Investing in 2018

I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to write one of “these” posts. And by “these” I mean one of those posts that build on a previous years work and attempt to look forward and either dictate trends I think will be key to the following year or what I’m excited about. After having these conversations at least a dozen times over the last couple weeks, I’ve decided — why not!? Even if it is the end of January! So here goes nothing!

Investment Themes

Let’s start with the investment themes I’m super excited about spending time looking at in 2018. Obviously this will likely evolve and change as the year goes, but these are the things I’ve been currently spending a lot of time thinking about and things I’m just generally curious about!

• Voice enabled vertical SaaS in the enterprise — Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung Bixby, Apple Siri have all continued to explode into the lives of consumers. If history is suggestive of anything, then voice will begin to find its way into enterprise applications and that’s extremely exciting to me! We’ve already begun to see this happen with sales training tools like Gong and Chorus and i’m exciting to see more voice enabled vertical SaaS companies in 2018.
• Blockchain in the enterprise — specifically applications of ethereum contracts. You can’t take a Lyft or Uber these days without talking about whether someone should buy Ethereum, Bitcoin, LiteCoin or Ripple. Whether you believe that crypto and ICO’s are the future or not, the fundamental technology is here to stay. The blockchain has some incredible potential use-cases in the enterprise and I think we’re going to see a lot more of it this year.
• SaaS enabled marketplaces — SaaS enabled marketplaces aren’t new per se, but it’s something I’ve begun to be more interested in personally. As such, I’m excited about learning more about how these businesses work and am excited about meeting more founders building these sorts of businesses and possibly investing in one!
• GovTech — If you follow me on Medium, then this one isn’t a surprise. GovTech, while still in its early days, continues to be one of the most exciting spaces to me. It’s one of these spaces where there’s clear opportunity, clear market size, and clear need. So 2018 will continue with me looking and investing in the space!

Geo’s

One of the things I’m excited about being more purposeful about is spending more time meeting investors and companies outside of Silicon Valley. Don’t get me wrong, the Valley is great and there’s a lot of reason to build a company here, but as someone who has lived across the United States, I know that brilliant entrepreneurs are everywhere. Here’s a list of Geo’s I’m particularly focusing on right now!

• Seattle — Seattle has long had an incredible history with technology. Look no further than Microsoft and Amazon! Not only does Seattle have a vibrant startup community, it’s also the city my parents call home!
• NYC — Silicon Alley continues to thrive, and building relationships here I think will only become more and more important. Spending time in NYC has the added benefit of being the perfect time to say “hi” to my long distance girlfriend that lives there!
• the Midwest — This might surprise a lot of you, but after having living in Cleveland, Ohio for 3 years, I’ve learned to underestimate the grit of the midwest. You’ve got world class universities everywhere, low burn communities, safe communities, and 4 seasons! Not only that, you have a lot of Fortune 100 companies headquartered in the midwest focused on driving the digital transformation! I don’t know about you, but I think that all adds up to equallying opportunity.

Career Focus areas

Lastly, here are things that I’m planning to spend more time focusing on in my role as an Associate at Storm Ventures.

• Working closer with portfolio companies — Look, finding great deals is hard. But just as important as finding great deals and founders to allocate capital behind is the process of helping advise companies through the startup journey. VC’s do this as board members and as trusted advisors. I’m looking forward to spending more time in this area throughout the year.
• Black VC community development — The glaring reality is that there just aren’t a lot of Black venture investors. In-fact, you can put them all in one room. While that’s a problem on its own, I think it’s also true that there are more Black VC’s than ever before, and that’s great! As such, I want to do a better job of getting to know folks that look like me in venture and building community is the best way to do that.
• Building access pipelines for people of color into venture — Part of the reason diversity in venture is such a problem is because there is an access problem around getting information about what jobs are available and providing not only that information to people of color but also providing advice on how to navigate the venture hiring process. This is an area I think I can help with by not only sharing my stories but also the stories of others I’ve met with people interested in getting into venture capital.
• Building more authentic relationships — If you know me, you know that I value the quality of the interactions and the relationships I have over the quantity. This continues to be a focus area for me and is worth reiterating as a goal for 2018.
• Deal flow, deal flow, deal flow — Still a VC…wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t say this was a goal.