Lindsay Lee of Authentic Ventures on operationalizing networks & creating an edge through diversity rich networks- Venture Unlocked 025

Our guest today is Lindsay Lee, managing member of Authentic Ventures. Lindsay has over 20 years of investing experience in technology.

Prior to starting Authentic, he served as CIO for an investment management firm to which he helped grow to almost $1B in assets and also managed a family office where he focused on seed and early-stage investments. He brings a unique combination of operating experience, public market investing experience, and early stage investing experience.

Authentic Ventures was founded in 2015 and focuses on Seed and Early-stage companies.

One of their core differentiators is the “Authentic Network” which is a managed community of like-minded entrepreneurs, founders, investors and growth hackers. Indexed heavily toward diversity, the network is operationalized and focused on helping portfolio companies solve the most meaningful issues.

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In this episode we discuss the following topics:

02:09    After so many different experiences, why focus on seed investing?

03:23    How public market investing skills can translate to privates

06:50    The inspiration behind Authentic

11:57    What the Authentic Network, and how to operationalize it.

16:39    Their focus on indexing their network heavily toward women and People of Color.

18:14    Portfolio construction methodology

27:03    Differences between investing at various stages of investments

30:37    The markers LPs look for between fund I and fund II

33:46    Lindsay’s biggest career mistake

35:20    The investors he admires

37:00    His best piece of advice to new managers

Mentioned In This Episode:Authentic Ventures

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Lindsay. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

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