EVCA Newsletter | June Edition - the latest VC news, jobs, and events
Last month venture capitalists from across the EVCA community gathered at the picturesque Silverado Resort in Napa for our 3rd Annual Summit. Against the backdrop of Napa’s vineyards and rolling mountains, attendees engaged in a day-long event full of panel discussions, small group discussions, and celebratory festivities. We across the EVCA Leadership want to express our sincere thanks to all of you who were able to join, and for those who couldn’t make it, we had you in our thoughts. We look forward to see you all in person again next year.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!
Meet Morgan Polotan, Partner at Monashee Capital
We had the chance to interview Morgan Polotan, who is a Partner at Monashee Capital, a hedge fund backed by Leucadia Asset Management where he leads the group’s private tech investments. Morgan shares his story of his unconventional path to venture capital—from moving to Los Angeles to become an actor, teaching himself to code to work as a software engineer, and investing in tech startups as a VC. Morgan also provides his lessons learned from taking a nonconventional path to a career in venture.
Featured Investor
This month we highlight Justin Yue of Geodesic Capital as our featured investor of the EVCA community.
Justin Yue is an Investor at Geodesic Capital, a software growth equity firm with ~$725M AUM. What drew Justin to his current firm was twofold: the fund’s focus on enterprise investing and the team’s value proposition of helping startups with expansion into the Japanese market. Prior to Geodesic, he spent two years in Bank of America’s Technology Investment Banking group, working on IPO and M&A transactions for software and semiconductor businesses. Justin’s foray into the technology industry began with his internship in Corporate Development at SAP in 2018, when he worked on building out market landscapes for AI/ML, data analytics and experience management startups. Justin was born and raised in Fremont, California and now lives in the Castro District in SF. When he is not busy crunching models in Excel and putting together slide decks, Justin stays active through swimming and soccer and hosts dinner parties for friends at his apartment.
EVCA Leaders: New York Chapter Lead, Bridget Duru of Rethink Education
This EVCA Leadership 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.
Bridget Duru is a senior associate at Rethink Education, an early-stage venture fund focused on edtech, workforce, and life skills. Prior to joining the firm in January 2022, Bridget was a consultant at EY-Parthenon where she focused on commercial due diligence for companies in the consumer and education sectors. Outside of work, Bridget enjoys running, boxing, and finding the best vodka sauce pasta in NYC. Bridget graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and holds a B.A. in Political Science and Gender Studies.
LP Spotlight: Miles Deamer, Vice President at Crossover VC
This month we highlight the work of Miles Dreamer, our featured LP for the month.
Miles Deamer is a Vice President at Crossover VC, an early-stage venture fund that invests in the operator-led pre-seed and seed funds that are the first call of today’s best founders as well as select direct investments at the Series A and B. Miles has spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley designing and implementing business strategies in the fintech and proptech verticals. Prior to joining Crossover, Miles spent seven years as an early employee of multiple venture-backed startups including Kiavi, Sundae, and AlphaFlow, where he led initiatives relating to capital markets, operations, and business development. Miles received a BS from USC, where he was also a member of the D1 National Championship water polo team. Outside of work, you can find Miles early on Sunday mornings cheering on his hometown soccer team Fulham at a local San Francisco pub.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
TikTok, Robots, and Opportunities in Consumerland! - Kevin Zhang of Stealth, asks what can Western startups learn from Chinese consumer companies?
Finding Your North Star in Venture Capital by Vijay Rajendran - Vijay Rajendran, formerly of 500 Global, shares why personal growth is essential to your professional development as a VC.
Ignore the Noise - Michael Wolfe of Point Nine Capital, explains why startup founders and investors should avoid all the noise (distractions, excuses, and haters) that can surround them
GovTech Market Overview - Paulina Szyzdek of Bosch Ventures, delves into the key issues government entities grapple with, along with examples of how startups can help
Legal-ese for Startups - Avik Ashar of Artha Ventures, created a guide to explain the broad rights a VC usually asks for, as well as ones Founders should care about
Events
➡️ For all EVCA events, which are private to EVCA members, please check the Slack community or your inbox for our monthly Member’s Digest.
Jobs
Associate at LiveOak Ventures in Austin, Texas Metropolitan Area.
Marketing & Research Summer Intern at Stellifi VC in Austin, Texas.
Associate/ Senior Associate at Counterpart Ventures in San Francisco, CA.
Investment Associate at Princeville Capital in San Francisco and Berlin.
Venture Capital Associate at Moonshots Capital in Austin, Texas.
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac
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