Investing In Early-Stage Enterprise Startups with Vidya Raman

The Business of Open Source

For Vidya Raman, technology has always been close to her heart. As an investor at Sorenson Ventures, Vidya is guided by this passion and plays an impactful role in helping technical founders build and grow successful businesses. Vidya serves as a leader in early-stage startup investing and thrives on optimizing companies.

In this episode of Cloud Native Startup, Vidya talks about her transition from engineering to venture capital investing, important criteria to consider when evaluating companies, what founders should look for in VCs, her lessons learned, and more.

Highlights:

• A look at Vidya’s background and the journey that lead to her leap into venture capital investing. (00:11)
• Exploring Vidya’s role, her passion for partnering deeply with founders, and misconceptions that founders often have about VC. (05:37)
• What to identify when evaluating companies - and how Viyda measures good fit. (10:41)
• From the lens of a founder, Vidya shares top criteria founders should consider when seeking VC. (18:58)
• A discussion about conflicts of interest and managing disagreements between investors and companies. (23:09)
• Vidya shares her top three lessons learned. (29:23)

Links:

Vidya

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidya-raman/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/veenormous
• Sorenson Ventures: https://www.sorensoncapital.com/