1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yipeng Zhao of Embark 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 Yipeng Zhao of Embark Ventures was recorded in March 2018.

Yipeng Zhao, Managing Partner at Embark Ventures, talks about the firm’s investment thesis, as well as broader industry trends and what should and should not be funded.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by helping our audience get to know you. What is your background? What is the focus of Embark Ventures? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rob Schultz of Serra 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 Rob Schultz of Serra Ventures was recorded in March 2018.

Rob Schultz, Managing Partner at Serra Ventures, discusses catering to startups in under-served geographies. His point of view aligns with what we’ve heard from some other investors.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Serra Ventures and about yourself. Let us introduce our audience to you. How big is the fund? What is the investment focus? What sized investments do you make? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yanai Oron of Vertex 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 Yanai Oron of Vertex Ventures was recorded in March 2018.

Yanai Oron, General Partner at Vertex Ventures, took us through his firm’s investment focus on deep technology ventures in Israel. The discussion includes an excellent window into how VC firms have different arithmetic depending on their size and structure.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a bit about Vertex. Tell us about yourself. Let’s introduce you to our audience and also let’s get to know you. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Christina Brodbeck of Rivet Ventures (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: The thing that is unambiguously true is that there aren’t enough female technologists in the industry yet. As a result, there aren’t as many female founders who go out to raise money for credible ventures. That is a fact.

Hence, the number of companies that are female-founded that do get funded is not as high because the starting point is not as high. That can only change if we have more technically trained women in the industry. That has to start at the university level.

Christina Brodbeck: I think that’s true. I also feel that there are many ways to get women into technology. It doesn’t have to be, “Go >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Amos Ben-Meir at Sand Hill Angels (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: Can you talk about the highlights of your portfolio?

Amos Ben-Meir: I’ve done a number of exits that range from small to reasonable. There are two companies that are worth more than a billion. One is JUUL, which is an electronic cigarette company. There are people who are not fond of that type of investment because it’s in the cigarette space but it is electronic cigarette. It’s healthier than the traditional tobacco cigarettes. That’s been a good one for me and the group.

Another one, which I made outside the group, is a company which is a solar company that is using solar energy to generate steam for enhanced oil recovery in the oil and gas industry. They’ve got a huge facility that they’ve built for PDO in Oman. They recently got a big >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Christina Brodbeck of Rivet Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: This is a slightly different line of questioning. You explicitly mentioned that you are looking for companies that are looking to sell to the female demographics or purchase cycles that are influenced by the female demographics, however, your fund invests in both male and female founders. Can you comment on whether you believe there is a significant bias against female entrepreneurs in the industry?

Christina Brodbeck: I don’t know if it’s an intentional bias, but I do think the result is that it often is more difficult for female founders to raise money. The number of women investing partners is somewhere between 4% and 8%, which is pretty low. Oftentimes, >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Amos Ben-Meir at Sand Hill Angels (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: When you’re looking at enterprise deals, what are you comfortable with in terms of validation level? Are you looking for paying customers? Product ready but with no customers? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Gary Little of Canvas Ventures (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: What do you think of unicorn mania? Are you chasing unicorns? What’s your analysis of the desire for unicorns?

Gary Little: We don’t chase unicorns. You start with things that look like mules and we try to grow them to a unicorn. When we select companies, we try to find companies that have the opportunity to be billion-dollar companies. We don’t chase companies that are already at the multi-hundred million valuation.

Sramana Mitra: The real question in that is what kind of TAM is interesting for you? Given where we are in the history of the startup industry, there are billion-dollar opportunities, but there are also many opportunities that are >>>