EVCA Newsletter | March Edition - the latest VC news, jobs, and events
An article in the Wall Street Journal recently featured the EVCA to discuss the impact of the contracting market on emerging VCs. Some of the trends we’ve seen include the move of a growing number of junior investors to roles outside the industry and a shrinkage in the size of compensation packages, as firms tighten their books to reflect the shifting macro-environment. And then there’s the slowdown in the investment pace—how does an emerging VC establish a track record nowadays when deal volume trickles at such a forlorn pace?
For everyone navigating the current environment, we at the EVCA hope to be your sounding board—through the good times and the bad. Accordingly, we’re excited to announce the theme for our upcoming EVCA Summit in May: The Next Cycle in Venture. Our goal with this year’s Summit is to provide a space for unfiltered dialogue about the ups, downs, and in-betweens of the ongoing state of venture capital and our future paths as emerging VCs. We also hope to just have a lot of fun as a community. If you haven’t bought your tickets, they’re going out fast, so be sure to secure your spot soon. We look forward to seeing you all there.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to this month’s EVCA newsletter!
Spotlight Feature: Meet Casber Wang, Partner at Sapphire Ventures
We had the chance to interview Casber Wang who is a partner at Sapphire Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in growth-stage enterprise companies. Casber shares his story—from co-founding a startup while at UC Berkeley, working in investment banking, and investing in the next generation of enterprise companies. Casber also shares his thoughts on life and learnings from his career.
Featured Investor
This month we highlight Rudy Iberle of MFV Partners as our featured investor of the EVCA community.
Rudy Iberle is a Senior Associate at MFV Partners, an early-stage venture fund focused on deep technology startups disrupting verticals such as automotive, transportation, industrial, manufacturing & knowledge services. Rudy joined MFV Partners in 2021 during his last quarter at Chicago Booth and is responsible for sourcing and due diligence. While at MFV Partners, he focuses on multiple deep tech areas, including robotics, health tech, AI/ML, and climate technologies. Prior to MFV Partners, Rudy was a Sourcing Associate for Techstars Chicago. He began his career at United Airlines, working on the Digital Products team, launching and managing new ancillary and digital products. In his free time, he enjoys reading, traveling, walking, and hiking with his wife and one year old son.
EVCA Leaders: EdTech Vertical Lead, Mady Duboc of Lumos Capital Group
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.
Mady Duboc is an Associate at Lumos Capital Group, a NYC-based growth stage fund that invests in category defining Education and Future of Work companies. Prior to joining Lumos, Mady was a Consultant in EY-Parthenon's Private Equity Practice (Education aligned), where she advised on over 30 transactions for financial sponsors, PE-backed strategics, and corporations. She also has experience working in operations at an edtech startup and then as an educator abroad. Mady also leads Data & Analytics for Stanford Professionals in Investing & Finance. Outside of work, she enjoys road biking, alpine skiing, cooking, and supporting her home team (go Raptors!).
LP Feature: Sam Sadowsky, a Partner at Twelve Hundred
This month we highlight Sam Sadowsky, a Partner at Twelve Hundred as our featured LP of the EVCA community.
Sam Sadowsky is a Partner at Twelve Hundred, an early-stage investment platform investing in fund managers and founders building companies shaping the future of humanity. The long-term vision of Twelve Hundred is to be a systemic value creator by becoming a leader at partnering from the Seed stage towards regional, global and planetary impact.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
The Power of Community-Driven Capital - Rodrigo Ko of Republic, shares the benefits of crowdfunding or community capital for startups and as a source for startup funding
Opportunity in AI’s Bottlenecks - Todd McIntyre of Alumni, explores key bottlenecks in the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and highlights startups already making strides to overcome limitations
Winning Deals Based on Check Size (VCs versus LPs) - David Zhou of Cup of Zhou, delves into how GPs win deals and how LPs win deals
The data revolution in venture capital - Ryan Hoover and Vedika Jain of Weekend Fund, discuss why the timing is right for data-driven ventures, the specific strategies being used by funds today, and the trade-offs to consider
Your "TAM" is Why I Have Trust Issues - CJ Gustafson of PartsTech, delves into the pitfalls of total addressable market analyses and provides tips on how to think more critically about market sizing
Events
Regulation in AI | March 4 | Hosted by Urban Innovation Fund
The Next Gen 20s Gala | March 7 | Hosted by Black VC
Brands2Life x SVB Capital SF Fintech Happy Hour | March 7 | Hosted by SVB Capital
Venture Vibes Happy Hour #2 | March 13 | Hosted by Kevin Jiang from Softbank
SXSW 2024 | March 8-16 | Hosted by Southwest
Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Summit | March 12-14 | Hosted by Global Venturing
InsurTech Happy Hour | March 20 | Hosted by Munich Re Ventures
➡️ 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
Chief of Staff Role in Culver City, CA at Lowercarbon Capital
Senior Corporate Development Manager Role in Bellevue, WA at Smartsheet
VC Analyst Role in San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) at 137 Ventures
Investment Associate Role in San Francisco, CA Audacious Ventures
Venture & Ecosystem Operations Analyst Role in San Francisco Bay Area, CA at Mission BioCapital
VC Principal Role (Ideally West Coast (SF, LA) or NYC based) at Inertia Ventures. If interested, please send your resume along with a short cover letter to jobs@inertia.vc.
Asks
For the upcoming EVCA Summit in May, we are showcasing startups building cool technologies that people play with, try out, taste, etc. If you know of a startup (could be a portfolio company or otherwise) that would enjoy being featured (it’s free), please email mane@evca.org. A few examples include drones, robots, golf simulators, VR headsets, etc., cell-based fish, robotic pizza maker.
VC Unleashed, an organization dedicated to improving diversity in VC, is conducting a survey to better understand the recruiting attitudes and experiences in VC of minority investors. The survey is open to VC investors of all races and levels and should take roughly 5 minutes to complete. Take the survey here.
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, Ani, and Mane
Do you have something to share with the EVCA community? Submit your writings, announcements, events, and asks for future newsletter publications by clicking on the button below!