Sonali Vijayavargiya: Another example that I would share with you is a company called Flume. It’s in the water space. This came out of Cal Poly. This was brought to our attention by one of our champions and co-investors from the Bay Area. It’s a very elegant solution for leak detection and water management.
I’m sure a lot of people have spent time trying to understand water and how we are not fully valuing the cost of water. I tried to play in that space for a long time but hadn’t found the right solution to get behind.
>>>During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Robert Weber, Managing Partner at Great North Labs located in Minneapolis.
Medifees
As for entrepreneur pitches, this week we had Hugo Gallegos from Portland, Oregon, pitching Medifees, a solution for assessing medical expenses.
Halalworkchop
Next up, Muyideen Ayinla from Nigeria pitched Halalworkchop, a digital services company catering to small businesses.
Julianne Zimmerman: The company did eventually have mainstream well-known investors. It took us a long time to get there. Also, that company was one of innumerable companies that were killed off in the extinction event that occurred when the markets imploded in 2007.
I had an amazing experience of being at the forefront and accomplishing something incredible with my colleagues, but the ultimate success was outside our control. That was an excellent learning experience.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Tell me more about the business model. A large percentage of enterprise software is sold via the subscription business model. So is that your business model?
Sonali Vijayavargiya: Exactly. Most of our companies have a subscription business model. Investors value the recurring model. I feel that products don’t walk by themselves. You have to get engagement.
>>>Julianne Zimmerman: I never aspired to be in the venture capital world. I started off as an aerospace engineer. I went to MIT when I was 16 because I had wanted to be an astronaut since I was 12.
I thought that that’s how you became an astronaut. It’s not the worst idea, but it’s a bit naive. This was the way I thought about it. I double majored in Literature.
>>>Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Sonali Vijayavargiya was recorded in July 2020.
Sonali Vijayavargiya, Founder and Managing Partner at Augment Ventures, discusses her firm’s investment approach, including early exits.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Given your target audience, where do you source deals from? What is the strategy that gets you face to face with such entrepreneurs?
Julianne Zimmerman: This pertains to one of the fundamental myths at the heart of the current incarnation of the venture sector. We have this deeply-rooted pernicious myth that there’s a shortage of investable talents. You’ve probably heard VCs complaining about pipeline problems.
>>>Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Julianne Zimmerman was recorded in July 2020.
Julianne Zimmerman is Managing Director at Reinventure Capital, a firm focused on minority founders.
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