Allison Baum Gates is a General Partner at SemperVirens, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in healthcare, fintech, and enterprise SaaS. An experienced technology investor, author, and speaker, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars from global LPs and backed more than 70 companies—with nine unicorns, 24 exits, and 10 board roles among them. Previously, she co-founded Fresco Capital, invested at Trinity Ventures, and was an early team member at General Assembly, acquired by Adecco for $413 million. A Harvard graduate and former Goldman Sachs trader, Allison has lived and worked across five countries, lectures at Columbia Business School and UC Berkeley-Haas, and is the author of Breaking into Venture (McGraw-Hill, 2023), a guide to understanding and entering the VC industry.Topics:

• Pattern recognition at scale: what actually separates durable venture returns from hype cycles

• Building and managing institutional LP relationships across geographies and fund vintages

• Board dynamics, power, and governance in venture-backed companies from seed to exit

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