Connie Loizos
The Latest from Connie Loizos
Longtime VC Neil Sequeira: Funding founders without in-person meetings is ‘quite difficult’
"If you want to be in this industry, because it's a relationship-driven but also a reputation-based business, these aren't the moments to take advantage of people."
‘A perfect storm for first time managers,’ say VCs with their own shops
Until very recently, it had begun to seem like anyone with a thick enough checkbook and some key contacts in the startup world could not only fund companies as an angel investor but even put himself o
Venture debt’s new reality: ‘The last thing we want is management walking away from a company’
Maurice Werdegar is the longtime CEO of venture debt shop Western Technology Investment, one of the most active venture debt lenders in the U.S. It’s also one of the older firms, having loaned o
General Catalyst just announced $2.3 billion in new capital commitments across three funds
General Catalyst, the 20-year-old venture firm that has been bulking up in recent years, announced this morning that it has secured $2.3 billion in capital commitments across three funds: a $600 milli
As the U.S. shuts down, StockX’s business is booming, says its CEO
StockX, the high-flying resale marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of sneakers, streetwear, handbags and other collectible items, has seen its fortune rise along with the $6 billion global sn
Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian on how to survive these crazy days and what to learn from them
Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian founded Initialized Capital roughly nine years ago and they’ve closed four funds since, including most recently in late 2018. That $225 million vehicle is roughly tw
Market players won’t find buyers on the secondary market — yet
Seasoned secondary players were expecting it. As the markets began to plummet in recent weeks, shareholders who’d turned down earlier offers to buy this or that holding were suddenly curious to
Longtime LP Chris Douvos shares how COVID-19 could shake up venture industry
Chris Douvos runs a fund of funds called Ahoy Capital that manages assets on behalf of numerous nonprofit institutions, endowments and foundations throughout the U.S. Outfits that want exposure to sta
Former Slack exec April Underwood has joined Obvious Ventures as a venture partner
April Underwood, who until early last year was Slack’s chief product officer, has joined Obvious Ventures as a venture partner, she announced on Twitter today. Underwood said that as part of the
MasterClass is launching free, live Q&A sessions with big shots in their respective industries
MasterClass is known for selling access to pre-recorded online classes by a long list of people who are among the best at what they do, from tennis great Serena Williams to writer David Sedaris to che
When the ‘dry powder’ disappears
Venture capitalists have raised record-breaking funds in recent years, but that doesn’t always mean the money is there for them when they want it. In extreme downturns, the people and institutio
Focused on health in the home, Novi lands $1.5M to help CPG companies source clean, safe ingredients
Kimberly Shenk has been focused for a while now on “clean” products that are made without harmful chemicals. In 2017, Shenk and friend Jaleh Bisharat founded NakedPoppy, a site that curate
Veteran VC Mike Volpi discusses investing and fundraising in ‘a very difficult time’
Last week, I talked with Mike Volpi, longtime Index Ventures partner and the former head of M&A at Cisco for many years before that. We originally planned to talk about Index and general market tr
Can investors invoke so-called force majeure clauses to get out of deals? Expect some to start trying
Event organizers were the first to be hit hard. As fear of the spread of COVID-19 began to sweep cities and countries around the world last month, one by one, large conferences with long uninterrupted
NewView Capital’s Ravi Viswanathan on how mature companies can survive this market
Ravi Viswanathan has been an investor long enough to see some serious ups and downs. Viswanathan most recently founded NewView Capital a couple of years ago — a firm that launched with $1.35 billion
With a string of hits behind it, Felicis Ventures wraps up its newest fund with $510 million look
Felicis Ventures, the early-stage, Menlo Park-based venture firmed founded nearly 15 years ago by Aydin Senkut, has closed its seventh and newest fund with $510 million in capital commitments. That
Sequoia is giving away $21 million to a payments startup it recently funded as it walks away from deal
In the world of venture capital, where trust between investors and founders is paramount to the success of both, investing in a company that competes with another startup in a firm’s portfolio i
Mobile banking app Empower Finance just closed a $20 million Series A round
Another afternoon, another round of funding for a mobile banking app. This time, it’s Empower Finance, a San Francisco-based company that’s headed up by former Sequoia Capital partner Warr
Kinnos, which makes colorized disinfectant to ensure surfaces are covered, just landed $6 million in funding
Kinnos, a New York-based startup, was founded six years ago, but what the five-person company produces is suddenly top of mind — and a new round of funding reflects as much. To wit, Kinnos, whic
Veteran healthcare VC Camille Samuels explains why trying to cure infectious disease is a lousy business
Camille Samuels has spent the last five years as a partner with the healthcare venture firm Venrock and a dozen years before that with Versant Ventures, where she was a managing director. This self-de