What’s Wrong with Venture Capital?

On September 3, 2021, Founder and CEO of AngelSpan and The Legacy Funds, Joe Milam and  Managing Director of Silicon Valley Data Capital, Lara Druyan joined us for our Born Global event to talk through the realistic situation of what is wrong with venture capital. The event was hosted by the General Partner of Born Global Ventures, Dr. Sunny Zhang. Some of the topics covered in the event were:

• Why hasn’t the industry that prides itself on funding innovation not innovated itself
• The misaligned incentives between GPs and LPs and their implications
• Looking to public markets and applying its best governance practices to the private industry
• Why do we need to think of VC as an “asset class” vs an “access class”

With a background in financial analysis, portfolio design and management, financial markets, and angel investing, Joe is now applying his 29 years of working as a securities analyst/money manager/philanthropy consultant to address the inefficiencies in the entrepreneurial funding ecosystem. Joe is addressing the chronic ‘information gap’ typical of early-stage companies by delivering the best-in-class Investor Relations and delivering the first institutionally rigorous solution for allocating capital to the venture asset class – regardless of the investment thesis.

Before joining her current position, Lara was the Head of Innovation for Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) where she built a team to drive and accelerate bank-wide digital transformation.  Previously, Lara also served as a Venture Partner or Advisor to several funds and as a Venture Advisor to SRI International where she helped them conceive of, launch, and incubate new ventures. In addition to her stellar leadership experience, Lara also has an exemplary record of nonprofit service focused on closing gender gaps and lowering barriers to career advancement. 

We would like to thank our event partners, The Cannon Community, First Bight Ventures, Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce,  Global Energy Mentors (GEM),  Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, Women in AI USA, and Z LAB Global for their kind support. 

Watch the replay here.

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