EVCA Newsletter | October Edition - The Latest VC Jobs, Events, and Content
In the lore of Silicon Valley, the relationship between founder and VC endures as one of the most emblematic pairings. The VC provides the capital for the founder to scale his company to great heights, and, in exchange, the founder promises the VC a share of returns upon the exit. It’s a symbiosis that has underpinned the growth of the innovation ecosystem since Arthur Rock first invested in Fairchild Semiconductor in the 1950s, marking the beginning of venture capital as an asset class.
Yet for all the glory bestowed upon founders and VCs, that relationship would not exist without the contributions of Limited Partners (LPs). LPs are the capital originators, the investors in the VCs, who in turn are the investors in the founders. LPs are the life blood to the innovation ecosystem, the bedrock on top of which all else lies. For that reason, we at the EVCA are excited to announce the launch of our monthly LP features by our very own Ananya Vasagiri, who is the EVCA Lead for our LP community and an investor at Schematic Ventures. The launch of our LP features recognizes the vital role LPs play in the tech ecosystem and hopefully will help to bring the ecosystem of founders, LPs, VCs closer together.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to the October edition of the EVCA newsletter!
Spotlight Feature: Meet Kasper Sage, Managing Partner at BMW i Ventures
We had the chance to interview Kasper Sage, who is a Managing Partner at BMW i Ventures, the venture firm for BMW. Kasper shares his story—from starting his career in the Berlin startup scene, moving to the U.S. to work in management consulting, and now investing in early-stage startups at BMW i Ventures. Kasper also shares his lessons and thoughts from his career.
Featured Investor
This month we highlight Salima Kaissi of Okta Ventures as our featured investor in the EVCA community.
Salima Kaissi is a Director at Okta Ventures, helping Okta identify, invest, and support startups building technology enabled by identity, security, and privacy. Prior to joining the ventures team, Salima led Okta’s Cloud Partnerships building a business from the ground up with hundreds of millions of dollars in co-sell revenue. Previously she worked with different tech companies including Microsoft and Nokia, in different geos across the globe.
LP Feature: Nico Mizrahi, Co-Founder and General Partner at Pattern Ventures
This month we highlight Nico Mizrahi, GP of Pattern Ventures, as our featured LP in the EVCA community.
Nico Mizrahi is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Pattern Ventures, a specialist fund of funds and co-investment platform exclusively focused on emerging managers. He has over 20 years of experience launching and managing emerging manager fund of funds (FoF) across a range of strategies including long/short equity hedge funds, long-only funds and specialty credit funds. He previously served as Partner and Portfolio Manager at FPA (First Pacific Advisors), serving on the firm’s Management Committee. He started his career at Bear Stearns. He’s also a passionate advocate for underserved youth and mental health advocacy, serving on the boards of OUR House Grief Support Center and College Match Los Angeles.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
What does it take to raise capital, in SaaS, in 2023? - Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital, unveils the math used for the 2023 SaaS Funding Napkin
IndOps: Integrating and Automating Hardware Development - Ananya Vasagiri of Schematic Ventures proposes IndOps as a new paradigm of development for industrial engineers.
Venture Studios & Incubations - Ryan, Michael, and Vedika from Weekend Fund, examine the positives and negatives of venture studios and the incubation model
Back to basics for IPOs? - Rachel Gerring and Mark Schwartz of EY, provide a recap of our outlook on the public markets, and the trends they expect to see as IPOs come back
Events
BMW i Ventures: The Electrified Road Ahead | October 17 in FiDi in San Francisco | Hosted by BMW i Ventures | DM Thao Nguyen at thao@bmwiventures.com if interested.
AI in Healthcare panel and networking event | October 18 | Hosted by EVCA and Sidley
Enterprise Happy Hour @ Sapphire Ventures SF | October 19 | Hosted by EVCA Enterprise Vertical
Navigating the AI Landscape | October 19 | Hosted by Venture Forward and J.P. Morgan Capital Connect
Biolabs Investor Day at Princeton Innovation Center | October 26 | Hosted by BioLabs
Jobs
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, Isaac, and Ananya
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