Big Red Ventures Makes First Investment of 2022-23 in ATDev
Big Red Ventures (BRV), Cornell’s early-stage venture capital fund, is excited to announce its investment in Assistive Technology Development, Inc. (ATDev), a medical device company focused on mobility, marking BRV’s first investment of 2022-23. “ATDev is...
Exploring the Depths of Venture Capital: A Comprehensive Dialogue with Silvia Lupu of VU Venture Partners
BRV Fund Manager & Author: Raj Sonani In a world where venture capital shapes the future of technology and business, understanding the perspectives of industry leaders is crucial. My conversation with Silvia Lupu, a Venture Principal at VU Venture Partners, was a...
BRV Fund Manager Ryan Ries interviews Paul Healy, Principal at Commonweal Ventures
Author & Fund Manager: Ryan Ries The following interview has been condensed for clarity. Ryan: Hi Paul. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us at Big Red Ventures. Paul: I was glad to be put in touch. Happy to chat with you. Ryan: Tell us about your path to...
A conversation with Chidozie Ugwumba, Managing Partner at SymBiosis
Author: Madeline Hall, BRV Fund Manager Madeline: Thank you so much for your time today, it is great to connect again. To kick us off, I’d love it if you’d tell us about your background. Where were you prior to Johnson and how did you get interested in VC? Chidozie:...
Climate-Centric VC World: Insights from an Environmental Visionary, Jane Ge, Managing Partner at Vectors Capital
RV Fund Manager & Author: Leo Wang In a world grappling with climate urges, venture capital (VC) remains not just as a beacon for innovation but as a pivotal force in driving cutting-edge climate solutions. Interestingly, the interplay between climate technology...
Navigating the VC Landscape: Insights from Nicole DeTommaso of Harlem Capital
BRV Fund Manager & Author: Kevin Grathwohl Venture capital (VC) is a world of innovation, risk, and opportunity, but breaking into this field can be a daunting task. Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing Nicole DeTommaso, a seasoned VC professional, and...
A conversation with Ken Fried of OpenDoor Venture Capital
Big Red Ventures Fund Manager: Jonathon Cervantes Jonathan: Hi Ken, thanks for connecting with me and taking some time to discuss your career in VC. Ken: Of course, thank you for reaching out. Jonathan: I always like to start with the connection to Cornell so can...
From Cornell to Capital: An Interview with Nick Gupta of Manhattan Venture Partners
BRV Fund Manager & Interviewer: Jonathan Cervantes Jonathan: Nick, thank you so much for your time this morning and I'm excited to speak with you about your career in venture capital. Nick: Of course, always happy to connect with Cornell and give back however I...
An interview with Noramay Cadena, Co-Founder and General Partner of Supply Change Capital
By Laura DeMassa, Big Red Ventures Fund Manager ‘23-’24 Noramay Cadena is the Co-Founder and General Partner of Supply Change Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage, high-growth companies at the intersection of food, culture, and technology....
An Interview with Yasmin Cruz Ferrine, Co-Founder and General Partner at Visible Hands
By: Laura DeMassa, Fund Manager ’22-’23 Yasmin Cruz Ferrine is the General Partner and Co-Founder of Visible Hands, a venture capital firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Visible Hands manages a venture capital fund and operates accelerator and fellowship programs for...
BRV’s Saint-Victor interviews Fairuz Zein, a former Partner at VU Venture Partners, Cornell MBA, and former Red Bear Angels Associate
Antoine Saint-Victor: Thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it. So, I just want to start off by talking a little bit about your background again and how you ended up in venture capital. Fairuz: Sure. I am with class of ‘22 of the executive MBA/MS...
An Interview with Anthony Santaro, Associate at Armory Square Ventures
Sam Evans: Thanks for being with us Anthony. What led you to venture capital? Anthony Santaro: First, thank you so much for inviting me to share my thoughts. I started my career off in finance, specifically, working at Wells Fargo’s investment bank in New York City....
An Interview with Vinny Lobdell, Wellness CEO, Indoor Air Quality Expert, and Passionate Entrepreneur
Vinny Lobdell is a businessman and former President of HealthWay, a company specializing in indoor air purification systems. He is also known for promoting the importance of clean indoor air quality, especially for those suffering from respiratory issues. Vinny is...
