August 15, 2025 • 54 mins
Faye Sahai from Vinaj VC joins Joel Palathinkal, to delve into genomics, longevity, and preventive healthcare. Faye discusses her shift from healthcare to venture capital, comparing corporate and traditional VC paths. The episode highlights strategic investing, corporate VC growth in healthcare, emerging technologies, and key investment sectors. They explore chronic conditions' impact on healthcare and financial planning, focusing on senior tech and Telocity Fund's senior care market. Topics include AI-driven mental health solutions, employee retention, and HIPAA compliance, concluding with insights on due diligence, fund structure, networking strategies, mentorship advice, and announcements.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
No, you hit some great ones.
I would just add a few more of those.
That is genomics, really adding the predictionand prevention and really going proactive from
that standpoint.
I think kind of with longevity is prevention,wellness, self care.
So this next generation, my kids will live to120.
(00:25):
So what are we going to be?
Are we going to be a mix of bionics and human?
Are we going to be able to self sustain?
We have three d printers that can print outorgans now.
So I mean, you can imagine kind of for thefuture what that would be like.
Welcome
to The Investor, a podcast where I, JoelPalafinkel, your host, dives deep into the
(00:47):
minds of the world's most influentialinstitutional investors.
In each episode, we sit down with an investorto hear about their journeys and how global
markets are driving capital allocation.
So join us on this journey as we explore theseinsights.
We'll just run with it.
(01:07):
So we've got Faye Sahai from Vinod Ventures,and I know you've got a couple other really
exciting investment management platforms thatyou're managing.
Excited to kind of learn about those platformsand your evolution as a VC investor.
I know you have a healthcare and life sciencesbackground, so excited to go through all of it.
(01:31):
So why don't we kick this off?
Faye, welcome to the show.
I do this a couple of times a week with otheremerging managers and also experienced
managers.
So why don't we kick it off, talk about whereyou are, where you started and how you got to
where you are now in venture?
(01:51):
So I'm actually calling from the Bay Area.
I kind of started in healthcare early in thesense that both my parents were doctors and you
know how you work to help your parents.
I was working in the medical offices, puttingfiles, helping with billing and from that from
a young age.
(02:12):
But after school, I said, okay, you know,that's my parents stuff.
So I went into kind of financial institutions,trading investments from that.
But then I kind of missed the impact of havingan impact on positive on people.
So then I basically, you know, what I found ishealthcare was a way, I did healthcare
(02:35):
insurance from that standpoint of like you'restill impacting people but you're still using
the analytic skills.
I led and ran Kaiser Permanente's InnovationLab in the Fund where we were looking at
thousands of startups and seeing which onesthat we were going to invest in, test, and
adopt.
(02:55):
Then I also led AIG's initial Global Innovationand Digital Business Center as well.
So it really kind of touched me on thecorporate venture capital side of it.
Now I had an opportunity with Pivotal Ventures,the executive office of Melinda Gates, to
really submit a proposal of how can we make animpact on behavioral health and mental health
(03:21):
because now we know that one out of every fiveyoung people have a mental health issue and
it's even increased and accentuated with COVIDand the amount of depression, anxiety, suicidal
thoughts have increased sixty three percent andwe know it usually takes you know an average of
(03:42):
ten years for them to find care.
What if we disrupted it because we know half ofthe issues come at the age of 14?
What if we disrupted it and we can change thetrajectory of someone's life?
So we know the demand is just ever increasing.
There's a real opportunity and innovation inthis area.
So that's kind of our mission with the TelosiFund is really tackle digital wellness,
(04:03):
prevention, behavioral health, mental health,to kind of make a difference in young people's
lives.
Sure, yeah and that's an interesting pathway.
There's a couple different pathways to get intoinvestment management.
One is the traditional banking route.
It sounds like you kind of went through thecorporate VC route.
So tell us some of the differences that you'veseen, number one, from working in a corporate
(04:29):
VC versus some of your colleagues and schoolfriends that have just gone straight into early
stage VC or even just growth equity.
And then how can we engage with otherinstitutions like Melinda Gates' and figure out
what problems they're trying to solve and thenreally just make sure that you're solving the
(04:49):
solutions that they need?
I guess, what are some frameworks?
Do they have an open proposal where people comein and come up with their strategies?
And then there's kind of like the governmentwhere there's a source selection process?
And just so you know, I've worked for the DoDin the past, so I'm familiar with that process.
(05:09):
But is it very similar to that where there'skind of some type of requests for proposals and
then different bodies of solution providerscome in and try to solve it?
We'd love to learn more about that and then howto approach even those kinds of institutions.
(05:29):
Yeah, so there are so many different ways andit all depends on how they're kind of tackling
it.
I'll kind of address the first question you hadabout coming in out of like I also had worked
at Deloitte management consulting, so somefinancial institution background management
consulting, but corporate venture capital.
(05:51):
So corporate venture capital, find is kind oflike you're more doing strategic investing,
seeing what startups can actually be adoptedinto the organization and align with your
strategy.
So then you're kind of looking at it not onlyfor growth and return but possibly M and A
acquisition.
So you're kind of looking with a differentmindset and adding a few other criteria.
(06:15):
And also because you're in this corporatestructure, corporate venture capital is trying
to actually figure out the compensation planwith carry and whatnot.
So how can they take the CVC model andcompensate it in corporate structure and
compensation structure?
So, there's some really interesting ways thatthey're kind of doing that.
There's this wonderful fee lander compensationsurvey for VCs too.
(06:38):
It kind of also says what the tiering of thelevels are, corporate venture versus venture
capital.
But I found that there is increasing number ofcorporate venture capital firms.
It's continuing to grow in that area.
Before they were just investing for return, nowthey're going into strategics and both.
(07:01):
We've definitely seen especially in healthcarea lot of merger and acquisition.
So I find it's helpful for me because I cankind of help our startups get adopted by those
large companies and large corporations as wellas look at acquisition targets, kind of the
perspective on the other side as well.
(07:21):
So it's been helpful from my standpoint.
As far as kind of approaching kind of largeorganizations, I know you have many contacts in
that area as well, but there are some kind ofopen calls.
I was an advisor for Quality Can't Wait, whichyou might have seen Melinda Gates.
(07:44):
She launched that out and it's like $40,000,000and people are submitting in proposals and we
were judging all those proposals and it justannounced the 10 finalists from that
standpoint.
So a wonderful cause to really accelerateequality.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
The framework that we're always taught iscorporate VC.
(08:09):
It's not always looking after financial return.
Your Google, your Google Ventures, and there'san interesting type of sensor that Google just
didn't build in house and it's easier to buyversus build.
So they just buy that team and then that teamnow becomes the Google sensor team.
Are you seeing, you talked about M and Aactivities that could possibly provide
(08:35):
financial return, because you're going to beacquiring a company and hopefully delisting it
or it's undervalued and you change themanagement team and now you sell it for 5X.
So that provides some financial returns.
Are you starting to see a lot of these hybridmodels where there's like social impact,
(08:55):
there's strategic, and then there's a mandatefor financial return?
Because I'm starting to see that on the impactside and also on kind of like the clean tech
two point zero, where you need to have venturestyle returns, but also have impact.
So I was just curious if that's kind of anevolution that you're seeing is like a two
point zero version.
Yeah, no, it's a great point and we are seeingit, especially in health, right?
(09:18):
We want evidence based solutions that areactually have a positive impact on people.
So we're definitely seeing that as well.
And to your point, we see CBCs literally buy ateam, as you're saying, for the people.
We also see it for the technology, also theintellectual property patents.
So you know their motivations for M and A arekind of varied from that.
(09:41):
One is kind of expansion to different markets.
It's also been another one too, is they'retrying to go in a different product line
market.
We see them you know investing initially andthen acquiring or just downright acquiring you
know.
But the market is so hot in healthcare.
It's just been kind of record breaking yearsthis past two years.
(10:03):
COVID has just accelerated that from thatstandpoint.
If you would have asked, health investments arerecord time, it was 73,000,000,000 last year
for 2020 and it's increasing more and more kindof this year and we think it's going to exceed
(10:24):
that here.
I think it's a real opportunity.
Yeah, and these larger institutions, what aresome of the bigger themes?
Can you unpack that a little bit as far ashealth care?
When you look at health care, can you go alittle deeper as far as what are the critical
sectors to focus on?
(10:45):
Is it drug discovery?
Is it rapid COVID testing?
I guess what are kind of the short terminitiatives and then kind of long term when you
look at like deep tech and life science?
Are kind of longer breakthroughs?
I know longevity is a big thing when it comesto deep tech and just life extension, but just
(11:08):
curious if that is part of what their missionis and if there's other areas that are
important.
No, you hit some great ones.
I would just add a few more of those.
That is genomics, really adding the predictionand prevention and really going proactive from
that standpoint.
I think kind of with longevity is prevention,wellness, self care.
(11:33):
So this next generation, my kids will live to120.
What are we going to be?
Are we going to be a mix of bionics and human?
Are we going to be able to self sustain?
We have three d printers that can print outorgans now.
You can imagine kind of for the future whatthat would be like.
(11:54):
I think it's really interesting for the kind oflike in the near term what we see is chronic
conditions just impacting millions, the cost ofmillions, how can we tackle that?
Know diabetes, heart, obesity, cancer, there'sthese disease states that are really affecting
(12:14):
millions of people.
Can we kind of address that from thatstandpoint?
Definitely on that, what we see is also a lotof emerging technology, a lot of AI coming in,
Internet of Things.
So now you can think of hospital at home.
That was really being tested during COVID aboutbeing able to remote monitor.
(12:34):
And we have an interesting demographic shiftthat's happening that we're seeing an aging
population.
More people are getting old than being born.
So it's starting to flip.
So we know that your kind of last years of lifeis when you spend the most on healthcare,
especially the very last year.
(12:56):
Two things to branch off of that.
There's more wealth accumulated at that age.
So there should hopefully be more income.
And then that income is being spent on justbeing able to
have
the support that you need, whether it's likelong term care.
So I think some of that in my personalexperiences still has some challenges.
(13:21):
A lot of us are going to be eventually in thesandwich generation.
We've got kids that we're worried about.
And then we're also worried about our parents.
