20 VC: How To Say No Fast and Efficiently and Why UX Must Always Be At The Core Of What You Do with Sitar Teli, Managing Partner @ Connect Ventures

Sitar Teli is Managing Partner at Connect Ventures and has been a venture capitalist for eight years, focusing on early-stage investments in both consumer and B2B companies. Previously with Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, where she led their Series A round in SoundCloud, she has experience with content, gaming and ecommerce startups. Sitar has a dual degree in Mechanical Engineering and Economics from Duke University.

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 did Sitar make her way into the wonderful world of VC?

2.) How does Sitar approach the difficult task of saying no to entrepreneurs? What is the framework she has adopted over her 8 years in venture?

3.) There are a large amount of sources of capital for business in the seed stage, why did Sitar believe this was the stage with the most opportunity? Is too much capital chasing too few deals?4.) With the increasing prominence of crowdfunding, is it a viable alternative to VC? Is Sitar concerned that quality deal flow is being lost to Crowdfunding?5.) What is driving the growth of the European tech startup scene?6.) Prior to making investments such as that of Citymapper, one obviously has to look at the team and the product. So what do you look for in a founder and what to you makes a great product?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode:

Sitar’s Fave Book: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Sitar’s Fave Blog or Newsletter: Benedict Evans Newsletter

Sitar’s Fave Apps: Outlook, Sunrise, Citymapper

Sitar’s Most Recent Investment: Knyttan

As always you can follow The Twenty Minute VC, Harry and Sitar on Twitter here!

If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!

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