1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shripriya Mahesh, Founding Partner at Spero Ventures (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: You want to give another example?

Shripriya Mahesh: Sure. Another example is a company called Core, which is a meditation company. We invested in Core at their seed round. They hadn’t launched as well, so it was based on a pre-product market fit.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shripriya Mahesh, Founding Partner at Spero Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Let’s talk about some of the companies that you have invested in. In particular, as you describe their stories, talk about when they came to you or when you found them, what was it about them that convinced you to write these checks?

Shripriya Mahesh: Venture, as you know, is about exceptions. I’m going to talk about mission-driven companies as well as companies that have fallen outside of those bounds. I’ll start with Skillshare. At the time when we met them four years ago, they raised what would now be called a series

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shripriya Mahesh, Founding Partner at Spero Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Shripriya Mahesh was recorded in August 2020.

Shripriya Mahesh, Founding Partner at Spero Ventures, talks about mission-driven investing.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a little about your background as well as Spero Ventures. 

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mike Edelhart of Social Starts and Joyance Partners (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Since you’re talking about personal health as the current focus and we are in this immense public health crisis, what is your analysis? How do you process the current environment?

Mike Edelhart: At the highest level, we’re geeks. We’re data people, which means we can’t look back in history and know exactly what’s going to happen here. All we can do is look at what we can see.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mike Edelhart of Social Starts and Joyance Partners (Part 3)

Mike Edelhart: The second is science and technology. We’re deep science oriented. The ideas we hear from the entrepreneur on day one won’t be the ideas by which the company actually succeeds. It’s all delineated by change and unexpected circumstances.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mike Edelhart of Social Starts and Joyance Partners (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Social Starts and Joyance Partners are two separate funds. What are the fund sizes?

Mike Edelhart: We are about $70 million all in. We will be more than doubling in size. We are investing out of Social Starts fund four which is just under $20 million. Social Starts is about $50 million all-in across the funds.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mike Edelhart of Social Starts and Joyance Partners (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Mike Edelhart was recorded in August 2020.

Mike Edelhart, Managing Partner at Social Starts and Joyance Partners, shares some fascinating developments from their portfolio, especially a healthcare startup that is thriving in the COVID-era.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sonali Vijayavargiya of Augment Ventures (Part 4)

Sonali Vijayavargiya: I think the engine has started. People are engaging. There is an increasing awareness of teams and solutions that are coming out of different regions other than just the Bay Area or New York. People are willing to get on a plane and meet with these teams.