We're kind of like crunched in between.
So we get impacted and then the parents, ifthey didn't get the right financial advisors to
kind of really plan for it, what I've alreadybeen seeing is people are kind of just getting
(13:43):
hit by surprise.
They don't really know what Medicare covers orwhat Medicaid covers.
So are there any solutions to kind of helptackle that as far as just like what you're
supposed to do and how you do it moreeffectively?
Because I feel like that's almost like FinTechlongevity as well because we're living longer.
(14:03):
Are actually planning properly for getting oldand not like putting our kids under stress when
we're like 80 years old?
Now you raise a really important point.
One of the top reasons for personal bankruptcyin The U.
S.
Is a healthcare incident.
What we see is the average of people likereally just saving only like $180,000 as a
(14:28):
retirement and we know given Medicare costs,the donut and the direct cost of prices going
up, most people do not have long term careinsurance and there's only you know the fewer
provide that as well to really kind of guardagainst some of those costs and help reimburse.
We also know that the senior care market alsokind of needs to be reevaluated and what
(14:53):
services it provides.
That has gotten hit a lot by COVID and kind ofshown some of the cracks in that as well.
So I think there are some real opportunities.
We've definitely seen some happening in thesenior tech space as well.
Yeah, there's a couple funds that I'm friendswith that have a focus on silver tech.
(15:14):
I've seen some interesting things in mobilityand I think I've seen some stuff on like the
FinTech side as far as kind of how to managethat.
But the challenge too is, that population isnot tech savvy.
So if you have a really slick app, I don'tthink that's gonna do anything, right?
So if you can find some type of user experiencethat anybody can use, and the funny analogy was
(15:38):
people's grandparents are on Facebookscrolling.
That UI is really easy to just kind of seevideos and photos of their friends and family.
So how do you have that kind of experience tokind of support their healthcare needs and also
like their healthcare witches, right?
Like as far as just generational things thatare happening with their family.
(15:59):
So I think there's some interesting you know,opportunities there.
And then, you know, just unpacking Telocityfrom Vinag, I guess, is Telocity a separate
fund or is that part of the Ventures
is, yeah, the umbrella.
And Telocity is our first fund.
So we named it Velocity from that so the Telusof the Mind and Velocity of just trying to
(16:21):
accelerate it from that standpoint.
So we started that fund in 2019 and from thatstandpoint really investing in early stage
companies.
So we've invested in eight in North America andone has already exited so we've been happy kind
(16:42):
of with the results so far.
Given 2020 was a very critical year, ourstartups impacted 2,000,000 lives, so we were
happy that you know their reach is gettingquite far from that standpoint and they're
beginning to raise their next round.
Sure, no, it's exciting.
And is there kind of like a specific mandatethat you're trying to stay within?
(17:04):
You talked about impacting lives.
So are there a couple of different themes onthe tech side that you focus on and would love
to learn a little more about your team as well,like kind of how your team members complement
each other.
Oh yeah.
Well, so we are focused on eight differentcategories all the way from wellness, self care
(17:26):
to an improved online experience, kind of asyou were mentioning everything is online.
So how can you not get cyber bullied, socialcomparison, kind of that death scrolling as
they call it or doom scrolling from thatstandpoint to access to care.
So really interesting things in emergingtechnology, but also engagement adherence
(17:48):
because we know that engagement is so importanton your health.
So those are kind of like the various eightcategories we're looking at.
We're also looking at investing in diversefounders both from gender and ethnicity and
location.
We're looking at that from multiple standpointsas well.
Kind of hitting the triple bottom line oftrying to go from that.
(18:13):
That's great.
And then yep, go ahead.
I was going to answer your second questionabout the team.
Anish Srivastava is kind of the executive andkind of founder of our team.
His background has been an entrepreneur halfhis life as well as being in the venture
(18:35):
capital investment side for the other half ofhis life.
So he's been wonderful to kind of look at itfrom that the pure financial demographics data
operator mode, seeing the both perspectives.
We really try and coach and advise our startupson how to go and kind of support them going
forward.
(18:56):
He's been wonderful in that.
Alison was coming in from Village Capital, hasbeen focusing in kind of both an accelerator
kind of investments and also the research sidein health coming out of the labs, so she's been
a great complement.
We have Janet coming in from kind of theventure analyst side with kind of a diverse
(19:19):
perspective coming in from university researchas well as several other accelerators as well.
And then I'm bringing in kind of the health andinsurance tech investments and innovation side.
So it's been a nice kind of team and complimentgoing forward.
Yeah, and an interesting pattern that I'mseeing as well is, there's a lot of funds that
(19:40):
have complimentary platforms and communities,right?
So Vinage Ventures, kind of doing a little bitof research on your platform.
It looks like you guys do some innovation andservices to different organizations as well,
right?
So I think that also can probably complimentyour proprietary deal flow because you're
(20:00):
working with these subject matter experts andthen kind of solving these problems probably
turn you into exciting other opportunities forpossible investment opportunities, I'm
assuming.
Yes, yes.
So we worked with like Fortune 500 when theywant to start a CVC fund or if they're looking
for M and A targets and from that standpoint,how they're kind of looking at their strategic.
(20:26):
So to your point, really understanding theirpriorities, strategies, and going from there
and then we can help push and advise themforward.
I think it helps both sides of the equation inunderstanding they need to kind of adopt a
startup and what they're looking for as well.
Yeah, and that's a unique niche too becausewhen you typically call on McKinsey or
(20:48):
Deloitte, they don't have the VC experience andthey may not necessarily know how to actually
have discipline of having a CVC.
But because you guys are VCs and personallyhave been in CVC before, that's kind of a
unique offering that you can provide to them.
(21:09):
It's almost like CVC as a service where you cancome in and be like, hey guys, I IBM does do
some corporate VC, but here's kind of aframework and a formula to do it effectively
and maybe replicate it across differentsectors, I'm assuming, right?
Yes, exactly.
And we can kind of customize it to what theywant and need.
(21:33):
I also chair the innovation executive forumthat has about 300 different innovation
leaders, of tech scouts, CVC leaders as well,and so it's kind of a peer to peer group where
we're kind of sharing trends, lessons learnedacross industry, so that's been a great group
to kind of connect with as well.
(21:53):
Yeah, and then you talk about UX and UI design.
So I'm a product person, so I always lovebuilding apps and websites and trying to find
the requirements, so maybe we can talk aboutthat a little bit as far as just how to build
good UX and UI for different companies andorganizations.
Where are the biggest pitfalls when you'retrying to solve a problem?
(22:14):
Is it really in the requirements not being bad?
Or is the UI just not aligned with what thecustomer thought it would do?
I don't know if you've ever seen that graphic.
There's this One of my favorite graphics.
It says what the customer wanted, and then whatthe engineer thought it was, and the customer
wanted like a swing on a tree, and then theengineer thought it was like a roller coaster.
(22:39):
And then the way it was sold, it was like a LaZ Boy, you know?
So it's kinda like all three people justpictured the product to be completely different
and same thing with the user experience.
So maybe you can talk through some of theexamples of like UX and UI and then maybe just
where it could fall apart if it's not doneright.
(23:00):
Yeah, I did want to put a shout out to kind ofthe rest of the Vinag team because we actually
have UIUX, Azalea and Raven kind of doing thewhole user experience.
And then we have kind of our kind of developersteams led by Mike and Harine.
So it's really kind of a deep dive and reallyunderstanding the customer.
So kind of customer experience, being able totalk internally as well as externally and
(23:27):
seeing that experience and then really kind ofmocking it up and designing and iterating from
that standpoint.
Sometimes to your point, they don't know whatthey don't know from that.
And you know, it's like someone, you know,creating a Ferrari, but having, you know,
Volkswagen requirements and budget right andthen in their head.
(23:48):
And so it's kind of that kind of alignmentwhere so we definitely do kind of the co
development with our clients and kind of theiteration from that so that we're looking
through that.
So we turn designs around very quickly and kindof iterate and pile and get feedback from that.
But it really does start with that kind ofcustomer journey, the mood board that you're
(24:09):
trying to create, the objectives you're tryingto go for the kind of product and market that
you're trying to fit into.
No, that's interesting.
And then, going a little further, now I'm kindof going into the fun thesis, walk me through
the beginning stages of how you guys decided tostart the fund and really just the initial
(24:36):
steps and kind of the initial discussions thatyou guys had.
And then after that, really when it comes tomaking an impact, what are some of the tech
opportunities that you see evolving to kind ofsupport impact?
See kind of like the mental health prevention,really just children, especially at the
adolescent age, there's challenges, but justall things at school and with their parents and
(25:02):
social impacts as well.
So maybe you can talk a little bit about likehow you thought about coming up with the fund,
why you guys did start the fund, and then justkind of a little more on like just the impact
side.
Great.
Yeah, so it was kind of based on the premisesof this ever increasing need and a gap.
(25:27):
So when we look at the landscape of the market,we definitely saw a lot of money coming into
digital health.
Digital therapeutics where it's going, but wedid see kind of a gap in the mental behavioral
health, right?
Like we almost kind of divorce our mental statefrom our physical state, right?
Because we can't see it naturally, but we knowwith all these chronic diseases I mentioned
(25:51):
before heart, diabetes, it usually comes withdepression, right?
Like it comes with anxiety, comes with stress.
So we really need and we also know that if youhave a positive mental health and a good mental
health, you heal faster, right?
So as we were looking at the market, wedefinitely saw that there was kind of a gap in
opportunity and a growing need that kind ofbeing addressed there.
(26:13):
So we kind of assess kind of the market, who'splaying in this space.
So far we've looked over like over 600 startupsin this area, so it's growing from that
standpoint and the investment is growing.
What we're trying to do is shine a light on it.
COVID has been helping very much on that aswell and also the stigma.
(26:37):
So now we're also seeing like reimbursementcharges, know telepsych visits, and a real
openness.
Our thesis though is not only been kind of thatdigital wellness mental health, but it's how
can it enable and scale through technology.
Yeah, we know kids, you know, they're thedigital natives.
If it you know, if it's not with them, and thatyou want it to be kind of seamless and part of
(27:02):
their life, not this like, go to this app whenI'm feeling sad.
