1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Eva Ho of Fika 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 Fika Ventures was recorded in December 2017. Eva Ho, General Partner at Fika Ventures, discusses their investment thesis.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about the focus of the fund. How big is it? What are you focusing on? What size investments are you making?

Eva Ho: We launched Fika Ventures in February 2017. I came from another fund that I co-founded. This is my second fund. It’s a $40 million fund. It’s based in Los Angeles. We make investments in California and also other >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yanev Suissa of SineWave Ventures (Part 3)

Yanev Suissa: Obviously, we are financial investors and we do financial analysis. When I invest and decide on a company, what I’m looking at is not a ratio analysis of their past stock performance. I’m looking at the team, the market, their product, and their technology differentiation. It’s a much more on-the-ground advisory active type of investing. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Vinny Lingham of NewTown Partners (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What about strategic? What role do you see Naspers playing? Naspers has played a big role in exits in India. What is their position in Africa?

Vinny Lingham: Naspers is a really good investment house. They’re really good at later stage and not early stage.

Sramana Mitra: They’re good at exits. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yanev Suissa of SineWave Ventures (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Which is why I’m probing you on this topic.

Yanev Suissa: My experience with NEA is that they are a great investor at the seed stage. There’s typically a partner or a principal level person who sponsors the seed stage deal. That partner or principal-level person will still be active. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Yanev Suissa of SineWave 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 Yanev Suissa was recorded in October 2017.

Yanev Suissa is General Partner at SineWave Ventures out of Washington DC and Silicon Valley. The firm invests alongside some major firms like Andreessen Horowitz and NEA. Yanev talks about how they invest, and also the trends he sees.

Sramana Mitra: So tell us about SineWave Ventures. What is the focus of your firm? How big is the fund? What size investments do you make? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Vinny Lingham of NewTown Partners (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Have you invested in any of these ICO-based or token-based ventures?

Vinny Lingham: Yes, I’m going to do another one called Augmentors. It’s a gaming product. They have a really good token called Databits, which they’ve spun out. It’s basically an augmented reality game. It’s pretty fascinating.

Sramana Mitra: What is your estimate of the capital requirements of token-based ventures like that? I’ve been talking to a few people who are looking at that. One of the issues for that, as early stage investors, is this 

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Vinny Lingham of NewTown 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 Vinny Lingham was recorded in November 2017.

Vinny Lingham, Co-founder and CEO, Civic.com, and Managing Partner of Newtown Partners, discusses his investment thesis in B-to-C seed ventures. We also discuss the role ICOs are playing in filling the gaps in certain seed-stage ventures.

Sramana Mitra: So you’ve hadn’t an interesting entrepreneur journey. Tell us about Gyft. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Warren Weiss of Foundation Capital (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: You’ve been on all sides of the table for a long time. When an entrepreneur is trying to figure out whom to work with and let’s say they have the luxury. A lot of entrepreneurs do not have the luxury of choice. But once they’ve been able to figure a few things out, they actually do have some luxury of choice. At the end of the day, there is too much money chasing too few really great deals. That is the structure of the industry. What is your advice to entrepreneurs on how to select whom to work with?

Warren Weiss: The best time to raise money is when you don’t need money. The traditional way to get to a venture is to get >>>