Priya Saiprasad, the youngest Partner in one of the oldest Venture talks about D&I, future of work
Priya Saiparasad is one of the youngest female Partner in one of the oldest VC firm, Mayfield Fund having 51 years of investment track record. She has been recognized in Forbes 30 under 30 Venture Capitalist in 2019 . She was a founding member of Microsoft’s independent VC fund. She is also working closely with Melinda Gates Pivotal Ventures to provide capital access for underserved female entrepreneurs. She focuses on leading early stage Series A and B investments in the enterprise software space, with a particular fondness for businesses that leverage ML or predictive analytics to unlock new intelligence in legacy sectors.
Here are the topics/Questions:
From being the founding member of Microsoft’s independent VC fund to being a Partner at one of the prestigious funds, 51 year old Mayfield at the age of 31. You have been recognized in Forbes 30 under 30. How did living in 12 different countries before you turned 12 shaped your growth mindset. Let's talk about this amazing journey.
You have invested in Element AI, Go1, Skedulo, Workboard and Bonsai, which was acquired by Microsoft.Please share some of your learnings from the investments you made.
Venture capital is all about identifying patterns in time. Yet some of the bigger ideas are unpredictable. In an uncertain time like how do you think the future of work looks like and what startups can take opportunities from this crisis.
Venture Capital is one industry that has not been disrupted. You helped launch M12's female founders competition to make capital access easier for underserved female entrepreneurs. And now at Mayfield, you’ve joined forces with M12 and Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures to complete the second year of this competition.
As we are seeing more people bringing movement into this industry, how do you see biases and prejudices that played in the past come in effect for people like you who are catalysts for change?
For one of the oldest funds like Mayfield, as you already have a very diverse investment team? How do you look at diversity in the CAP Tables and in your engagement with your portfolios?
Venture Capital has power law distributed return. Many early stage startups fail. Failure is a learning but no one set that as a target specifically in business. What does it take for an early stage startup to build a mentality for a strong exit in years to come to avoid failing badly?
I have a 21month old baby and you have Gandalf. How do you prepare your work life balance especially in this new remote-first environment and in particular, now that we can not visit restaurants, how are you keeping up with good food?