Yeah,
like, it's more preventative maintenance and toprevent a current kind of crisis from that
standpoint.
So we kind of looked at all those opportunitiesfrom that, but we are looking ones that are
evidence based and what we're finding is if youlook at healthcare evidence, it's you know it
(27:26):
can be many years, right?
FDA clinical studies and we're like how can weaccelerate it in a technology standpoint to
kind of get some evidence based on thatcomparison lit reviews research from that.
So that's been helping us accelerate as well.
Yeah, then as far as some other techniques,mentioned it, right?
(27:48):
Like there's an app that tells you log into theapp if you're happy or sad, but what are some
other things that you're seeing that are novelapproaches to tackle that?
I'm assuming maybe like community.
So maybe you can have a community of peoplethat are there to support you as a support
system, But what are some other things thatyou've been excited about that you've kind of
(28:14):
seen that are like, wow, this is somethingthat's really out of the box.
I'm assuming like with maybe AI, there's somepredictive patterns that they can detect based
on what you've been doing.
Or, I mean, I wonder if there's even justpatterns from demographics, like, you know,
group of people that lived in LA, for somereason, we've seen like a population density of
(28:36):
mental health issues.
So maybe there's something that they can do,like within that community to help the morale
of that community.
I'm not sure if that's something they can dolike geographically as well.
Yeah, so what we've been seeing is like foryour standpoint is like schools being able to
look at that school climate, the class climate,the different grades, know, is there an
(28:58):
incident from that especially like if you knowa student's committed suicide, the whole class
feels it right from that standpoint.
So we've definitely seen ones that are actuallykind of looking at kind of that dynamic and the
classroom climate and also then offeringskills, social emotional learning and
(29:19):
resilience training and to that area.
Interesting one Maslow AI has created anempathetic digital advisor.
So it's understanding your tone, your voice,the text, being able to read that and then
being able to kind of it's almost like it'skind of like the Her movie right like so it's
(29:39):
like just saying a message like hey how are youtoday you know I've noticed you've been kind of
quiet you know from that standpoint and thenyou know I might say well I'm kind of feeling
blue because you know COVID still is ravagingthe world here and then it might then say well
you know why don't you try this or this.
It will understand your preferences and kind ofincreasingly learn to offer personalized
(30:02):
resources from that, but they've been helpingfoster kids stay in touch with their case
managers because they get lost through thesystem.
So they kind of in ways kind of connected themand give them resources and really kind of
leveraging all the content.
That has been really kind of novel on the AIand to your point with kind of seniors before
(30:24):
we see voice technology really taking offbecause seniors can use their voice kind of
voice commands versus trying to figure outscreens and pivoting from that.
We think kind of with our smart homes andtechnology for the future.
Some other interesting ones that we have isKasana Health is our recent investment and that
is actually looking at, to your point, they'vebeen doing it in universities and populations
(30:50):
on universities and how you're using yourphone.
So rather and really kind of looking at theassessment process in a collapse standpoint.
Rather than the you know these standardizedlong you know psychological assessments really
kind of collapsing that predicting based onwhat you want, your goals, your behavior on
(31:12):
your phone.
They actually can give you a whole personalizedkind of care plan and action plan as well.
Neolith is based on neuroscience.
That's another great one coming out as wellthat we've invested in as well.
Yeah, then there's probably just impacts,there's probably areas where they blend into
(31:33):
other sectors.
So when you get into ed tech and when you alsoget into just the future of work, people just
are more engaged to learn interactively.
And then also just employee retention obviouslyhas a direct impact, right?
There's a loss of ROI if your employees are allfacing some type of mental health issue because
(31:56):
of the conditions, right?
I mean, people are feeling disconnected.
There's a whole great resignation, right?
So a lot of people have just been, they've beendisconnected for the last three years and it's
really just a pandemic that's triggered it.
But there's been issues, I think, for severalyears.
It's just now it's starting to kind of come outmore with all that's happening.
(32:21):
I think to your point, having more pathways toget reimbursed for it and actually treat it
like a real issue that needs to be handled, Ithink that opens up a lot of opportunities from
the tech capital standpoint as well.
I know to your point, the great resignationsanticipating like a quarter of the workforce is
(32:44):
going to resign, right?
Yeah.
Because you know they didn't resign duringCOVID and now it's kind of opportunity and then
people haven't had a chance to reflect, right?
Like what do they want out of their life?
And so I do think there's going to be, and ifyou look at aging demographics as well, we know
that this is the first time we've had fivegenerations in the workforce, right?
(33:06):
Because the seniors couldn't retire becausethey didn't have enough funding, but now
they're starting might kind of flip.
So we need to be wary of where we're going aswell and I just think it's a real opportunity
that we see employer groups now putting theseon as employee benefits.
(33:30):
For mental health, we see schools requiringsocial emotional learning.
So I think we're going to end your pointcommunity coming in because it's community
caring adults family connections.
One of the interesting facts is you kind ofthink about longevity studies.
Some of the top reasons why you live longer isnot because you're not smoking or because
(33:58):
you've lost weight.
It's actually your social connections is anumber one way to kind of so I always think
about that when I'm eating chocolate becauseI'm like, okay, I still am doing it with
friends.
I'm still good.
I took a little longer from that standpoint,but it is that social connection.
Yeah, having a tribe, like having a tribe ofpeople that you have a support system.
(34:22):
That way, if there is challenging times, atleast you have someone to talk to.
Because a lot of times we don't feel it's okayto talk about our problems.
We don't want to burden somebody else.
But I think if you have a tribe, it's maybe asafe space where you can talk about those
things.
Mean, look at our emerging manager program.
Can vent about issues with SPVs and the issuesthat we're dealing with fund admin and all that
(34:47):
and nobody has to know.
Yeah, well I was just gonna say you've beenamazing Joel in creating those tribes.
Think you're a natural at it and I think it'ssuch a powerful like superpower that you have.
Excited So and honored to be part of thecohort.
I know we have few questions here.
(35:08):
I don't know
if Yeah.
Did.
Let's let's take those real quick.
So I guess, Charlene, you had a question aboutaccelerators?
I guess what stands out in accelerators?
Yes.
So I was just curious as to what Faye and herfirm, what is it that they look for?
How is it that they kind of determine whetheror not they're worth the effort in terms of the
(35:34):
next steps and investment?
Yeah, no, that's such a great question becausethere are hundreds of accelerators out there.
So it's really kind of dependent on what phaseyou are in of your startup, How you can
leverage it and then the accelerator itself.
(35:54):
So we've definitely seen some great, know, wehave our startups have been through several
accelerators as well.
So really looking at what accelerator offerslike are they offering programs introductions
are they helping you refine your pitch are theygiving you mentoring are they coaching you It's
(36:15):
been interesting to see kind of in a sense someof the big technology companies have these
incubators as well.
So then like Microsoft, Google, all of them noweven give you additional resources and people
and experts.
So I know with Google they actually have AIpeople that can come help and look at it.
I do think these accelerators, especially ifyou're an early startup, can really kind of
(36:40):
help jump start you and kind of get your deckdown, your data room in, get you connected.
So we do connect with quite a few acceleratorsand look at their alumni classes and who's
graduating all that.
Yeah, and I think a power tip too is building arelationship with those accelerators and
(37:01):
getting to know those companies before the demoday.
Because a lot of times when, if you wait toolong, you're just gonna get boxed out and the
deals, especially the great companies that getoversubscribed.
So if you can kind of like have a, just areally good relationship with them, you can
kind of check-in with them.
And if you do your timing right, you might beable to catch them maybe a quarter before they
(37:23):
even start the selection process.
Or maybe they've already selected theselection, but it's super early.
So you get kind of like first dibs and you canget some financial upside if you get in at the
right valuation before all FOMO happens.
Yes, exactly.
All the frenzy.
So we we tend to kind of go in as mentor andcoaches.
(37:46):
So like we'll help with their pitch days orwe'll give talks on, you know, like kind of
what trends we're seeing because we want to geta chance to know them and for them to know us
So exactly to your point, kind of therelationships I think are important too.
Yeah, that's smart.
And then one thing I think that's supersensitive with healthcare is just knowing all
(38:07):
the HIPAA compliances.
So when you're building some type of healthcareproduct, right?
So I've actually talked to a few medicaldoctors that have wanted to build something and
I had a lot of questions about HIPAA.
So are there consultants that you can contactto just make sure that whatever you do is HIPAA
compliant?
So it's good to have some type of advisor thatmakes sure that you're not, you know, like,
(38:29):
because even though you're storing data andit's encrypted on Amazon Web Services, there's
probably still some standard they have tofollow to be HIPAA compliant, right?
Exactly, definitely from that.
So we have kind of an advisory network and thena luminary network, kind of subject matter
expertise, industry, reimbursement, healthplan, and you know, provider.
(38:55):
So depending on your startup, we can kind of,you know, pair you up, meet you, have
introductions and kind of do deep dives onthat.
We're also kind of, you know, doing somesessions to kind of review, you know, some,
especially in healthcare, very complicated fromthat standpoint.
That's really helpful.
(39:16):
Farooq So had a question about just duediligence process.
Any advice on just performing great duediligence when you're looking at companies?
Then I guess Farooq, feel free to expand onthat.
Yeah, basically what Joel said.
Hi, Faye, thank you very much for coming andspeaking to us.
I really appreciate your time.
So I was just wondering your process of duediligence when you're evaluating startups, how
(39:40):
does that work?
Does that start with the analyst or does thatstart with the CEO or the managing director?
How does it usually flow?
It usually flows with the CEO or the founderreally and kind of understanding their
objectives, their product roadmap, theirtraction, how much traction they got, evidence
(40:05):
based to know that it's a valid product marketfit from that standpoint, And you know their
financials, what their run rate is, have theyraised something before, their cap payable,
know like definitely all the financial rigor,their projections, their pipeline about how
they're going with as far as their potentialgrowth, how are they gonna go if needed.
(40:27):
Right now, Tom.
I wanna be quiet in the morning.
How was it?
It's good.
Yeah.
It's all good.
Bottle.
Okay.
When it comes to due diligence, I guess
Go
are there any can you guys go on mute please?
