Investing in enterprise technology and scaling up: a Bay Area VC perspective

05/12/20 • 17 min

Shruti Van Dyke Gandhi is Partner at Array Ventures in San Francisco and adjunct Professor Computer Sciences at Columbia University in New York.

In this episode, you will learn:

Back story: About Shruti's transition from an engineer to an investor
Array's focus area: Enterprise software. Big issues, problems and pain points – for which you raise money early on, even pre-revenue but you need to have relevant prior experience
Array's investment philosophy: Investing in founders that sell to global customers. Portfolio companies are US incorporated, but in the times of remote working, they may be all over the globe.
Deal sourcing: the network is vital if you are looking to back early-stage founders. Ideas from accelerators or advisers could be too late! Chemistry with the founders is more important than paperwork
Success stories/exits: Simility (AI/ML fraud prevention) acquired by PayPal or Passage AI (Conversational AI) acquired by ServiceNow
Learning: Keep on learning to avoid becoming antiquated
Is New York better for you if you are a FinTech? Listen inside:)

Key piece of advice for the founders:

There is no playbook for the founder’s life that you can learn in school, so you need to stay agile and prepare for the curveballs to come at you, expect it and find a way to tackle them so you become a big business regardless what comes your way.

05/12/20 • 17 min

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