NextGen Newsletter - February 2023
NextGen is a 20+ year old community supporting each new generation of venture capital talent.
Hey y’all,
Happy February! Hope everyone’s been keeping up with the surge in activity that’s been taking place across startups and venture lately. There seems to be an IRL meetup every night now - guess that means SF is back (as well as NYC, LA, etc)!
We have a lot to share this month. Going forward, we’ll be highlighting a member of our board as well as an honoree from our inaugural cohort of Rising Stars each month. Also, if you happen to be in LA for the Upfront Summit, our board member David Bloom will be hosting a NextGen Brunch in Los Angeles on February 27. Scroll down to our events section to register! Hope to see you there.
Thanks,
Shawn and the NextGen Board
Get To Know Our Board ⚡
Alessio Fanelli is a Partner at Decibel, focusing on seed and Series A investments in technical founders building technical products.
Investment Highlight: “Cube, I invested in the seed at my previous firm and Decibel led the A. Organizations have data in many databases, warehouses, etc, and everyone in the organization wants to access it in different ways. Cube makes it easy for data teams to define metrics once and let users consume them in their favorite tools, making it more consistent, secure, and performant.”
Most Unique Sourcing Strategy: “Contributing to open source! When I first ran across Cube, it was a really competitive process and they already had some great existing investors. I decided to contribute to their project, which no other VC had done, and that definitely helped with getting their attention and eventually investing.”
Advice for Investors: “Always play to your strengths. What is unique to you, and how can you leverage that to put yourself in the best position to win a deal? If everyone is making market maps, making a market map yourself won't really help you stand out. To build a long-lasting career in VC you will need to find a unique angle to leverage, and it's important you start working on it early on.”
Investors You Should Watch 👀
Rising Star Highlight: Marina Girgis is an Investor at Precursor Ventures, and is focused on generalist pre-seed investments.
Caitlin Bolnick Rellas has been promoted to General Partner at CRV.
Eddie Lee has been promoted to General Partner at White Star Capital.
Irem Rami has left Summit Partners and has joined as a Principal on the healthcare team at Norwest Venture Partners.
Hanel Baveja has left USV and has joined as a Principal at Creandum.
Jacob Effron has been promoted to Partner at Redpoint.
Jill Chase and Chengpeng Mou have both been promoted from Vice Presidents to Partners at CapitalG.
Luna Schmid has left Summit Partners and has joined as a Partner at Google Ventures. Sangeen Zeb has been promoted to General Partner at Google Ventures.
Matt Brown has left TCG and joined as a Vice President at Headline. Taylor Brandt, Jacob Conger, and Nicolas Von Blottnitz have also been promoted from Senior Associates to Vice Presidents at Headline.
Moritz Baier-Lentz has left Bitkraft Ventures and has joined as a Partner leading the gaming practice at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Alex Kayyal has left Salesforce Ventures and has joined as a Partner on the enterprise team at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Nan Li has left Obvious Ventures, and Adam Goulburn and Zavain Dar have both left Lux Capital, and have founded Dimension, a $350M fund focused on the intersection of tech and life sciences.
Rexhi Dollaku has been promoted to General Partner at Base10. Caroline Broder has left Crosslink Capital and has joined as a Principal at Base10.
Events You Should Join 🎙
NextGen Los Angeles Brunch, February 27
NextGen Board Member David Bloom is organizing a brunch in LA the week of the Upfront Summit. If you are based in LA and are interested in joining, please register here! Space is limited so fill out the form ASAP.
Content You Should Check Out 📚
972 billion portfolios: An analysis of how to design the optimal early stage VC portfolio from Moonfire Ventures’ Francesco Farina.
The Age of A.I., Longevity and Biotech: A deep dive on machine learning’s influence on drug discovery by Michael Spencer.
Investor Bill Gurley on Tim Ferris: A wealth of insights from Benchmark’s Bill Gurley on spotting outliers and shifting mental models.
The Thiel Foundation Announces Next Thiel Fellow Class: Latest cohort of 20 young changemakers!