So when you're looking at like, you know, justreturn analysis, you know, I guess some good
things to look at is probably like thecomparable companies in the past, like did they
(40:53):
exit at, and what was like the revenue thatthey had, and then what the valuation was when
they exited, right?
So that's kind of something that I look at.
Any other frameworks that you guys have kind ofpicked up or learned as far as just kind of
exit return analysis, like saying, hey, youknow what, is this gonna be a 10X or a 20X
based on comps?
Any other formulas that you think are helpful?
(41:16):
Don't think there's just like a recipe formulabecause it really depends.
Because we look at eight categories and they'reall a little bit different from that.
There's not one kind of recipe.
One thing though, especially with early stagestartups that we're investing in, you're really
investing in the team, right?
And know very early stages of the product.
So we actually meet other members of the team.
(41:39):
We make sure we meet you know if there aremultiple co founders.
We also talk to their other investors about whyand then we also like to talk to at least you
know one client.
So I think we tend to kind of you know get alittle bit kind of background reference on that
person because kind of as I was saying likewhen you're investing with someone it's kind of
(42:02):
like a marriage you can't get divorced in rightso yeah it and it has to go to both ways you
know it has to be for the startup that isaligned to the VC and the VC vice versa because
you're you're kind of working together Causeyou know you've seen some sticky situations
right where you know and it's not a fun placeto be.
(42:23):
Sure yeah I've seen some situations wherefounders did take money and then they regretted
it and then they had to figure out a way toactually transfer those shares because the
investor they were working with was just not agood fit.
Like the investor style was not a good fitbecause they were kind of really trying to tell
(42:44):
the company what to do.
And I think one of my favorite expressions thatI've heard previously is sometimes you're like
a grandparent, right?
You're giving them capital and you're coachingthem, but you're not spanking them or
disciplining them aggressively like you do as aparent or not aggressively worried.
You're giving them the guidance, but they arethe founding team.
(43:09):
So you're hoping that they can go off and buildthe company and get to the metrics that they're
setting up for themselves, I would say.
Yeah, and we encourage our startups to do duediligence on us as well, right?
So that they know it's a right fit and kind ofexpectation setting.
(43:29):
Yeah, no, that's really helpful.
Any other questions, guys?
Feel free to ping some questions.
I guess another good thing to maybe go a littledeeper on is just learnings that you've learned
as you're building the fund, far as maybeportfolio construction, as far as building LPs,
building like an LP pipeline.
(43:50):
Some of the people in this group are aspiringVCs or also possibly thinking about building
their fund at some point.
They want to get some experience and then maybeeventually start their own fund and have their
own mission.
So any piece of advice as far as maybe kind ofideating the mission of the fund and then kind
(44:11):
of like, hey, how do you decide between a$20,000,000 fund versus a $10,000,000 fund?
Sometimes what I hear is it's the same amountof work to raise a $30,000,000 fund than it is
a $15,000,000 fund.
Any of your thoughts on that as far as justfund size and those kind of decisions, because
(44:33):
that's what's essentially going to be inked onthe LPA, right?
When you're putting together your fund andworking with the attorneys, so those decisions,
I guess, doesn't have to be specific to yourdecisions, but just any advice on how people
can start navigating those decisions?
No, think that as we're starting to think aboutour second fund, we're going through a lot of
(44:56):
those kind of decisions again from thatstandpoint.
To your point, it is a lot of work and you haveto build those relationships.
For all of you thinking about that, startbuilding those now.
I mean Joel's a wonderful connector and kind ofthis group as well as you start building those
relationships.
What I've seen interesting for you know as he'smentioning some of you are just thinking about
(45:21):
it or kind of start because I've seen somepeople doing angel investing and showing that
as part of their track record to build aventure fund.
Because it's showing that you have the duediligence to pick a winner from that standpoint
and getting following funding.
So I thought that was a really interesting wayfor new emerging managers to kind of
demonstrate their skill set was doing angelfunding.
(45:43):
And there's a lot of angel cohorts that youknow you can do it without as big of a lift,
That you can actually kind of co invest in.
But I thought that was an interesting way todemonstrate early.
Also I think you have to kind of look at thefund you're wanting raise and who you're going
to approach.
So some limited partners are not going to gointo any smaller fund under you know
(46:08):
50,000,000, right?
Like some are you know so it's also like howyou're going to do your target list, kind of
your industry group in that area.
Like for example, digital therapeutics takesmillions and millions of dollars, right?
Like so you got to have a big fund to make animpact, right?
You know, versus maybe consumer tech, as highor you know, so it all depends where you're at
(46:31):
and also what you're comfortable with.
And also look at the longevity of the fund,Like if you're the ten year fund, think about
it personally from you.
How much you want to manage?
How many portfolio companies?
Another interesting point someone is saying toois, do you want to commit that you have to be
on every board?
(46:52):
And some funds are like, I don't need to be onthe board.
I'll be a board observer or I won't, you know,we'll do it a separate way.
You know, so that's also another one, how doyou want your style and your culture?
What do you want to be known for as your youknow, so it's almost like you're, you have to
think of what your digital brand will be inyour differentiation in the market.
(47:13):
How do you want to be known and what is yoursuperpower?
Yeah, that's really helpful.
You know, a couple crazy things is the power ofTwitter.
I mean, I've seen if you go deep enough intothe rabbit hole, you can find strings where
there's LPs asking for interesting funds toinvest in.
(47:33):
I've seen that a few times.
So a lot of times you gotta go a little morecreative than versus just Googling, hey, top
LPs in San Francisco or New York, or familyoffice New York City on Google.
You'll be surprised if you find the right typeof hashtags.
There are some interesting LPs on Twitter thatjust are not on LinkedIn or they're probably on
(47:59):
LinkedIn, but they're not responding to DMs thesame way they are on Twitter.
Just be open to different channels, I wouldsay.
One thing that I learned too, because I get alot of these nuggets through the program.
So some of the next gen family offices areresponding Instagram versus Twitter.
So try to figure out to Faye's point, if like asuper old school family office, they're
(48:29):
probably not gonna be on Instagram, right?
They probably have a formal process.
So really trying to get integrated into thatprocess.
I guess maybe you can give some insights onrelationship building as a whole.
Talked about building relationships.
So, what are some tips that you'd give as faras trying to build relationships and find the
(48:51):
right communities to be part of when you'remaybe raising a fund?
Yeah, no, I think relationships is so key andthat to build them early, not just right before
your fund from that standpoint.
If you can get a warm intro, that's the part Iliked about LinkedIn is you know there's a
particular venture fund you're tackling and outof all the and it'll show you all the employees
(49:14):
working there out of any of those employees doyou have a connection even if it's you know
first, second, third, right?
That you can connect to them in some way orsomehow.
So I think getting that referral, thatconnection, the warm introduction is great.
I've also found I do quite a bit of speaking aswell and kind of conferences and where we're
(49:37):
going and also find interesting people asyou're kind of speaking kind of your thesis
where you're investing and kind of trendsyou're going from that and kind of build a
relationship.
Once you have that contact though, it's notlike one and done.
Know, check, they're on this nice little Excelspreadsheet and you just put it away in a
binder.
(49:58):
You know, and what I've seen is like give themquarterly updates.
Just a quick email saying and remember like akey thing about them.
Know this family office is really interested inhealthcare, but it's globally.
Right?
Like so I say, hey I saw this interestingarticle on global investments in healthcare
(50:20):
really skyrocketing in Japan because of theelderly population.
Thought of you.
Our fund is doing this right now.
We're getting ready to prepare for our raisethen.
Be happy to talk.
So keep those connections warm even though youmight you know you're trying to build it for
the future.
You're trying to build trust and credibility.
You might be saying hey I just did an angelinvestment in this great startup exited at this
(50:45):
mount because you're trying to build thatrelationship.
They're not always going to respond becausethey get quite a few investor updates from that
standpoint, but they're going to remember youthe next time you call, right?
Like, oh yeah, she, you know, I've kind of beenwatching your progress from that standpoint.
Sure.
Yeah, and I always believe that if you canstack favors, that can also just compound
(51:09):
goodwill, right?
So if there's a family office that you justwant to add to your tribe, you know, maybe you
don't ask for funding right now.
Know, at some point you want to work with them,but you just try to figure out what they need
and what they're looking for.
And, you know, maybe they want to get connectedwith a certain foundation and you happen to be
connected to them and you just kind of connectwith them, give them like five, six other
(51:33):
favors and then over time it just compounds andthen they're like, wait a minute, Faye, how can
we help you?
You know, and.
Yeah.
And then you say, hey, you know, let me, do youwant me to send you the docs or?
Exactly.
No, I I think that's a really important one.
Know with some I thought networking in thebeginning was like, oh, I felt like it was so
(51:56):
you know, like you have this intention when Iflipped it around of like, how can I help you
like it's so much because then you're buildinga relationship you're starting to build trust
so that's why I do quite a bit of volunteeringand mentoring advising with quite a few
startups and foundations?
(52:19):
That's another great hack.
Think, you know, some of the founders have donethis hack where they just volunteer at demo
days and a lot of times those demo days, allthe VCs are hanging out there.
So I think if you can find, I've seen some ofthese like bigger family office events like
Opal, they always need volunteers.
So if you can just show up as a volunteer andhelp out, that at least it gives you a free
(52:41):
ticket.
Just by default, you're in that conferencewhere all those people are so that trying to
find creative ways to get plugged in alwayshelps.
Right, same with all the accelerators,incubators, demo days.
(53:03):
Those are some.
Yeah, that's helpful.
Well, we got a couple minutes left.
I always leave the discussion with just onequestion.
Any piece of advice that you have from maybe amentor or one of your co founders that could be
recent or just kind of that's traveled with youthat you wanna share with us and maybe we can
(53:24):
wrap up with that.
I think when it comes down to it, is a peoplebusiness.
The team you're investing in, the team youwork, As you're thinking about building your
own team, it's important to kind of look atthat skill set, have that honesty, kind of
(53:48):
transparency and visibility to that.
So I think for me like as I go through myexperiences it really is about the people
whether it's what you quote is your network,your team, the startups you invest in, your co
investors, your partners that adopt thestartups, right?
Because we're always doing introductions.
(54:09):
So we think about it as like an ecosystem,right?