Investment Announcement: B GENEROUS
Big Red Ventures (BRV), Cornell’s early-stage venture capital fund, is excited to announce its investment in B Generous, a “Donate Now, Pay Later” fintech company serving the nonprofit sector, marking BRV’s third investment of 2022-23. Founded in 2020 by serial...
A conversation with Aaron Holiday of 645 Ventures
AV: Can you tell us a bit about your experience before Cornell? Aaron Holiday: I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and went to Morehouse College to study computer science. In my junior year, I saw the impact of software in corporate applications and later worked at...
An Interview with Eloho Omame, Partner at TLcom Capital
Eloho Omame is a Partner at TLcom Capital LLP, based in Lagos. Eloho is on the Board of Pastel. She is also a mentor for Endeavor in Nigeria and supports African startups as a co-founder/GP of FirstCheck Africa, a female focused pre-seed venture capital fund. Prior to...
Investment Announcement: SCOUT SPACE
Big Red Ventures (BRV), Cornell’s early-stage venture capital fund, is excited to announce its investment in ScoutSpace (SCOUT), a satellite services firm changing the way we think about space safety and sustainability, marking BRV’s second investment of 2022-23. “We...
An Interview with Eitan Kyiet, CEO of Road2 Haifa
Eitan Kyiet is the CEO of Road2 Ventures, an early-stage venture fund / innovation center based in Haifa Israel. Road2 offers a combination of investment funding, knowledge from its affiliates, and industry partners to help position Israeli tech companies for success...
An Interview with Annie Ripp, Venture Capital Investor at Antler
Antler is not your typical pre-seed venture capital fund. Antler identifies the world’s strongest founders who they believe have the ability to build the world’s next biggest businesses.
Big Red Ventures Shares Portfolio at Annual Meeting
Big Red Ventures Showcases Portfolio at Annual Meeting Big Red Ventures (BRV), Cornell’s early-stage venture capital fund, showcased the student-run portfolio and highlighted 2022-23 investments during the Annual Meeting at Cornell Tech on April 20. BRV, a fund...
StaffOnTap Named Winner of BenDaniel Venture Challenge
Kayla Wooley, MBA ’22, founder of StaffOnTap, was tabbed the winner of Big Red Ventures’ annual BenDaniel Venture Challenge (BVC), held on April 13 in the Statler Amphitheater during Entrepreneurship at Cornell Celebration.
An Interview with John Lee, Partner at Jazz Ventures
Could you please describe your path to venture capital, beginning at Cornell and ultimately ending up at JAZZ Venture Partners? At Cornell, I studied life sciences, focusing on computational biology. Most of my background was in the lab and centered around science and...
An Interview with Peter Oriaifo, Principal at Oui Capital
Peter is a Principal at Oui Capital, a pan-African VC Fund headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. He joined in 2019 and then again in 2022 after his MBA at Tuck. Prior to VC, Peter spent most of his career as an investment banker in the U.S. - focused on financial...
An Interview with Dr. Rodney Altman, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Strategic Capital
Rodney Altman MD is a Managing Director for Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and an emergency physician at Stanford Health Care. He has spent the better part of three decades delivering patient care and investing in transformational healthcare companies at various stages...
An Interview with Sarah Fox, Associate at Windham Venture Partners
Sarah Fox is a Senior Associate at Windham Venture Partners, a venture fund investing in healthcare technology companies. Ms. Fox regularly sources deals, assesses opportunities, and supports portfolio companies. Her time at Windham follows time studying at Cornell...
An Interview with Sushant Shenoy, Principal with the Dubai Future District Fund
Sushant is a Principal with the Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF), the evergreen venture capital fund of funds of Dubai, anchored by the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) and the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF). Sushant received his BS from Indiana University’s...
An interview with Dr. Kneeland Youngblood, Founding Partner, Chairman, and CEO at Pharos Capital Group.
An interview with Kneeland Youngblood MD, Founding Partner, Chairman, and CEO at Pharos Capital Group. Dr. Youngblood is an accomplished physician, board director, statesman, and private equity investor. In this interview with Ikenna Nwafor, Dr. Youngblood discusses...
An Interview with Ashley Aydin, Principal at VamosVentures
Ashley Aydin is a Principal at VamosVentures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on investing in Latinx / diverse founding teams and impact-oriented companies. Ashley started her career at Morgan Stanley in Capital Markets and moved into strategic roles at...
