Newsletter | December 2020 Edition
The EVCA is a non-profit dedicated to supporting the emerging (pre-partner) venture capital community.
Welcome back to the new EVCA newsletter! This is officially the last newsletter for 2020. This year certainly has been a wild ride in the course of human history. We’ve all spent some portion of the year in some form of coronavirus quarantine. We’ve watched (if not joined) the Black Lives Matter protests that lay raw the persistence of racial inequalities in America. We’ve felt the effects of climate change first hand as wildfires burned across the western coastal states, turning skies to armageddon orange. We’ve also just experienced one of the most important U.S presidential elections in modern history to date.
We can all admit one thing: 2020 is not a year we are going to forget. It’s been a hard one, but let’s not forget the lessons of history. Without fail, periods of rebirth and rejuvenation have always followed hard times.
So let’s not remember 2020 as the year of adversity. Let’s instead remember 2020 as the year of human resiliency. With history as a guide, things can only get better from here. On that tune of optimism, I bring you the December 2020 newsletter. Looking forward to seeing you all on the other side in 2021!
EVCA Spotlight: An Interview with Alex Lazarow on His New Book on Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship
We had the chance to interview Alex Lazarow, who is a Director at Cathay Innovation, about his new book Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs—from Delhi to Detroit—Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley. In this fascinating read, Lazarow provides an instructive playbook about what it takes to build a startup in the “frontier” startup ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley. Based on over 200 interviews Lazarow conducted with global founders, Out-Innovate offers a refreshing and thought-provoking examination of how startups across the world innovate and grow, challenging the typical Silicon Valley conceptions of what it takes to succeed as a startup. Out-Innovate was named a “Top Book To Inform Your Technology and Innovation Strategy” by Forbes and was the #1 release in Venture Capital on Amazon.
Featured Investors
This issue we highlight two investors from the EVCA community: Natasha Gunther of Innovation Endeavors and Morgan Polotan of Comcast Ventures
Natasha Gunther, Associate at Innovation Endeavors: Natasha Gunther is an Investment Associate at Innovation Endeavors, an early-stage venture firm co-founded by Eric Schmidt. She spends her time investing across supply chain/logistics, healthcare, ag/food, and all things hard tech. Natasha joined Innovation Endeavors from healthcare SaaS platform, PatientPing, where she was Chief of Staff and Product Manager, after her time as a strategy consultant with McKinsey's operations and healthcare practices. Though a mechanical engineer by training, she is a generalist at heart.
Morgan Polotan, Principal at Comcast Ventures: Morgan has over 5 years experience in venture capital, and is currently a principal at Comcast Ventures, one of the most active corporate VCs in the world. Morgan also helps to run Genacast Ventures, Comcast's enterprise seed fund. Morgan’s investments include Dandelion, Zapata, Neural Magic, goTenna, Confetti, and SafeBase. Prior to Comcast Ventures, Morgan invested in enterprise startups at Bloomberg Beta, a $75M seed fund backed by Bloomberg, where he invested in Donut, Stedi, Campuswire, and Virgil Security. Before venture, Morgan wrote code, with a preference for JavaScript and Scala. On the side, Morgan likes to shoot hoops (reclaim high school glory), pretend to DJ, and obsessively check the price of Bitcoin and Tesla.
What We’re Reading and Listening To
Is Going Public Through a SPAC Merger Truly Cheaper Than IPOs or Direct Listing? - Michelle Moon, Associate at LG Ventures, shows how going public via SPAC is an incredibly expensive way to go public
Underserved Market - Dennis Chang, Investor at UL Ventures, examines the startups tackling the wildfire crisis plaguing the Western U.S.
The Room - Madison McIlwain, Associate at Defy Ventures, has a new podcast on startup creation stories
The Disappearing Bank - Mario Gabriele, Venture Partner at Charge Ventures, interrogates the possibility of embedded finance as the future.
Quick-start Guide for Building a Design First Company - Morgan Mahlock, Senior Associate at In-Q-Tel, provides a playbook for being a design-first company
Events
EVCA Fireside Chat with Gregg Lemkau, Global Head of IB at Goldman Sachs | EVCA | December 3 | Hosted by Ned Berman (Samsung Catalyst) and Alex Nguyen (Lux Capital) - Join the waitlist in the events channel on Slack
Fireside Chat with Rotem Iram, At-Bay Founder and CEO | EVCA | December 3 | Hosted by the Insurtech vertical: Ben Bergsma (Munich Re Ventures) and Patrick Klas (MGV) - RSVP in the events channel on Slack.
Fireside Chat with Igor Taber, SVP of Corporate Development at DataRobot and formerly Managing Director at Intel Capital | EVCA | December 4 | Hosted by the AI vertical: Kenn So (Shasta Ventures) and Arjo Mozumder (Point72 Ventures) - RSVP in the events channel on Slack
SPACtacular Fireside Chat with Reid Hoffman | Silicon Valley Bank | December 4
Jobs
Senior Associate Role in Business Development in New York, NY at NYL Ventures
Associate / Senior Associate Role in San Francisco at Cathay Innovation
Asks
VC University Scholarship: Venture Forward, the non-profit spinout of NVCA, opened a scholarship application for the February 2021 cohort of VC University.
Grishin Robotics VC Scout Program: Grishin Robotics VC is looking for scouts for its future venture scout program. If interested in becoming a scout, please submit your information here and the Grishin Robotics team will get in touch with you if there is a fit. You can check out the details of the first cohort launched in Q4 2020 here for additional information.
Connect with us: EVCA, Sam & Adam
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