So how can you set up these startups forsuccess and support them in multiple ways?
Yeah, that's really helpful advice.
Well, Faye, thanks for coming and popping inand excited to have you in our ecosystem and
just super valuable to have your expertise andnetwork and support.
(54:33):
Excited to work closely with you in the nextcouple months.
No, you hit some great ones.
I would just add a few more of those.
That is genomics, really adding the predictionand prevention and really going proactive from
that standpoint.
I think kind of with longevity is prevention,wellness, self care.
So this next generation, my kids will live to120.
(00:25):
So what are we going to be?
Are we going to be a mix of bionics and human?
Are we going to be able to self sustain?
We have three d printers that can print outorgans now.
So I mean, you can imagine kind of for thefuture what that would be like.
Welcome
to The Investor, a podcast where I, JoelPalafinkel, your host, dives deep into the
(00:47):
minds of the world's most influentialinstitutional investors.
In each episode, we sit down with an investorto hear about their journeys and how global
markets are driving capital allocation.
So join us on this journey as we explore theseinsights.
We'll just run with it.
(01:07):
So we've got Faye Sahai from Vinod Ventures,and I know you've got a couple other really
exciting investment management platforms thatyou're managing.
Excited to kind of learn about those platformsand your evolution as a VC investor.
I know you have a healthcare and life sciencesbackground, so excited to go through all of it.
(01:31):
So why don't we kick this off?
Faye, welcome to the show.
I do this a couple of times a week with otheremerging managers and also experienced
managers.
So why don't we kick it off, talk about whereyou are, where you started and how you got to
where you are now in venture?
(01:51):
So I'm actually calling from the Bay Area.
I kind of started in healthcare early in thesense that both my parents were doctors and you
know how you work to help your parents.
I was working in the medical offices, puttingfiles, helping with billing and from that from
a young age.
(02:12):
But after school, I said, okay, you know,that's my parents stuff.
So I went into kind of financial institutions,trading investments from that.
But then I kind of missed the impact of havingan impact on positive on people.
So then I basically, you know, what I found ishealthcare was a way, I did healthcare
(02:35):
insurance from that standpoint of like you'restill impacting people but you're still using
the analytic skills.
I led and ran Kaiser Permanente's InnovationLab in the Fund where we were looking at
thousands of startups and seeing which onesthat we were going to invest in, test, and
adopt.
(02:55):
Then I also led AIG's initial Global Innovationand Digital Business Center as well.
So it really kind of touched me on thecorporate venture capital side of it.
Now I had an opportunity with Pivotal Ventures,the executive office of Melinda Gates, to
really submit a proposal of how can we make animpact on behavioral health and mental health
(03:21):
because now we know that one out of every fiveyoung people have a mental health issue and
it's even increased and accentuated with COVIDand the amount of depression, anxiety, suicidal
thoughts have increased sixty three percent andwe know it usually takes you know an average of
(03:42):
ten years for them to find care.
What if we disrupted it because we know half ofthe issues come at the age of 14?
What if we disrupted it and we can change thetrajectory of someone's life?
So we know the demand is just ever increasing.
There's a real opportunity and innovation inthis area.
So that's kind of our mission with the TelosiFund is really tackle digital wellness,
(04:03):
prevention, behavioral health, mental health,to kind of make a difference in young people's
lives.
Sure, yeah and that's an interesting pathway.
There's a couple different pathways to get intoinvestment management.
One is the traditional banking route.
It sounds like you kind of went through thecorporate VC route.
So tell us some of the differences that you'veseen, number one, from working in a corporate
(04:29):
VC versus some of your colleagues and schoolfriends that have just gone straight into early
stage VC or even just growth equity.
And then how can we engage with otherinstitutions like Melinda Gates' and figure out
what problems they're trying to solve and thenreally just make sure that you're solving the
(04:49):
solutions that they need?
I guess, what are some frameworks?
Do they have an open proposal where people comein and come up with their strategies?
And then there's kind of like the governmentwhere there's a source selection process?
And just so you know, I've worked for the DoDin the past, so I'm familiar with that process.
(05:09):
But is it very similar to that where there'skind of some type of requests for proposals and
then different bodies of solution providerscome in and try to solve it?
We'd love to learn more about that and then howto approach even those kinds of institutions.
(05:29):
Yeah, so there are so many different ways andit all depends on how they're kind of tackling
it.
I'll kind of address the first question you hadabout coming in out of like I also had worked
at Deloitte management consulting, so somefinancial institution background management
consulting, but corporate venture capital.
(05:51):
So corporate venture capital, find is kind oflike you're more doing strategic investing,
seeing what startups can actually be adoptedinto the organization and align with your
strategy.
So then you're kind of looking at it not onlyfor growth and return but possibly M and A
acquisition.
So you're kind of looking with a differentmindset and adding a few other criteria.
(06:15):
And also because you're in this corporatestructure, corporate venture capital is trying
to actually figure out the compensation planwith carry and whatnot.
So how can they take the CVC model andcompensate it in corporate structure and
compensation structure?
So, there's some really interesting ways thatthey're kind of doing that.
There's this wonderful fee lander compensationsurvey for VCs too.
(06:38):
It kind of also says what the tiering of thelevels are, corporate venture versus venture
capital.
But I found that there is increasing number ofcorporate venture capital firms.
It's continuing to grow in that area.
Before they were just investing for return, nowthey're going into strategics and both.
(07:01):
We've definitely seen especially in healthcarea lot of merger and acquisition.
So I find it's helpful for me because I cankind of help our startups get adopted by those
large companies and large corporations as wellas look at acquisition targets, kind of the
perspective on the other side as well.
(07:21):
So it's been helpful from my standpoint.
As far as kind of approaching kind of largeorganizations, I know you have many contacts in
that area as well, but there are some kind ofopen calls.
I was an advisor for Quality Can't Wait, whichyou might have seen Melinda Gates.
(07:44):
She launched that out and it's like $40,000,000and people are submitting in proposals and we
were judging all those proposals and it justannounced the 10 finalists from that
standpoint.
So a wonderful cause to really accelerateequality.
Yeah, that's really interesting.
The framework that we're always taught iscorporate VC.
(08:09):
It's not always looking after financial return.
Your Google, your Google Ventures, and there'san interesting type of sensor that Google just
didn't build in house and it's easier to buyversus build.
So they just buy that team and then that teamnow becomes the Google sensor team.
Are you seeing, you talked about M and Aactivities that could possibly provide
(08:35):
financial return, because you're going to beacquiring a company and hopefully delisting it
or it's undervalued and you change themanagement team and now you sell it for 5X.
So that provides some financial returns.
Are you starting to see a lot of these hybridmodels where there's like social impact,
(08:55):
there's strategic, and then there's a mandatefor financial return?
Because I'm starting to see that on the impactside and also on kind of like the clean tech
two point zero, where you need to have venturestyle returns, but also have impact.
So I was just curious if that's kind of anevolution that you're seeing is like a two
point zero version.
Yeah, no, it's a great point and we are seeingit, especially in health, right?
(09:18):
We want evidence based solutions that areactually have a positive impact on people.
So we're definitely seeing that as well.
And to your point, we see CBCs literally buy ateam, as you're saying, for the people.
We also see it for the technology, also theintellectual property patents.
So you know their motivations for M and A arekind of varied from that.
(09:41):
One is kind of expansion to different markets.
It's also been another one too, is they'retrying to go in a different product line
market.
We see them you know investing initially andthen acquiring or just downright acquiring you
know.
But the market is so hot in healthcare.
It's just been kind of record breaking yearsthis past two years.
(10:03):
COVID has just accelerated that from thatstandpoint.
If you would have asked, health investments arerecord time, it was 73,000,000,000 last year
for 2020 and it's increasing more and more kindof this year and we think it's going to exceed
(10:24):
that here.
I think it's a real opportunity.
Yeah, and these larger institutions, what aresome of the bigger themes?
Can you unpack that a little bit as far ashealth care?
When you look at health care, can you go alittle deeper as far as what are the critical
sectors to focus on?
(10:45):
Is it drug discovery?
Is it rapid COVID testing?
I guess what are kind of the short terminitiatives and then kind of long term when you
look at like deep tech and life science?
Are kind of longer breakthroughs?
I know longevity is a big thing when it comesto deep tech and just life extension, but just
(11:08):
curious if that is part of what their missionis and if there's other areas that are
important.
No, you hit some great ones.
I would just add a few more of those.
That is genomics, really adding the predictionand prevention and really going proactive from
that standpoint.
I think kind of with longevity is prevention,wellness, self care.
(11:33):
So this next generation, my kids will live to120.
What are we going to be?
Are we going to be a mix of bionics and human?
Are we going to be able to self sustain?
We have three d printers that can print outorgans now.
You can imagine kind of for the future whatthat would be like.
(11:54):
I think it's really interesting for the kind oflike in the near term what we see is chronic
conditions just impacting millions, the cost ofmillions, how can we tackle that?
Know diabetes, heart, obesity, cancer, there'sthese disease states that are really affecting
(12:14):
millions of people.
Can we kind of address that from thatstandpoint?
Definitely on that, what we see is also a lotof emerging technology, a lot of AI coming in,
Internet of Things.
So now you can think of hospital at home.
That was really being tested during COVID aboutbeing able to remote monitor.
(12:34):
And we have an interesting demographic shiftthat's happening that we're seeing an aging
population.
More people are getting old than being born.
So it's starting to flip.
So we know that your kind of last years of lifeis when you spend the most on healthcare,
especially the very last year.
(12:56):
Two things to branch off of that.
There's more wealth accumulated at that age.
So there should hopefully be more income.
And then that income is being spent on justbeing able to
have
the support that you need, whether it's likelong term care.
So I think some of that in my personalexperiences still has some challenges.
(13:21):
A lot of us are going to be eventually in thesandwich generation.
We've got kids that we're worried about.
And then we're also worried about our parents.
We're kind of like crunched in between.
So we get impacted and then the parents, ifthey didn't get the right financial advisors to
kind of really plan for it, what I've alreadybeen seeing is people are kind of just getting
(13:43):
hit by surprise.
They don't really know what Medicare covers orwhat Medicaid covers.
