Natalia Kovalenko - (Previously) Investor - Triple Point

Breakfast (coffee) with investors ☕ Today I met with Natalia Kovalenko

We met a couple weeks ago at an event and I was really keen to sit down and go behind the scenes of being a VC in 2024.

Prior to being a VC at Triple Point, Natalia spent time in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and Finance and Strategy at Deliveroo.

If far fewer female founders are even making it to first calls or pitches, then how do we expect to progress further? 

We spoke about:

- Founder support within VCs. Is it by design that it is not in the interest of VCs to get too involved with day to day support particularly at earlier stages, or would providing higher levels of support provide a better chance of higher returns? Keen to hear others thoughts on this too.

- Generalist vs Specialist investors. Should investment institutions be more focussed in what they look at or should they have diverse portfolios. 

- How previous operator experience can help understand and navigate deal flow better as to avoid relying on 'hype' or FOMO. Importantly, how operator experience can potentially help portfolio. 

- Female investment. In all honesty, this is where I had the most questions. Following a post last week, I've really wanted to dig in to the area more. What are the root causes of disparities that we see in deployed capital and what do we think needs to be done to change this.

- It was interesting hear Natalia's viewpoints on this. We discussed the fact that there is plenty of 'awareness' of the disparity, but potentially not enough 'belief' of the actual disparity itself. This can really stem from the behaviours of financial institutions in the way deal flow is looked at; pitches considered and even the way they can be received.

- Part of the problem with the lack of female investment could also stem down to top of funnel. If far fewer female founders are even making it to first calls or pitches, then how do we expect to progress further? 

- A key thing to recognise is that support is out there, but not enough tangible ones to make moves.

You'll see more from me on this topic in the comings weeks, mainly from the number of first-hand experiences I am hearing this from.

I am also looking to meet more female founders and investors in the coming weeks, so please do reach out as a priority to this series. 

I must add that looking at female investment does not discount the fact that investment within all genders, sexualities, races, religions and ethnic minorities is still far from perfect.