This is an episode of January Ventures’ Beyond the Cap Table podcast, hosted by Jennifer Neundorfer. We aim to demystify the various parts of venture capital and highlight founders, funders, and other game changers who are building new networks and enabling the new establishment in the startup and venture world. Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode, I interview Allison Baum Gates, General Partner at SemperVirens. Allison and I discuss:
Key lessons from her book Breaking Into Venture, which was informed by her own experience starting from scratch in the industry
What she learned from building her first venture fund in Asia, why she believes specialization wins in venture, and how she landed at her current fund, SemperVirens
Why exclusivity in venture is a feature, not a bug - plus her advice for how to navigate that exclusivity
Why 'leaning out' out of networks that don't work for you can be the answer to finding your way in a network-driven ecosystem
Why she focuses on how founders interact in non-fundraising conversations, and how that impacts her investment decision
Why Allison believes in an ecosystem model of investing and what that looks like at SemperVirens
How to tap into being an outsider and use your unique perspective to your advantageAllison Baum Gates has spent her entire career at the intersection of finance, technology, and the future of work. As a General Partner at early stage venture capital fund SemperVirens, Allison invests in technology transforming workforce, healthcare and financial services. The fund is backed by a powerful platform of HR leaders, giving Allison unique insights into the needs and perspectives of industry-leading employers. She is also a contributing writer for Forbes, a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and UC Berkeley-Haas, and the author of Breaking into Venture (McGraw-Hill, 2023). Prior to joining SemperVirens, Allison worked on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs; was an early employee at General Assembly (which sold to Adecco for $413mln in 2018); co-founded Fresco Capital, a global seed fund; and was an investor at Trinity Ventures. Currently based in New York, Allison has lived and worked in San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. She holds a B.A. in Economics with Honors, a minor in Film Studies, and a language citation in French from Harvard University.