Venture with Grace

Simon Tiu joined Vertex Ventures US in 2024, focusing on AI-native enterprise software and cybersecurity investments. Prior to joining Vertex Ventures, Simon worked at Qatalyst Partners, where he was a core member of the Enterprise Software team. During his tenure, he provided strategic and financial advice to senior management and boards of leading technology companies across ~$100B of announced M&A transactions.Notable deals Simon contributed to include:Splunk’s $29.6B sale to CiscoAfterpay’s $29B sale to SquareAnaplan’s $10.7B sale to Thoma BravoCoupa’s $8.2B sale to Thoma BravoNew Relic’s $6.5B sale to Francisco Partners and TPGPemira’s $5.7B acquisition of MimecastFitbit’s $2.1B sale to GoogleBitGo’s $1.2Bn sale to Galaxy Digital (terminated)Lucid’s $1.1B sale to CintCommvault’s acquisition of HedvigEverbridge's $1.8B sale to Thoma BravoSimon started his career in management consulting and corporate strategy. He received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at UC Berkeley and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.Topics: The evolution of AI-native enterprise softwareLessons learned from high-profile tech M&A dealsAI Agent Investing Trends#AIVentures #AgentEconomy #EnterpriseAI #VCInsights #TechM&A

Yash Patel joined Titanium Ventures in 2014 and leads TV’s consumer (esports/gaming, fintech, ecommerce) and vertical SaaS tech investing effort. Yash has sourced and led TV’s investments in BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC), Snapchat (NYSE: SNAP), OpenGov (acquired by Cox Enterprises), Skillz (NYSE: SKLZ), Super.com, Swish Analytics, Document Crunch, Mobile Premier League, Omaze, Sleeper, Team SoloMid (tsm.gg), FitOn, and Singular, amongst others. He is particularly interested in products that can reach massive scale, can leverage AI thoughtfully, and exhibit network effects.Topics: Esports investment evolutionNetwork effects in consumer techThe Future of Fintech#VentureCapital #EsportsInvesting #GamingTech #Fintech

Rob co-founded a new company in 2024 called Eternos.life, which launched the world's first AI legacy service enabling people to create a lifelike AI of themselves to pass their knowledge down to future generations.Previously, Rob was the Founder of LivePerson, Inc. (LPSN: NASDAQ ), and was its Chief Executive Officer from 1995 to 2023. He was the guiding force behind the company’s vision of creating meaningful connections between brands and consumers. Rob’s interests extend beyond his business and reflect his close ties to New York City. He is a founding member of Equal AI and NYC Entrepreneurs Council of the Partnership for New York City. In 2001, he started the Dream Big Foundation with its first program FeedingNYC, which gives families in need a Thanksgiving dinner. To date, FeedingNYC has donated more than 40,000 meals. Its second program, the Dream Big Entrepreneurship Initiative, launched in 2014 to fund, mentor, coach, and empower local entrepreneurs in underserved communities.Topics: The intersection of AI and human connectionTechnology and Legacy in the Digital AgeThe Future of Personal Knowledge Transfer#AILegacy #DigitalAfterlife #TechEntrepreneur #EternosLife #FutureOfMemory 🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/46799347...

Miles Deamer is a VP at Crossover VC, where he allocates capital to both early-stage emerging managers as well as select direct investment opportunities. Miles has spent more than a decade in Silicon Valley designing and implementing business strategies in the fintech and proptech verticals. Prior to joining Crossover, Miles spent seven years as an early employee of multiple venture-backed startups including Kiavi, Sundae, and AlphaFlow, where he led teams in capital markets, operations, and business development. Miles began his career in Credit at First Republic Bank where he conducted quantitative and qualitative due diligence on private credit direct loan opportunities.Topics: Fund of Funds StrategyHybrid Investment ModelEmerging Manager Landscape#VentureCapital #EmergingManagers #CrossoverVC #FundOfFunds🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/46799347...

Feyza Haskaraman is a principal at Menlo Ventures, Feyza focuses on soon-to-breakout consumer, fintech, and enterprise SaaS companies. Prior to Menlo, Feyza worked as an engineer at various companies in different growth stages, including Nucleus Scientific (now Indigotech), Fitbit, and Analog Devices. Her exposure to a wide range of tasks and opportunities led Feyza to grow curious about the way companies operate. Feyza pursued a career in business management when she joined McKinsey & Company after graduating from MIT. At McKinsey, she consulted multi-billion-dollar technology companies on strategy and operations, in addition to early-stage startups. Working with startups piqued her interest in venture capital and she joined Insight Partners. After working on a slew of successful investments, Feyza became even more inspired to work closely with founders throughout their journey from series seed and beyond. Feyza holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Passionate about STEM education, she previously taught science in Nepal and Malawi. When she’s not working, you can find Feyza running, playing tennis, and critiquing indie movies.Topics: Cybersecurity Investment ThesisAI Security Risks That Most Enterprises OverlookNext-Gen Identity Platforms Unifying Human and Machine Access#MachineSecurity #DigitalWorkers #NonHumanIdentity #CyberRisk #AIAgents 🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/46799347...

