Sramana Mitra: Were they Americans? What ethnicity were they to move to South Korea? Cindy Padnos: No, one of the founders is Chinese. The other is Indian. They were both born in their respective countries, but they were educated here in the US. They helped to build several companies here. The CEO had actually been
Cindy Padnos, Founder and Managing Director at Illuminate Ventures, discusses the impact of Covid on the fund’s portfolio, as well as the trends she sees. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by welcoming back Cindy Padnos to our show. She is the founder and director of Illuminate Ventures and one of the active female investors in the
Laurel Touby, Managing Director of Supernode Ventures, talks about pre-seed investing in Latin America. Sramana Mitra: How has COVID been? How have you been? How has the business environment for you been?
Eric Benhamou: Up until recently, waste management was done the same way as 30 years ago. You have big trucks collecting garbage from houses and office buildings to take them to recycling facilities. It would be dumped on a treadmill-like structure and you have people sorting out the waste. They send the recyclable waste to
Eric Benhamou: Another example where Salesforce.com does not do a very good job at is mobile engagements. Despite the pandemic, we are still living in a world that is increasingly more mobile. You have to be able to capitalize on mobile engagement opportunities all the time. There are many things that are potentially limiting in
Sramana Mitra: I encountered Platform.sh a couple of years ago. I haven’t talked to them since, but it’s good to hear that they are thinking in this direction. I’ll look into that closely and see what additional coverage that deserves. Please go ahead and give us another example. Eric Benhamou: I have a more recent
Sramana Mitra: I have another question along those lines. When you are doing AI, typically machine learning and large data sets are involved, what are you seeing in your portfolio or deal flow in how entrepreneurs are accessing that data? You are talking about taking the technology risks out, but you need data to take
Eric Benhamou is Founder and General Partner at Benhamou Global Ventures. Sramana Mitra: Let’s focus on where you are in terms of the fund. What fund are you on? What is the size of the fund? What is the fund strategy now?