The Future of Venture Capital: Ronen Nir, General Partner, Viola Ventures, Part 2

Last week we welcomed Ronen Nir to the podcast for Part 1 of a deep dive into the world of venture capital. On this second and final part of the conversation, Ronen, a General Partner at Viola Ventures, picks up the discussion by explaining how profit and loss statements are looked at in SaaS-model companies. And later in the episode, he details the way the VC world was up-ended due to COVID-19, and how maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Ronen also explains which markets he thinks are ready to be disrupted, but why traditional start-ups might be the ones doing the disrupting. Enjoy Part 2! 

Main Takeaways:

• Doing It Digitally: In the very recent past, investments were often only made after a long, drawn-out process of multiple meetings, vetting sessions, travel and research into the people and company making the pitch. As the world was forced to shift to a virtual-only meeting environment, this process was actually sped up. Without needing to factor in travel and other outside circumstances, the interviewing, vetting and decision-making process can move much faster.
• Amazon the Start-up?: AWS is a giant of the tech world, but it began as a simple start-up looking to disrupt the cloud services market. Today, there are many markets that are ripe for disruption, but where are the start-ups that will be making waves? For the first time in 50 years, it’s actually the more mature companies that are bringing disruptions to the market.
• Know your Finances: When companies are looking for funding, too often they present VCs with innovative technology and diagrams and architecture plans, but they forget to dig into the financial side of what it all costs. VCs want to know how much you need and where exactly that money will go, so make time to really understand that side of your business.

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