EVCA Newsletter | November Edition - New Features, Jobs, and Events!
While 2021 shall remain on the record books as one of the strangest years we humans should expect to experience (perhaps right after the pandemic-induced mayhem of 2020), it’s certainly been a banner year for the venture capital industry. In the first nine months of the year, venture capitalists raised a record-breaking $96B from limited partners across 526 funds and are on track to reach $100B by the year’s end. The sheer magnitude of the capital raised from LPs in 2021 very comfortably tops the $86B raised by VCs in all of 2020, according to Pitchbook. Indeed, venture capital as an asset class has more than quintupled over the last decade. With all this explosive growth of capital in the industry, it’s never been a better time to be a VC. For now, let’s ride this wave while it’s still hot!
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to the November edition of the EVCA newsletter!
EVCA Spotlight: Meet Rick Grinnell, Founder and Managing Partner at Glasswing Ventures.
We had the chance to interview Rick Grinnell, who is Founder and Managing Partner at Glasswing Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in pre-seed and seed-stage companies in AI and frontier software technologies. Rick shares with us his origins story—from starting his career as an operator to working as a venture capitalist over the last 21 years. Through his story, Rick shares her lessons on life and career.
Featured Investors
This month we highlight Grace Isford of Canvas Ventures and Keith Bender of Pear Ventures as our featured investors of the EVCA community.
Grace Isford is the youngest principal and investment team member at Canvas Ventures, which she first joined part-time in 2016 as a campus scout while still studying at Stanford. Since joining full-time in 2019, she has been promoted three times. Grace has sourced 10 deals representing over $100M in deployed capital for Canvas including Robocorp, Skyflow, Vendia and Flowspace and serves as either a board director or observer on seven of those ten companies. Prior to Canvas, Grace worked on the LP side at the Stanford Management Company and in product at the edtech startup Handshake. She’s passionate about increasing female representation in venture and tech - she served as President of Stanford Women in Business and as an All Raise Captain. Grace also serves on the board of Stanford Technology Ventures Program, which stems from her participation in the Mayfield Fellowship program.
Keith Bender is a Principal at Pear, where he invests at seed in consumer, commerce, and fintech companies in the U.S. and Latin America. Before Pear, Keith was at Bessemer Venture Partners and BCG and long ago spent a summer working for his hometown Arizona Diamondbacks. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Business School. Outside of work, Keith is usually looking for a fourth person to get a Spikeball game going.
EVCA Leadership Spotlight: Chicago Chapter Lead, Steven Cook of Chicago Ventures
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, as well as highlight the valuable contributions of the roughly 50 individuals across the venture capital industry who make the EVCA possible.
Steven Cook is a member of the investment team at Chicago Ventures, a seed-stage generalist fund investing across the US and Canada. He previously worked as an Analyst at Accenture in their Management Consulting practice and at Ariel Investments, a Chicago-based mutual fund. Most recently, Steven played professional basketball in the Netherlands and Estonia, competing internationally across Europe.
What We’re Reading
Creator economy of Gaming & the Future of Game Monetization - Zoe Chew of VentureScale, dives deep within the market opportunities and business models for the gaming space
Coast & Gender — The Startup Investor Ecosystem Revealed - Peter Dolch of Aeon Foundry, analyzes twitter user data related to gender and the start up ecosystem cohorts
The Future of Disability: A Meditation on a Hidden Economy - Rutvij Thakkar of DODS, discusses the topic of innovation within the disabled/differently-abled market
Speed As A Competitive Advantage - David Zhou of Cup of Zhou, considers the question of “how do you balance speed and diligence in the increasingly competitive market of venture?”
The 2021 Urban Tech report - Matteo Renoldi of Dealroom, provides an analysis on the urban tech industry’s investment trends and potential opportunities for innovation
The B-Side of African Tech - Stephen Deng of DFS Lab, explains the key aspects that make the African tech market a key area for continued investment for VCs
Events
Bloomberg Green at COP126 | November 8-10 | Hosted by Bloomberg
Corporate Venture Connections: 5G | November 9 | Hosted by Technology Alliance
EdTech Venture Fair | November 9 | Hosted by KiwiTech
MedTech Manufacturing on the U.S. / Mexico Border: Building a Resilient Bi-National Industry | November 9-10 | Hosted by BIO El Paso-Juarez
DoD Market Traction: How can we accelerate the momentum | November 10 | Hosted by Defense Innovation Unit and VCA
The Future of Smart Cities | November 16 | Hosted by Scrum Ventures and Toyota Ventures
Conversation with David Beisel | November 16 | Hosted by Adam Dawkins
Auto | Mobility Tech 7 | November 17 | Hosted by Doon Insights
Big Forces in CVC, Session 1: What does it mean to structure a venture fund? | November 18 | Hosted by NVCA and Sidley
Jobs
Associate and Principal Role in San Francisco, CA at Emergence Capital
Principal / Jr Partner Role in New York, NY or Los Angeles, CA at a +$1B growth fund. If interested, DM Adam Dawkins on slack
Associate Role in Remote or Nihonbashi, Tokyo at Woven Capital. If interested, email betty.lee@woven-planet.global with a resume and a short blurb about yourself
Early Growth Team Role in San Francisco, CA at Upfront Ventures. If interested, email your resume to molly@upfront.com
Senior Associate and Principal Role in San Francisco, CA at B Capital. If interested, email your resume to vsung@bcapgroup.com
Platform Analyst and Senior Associate Role in Santa Monica, CA at Clocktower Technology Ventures. If interested, email your resume and cover letter to career12@clocktowergroup.com with the subject “Venture Platform: Senior Associate candidate – Your Name” or career5@clocktowergroup.com with the subject “Venture Platform: Analyst candidate – Your Name”.
Investment Analyst and Associate Role in Santa Monica, CA at Clocktower Technology Ventures. If interested, email your resume and cover letter to career9@clocktowergroup.com with the subject “Investment Associate candidate – Your Name” or career6@clocktowergroup.com with the subject “Investment Analyst candidate – Your Name”.
Associate / Principal Role in San Francisco, LA at Javelin Venture Partners. If interested, email vivian@javelinvp.com
Analyst Role in Washington, DC at Route 66 Ventures. If interested, email edobosh@route66ventures.com
Associate / Senior Associate at BMW i Ventures. If interested, email recruiting@bmwiventures.com.
Analyst / Associate Role in Chicago, IL at Chingona Ventures
Pre-MBA Investment Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Singtel Innov8. If interested, email your resume to michael.kim@singtel.com
Summer 2022 Associate Intern Role in Menlo Park, CA or NYC at TCV. If interested, email your resume to shartzheim@tcv.com
Associate Role in San Francisco, CA and New York, NY at Bain Capital Ventures (BCV)
Asks
Do you know any phenomenal female founders building something in the logistics/supply chain/transportation/space industry? UP.Partners is launching a dinner series to include, celebrate, and connect these women. Please reach out to ally@up.partners if you have some strong female founders that would like to be included.
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, and Isaac
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