So are there any solutions to kind of helptackle that as far as just like what you're
supposed to do and how you do it moreeffectively?
Because I feel like that's almost like FinTechlongevity as well because we're living longer.
(14:03):
Are actually planning properly for getting oldand not like putting our kids under stress when
we're like 80 years old?
Now you raise a really important point.
One of the top reasons for personal bankruptcyin The U.
S.
Is a healthcare incident.
What we see is the average of people likereally just saving only like $180,000 as a
(14:28):
retirement and we know given Medicare costs,the donut and the direct cost of prices going
up, most people do not have long term careinsurance and there's only you know the fewer
provide that as well to really kind of guardagainst some of those costs and help reimburse.
We also know that the senior care market alsokind of needs to be reevaluated and what
(14:53):
services it provides.
That has gotten hit a lot by COVID and kind ofshown some of the cracks in that as well.
So I think there are some real opportunities.
We've definitely seen some happening in thesenior tech space as well.
Yeah, there's a couple funds that I'm friendswith that have a focus on silver tech.
(15:14):
I've seen some interesting things in mobilityand I think I've seen some stuff on like the
FinTech side as far as kind of how to managethat.
But the challenge too is, that population isnot tech savvy.
So if you have a really slick app, I don'tthink that's gonna do anything, right?
So if you can find some type of user experiencethat anybody can use, and the funny analogy was
(15:38):
people's grandparents are on Facebookscrolling.
That UI is really easy to just kind of seevideos and photos of their friends and family.
So how do you have that kind of experience tokind of support their healthcare needs and also
like their healthcare witches, right?
Like as far as just generational things thatare happening with their family.
(15:59):
So I think there's some interesting you know,opportunities there.
And then, you know, just unpacking Telocityfrom Vinag, I guess, is Telocity a separate
fund or is that part of the Ventures
is, yeah, the umbrella.
And Telocity is our first fund.
So we named it Velocity from that so the Telusof the Mind and Velocity of just trying to
(16:21):
accelerate it from that standpoint.
So we started that fund in 2019 and from thatstandpoint really investing in early stage
companies.
So we've invested in eight in North America andone has already exited so we've been happy kind
(16:42):
of with the results so far.
Given 2020 was a very critical year, ourstartups impacted 2,000,000 lives, so we were
happy that you know their reach is gettingquite far from that standpoint and they're
beginning to raise their next round.
Sure, no, it's exciting.
And is there kind of like a specific mandatethat you're trying to stay within?
(17:04):
You talked about impacting lives.
So are there a couple of different themes onthe tech side that you focus on and would love
to learn a little more about your team as well,like kind of how your team members complement
each other.
Oh yeah.
Well, so we are focused on eight differentcategories all the way from wellness, self care
(17:26):
to an improved online experience, kind of asyou were mentioning everything is online.
So how can you not get cyber bullied, socialcomparison, kind of that death scrolling as
they call it or doom scrolling from thatstandpoint to access to care.
So really interesting things in emergingtechnology, but also engagement adherence
(17:48):
because we know that engagement is so importanton your health.
So those are kind of like the various eightcategories we're looking at.
We're also looking at investing in diversefounders both from gender and ethnicity and
location.
We're looking at that from multiple standpointsas well.
Kind of hitting the triple bottom line oftrying to go from that.
(18:13):
That's great.
And then yep, go ahead.
I was going to answer your second questionabout the team.
Anish Srivastava is kind of the executive andkind of founder of our team.
His background has been an entrepreneur halfhis life as well as being in the venture
(18:35):
capital investment side for the other half ofhis life.
So he's been wonderful to kind of look at itfrom that the pure financial demographics data
operator mode, seeing the both perspectives.
We really try and coach and advise our startupson how to go and kind of support them going
forward.
(18:56):
He's been wonderful in that.
Alison was coming in from Village Capital, hasbeen focusing in kind of both an accelerator
kind of investments and also the research sidein health coming out of the labs, so she's been
a great complement.
We have Janet coming in from kind of theventure analyst side with kind of a diverse
(19:19):
perspective coming in from university researchas well as several other accelerators as well.
And then I'm bringing in kind of the health andinsurance tech investments and innovation side.
So it's been a nice kind of team and complimentgoing forward.
Yeah, and an interesting pattern that I'mseeing as well is, there's a lot of funds that
(19:40):
have complimentary platforms and communities,right?
So Vinage Ventures, kind of doing a little bitof research on your platform.
It looks like you guys do some innovation andservices to different organizations as well,
right?
So I think that also can probably complimentyour proprietary deal flow because you're
(20:00):
working with these subject matter experts andthen kind of solving these problems probably
turn you into exciting other opportunities forpossible investment opportunities, I'm
assuming.
Yes, yes.
So we worked with like Fortune 500 when theywant to start a CVC fund or if they're looking
for M and A targets and from that standpoint,how they're kind of looking at their strategic.
(20:26):
So to your point, really understanding theirpriorities, strategies, and going from there
and then we can help push and advise themforward.
I think it helps both sides of the equation inunderstanding they need to kind of adopt a
startup and what they're looking for as well.
Yeah, and that's a unique niche too becausewhen you typically call on McKinsey or
(20:48):
Deloitte, they don't have the VC experience andthey may not necessarily know how to actually
have discipline of having a CVC.
But because you guys are VCs and personallyhave been in CVC before, that's kind of a
unique offering that you can provide to them.
(21:09):
It's almost like CVC as a service where you cancome in and be like, hey guys, I IBM does do
some corporate VC, but here's kind of aframework and a formula to do it effectively
and maybe replicate it across differentsectors, I'm assuming, right?
Yes, exactly.
And we can kind of customize it to what theywant and need.
(21:33):
I also chair the innovation executive forumthat has about 300 different innovation
leaders, of tech scouts, CVC leaders as well,and so it's kind of a peer to peer group where
we're kind of sharing trends, lessons learnedacross industry, so that's been a great group
to kind of connect with as well.
(21:53):
Yeah, and then you talk about UX and UI design.
So I'm a product person, so I always lovebuilding apps and websites and trying to find
the requirements, so maybe we can talk aboutthat a little bit as far as just how to build
good UX and UI for different companies andorganizations.
Where are the biggest pitfalls when you'retrying to solve a problem?
(22:14):
Is it really in the requirements not being bad?
Or is the UI just not aligned with what thecustomer thought it would do?
I don't know if you've ever seen that graphic.
There's this One of my favorite graphics.
It says what the customer wanted, and then whatthe engineer thought it was, and the customer
wanted like a swing on a tree, and then theengineer thought it was like a roller coaster.
(22:39):
And then the way it was sold, it was like a LaZ Boy, you know?
So it's kinda like all three people justpictured the product to be completely different
and same thing with the user experience.
So maybe you can talk through some of theexamples of like UX and UI and then maybe just
where it could fall apart if it's not doneright.
(23:00):
Yeah, I did want to put a shout out to kind ofthe rest of the Vinag team because we actually
have UIUX, Azalea and Raven kind of doing thewhole user experience.
And then we have kind of our kind of developersteams led by Mike and Harine.
So it's really kind of a deep dive and reallyunderstanding the customer.
So kind of customer experience, being able totalk internally as well as externally and
(23:27):
seeing that experience and then really kind ofmocking it up and designing and iterating from
that standpoint.
Sometimes to your point, they don't know whatthey don't know from that.
And you know, it's like someone, you know,creating a Ferrari, but having, you know,
Volkswagen requirements and budget right andthen in their head.
(23:48):
And so it's kind of that kind of alignmentwhere so we definitely do kind of the co
development with our clients and kind of theiteration from that so that we're looking
through that.
So we turn designs around very quickly and kindof iterate and pile and get feedback from that.
But it really does start with that kind ofcustomer journey, the mood board that you're
(24:09):
trying to create, the objectives you're tryingto go for the kind of product and market that
you're trying to fit into.
No, that's interesting.
And then, going a little further, now I'm kindof going into the fun thesis, walk me through
the beginning stages of how you guys decided tostart the fund and really just the initial
(24:36):
steps and kind of the initial discussions thatyou guys had.
And then after that, really when it comes tomaking an impact, what are some of the tech
opportunities that you see evolving to kind ofsupport impact?
See kind of like the mental health prevention,really just children, especially at the
adolescent age, there's challenges, but justall things at school and with their parents and
(25:02):
social impacts as well.
So maybe you can talk a little bit about likehow you thought about coming up with the fund,
why you guys did start the fund, and then justkind of a little more on like just the impact
side.
Great.
Yeah, so it was kind of based on the premisesof this ever increasing need and a gap.
(25:27):
So when we look at the landscape of the market,we definitely saw a lot of money coming into
digital health.
Digital therapeutics where it's going, but wedid see kind of a gap in the mental behavioral
health, right?
Like we almost kind of divorce our mental statefrom our physical state, right?
Because we can't see it naturally, but we knowwith all these chronic diseases I mentioned
(25:51):
before heart, diabetes, it usually comes withdepression, right?
Like it comes with anxiety, comes with stress.
So we really need and we also know that if youhave a positive mental health and a good mental
health, you heal faster, right?
So as we were looking at the market, wedefinitely saw that there was kind of a gap in
opportunity and a growing need that kind ofbeing addressed there.
(26:13):
So we kind of assess kind of the market, who'splaying in this space.
So far we've looked over like over 600 startupsin this area, so it's growing from that
standpoint and the investment is growing.
What we're trying to do is shine a light on it.
COVID has been helping very much on that aswell and also the stigma.
(26:37):
So now we're also seeing like reimbursementcharges, know telepsych visits, and a real
openness.
Our thesis though is not only been kind of thatdigital wellness mental health, but it's how
can it enable and scale through technology.
Yeah, we know kids, you know, they're thedigital natives.
If it you know, if it's not with them, and thatyou want it to be kind of seamless and part of
(27:02):
their life, not this like, go to this app whenI'm feeling sad.
Yeah,
like, it's more preventative maintenance and toprevent a current kind of crisis from that
standpoint.
So we kind of looked at all those opportunitiesfrom that, but we are looking ones that are
evidence based and what we're finding is if youlook at healthcare evidence, it's you know it
(27:26):
can be many years, right?
