EVCA Newsletter | September Edition - The Latest VC Jobs, Events, and Content
And just like that, the VC community can breathe a collective sigh of relief upon the return of the IPO market after a long hiatus. After the IPO filing of the Softbank-owned chipmaker Arm two weeks ago, Instacart and Klaviyo have since earned the esteemed titles as the first venture-backed companies to file for IPO since December 2021. What sets this cohort of companies apart from the coterie of money-losing companies that IPO’ed in the frenzy of 2020 and 2021 is their profitability. Apparently time-tested standards like demonstrable growth and earnings have made it back into back into vogue—something I reckon is a pretty good thing after all that pandemic-era irrational exuberance.
And with that bit of introductory fanfare, welcome back to the September edition of the EVCA newsletter!
Spotlight Feature: Meet Marie Thompson, Partner at Powerhouse Ventures
We had the chance to interview Marie Thompson, who is a Partner at Powerhouse Ventures. Marie shares her story—from starting her career in the oil and gas industry, beating late-stage cancer, and investing in seed-stage ClimateTech startups as a VC. Marie also shares her lessons and thoughts from her career.
Featured Investors
This month we highlight Matt Wanlass of LFX Venture Partners and Ting Ting Liu of Builders VC as our featured investors of the EVCA community.
Matt Wanlass is an associate at LFX Venture Partners (previously known as Fung Capital before it recently took on outside investors and institutionalized), a global supply chain, logistics, and retail tech fund that leads or participates in Series A – C financing rounds of companies. Prior to joining LFX, Matt was an Associate at Peterson Partners, a Utah-based investment fund with both venture capital and private equity strategies, and worked for an AI technology startup called Airin. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Brigham Young University. Lastly, whether sprinting through the streets of SF or battling it out on a basketball, tennis, or pickleball court, you'll always find him on the move.
Ting Ting Liu is a Principal at Builders VC based in San Francisco where she leads Seed and Series A investments in enterprise software. She was previously at Point72 Ventures focused on data infrastructure and developer platforms, and Vice President at Nautilus Venture Partners, where she was the first hire for a $100M deep tech/AI fund backed by some of the largest Asian technology companies. Ting Ting is originally from Silicon Valley and has over a decade of investment experience spanning hedge fund research to biotech. She began her career in investment analytics at Bridgewater Associates before advising LPs in the United States, United Kingdom, and Middle East on their PE and VC fund investments at Cambridge Associates. She is a proud graduate of Dartmouth College where she completed dual degrees in Economics and Neuroscience.
EVCA Leadership Spotlight: Austin Chapter Lead, Paola Retes of LiveOak Venture Partners
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.
Paola Retes is a Vice President on the investment team at LiveOak Venture Partners. Paola joined LiveOak after graduating from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where her main extracurricular activity was as a founding board member of Galvanizer, a nonprofit incubator for female founders. Before business school, Paola was an early employee at Ironspring Ventures. She assisted in all aspects of company formation and served as lead associate in the firm’s first four deals. Throughout her career, Paola has also held various operating and investing roles at Vista Equity Partners, Holt Ventures, Becton Dickinson, Deloitte, and Matterhorn Capital Management. Paola holds a CFA charter.
What We’re Reading
Here we share our favorite content produced from EVCA members across the world:
The Subtle Art of VC Pitch: Leveraging Psychological Biases for Impact - Phoebe Zhang of DivcoWest, outlines 5 psychological biases of VCs when listening to the investor pitch
Food as Medicine - Ellen Wilcox of Listen Ventures, explores the promise and challenges of taking a nutrition-first approach to health, as well as the changing consumer trends in this area
How Can Startups Help Close the EV Charging Gap? - Margret Dupslaff of BMW i Ventures, examines the role EV charging startups can play to help fuel the EV revolution
Venture capital investment remains slow as market seeks new normal - Jeffrey Grabow of EY Venture Capital, shares how even with VC investments having declined by 34% quarter over quarter, the market may be nearing a new normal
The State of Seed Stage Funding to Underrepresented Founders - Amber Quiñones and Drew Silverman of BBG Ventures, provides insights into the state of diversity across founders
Events
EVCA End of Summer Happy Hour | September 12 | Hosted by EVCA Austin Chapter
Best Practices for Emerging Managers Navigating a Challenging Fundraising Environment | September 12 | Hosted by Venture Forward and J.P. Morgan Capital Connect
NVCA Climate & Sustainability Happy Hour | September 12 | Hosted by NVCA and Orrick
Berkeley Haas Climate and Sustainability Mixer | September 19 | Hosted by Sustainable and Impact Finance at Berkeley Haas
NYC Chapter Boat Party | September 20 | Hosted by EVCA | RSVP in the #events channel on the EVCA Slack page
Women in Security and Privacy (WISP) | Venture Capital in Privacy and Security | September 20 | Hosted by Okta Ventures
Provide the VC Perspective for Early Stage Tech Founders | September 21 | Hosted by SVB and EVCA
LP AMA: Women Belong in Venture | September 21 | Hosted by DVRGNT Ventures
Startups @ Oktane23 Happy Hour Event | October 3 | Hosted by Okta Ventures
EVCA Dinner with William Lin | October 4 | Hosted by EVCA Cybersecurity Vertical
Jobs
Flagship Investor Role in New York, NY at Energy Impact Partners (EIP)
Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Salesforce Ventures. If interested, message Kevin Chen on the EVCA Channel
Healthcare Associate Role in Menlo Park, CA at Adams Street Partners
Technology Associate Role in Menlo Park, CA at Adams Street Partners
Fall MBA Intern Role in New York, NY at MetaProp. If interested, message Jackson Feder on the EVCA Channel
Deep Tech Associate Role in San Francisco (Bay Area), CA at Toyota Ventures. If interested, message Chris Abshire on the EVCA Channel
Analyst/Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Chamaeleon Ventures
Associate Role in San Francisco, CA; New York, NY; or McLean, VA at Capital One Ventures
Investment Associate Role in San Francisco, CA at Munich Re Ventures
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam, Adam, and Isaac
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