Recap: Life on the Other Side of CVC
View the recording of our conversation with Rashmi Gopinath, Sandeep Bhadra and Meredith Finn on life on the other side of corporate VC.
Thanks to our speakers who spoke candidly about their time in corporate VC at funds including M12, Intel Capital, Cisco and Salesforce Ventures. We’re pleased to continue offering these kinds of conversations to our Counter Club community, don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to connect with one of the speakers directly.
Highlights
“The first 9-12 months was M12 co-investing and showing that we are going to play well together. We had to prove ourselves before we had the right to lead deals. We needed those initial successful case studies and the spokespeople from our portfolio companies to say - yes M12 is able to provide all that value. After that we went in with the intent to lead deals and co-lead deals alongside other financial VCs.” - Rashmi Gopinath, Partner, B Capital
“My experience taught me that it was nice to be young, to be able to sit in front of founders carrying the Cisco logo. I understood the few markets that I was good at and I think that is value today as we look to recruit Principals, we do value CVC experience for that particular reason because it comes with depth of knowledge and insight.” - Sandeep Bhadra, Partner, Vertex Ventures
“Being at a brand new fund with no name recognition, the dynamic changes very fast, moving from Salesforce to March Capital. Previously I could get anyone to respond to me and eek my way into absolutely any deal at Salesforce, then you lose that shine immediately going to a fund that has less name recognition.
Given the work that Salesforce, Cisco and Microsoft have done to normalize what CVC looks like, it is now much more accepted and in certain cases you now want these brands as part of the round. Now on the other side of the table as a traditional VC, I certainly seek to bring CVCs into the conversation when it makes sense.” - Meredith Finn, Partner, Innovius Capital
Thanks to our wonderful speakers and guests who joined! We’ll continue to give out prizes for those who guess our Seinfeld references (congrats Kevin Lindbergh 😉) so brush up on your Seinfeld/Curb Your Enthusiasm knowledge in time for our next event.
Stay tuned for our next event, a networking-focused event where we’ll aim to connect corporate VCs with one another. All our events are announced on the Counter Club Slack group so make sure you’re signing in regularly.
We’ll see you next time,
Counterpart Ventures
@counterpartvc