FDA clinical studies and we're like how can weaccelerate it in a technology standpoint to
kind of get some evidence based on thatcomparison lit reviews research from that.
So that's been helping us accelerate as well.
Yeah, then as far as some other techniques,mentioned it, right?
(27:48):
Like there's an app that tells you log into theapp if you're happy or sad, but what are some
other things that you're seeing that are novelapproaches to tackle that?
I'm assuming maybe like community.
So maybe you can have a community of peoplethat are there to support you as a support
system, But what are some other things thatyou've been excited about that you've kind of
(28:14):
seen that are like, wow, this is somethingthat's really out of the box.
I'm assuming like with maybe AI, there's somepredictive patterns that they can detect based
on what you've been doing.
Or, I mean, I wonder if there's even justpatterns from demographics, like, you know,
group of people that lived in LA, for somereason, we've seen like a population density of
(28:36):
mental health issues.
So maybe there's something that they can do,like within that community to help the morale
of that community.
I'm not sure if that's something they can dolike geographically as well.
Yeah, so what we've been seeing is like foryour standpoint is like schools being able to
look at that school climate, the class climate,the different grades, know, is there an
(28:58):
incident from that especially like if you knowa student's committed suicide, the whole class
feels it right from that standpoint.
So we've definitely seen ones that are actuallykind of looking at kind of that dynamic and the
classroom climate and also then offeringskills, social emotional learning and
(29:19):
resilience training and to that area.
Interesting one Maslow AI has created anempathetic digital advisor.
So it's understanding your tone, your voice,the text, being able to read that and then
being able to kind of it's almost like it'skind of like the Her movie right like so it's
(29:39):
like just saying a message like hey how are youtoday you know I've noticed you've been kind of
quiet you know from that standpoint and thenyou know I might say well I'm kind of feeling
blue because you know COVID still is ravagingthe world here and then it might then say well
you know why don't you try this or this.
It will understand your preferences and kind ofincreasingly learn to offer personalized
(30:02):
resources from that, but they've been helpingfoster kids stay in touch with their case
managers because they get lost through thesystem.
So they kind of in ways kind of connected themand give them resources and really kind of
leveraging all the content.
That has been really kind of novel on the AIand to your point with kind of seniors before
(30:24):
we see voice technology really taking offbecause seniors can use their voice kind of
voice commands versus trying to figure outscreens and pivoting from that.
We think kind of with our smart homes andtechnology for the future.
Some other interesting ones that we have isKasana Health is our recent investment and that
is actually looking at, to your point, they'vebeen doing it in universities and populations
(30:50):
on universities and how you're using yourphone.
So rather and really kind of looking at theassessment process in a collapse standpoint.
Rather than the you know these standardizedlong you know psychological assessments really
kind of collapsing that predicting based onwhat you want, your goals, your behavior on
(31:12):
your phone.
They actually can give you a whole personalizedkind of care plan and action plan as well.
Neolith is based on neuroscience.
That's another great one coming out as wellthat we've invested in as well.
Yeah, then there's probably just impacts,there's probably areas where they blend into
(31:33):
other sectors.
So when you get into ed tech and when you alsoget into just the future of work, people just
are more engaged to learn interactively.
And then also just employee retention obviouslyhas a direct impact, right?
There's a loss of ROI if your employees are allfacing some type of mental health issue because
(31:56):
of the conditions, right?
I mean, people are feeling disconnected.
There's a whole great resignation, right?
So a lot of people have just been, they've beendisconnected for the last three years and it's
really just a pandemic that's triggered it.
But there's been issues, I think, for severalyears.
It's just now it's starting to kind of come outmore with all that's happening.
(32:21):
I think to your point, having more pathways toget reimbursed for it and actually treat it
like a real issue that needs to be handled, Ithink that opens up a lot of opportunities from
the tech capital standpoint as well.
I know to your point, the great resignationsanticipating like a quarter of the workforce is
(32:44):
going to resign, right?
Yeah.
Because you know they didn't resign duringCOVID and now it's kind of opportunity and then
people haven't had a chance to reflect, right?
Like what do they want out of their life?
And so I do think there's going to be, and ifyou look at aging demographics as well, we know
that this is the first time we've had fivegenerations in the workforce, right?
(33:06):
Because the seniors couldn't retire becausethey didn't have enough funding, but now
they're starting might kind of flip.
So we need to be wary of where we're going aswell and I just think it's a real opportunity
that we see employer groups now putting theseon as employee benefits.
(33:30):
For mental health, we see schools requiringsocial emotional learning.
So I think we're going to end your pointcommunity coming in because it's community
caring adults family connections.
One of the interesting facts is you kind ofthink about longevity studies.
Some of the top reasons why you live longer isnot because you're not smoking or because
(33:58):
you've lost weight.
It's actually your social connections is anumber one way to kind of so I always think
about that when I'm eating chocolate becauseI'm like, okay, I still am doing it with
friends.
I'm still good.
I took a little longer from that standpoint,but it is that social connection.
Yeah, having a tribe, like having a tribe ofpeople that you have a support system.
(34:22):
That way, if there is challenging times, atleast you have someone to talk to.
Because a lot of times we don't feel it's okayto talk about our problems.
We don't want to burden somebody else.
But I think if you have a tribe, it's maybe asafe space where you can talk about those
things.
Mean, look at our emerging manager program.
Can vent about issues with SPVs and the issuesthat we're dealing with fund admin and all that
(34:47):
and nobody has to know.
Yeah, well I was just gonna say you've beenamazing Joel in creating those tribes.
Think you're a natural at it and I think it'ssuch a powerful like superpower that you have.
Excited So and honored to be part of thecohort.
I know we have few questions here.
(35:08):
I don't know
if Yeah.
Did.
Let's let's take those real quick.
So I guess, Charlene, you had a question aboutaccelerators?
I guess what stands out in accelerators?
Yes.
So I was just curious as to what Faye and herfirm, what is it that they look for?
How is it that they kind of determine whetheror not they're worth the effort in terms of the
(35:34):
next steps and investment?
Yeah, no, that's such a great question becausethere are hundreds of accelerators out there.
So it's really kind of dependent on what phaseyou are in of your startup, How you can
leverage it and then the accelerator itself.
(35:54):
So we've definitely seen some great, know, wehave our startups have been through several
accelerators as well.
So really looking at what accelerator offerslike are they offering programs introductions
are they helping you refine your pitch are theygiving you mentoring are they coaching you It's
(36:15):
been interesting to see kind of in a sense someof the big technology companies have these
incubators as well.
So then like Microsoft, Google, all of them noweven give you additional resources and people
and experts.
So I know with Google they actually have AIpeople that can come help and look at it.
I do think these accelerators, especially ifyou're an early startup, can really kind of
(36:40):
help jump start you and kind of get your deckdown, your data room in, get you connected.
So we do connect with quite a few acceleratorsand look at their alumni classes and who's
graduating all that.
Yeah, and I think a power tip too is building arelationship with those accelerators and
(37:01):
getting to know those companies before the demoday.
Because a lot of times when, if you wait toolong, you're just gonna get boxed out and the
deals, especially the great companies that getoversubscribed.
So if you can kind of like have a, just areally good relationship with them, you can
kind of check-in with them.
And if you do your timing right, you might beable to catch them maybe a quarter before they
(37:23):
even start the selection process.
Or maybe they've already selected theselection, but it's super early.
So you get kind of like first dibs and you canget some financial upside if you get in at the
right valuation before all FOMO happens.
Yes, exactly.
All the frenzy.
So we we tend to kind of go in as mentor andcoaches.
(37:46):
So like we'll help with their pitch days orwe'll give talks on, you know, like kind of
what trends we're seeing because we want to geta chance to know them and for them to know us
So exactly to your point, kind of therelationships I think are important too.
Yeah, that's smart.
And then one thing I think that's supersensitive with healthcare is just knowing all
(38:07):
the HIPAA compliances.
So when you're building some type of healthcareproduct, right?
So I've actually talked to a few medicaldoctors that have wanted to build something and
I had a lot of questions about HIPAA.
So are there consultants that you can contactto just make sure that whatever you do is HIPAA
compliant?
So it's good to have some type of advisor thatmakes sure that you're not, you know, like,
(38:29):
because even though you're storing data andit's encrypted on Amazon Web Services, there's
probably still some standard they have tofollow to be HIPAA compliant, right?
Exactly, definitely from that.
So we have kind of an advisory network and thena luminary network, kind of subject matter
expertise, industry, reimbursement, healthplan, and you know, provider.
(38:55):
So depending on your startup, we can kind of,you know, pair you up, meet you, have
introductions and kind of do deep dives onthat.
We're also kind of, you know, doing somesessions to kind of review, you know, some,
especially in healthcare, very complicated fromthat standpoint.
That's really helpful.
(39:16):
Farooq So had a question about just duediligence process.
Any advice on just performing great duediligence when you're looking at companies?
Then I guess Farooq, feel free to expand onthat.
Yeah, basically what Joel said.
Hi, Faye, thank you very much for coming andspeaking to us.
I really appreciate your time.
So I was just wondering your process of duediligence when you're evaluating startups, how
(39:40):
does that work?
Does that start with the analyst or does thatstart with the CEO or the managing director?
How does it usually flow?
It usually flows with the CEO or the founderreally and kind of understanding their
objectives, their product roadmap, theirtraction, how much traction they got, evidence
(40:05):
based to know that it's a valid product marketfit from that standpoint, And you know their
financials, what their run rate is, have theyraised something before, their cap payable,
know like definitely all the financial rigor,their projections, their pipeline about how
they're going with as far as their potentialgrowth, how are they gonna go if needed.
(40:27):
Right now, Tom.
I wanna be quiet in the morning.
How was it?
It's good.
Yeah.
It's all good.
Bottle.
Okay.
When it comes to due diligence, I guess
Go
are there any can you guys go on mute please?
So when you're looking at like, you know, justreturn analysis, you know, I guess some good
things to look at is probably like thecomparable companies in the past, like did they
(40:53):
exit at, and what was like the revenue thatthey had, and then what the valuation was when
they exited, right?
So that's kind of something that I look at.
Any other frameworks that you guys have kind ofpicked up or learned as far as just kind of
exit return analysis, like saying, hey, youknow what, is this gonna be a 10X or a 20X
based on comps?