An Interview with Sandiip Bhammer, Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Green Frontier Capital
Sandiip Bhammer, Co-Managing Partner and Founder of Green Frontier Capital (GFC), recently sat down for an interview to discuss the motivations behind starting the fund and the potential for measurable climate impact through investments in India's economy. Sandiip...
An Interview with Mohan Karuppiah, founder and CEO of IppoPay Technologies
Mohan Karuppiah is the founder and CEO of IppoPay Technologies, a payments solutions company headquartered in India. IppoPay, currently, offers full-stack payments solutions to businesses operating in verticals with a large TAM (Total Addressable Market) such as MSME,...
An Interview with Amit Garg, Managing Partner at Tau Ventures
Amit Garg is one of two Managing Partners of Tau Ventures (Tau). Amit and his Partner Sanjay are founders-turned-investors. Amit has worked at two VC funds and has exited those funds for up to 10X. Amit is a strong believer in building and leveraging the community...
An Interview with Brett Andersen, Head of Operations at Bullish
Brett Andersen is Head of Operations at Bullish, a Venture Capital fund that leads key brand management, strategic and creative initiatives on investment and agency-led partnerships. Brett received her BA from the University of Virginia and her MBA from Harvard...
An Interview with Elisa Miller-Out, Co-Founder of Chloe Capital
Meet Elisa Miller-Out, Co-Founder of Chlore Capital, a VC firm investing in women-led tech and tech-enabled companies at the seed stage. In this interview with BRV Fund Manager, Adam Lieblich, Elisa discusses her transition from founder to investor and the importance of mentorship. Elisa also shares her advice for founders, students, and anyone looking to break into VC.
Interview with Aakash Jain, Associate Partner at VU Venture Partners
An interview with Aakash Jain, an Associate Partner at VU Venture Partners. Aakash partners with and invests in exceptional founders solving real needs at scale.
An Interview with Ken Hall, Vice President at DeepWork Capital
Ken Hall is a Vice President at DeepWork Capital and supports the firm in sourcing and executing investments, fund operations, portfolio management, and more. Ken is also the Chair of Startups for the Orlando Tech Council and serves on the advisory board for Lucy...
Interview with Meghan Cross Breeden, Partner at AmplifyHer Ventures
Meghan is a Partner at AmplifyHer Ventures, where she leverages her 14 years of venture experience to invest in early-stage, high-growth businesses led by visionary women. Prior to AmplifyHer, Meghan built Red Bear Angels, leading the firm’s investments into 25+ companies including Lyft [NASDAQ: LYFT], Datalogue [acq. Nike] and Trumid. Her angel investments include Sequioia-backed Maven Clinic, Urban Umbrella, and Privy [acq. Attentive]. She received her venture training from Foundation Capital and StarVest Partners.
An Interview with Sakib Jamal, Senior Associate at Crossbeam Venture Partners
Sakib Jamal is a Senior Associate at Crossbeam Venture Partners. He is a member of the Investment Team and serves as a Board Observer for eight different companies in the portfolio. Prior to Crossbeam, he was an investment banking analyst at J.P. Morgan’s Industrials Group. Sakib also founded The Capsule, a South Asian news aggregator / podcast that has over 23,000 subscribers across Instagram and email. Sakib received a B.S. from Cornell University, where he served as a teaching assistant for classes in Entrepreneurship (NBA 3000) and Equity Research (NBA 4120).
Creating the Diversity Rider: Addressing Systemic Inequity in Venture Capital
Meet Alejandro Guerrero, Co-Founder and General Partner of Act One Ventures, an early-stage micro-VC fund based in Los Angeles.
An Interview with Mac Conwell, Founder and Managing Partner at RareBreed Ventures
An interview with Mac Conwell, a Founder and Managing Partner at RareBreed Ventures. Mac aims to shore up investment in enterprises founded by people of color. In this interview with Adhiraj Singh, Mac discusses the challenges he faced in his journey toward VC and his...
An Interview with Daniel Acheampong, Partner at Visible Hands
VC founder, Daniel Acheampong shares how his story impacted his VC
ambitions. Learn what he did and how we can replicate his impact in our own ways.
An Interview with Jonathan Kroll, Partner at RareBreed Ventures
Jonathan Kroll is a former founder, startup CTO, and product lead turned early stage VC. Currently a Partner @ RareBreed Ventures, Jonathan has had prior stints at Spero Ventures and a16z. He talks about his learnings as an investor and offers advice for aspiring VCs.
