Lessons for Emerging Managers and How to Evaluate Founder Passion, with Richard Kerby of Equal Ventures

<p>Justin Gordon (<a href="https://twitter.com/justingordon212">@justingordon212</a>) talks with Richard Kerby (<a href="https://twitter.com/kerby/">@kerby</a>), Co-Founder and General Partner at Equal Ventures, a seed stage focused fund backing the founders and businesses transforming society and industry. Prior to Equal Ventures, Richard was an investor at Venrock, where he led seed stage and Series A stage investments in 6Sense, Amino Apps, Beckon, Burner, Luxe Valet, and Salsify. </p><p>Prior to joining Venrock, Richard was an investor at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), where he focused on identifying and evaluating later-stage investments. While at IVP, Richard worked with IVP portfolio companies such as Dropbox, FleetMatics, PopSugar, Shazam, and Yext. Previously, Richard worked in the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse. </p><p>Richard is a proud Georgetown alum and is a rabid Hoyas basketball fan. He is also the founder of Stealth Mode, a community of more than 1,500 African American founders, operators and investors.</p><p>Website: <a href="https://www.equal.vc/">Equal Ventures</a></p><p>LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardkerby/">linkedin.com/in/richardkerby/</a></p><p>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/kerby/">@kerby</a></p><p>Email: kerby@equal.vc</p><p>Show Notes:</p><ul> <li>Equal Ventures' investment thesis and the strategy behind being generalists</li> <li>Deciding to start a fund instead of joining an existing one</li> <li>Richard’s key learnings as an emerging manager</li> <li>What being hands-on with their founders means at Equal Ventures</li> <li>Their all “hands on deck” approach to building the Equal Ventures team</li> <li>Running the Emerging Managers Circle and deciding to host summits</li> <li>Trends Richard is excited about</li> <li>Richard’s view on remote vs. in-person</li> <li>How Equal Ventures evaluates founders</li> <li>Richard’s advice for emerging managers</li> </ul><p><br></p><p>More about the show:</p><p>The Vitalize Podcast, a show