Ashish Kakran is a Partner at Sierra Ventures, where he leads early-stage investments in AI, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity. ~~~~~This episode is brought to you by Verivend. If you’re a GP or LP looking to simplify the capital raising and deployment process, Verivend is here to help. Trusted by over 800 funds and managing more than $2 billion in transactions, Verivend offers a secure, streamlined payments platform designed specifically for private capital markets. Say goodbye to manual reconciliation and repeated follow-ups - raise and deploy capital faster and with greater transparency. Ready to make your fund operations smoother? Visit https://bit.ly/3GrB4Qj and see how easy it can be. ~~~~~Before Sierra, Ashish spent seven years in venture, most recently as a Partner at Thomvest Ventures, where he invested in companies including Cohere, Harness, Isovalent (acquired by Cisco), Opaque, and Exaforce. Ashish is known for working closely with technical founders. Prior to venture, he spent nearly a decade in engineering and product leadership roles at early-stage infrastructure startups, giving him firsthand insight into company building from the ground up. He holds a BS in Computer Science from IIT and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. Ashish has been recognized by VC Journal’s “40 Under 40” and Business Insider’s “Rising Stars in VC.” Topics:

The current AI infrastructure stack
Evaluating AI companies: technical differentiation vs. go-to-market execution
Security in the age of AI

#VCPodcast #AIInfrastructure #CloudNative #Cybersecurity #TechnicalFounders

Ashish Kakran, Sierra Ventures Partner on Infra, AI & Cyber Startups