An Interview with Becca Shmukler, Principal at Laerdal Million Lives Fund
Becca Shmukler is a Principal at Laerdal Million Lives Fund, which is a $100M venture capital fund investing in commercial-stage healthcare startups with disruptive, data-driven technologies that enable the right care at the right time to achieve maximum life-saving...
An Interview with Michael DiPiano, Managing Director & Co-Founder at NewSpring Capital
Mike is a Founding Partner at NewSpring Capital. BRV Fund Manager Matthew Duey had the opportunity to interview him. Mike talks about his journey into VC, key lessons learned, and advice for students who want to make it into the investment space.
An Interview with Amit Sridharan, Founding GP at First Rays Venture Partners
BRV Fund Manager, Ankur Gulati, had the opportunity to interview Amit Sridharan, Founding General Partner at First Rays Venture Partners. Amit shares his journey into Venture Capital, key lessons learned, and advice for students who want to break into the VC space.
An Interview with Stephen Peca, Founder of Windy Acres Capital & Advisory
In looking to understand the various factors that play into building unique startups or leading transformative companies within a specific industry, BRV Fund Manager Amit Shah had the wonderful opportunity to interview Stephen Peca, Managing Director of Windy Acres Capital & Advisory. With extensive experiences ranging from Moody’s Analytics to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to New York University, Stephen helps emerging companies and startups establish scalable business plans and financing strategies.
BRV Interview with Sophie Liao from Oyster Ventures
Sophie Liao, Founder and Partner at Oyster Ventures, sat down with Denis Chen, Fund Manager at Big Red Ventures, to discuss the challenges and opportunities in FinTech.
An Interview with Bob Adelson, Managing Partner of Osage Venture Partners & Osage University Partners
The path to venture capital is not always direct. Bob Adelson, the founder of Osage Venture Partners, began his career as a Corporate Lawyer in Philadelphia and paved his own unique career path to venture.
Interview with Lizzy Goldman, VC Investor at Samsung Next
Lizzy Goldman, VC Investor at Samsung Next, sat down with Adam Lieblich, Fund Manager at BRV, to discuss her VC experience in Israel.
Interview with BRV Alumnus, Zach Leach at Catalyst Health Ventures
Zach Leach, an Investment Associate at Catalyst Health Ventures and former BRV Fund Manager, discusses MedTech investing
BRV Interview with Jeremy Harper from ERA
Jeremy Harper, Director of Investment at Entrepreneurship Roundtable Accelerator (ERA), discusses the elements of starting a successful startup and his path to venture capital.
BRV Interview with JX of Old Fashion Research
BRV Fund Manager, Alex Lin, had the opportunity to interview Xin Jiang (JX), a Partner at Old Fashion Research, a multi-strategy blockchain investment firm covering early-stage incubation, VC, and M&A. JX entered the VC world around 2015 while covering TMT at HNA Entertainment Investment Corp. During his time at HNA, he gained exposure to decentralized finance and began to network with friends from college.
An Interview with Thomas Stephenson, Founder & Managing General Partner of Verge Fund
BRV Fund Manager, Micaela Lucero, had the opportunity to interview Thomas Stephenson, a founder and Managing General Partner of Verge Fund, a VC fund focused on technology development startups in New Mexico. With over 23 years of experience, Stephenson is the longest-tenured venture capitalist in New Mexico.
Being the Change We Need: A Spotlight on Marlon Nichols
Venture capital plays a crucial role in the development of our economy by promoting innovation and industry disruption…it’s the forefront of our future where entrepreneurs can create change. BRV spoke with Cornell Johnson Alumnus, Marlon Nichols, to understand how to overcome the implicit biases that some entrepreneurs currently face and help them succeed.
BRV Podcast: Canaan Partners Co-Founder Eric Young’s Perspective on Venture Capital
Check out our interview with Eric Young, Co-Founder of Canaan Partners. Also a Cornell Alumnus, Eric sat down with BRV Fund Managers, Aakash Saraiya, Allison Latham, and Zach Leach, to discuss his experiences in VC.
Associate Perspectives
In 2019, Brandon Shih & Isaac Branaum shared their unique perspectives as Associates at BRV.