When Urvashi Barooah utilized to MBA packages in 2015, she targeted her purposes round her dream of turning into a venture capitalist. She obtained rejected from each college, and was told she was being unrealistic about her prospects within the venture trade — however she didn’t let that deter her.
Now, 9 years later, Barooah, 33, is getting promoted to accomplice at Redpoint. She joined the agency as an affiliate 4 years in the past, and has served as a principal since late 2021. Silicon Valley-based Redpoint is at the moment investing out of its $650 million ninth fund. Barooah is now one of many agency’s three companions targeted on early stage.
Barooah told Ztoog that in some methods these enterprise colleges have been proper to inform her she was being unrealistic about her targets. She knew it might be exhausting to interrupt into the comparatively small trade with no community or contacts in Silicon Valley, however she’s glad she didn’t take heed to them.
“I wasn’t deterred, but it did feel kind of impossible at one point,” Barooah mentioned. “I was so removed from it. I didn’t know the reality on the ground. I just knew what people wrote about in the papers.”
Barooah grew up far-off from Silicon Valley in Guwahati, a small metropolis, by India’s requirements, sandwiched between Bhutan and Bangladesh. Both her mother and father ran their very own companies. Her dad ran a chemical enterprise, whereas her mother designed and bought furnishings.
“My parents, growing up, asked me, ‘what kind of business do you want to start?’ That is what the most successful people in India did,” she mentioned. “They always encouraged me to forge my own path and start my own company. I thought about that for a long time but there was nothing that excited me. If there was no idea that I was passionate about, the next best thing I could do was work with founders.”
In 2017, Barooah utilized to U.S. enterprise colleges once more after working as a marketing consultant, and had higher luck. She landed a spot at Wharton and mentioned she catered all of her courses and additional curriculars round studying every part she may concerning the venture trade. She began speaking to entrepreneurs, creating an funding thesis and cold-calling VCs to pitch it.
After an estimated 50 chilly calls, she landed an internship at New York-based Primary Venture Partners in 2019. She obtained one other at Redpoint shortly after and was in a position to convert that into a full-time function and has been there ever since.
While rising up with entrepreneur mother and father didn’t introduce Barooah to venture capital, she thinks her upbringing makes her a greater VC. She mentioned seeing their day-to-day triumphs and failures helped present her simply how exhausting it’s to run a enterprise and find out how to roll with the punches when issues do go unsuitable.
“They always fought against the odds and did what was necessary to keep their business going,” Barooah mentioned. “[They taught me] this idea that you have to keep moving forward despite all odds and that it was supposed to be hard. If one of my companies has a setback, I know that it is just par for the course and something that can be overcome.”
Barooah’s portfolio contains Dune Analytics, an Ethereum-focused platform for making on-chain information accessible; Offchain Labs, a startup that helps firms scale with Ethereum; and The Rounds, a supply service targeted on sustainability, amongst others. She has two new investments which have but to be introduced the place she’ll be taking board seats too.
The first few years as an investor taught her that the most effective VCs are versatile and keen to comply with the place the market is telling them to go. She spent her first few years backing blockchain and crypto firms, however now she’s spending most of her time on vertical SaaS startups using AI.
Barooah mentioned she’s excited to maintain increasing her portfolio and appears ahead to this new function as accomplice and being there for the founders once they need assistance.
“I started my journey in venture four years ago and knew nothing,” Barooah mentioned. “Over these four years, I’ve shaped my judgment on what a good company is. It’s not something I have perfected by any means, but I have a few more successes than I did when I first joined. That gives me more confidence to take on more contrarian bets, and in VC it’s about believing in things no one else believes and being right.”