Tatyana Mamut is the Founder and CEO of Wayfound.ai. Wayfound helps business coordinate, supervise, align, and improve their GenAI Agents in one place. Prior to that, she was the SVP of New Products at Pendo leading the creation of the Adopt family of products. Before that she she was CPO at Nextdoor, creating a product-led growth strategy which drove a 60% increase in engagement while driving down abusive and toxic content on the platform. She also led the Local Business revenue line and consolidated the advertising platform. At Amazon Web Services, Tatyana was General Manager & Director of Product, where she built a revolutionary new software product and scaled the team from 2 to 150 engineers, product managers, and designers. At Salesforce, she was Vice President of Product Experience for the IoT (Internet of Things) Cloud, where she led the vision and development for the democratization of IoT technology.Topics: The future of work with AI agentsProduct-led growth strategies and their application to AI productsBalancing innovation with ethics in AI development#AIOrchestration #EnterpriseTech #ProductLeadership #FutureOfAI🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/46799347...

Sabrina Farmer is the Chief Technology Officer at GitLab, where she leads software engineering, operations, and customer support teams to execute the company's technical vision and strategy and oversee the development and delivery of GitLab's products and services. Prior to GitLab, Sabrina spent nearly two decades at Google, where she most recently served as vice president of engineering, core infrastructure. During her tenure with Google, she was directly responsible for the reliability, performance, and efficiency of all of Google's billion-user products and infrastructure. A long-time advocate for women in technology, Farmer earned a B.S. in Computer Science at the University of New Orleans, where she established two scholarships to help level the playing field for inclusion and empowerment in technology.Topics:The evolution of DevOps and developer toolsThe real impact of AI on engineering productivityBuilding and maintaining technical talent #TechLeadership #AIInfrastructure #EngineeringExcellence #FutureOfDev 🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/46799347...

Andrew Blum is the Co-Founder and COO at HumanX, the preeminent event dedicated to accelerating enterprise AI adoption - backed by Primary, Foundation Capital, and FPV. Previously, he served as Researcher-in-Residence at Primary Venture Partners, where he built out the incubation program and helped launch venture-scale businesses. Topics: Community building as a catalyst for AI innovationInsights from bridging the AI hype-reality gapEnterprise AI adoption timeline - where we are and what's next#EnterpriseAI #AIAdoption #VCPodcast #HumanX 🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/46799347...

Casber Wang is a Partner at Sapphire Ventures where he is focused on security, enterprise infrastructure, and data and analytics. Born in China to parents who were both small-business entrepreneurs, Casber is familiar with and excited by the founder’s journey. Casber is on the boards of Cyera, Huntress, JumpCloud, Rewst, StarTree, and Zesty. Prior to Okta’s acquisition, he was also a board observer at Auth0. He also helped lead Sapphire’s investments in Glean and Weights & Biases. For his work, he has been recognized by Business Insider as a Rising Star, and is often sought after by media publications for insights on tech trends related to AI and cybersecurity.Prior to Sapphire, Casber was part of the technology investment banking group at Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he worked on high-profile IPO and M&A transactions. Casber graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s in business. While there, he was actively involved with the startup scene and co-founded Etch.ai, a personal CRM company incubated at Berkeley Skydeck.Topics: The Evolution of Cybersecurity InvestmentThe AI Revolution in EnterpriseSecurity and Enterprise Tech Investing Trends#VentureCapital #CyberSecurity #AIInvesting #EnterpriseInfrastructure

Joseph Floyd is a General Partner at Emergence and a Kauffman Fellow. Joe’s expertise in building cloud startups has evolved from over fifteen years of advising and investing in rocketship startups like SalesLoft, project44, Mya, Total Expert, LogDNA and more. Before joining Emergence, Joe was a Senior Associate in American Capital’s technology group where he focused on investing in fast-growing internet and software companies including HomeAway. Joe was also an Associate at McKinsey & Co. in their corporate finance practice and did hard time in tech investment banking before that.Joe earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Wharton, Joe won first place at the International Venture Capital Investment Competition. He is also a proud Cal Bear with a BA in Economics and BS in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.Topics: Evolution of the cloud startup landscapeHow to evaluates AI SaaS sales and revenue tools Impact of AI on enterprise SaaS business models#EnterpriseVC #CloudInvesting #B2BSaaS #AIStartups #VCStrategy