Roy Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, an early-stage venture firm backed by Bloomberg L.P. that invests in startups making work better. If you’re an early-stage founder in any industry, but particularly in AI or the future of work, watch this replay for this refreshingly honest discussion on fundraising (especially for underrepresented founders), the future of work, and the current market from a founder-turned-VC’s perspective.
About Roy Bahat
Roy Bahat is the head of Bloomberg Beta, the first venture capital firm investing in the future of work, with a specialty in machine intelligence. Bloomberg Beta treats founders as its customers and was the first venture capital firm to focus on the future of work and the first to focus on artificial intelligence. The firm sees Bloomberg L.P. as an inspiration for startups: founded on a powerful idea, led by its founders for decades, reaching global scale, and embracing technology as part of a strong, transparent company culture. Bloomberg Beta has invested in Replit, MasterClass, Slack, Flexport, Codecademy, and Textio, among other companies.
Before starting Bloomberg Beta almost a decade ago, Roy started a venture-backed company, was a corporate executive (at News Corp.), in government (at New York’s City Hall), in media, and in academia. He was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business.
Roy chairs the newly-formed Aspen Business Roundtable on Organized Labor, convening “labor open” business leaders to explore new ways of relating to organized labor. Roy was a commissioner on the California Governor’s Future of Work Commission, following work he did with New America to understand the long-term effect of technology on work in America.
Roy serves on the faculty at U.C. Berkeley where he teaches two courses, one on media and a first of its kind in the country course on organized labor, at the Haas School of Business. He was named one of the favorite MBA professors of the class of 2023. He hosts #thisisnotadvice, a community-edited guide on how to work.
Roy graduated from Harvard College, where he ran the student public service nonprofit, and was a Rhodes Scholar.
This fireside chat was between Roy and Leslie Feinzaig, founder and Managing Director of Graham & Walker. In 2017, she founded the Female Founders Alliance, the largest and most engaged community of its kind in America, and its popular founder programs, dubbed “the YC for Female Founders” by Techcrunch. Leslie is a contributing writer at Fortune Magazine, Fast Company and Techcrunch. She was named one of Forbes Magazine’s Most Powerful Women from Central America, Worth Magazine’s Worthy 100, Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40, and Seattle Magazine’s Most Influential People. Born and raised in Costa Rica, Leslie moved to the US to attend Harvard Business School on a full scholarship. She now lives in Seattle with her husband and two young daughters.
About Graham & Walker
Graham & Walker is a venture firm that activates the potential of all women in business through programs, community, and direct investments. We are on a mission to reshape the Nasdaq by investing in tech companies founded and led by women. For more information, please visit https://grahamwalker.com
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Here are the links mentioned in the discussion:
https://github.com/Bloomberg-Beta/Manual/blob/main/3%20-%20Criteria%20for%20investing.md
https://also.roybahat.com/how-founders-might-check-vc-references-a13bcb169301
https://also.roybahat.com/lies-we-tell-ourselves-about-focus-75e59e88072d
Fundraising bias research by Laura Huang
