Consumer VC: Venture Capital I B2C Startups I Commerce | Early-Stage Investing I Brands | Technology Ajay Kamat (Pear VC) - Clarity of Thought, Future of Audio, and Today's Investing Landscape
Ajay Kamat is a Partner at Pear, one of the premier early stage venture capital funds in Silicon Valley. Prior to Pear, Ajay founded Wedding Party, which was acquired by Instacart. Pear was founded by Mar Hershenson and Pejman Nozad, who were early investors in Dropbox, Lending Club, Zoosk, Addepar, Path and many others. Some of Pear's notable investments include DoorDash, Philz Coffee, Instaread, and Memebox.
You can follow Ajay on Twitter Here. If you would like to follow your host, Mike, for updates on the show, you can follow @mikegelb and the show @ConsumerVC
In this episode you will learn:
- Ajay's journey from biomedical engineering to founding Wedding Party. Some of the lessons Ajay learned from being a founder and how it has influenced him as a venture capitalist. The importance of grit when founding a company.
- The importance of complementary skills and vetting co-founders. The reason why he switched from being a founder to a venture capitalist.
- What qualities Ajay looks for from founders at the pre-seed and seed level? How he evaluates startups building products in markets that don't exist yet?
- The advantages of being in Silicon Valley. How he thinks about customer acquisition costs in today's age.
- What industry consumer verticals he's excited about the most? One company that he is excited to be an investor in? One piece of advice for founders of consumer companies?
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