EVCA Newsletter | December Edition - the latest VC news, jobs, and events
As the end of the year approaches, I find myself in a natural state of reflection. Global macroeconomic conditions continue to sour, and our industry has not been short on trauma-inducing events—from the bank runs that led to the collapse of three banks; the implosion of X, formerly known as Twitter; and, more recently, the chaos that nearly brought the tech darling OpenAI to the brink of death.
Yet for all the maelstrom that 2023 was, the VC industry remains resilient, with plenty of dry powder stored in the coffers, enough to weather any big unexpected shocks to the system. I am heartened, moreover, by the strength of the EVCA community. With the recent expansion of EVCA into the MENA region, EVCA members now span three continents, making it the largest, global community of pre-partner and junior partner VCs. We across the EVCA leadership team want to express our gratitude for all our members across the world who make our thriving community possible. For all the evolutions of the VC industry over the years, one constant has remained the same—VC remains a relationships-driven business. For that reason, as we look toward the New Year, our hope is that the social bonds established across the community today may span years, careers, and even entire life times.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to our last EVCA newsletter for the year!
Spotlight Feature: Meet Maryanna Saenko, Co-founder and Partner at Future Ventures
We had the chance to interview Maryanna Saenko, who is is Co-founder and Partner at Future Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in founders pushing the boundaries of frontier technology. Maryanna shares her story—from immigrating from Ukraine as a young child, working as a researcher and consultant, breaking into the world of venture capital, and, in her most recent chapter, founding her own VC firm. Maryanna also shares her lessons and thoughts from her career.
Featured Investor
This month we highlight Khalig Howard of Clear Ventures as our featured investor in the EVCA community.
Khalig Howard is a Principal at Clear Ventures, where he helps early-stage founders build and scale innovative deep technology companies in AI/ML applications, performant IT Infrastructure, Enterprise SaaS, and Digital Health Transformation. Khalig received a BA in Global Commerce from Denison University, where he focused on Economics, Data Analytics, and German Language and was a member of the Lacrosse team. He also studied Economics at the University of Virginia, and internationally at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg in Germany. He has previously worked in foreign direct investment for the government of Northern Ireland, at IgniteXL Ventures, and multiple technology startups in business development and strategy roles. As an avid Tennis, Soccer, Squash, and Lacrosse player, he spends much of his free time competing in sports, biking, reading, and hiking with his Dachshund Clementine.
EVCA Leadership Spotlight: Clean-Tech Vertical Lead, Ariana Lucera of MassMutual Catalyst Fund
This EVCA Leadership Spotlight 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.
Ariana Lucera is a Senior Associate at the MassMutual Catalyst Fund, focusing on early-stage impact investments across a variety of sectors. Her passion for clean-tech and deep-tech have driven a variety of investments across alternative energy storage, mineral resources, ag-tech and manufacturing. Prior to joining the Impact Investing team, Ariana participated in MassMutual’s Investment Management Leadership Development program where she held roles across quantitative and fundamental credit, macro-economic research, and operational due diligence. Ariana holds a BS in Finance from Bentley University and is based in Boston. Beyond her professional pursuits, Ariana enjoys traveling, sailing, exploring the outdoors and is a big foodie.
LP Feature: Dan Stolar, Principal at Colibri Equity Ventures
This month we highlight Dan Stolar of Colibri Equity Ventures as our featured LP in the EVCA community.
Dan is a Principal at Colibri Equity Ventures, a single family office. Dan leads the venture capital strategy and also participates in all alternative private investments. Dan started his venture capital journey as an intern at Viola Credit, a venture debt fund in Tel Aviv, before spending time in investment banking at Peter J. Solomon Co. (now Solomon Partners) where he focused on consumer and retail mergers & acquisitions. After banking, Dan spent ~5 years at Alpha Partners, a late-stage venture firm that partners with early stage managers helping them follow on in their late stage deals. Dan is still involved with Alpha as a Venture Partner.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
LLMs and Sneaky Big Markets - John Gianakopoulos of Scale Venture Partners, breaks down how his thought process around applications of AI in vertical markets
The “Pruning Process of AI Investing” - Zain Rizavi of Ridge Ventures; draws on the parallels from brain development and what it teaches us about innovation, boom-and-bust cycles, investing, and AI
To succeed, cybersecurity startups need to be triple fit - Ross Haleliuk of LimaCharlie; talks about the fundamentals of the founder-problem fit, product-zeitgeist fit, and product-market fit and what they mean for cybersecurity startups
How private companies can choose the right path on the IPO journey - Jeffrey Grabow of EY, shares some key factors private companies should consider when deciding between traditional IPOs, SPAC mergers and direct listings
3D Printing Companies Are Dying… - Alex Huckstepp of Machina Labs, delves into some of the 3D printing industry’s structural problems
Stop Expecting Venture Capital to Solve All the World’s Problems - DC Palter of Tech Coast Angels, explains why venture capital only works for specific types of businesses at a particular stage
Asks
WIND Ventures is conducting a survey of VCs to identify upcoming growth markets. They are doing a $250 Amazon gift card raffle for survey participants and sharing results in advance to participants. If you have a moment, you can complete the survey here.
Events
Fashion Tech Summit: Sustainability and Innovation | December 7 | Hosted by DressX
Discussion of "AI 2041: 10 Visions for Our Future" | December 12 | Hosted by Austin Forum
FoundersBoost NYC Fall 2023 Demo Day | December 12 | Hosted by FoundersBoost
Trends in Electrification | December 12 | Hosted by Entergy Solutions
EdTech Investment Conference | December 14 | Hosted by The Startup Club
Jobs
Analyst / Associate Role in Austin, TX (Remote) at Trust Ventures
Investment Biotech Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Yosemite. If interested, send a letter of interest and your resume to recruiting@yosemite.co
Grants Portfolio Manager Role in San Francisco, CA at Yosemite. If interested, send a letter of interest and your resume to recruiting@yosemite.co
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, and Isaac
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