiring managers. Ask your portfolio companies to sign up for Getro’s newsletter (all nonprofit, completely free).
Happy Fourth y’all!
Connect with us on Twitter: EVCA, Adam & Jessica
Interested in submitting content and/or learning more about the community? Email info@evca.org.
- Adam & Jessica