Any other formulas that you think are helpful?
(41:16):
Don't think there's just like a recipe formulabecause it really depends.
Because we look at eight categories and they'reall a little bit different from that.
There's not one kind of recipe.
One thing though, especially with early stagestartups that we're investing in, you're really
investing in the team, right?
And know very early stages of the product.
So we actually meet other members of the team.
(41:39):
We make sure we meet you know if there aremultiple co founders.
We also talk to their other investors about whyand then we also like to talk to at least you
know one client.
So I think we tend to kind of you know get alittle bit kind of background reference on that
person because kind of as I was saying likewhen you're investing with someone it's kind of
(42:02):
like a marriage you can't get divorced in rightso yeah it and it has to go to both ways you
know it has to be for the startup that isaligned to the VC and the VC vice versa because
you're you're kind of working together Causeyou know you've seen some sticky situations
right where you know and it's not a fun placeto be.
(42:23):
Sure yeah I've seen some situations wherefounders did take money and then they regretted
it and then they had to figure out a way toactually transfer those shares because the
investor they were working with was just not agood fit.
Like the investor style was not a good fitbecause they were kind of really trying to tell
(42:44):
the company what to do.
And I think one of my favorite expressions thatI've heard previously is sometimes you're like
a grandparent, right?
You're giving them capital and you're coachingthem, but you're not spanking them or
disciplining them aggressively like you do as aparent or not aggressively worried.
You're giving them the guidance, but they arethe founding team.
(43:09):
So you're hoping that they can go off and buildthe company and get to the metrics that they're
setting up for themselves, I would say.
Yeah, and we encourage our startups to do duediligence on us as well, right?
So that they know it's a right fit and kind ofexpectation setting.
(43:29):
Yeah, no, that's really helpful.
Any other questions, guys?
Feel free to ping some questions.
I guess another good thing to maybe go a littledeeper on is just learnings that you've learned
as you're building the fund, far as maybeportfolio construction, as far as building LPs,
building like an LP pipeline.
(43:50):
Some of the people in this group are aspiringVCs or also possibly thinking about building
their fund at some point.
They want to get some experience and then maybeeventually start their own fund and have their
own mission.
So any piece of advice as far as maybe kind ofideating the mission of the fund and then kind
(44:11):
of like, hey, how do you decide between a$20,000,000 fund versus a $10,000,000 fund?
Sometimes what I hear is it's the same amountof work to raise a $30,000,000 fund than it is
a $15,000,000 fund.
Any of your thoughts on that as far as justfund size and those kind of decisions, because
(44:33):
that's what's essentially going to be inked onthe LPA, right?
When you're putting together your fund andworking with the attorneys, so those decisions,
I guess, doesn't have to be specific to yourdecisions, but just any advice on how people
can start navigating those decisions?
No, think that as we're starting to think aboutour second fund, we're going through a lot of
(44:56):
those kind of decisions again from thatstandpoint.
To your point, it is a lot of work and you haveto build those relationships.
For all of you thinking about that, startbuilding those now.
I mean Joel's a wonderful connector and kind ofthis group as well as you start building those
relationships.
What I've seen interesting for you know as he'smentioning some of you are just thinking about
(45:21):
it or kind of start because I've seen somepeople doing angel investing and showing that
as part of their track record to build aventure fund.
Because it's showing that you have the duediligence to pick a winner from that standpoint
and getting following funding.
So I thought that was a really interesting wayfor new emerging managers to kind of
demonstrate their skill set was doing angelfunding.
(45:43):
And there's a lot of angel cohorts that youknow you can do it without as big of a lift,
That you can actually kind of co invest in.
But I thought that was an interesting way todemonstrate early.
Also I think you have to kind of look at thefund you're wanting raise and who you're going
to approach.
So some limited partners are not going to gointo any smaller fund under you know
(46:08):
50,000,000, right?
Like some are you know so it's also like howyou're going to do your target list, kind of
your industry group in that area.
Like for example, digital therapeutics takesmillions and millions of dollars, right?
Like so you got to have a big fund to make animpact, right?
You know, versus maybe consumer tech, as highor you know, so it all depends where you're at
(46:31):
and also what you're comfortable with.
And also look at the longevity of the fund,Like if you're the ten year fund, think about
it personally from you.
How much you want to manage?
How many portfolio companies?
Another interesting point someone is saying toois, do you want to commit that you have to be
on every board?
(46:52):
And some funds are like, I don't need to be onthe board.
I'll be a board observer or I won't, you know,we'll do it a separate way.
You know, so that's also another one, how doyou want your style and your culture?
What do you want to be known for as your youknow, so it's almost like you're, you have to
think of what your digital brand will be inyour differentiation in the market.
(47:13):
How do you want to be known and what is yoursuperpower?
Yeah, that's really helpful.
You know, a couple crazy things is the power ofTwitter.
I mean, I've seen if you go deep enough intothe rabbit hole, you can find strings where
there's LPs asking for interesting funds toinvest in.
(47:33):
I've seen that a few times.
So a lot of times you gotta go a little morecreative than versus just Googling, hey, top
LPs in San Francisco or New York, or familyoffice New York City on Google.
You'll be surprised if you find the right typeof hashtags.
There are some interesting LPs on Twitter thatjust are not on LinkedIn or they're probably on
(47:59):
LinkedIn, but they're not responding to DMs thesame way they are on Twitter.
Just be open to different channels, I wouldsay.
One thing that I learned too, because I get alot of these nuggets through the program.
So some of the next gen family offices areresponding Instagram versus Twitter.
So try to figure out to Faye's point, if like asuper old school family office, they're
(48:29):
probably not gonna be on Instagram, right?
They probably have a formal process.
So really trying to get integrated into thatprocess.
I guess maybe you can give some insights onrelationship building as a whole.
Talked about building relationships.
So, what are some tips that you'd give as faras trying to build relationships and find the
(48:51):
right communities to be part of when you'remaybe raising a fund?
Yeah, no, I think relationships is so key andthat to build them early, not just right before
your fund from that standpoint.
If you can get a warm intro, that's the part Iliked about LinkedIn is you know there's a
particular venture fund you're tackling and outof all the and it'll show you all the employees
(49:14):
working there out of any of those employees doyou have a connection even if it's you know
first, second, third, right?
That you can connect to them in some way orsomehow.
So I think getting that referral, thatconnection, the warm introduction is great.
I've also found I do quite a bit of speaking aswell and kind of conferences and where we're
(49:37):
going and also find interesting people asyou're kind of speaking kind of your thesis
where you're investing and kind of trendsyou're going from that and kind of build a
relationship.
Once you have that contact though, it's notlike one and done.
Know, check, they're on this nice little Excelspreadsheet and you just put it away in a
binder.
(49:58):
You know, and what I've seen is like give themquarterly updates.
Just a quick email saying and remember like akey thing about them.
Know this family office is really interested inhealthcare, but it's globally.
Right?
Like so I say, hey I saw this interestingarticle on global investments in healthcare
(50:20):
really skyrocketing in Japan because of theelderly population.
Thought of you.
Our fund is doing this right now.
We're getting ready to prepare for our raisethen.
Be happy to talk.
So keep those connections warm even though youmight you know you're trying to build it for
the future.
You're trying to build trust and credibility.
You might be saying hey I just did an angelinvestment in this great startup exited at this
(50:45):
mount because you're trying to build thatrelationship.
They're not always going to respond becausethey get quite a few investor updates from that
standpoint, but they're going to remember youthe next time you call, right?
Like, oh yeah, she, you know, I've kind of beenwatching your progress from that standpoint.
Sure.
Yeah, and I always believe that if you canstack favors, that can also just compound
(51:09):
goodwill, right?
So if there's a family office that you justwant to add to your tribe, you know, maybe you
don't ask for funding right now.
Know, at some point you want to work with them,but you just try to figure out what they need
and what they're looking for.
And, you know, maybe they want to get connectedwith a certain foundation and you happen to be
connected to them and you just kind of connectwith them, give them like five, six other
(51:33):
favors and then over time it just compounds andthen they're like, wait a minute, Faye, how can
we help you?
You know, and.
Yeah.
And then you say, hey, you know, let me, do youwant me to send you the docs or?
Exactly.
No, I I think that's a really important one.
Know with some I thought networking in thebeginning was like, oh, I felt like it was so
(51:56):
you know, like you have this intention when Iflipped it around of like, how can I help you
like it's so much because then you're buildinga relationship you're starting to build trust
so that's why I do quite a bit of volunteeringand mentoring advising with quite a few
startups and foundations?
(52:19):
That's another great hack.
Think, you know, some of the founders have donethis hack where they just volunteer at demo
days and a lot of times those demo days, allthe VCs are hanging out there.
So I think if you can find, I've seen some ofthese like bigger family office events like
Opal, they always need volunteers.
So if you can just show up as a volunteer andhelp out, that at least it gives you a free
(52:41):
ticket.
Just by default, you're in that conferencewhere all those people are so that trying to
find creative ways to get plugged in alwayshelps.
Right, same with all the accelerators,incubators, demo days.
(53:03):
Those are some.
Yeah, that's helpful.
Well, we got a couple minutes left.
I always leave the discussion with just onequestion.
Any piece of advice that you have from maybe amentor or one of your co founders that could be
recent or just kind of that's traveled with youthat you wanna share with us and maybe we can
(53:24):
wrap up with that.
I think when it comes down to it, is a peoplebusiness.
The team you're investing in, the team youwork, As you're thinking about building your
own team, it's important to kind of look atthat skill set, have that honesty, kind of
(53:48):
transparency and visibility to that.
So I think for me like as I go through myexperiences it really is about the people
whether it's what you quote is your network,your team, the startups you invest in, your co
investors, your partners that adopt thestartups, right?
Because we're always doing introductions.
(54:09):
So we think about it as like an ecosystem,right?
So how can you set up these startups forsuccess and support them in multiple ways?
Yeah, that's really helpful advice.
Well, Faye, thanks for coming and popping inand excited to have you in our ecosystem and
just super valuable to have your expertise andnetwork and support.
(54:33):
Excited to work closely with you in the nextcouple months.
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