EVCA Newsletter | September Edition - Tons of Jobs, Events, and More
A heated debate has been brewing about the future of venture capital. A growing trend over the last couple of years has been the changing nature of venture capital investing, whereby nontraditional tech investors such as hedge funds and mutual funds are on track to invest more in tech startups than traditional venture capitalists by 2022. A second trend, articulated most recently by Navin Chaddha in Techcrunch, is the decline of risk-taking in investing in early-stage companies. In the last three years, as a percentage of total dollars invested, early-stage deals declined from 36.5% to 26.1%, while late-stage investments increased from 52.9% to 69%. Venture capitalists are investing less in early-stage deals, while late-stage deal activity has been comparatively booming.
While these trends likely do not spell “the end of venture capital as we know it,” the nature of our industry is undoubtedly in a state of flux. Indeed, with venture winners getting bigger and unicorns proliferating, doomsday certainly isn’t coming anytime soon. Venture capital isn’t dying. It’s simply evolving.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to the September edition of the EVCA newsletter!
EVCA Spotlight: How ChargePoint CEO, Pasquale Romano, Led His Electric Vehicle Company From Fledgling Startup to IPO Success Story
In this EVCA Spotlight, we document the journey of ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano in building his company back when it was an early-stage startup to finally taking it public on the NYSE last March. We’re also excited to announce that this story will be printed in the Q3 edition of the magazine Real Leaders coming out on newsstands this October!
Featured Investors
This month we highlight Nandu Anilal of Canaan Partners and Daisy Garcia of JetBlue Technology Ventures as our featured investors of the EVCA community.
Nandu Anilal is an investor at Canaan Partners, where he focuses on investments in data, AI/ML, and enterprise software more broadly. Previously, Nandu worked on the product strategy & operations team at Thumbtack and started his career as a management consultant at ZS Associates. He studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and grew up in the Chicago suburbs.
Daisy Garcia is a Senior Analyst at JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV), an early-stage venture capital firm focused on startups that operate at the intersection of travel, hospitality, and technology. Prior to JTV, Daisy lived in Sweden for over two years, where she worked with an early-stage VC and angel syndicate, J-12 Ventures, while pursuing an international education. She holds dual MSCs in International Business and Management from the Stockholm School of Economics, and double BAs in Mathematics and Environmental Economics from UC Berkeley. In her pursuit to explore the maturation of the current startup ecosystem and social contours of the world, she has traveled to 73 countries and gained a global economic perspective to better understand globalization and sustainability.
EVCA Leadership Spotlight: Healthcare Vertical Leads, Amanda Way of Emerson Collective and Emily Zhen of New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
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.
Amanda Way is an investor on the Health Team at Emerson Collective, a family office founded by Laurene Powell Jobs that leverages venture capital, policy, and philanthropy to do the most good for the most people. The venture arm of the Health Team makes early stage investments and builds companies in the oncology space - Amanda having worked with the biotech arm for her first 3 years in VC, and helping build out the healthcare arm for the past year. Prior to Emerson Collective, Amanda studied neuroscience at Brown University as a part of its 8-year medical program, where she conducted research in the Assad Lab on the optogenetic investigation of neural rhythms and learning, worked as an EMT, and co-founded a cystic fibrosis focused company that reduces bacterial growth on nebulizers. Amanda did not end up returning to medical school once she entered the venture capital world, but she is currently working on her Master’s in Clinical Informatics Management at Stanford alongside her work at Emerson Collective - a program that is a cross between the medical school and GSB. Outside of work, Amanda figure skates, is working towards her private pilot’s license and loves going on hikes with her pug.
Emily Zhen is an investor focused on healthcare services & technology and biopharma investing at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), one of the largest global venture capital firms in the Bay Area. Prior to NEA, Emily worked at Goldman Sachs in healthcare investment banking in New York City. Emily graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with dual degrees in biology from the College of Arts and Sciences and finance from the Wharton School, with a certificate in healthcare policy. She has worked across the public and private sectors, including at the U.S. Department of Treasury, consulting at PwC, clinical research on opiate withdrawal treatments and Castleman Disease, and healthcare technology startups NeuroFlow and Healthie. Outside of work, Emily enjoys hiking and visiting national parks, music (playing the piano and guitar), and exploring the food scene in whatever city she is in (currently San Francisco!)
What We’re Reading
14 Reasons For Me Not to Source This Deal - David Zhou of Cup of Zhou, describes his criteria for not wanting to source a startup to a VC
B2B SaaS — is a future without app-overload a reality? - Mert Yucesoy of OMERS Ventures, explains what the next generation of orchestration platforms might look like
Female founders are having a standout year—that's not the whole story - Jordan Rubio, Priyamvada Mathur & James Thorne of Pitchbook, analyze female founder data that suggests that long-standing efforts to boost representation in entrepreneurship are paying off at an accelerating rate
ReimaginED 2021: The Trends Shaping K-12 and Higher Education Beyond the Pandemic - Tony Wan of Reach Capital, details the key trends and themes within the ed-tech market space
Events
Making the Forever Battery | September 8 | Hosted by The Electric
Newchip's September 2021 Online Demo Week | September 27 | Hosted by Newchip
Kiwitech Demo Days | September 9, 14, 21, and 29 | Hosted by Kiwitech
Zetta Bytes Live: Fireside with Venkat Chary | September 15 | Hosted by Zetta Venture Partners
Sports Capital Symposium 2021 | September 29 | Hosted by Sporttechie
Cryptocurrency: what you need to know about accounting, tax, and reporting | September 21 | Hosted by NVCA and EY
Jobs
Senior Associate / Principal Role in San Francisco, CA at Counterpart Ventures
Senior Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Felicis Ventures
Associate Role in Park City, UT at Ret Ventures. If interested, send your resume to aaron@ret.vc
Senior Manager, Communications and Marketing in San Francisco, CA at JLL Spark
Vice President / Principal Role in Denver, CO, or Remote at Access Ventures. If interested, DM Kira on slack or message the managing director Frank
Senior Associate / Principal Role in San Francisco, CA at BMW i Ventures. If interested, send your resume and a cover letter to recruiting@bmwiventures.com
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, and Isaac
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!