20 VC: Investing in Hardware and The Future of IOT with Kate Shillo, Director @ Galvanize Ventures

Kate Shillo is Director @ Galvanize Ventures, a prolific seed fund which acts as the the investment arm of Galvanize — a collection of “tech campuses” that offer coworking space and educational programs in order to encourage continuous learning and helping others to grow. within Galvanize, the organization focused on continuous learning and helping others to grow. To date Galvanize ventures have made an astonishing 48 investments in 2 years. Prior to Galvanize, Kate helped Ken Lerer launch Lerer Ventures, now called Lerer Hippeau Ventures due to the addition of Eric Hippeau who was only the show only recently, there Kate lead the investments in the likes of Venmo and Paperless Post.

A special thank you to Mattermark for providing all the data displayed in today’s show and you can find out more about Mattermark here! 

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In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Kate made her way into the world of startups and investing?2.) What were the biggest takeaways from Kate’s time at Lerer Hippeau Ventures and working with the amazing Ken Lerer?3.) What was it about Galvanize that made Kate  leave LHV and Kate provides a brief synopsis on Galvanize Ventures? Sectors? Stage? Geography?4.) With 42 investments since Feb 2014. What is the strategy at Galvanize? Galvanize’s sector weighting is largest in mobile, how does Kate view the space and how would Kate respond to the likes of Fred Wilson stating consumer mobile is very difficult with difficult customer acquisition and then even harder, customer retention?5.) How has the process been for Kate in establishing the fund? What are Kate and Galvanize’s key differentiators to the sea of other NYC seed funds? How does Kate  approach deal sourcing at Galvanize? If investing outside the Galvanize community, what channels are the preferred channels?6.) Why is Kate so excited about hardware? Where does Kate see the future of IOT going? Is crowdfunding an option for hardware startups?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:

Kate’s Fave Book: The God of Small Things

Kate’s Fave Mobile Apps: Slack, Sunrise Calendar, Moments, TwoDots, Panna, Wildcard

Kate’s Fave Blog or Newsletter: AVC, Ben Evans

Kate’s Most Recent Investment: Msg.ai

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