GHP #91 - VC #13 - Founders Investing in Founders with Alessio Fanelli!

Episode 91 and the Season 3 opener is with Alessio Fanelli, Partner at Decibel VC! 

In this episode, you will learn about Decibel’s investment strategy, how they help early stage startups, and the future of data tools. Alessio also details his journey to Venture Capital, building tools for technical founders, dealing with imposter syndrome, and how gaming helps him be a better VC.

Before Decibel, Alessio was a Principal at 645 Ventures, where he helped lead investments in dev tools, security, and enterprise SaaS. His investments included Cube Dev, Panther Labs, Launchable, Oort, and Bigeye, amongst others. He works with founders on everything from product design to helping with recruiting technical talent.

Earlier in his career, Alessio was the founder of Smart Torvy, an open source & hardware home automation platform, and was a lead engineer at early-stage startups such as Welcome Tech. He’s still active in the open-source community as well.

Decibel Partners
https://www.decibel.vc/

Timestamps
 1:45 - Intro
5:07 - Becoming a VC
10:07 - VC Focus - Aggregators vs Specialists
13:45 - Evaluating Early Stage investments
18:20 - Most Difficult Part of Being a VC
21:29 - Imposter Syndrome in VC
25:29 - Future of Data Tools - Provide Value
29:19 - Data Security
33:03 - Data Security Companies to Watch
34:55 - Macro-Economic Outlook
41:20 - How to Communicate Lay-offs
45:00 - Transferrable Skills from Gaming
47:35 - Most Memorable Moment
55:15 - Lightning Round